By Jonathan Edwards

I'll be forthright; I don't know much about Supergirl. Of course, I know that she was originally the Kryptonian cousin of Superman with more or less all the same powers, and she died during Crisis on Infinite Earths. But beyond that (and knowing she was replaced by a shapeshifting alien or something for a while), I'm a blank slate. And really, that's why I wanted to check out this book. I mean, what better way to learn about a character than with an origin story? Even if it takes the character in a substantially different direction than previous iterations, a good origin story can still generate enough interest in a character to inspire further and continued reading. That's what happened with me and Supergirl's cousin a couple years ago. I don't think I'd been all that interested in Superman since I was a kid. But after reading Superman: Secret Origins, I was intrigued enough to check out Superman: Birthright and then Kurt Busiek's Superman: Secret Identity. Okay, admittedly that last one isn't exactly an origin story, but I only sought it out after reading the other two. So the question becomes, will this book encourage something similar from me for the "Girl of Steel"?