Supergirl: Lost Daughter of Krypton
Official Site / Listen : Click Here
(Pendant Productions)

On to another superhero show– there do seem to be a lot of them available! Like some of the other comic book audio dramas I have reviewed from Pendant, I chose Supergirl because it was a character driven show that is enjoyable to comic fans and those who aren’t keen on that genre usually. If you are put off by the image of a Buffylike blonde girl with an impossibly slim waistline and ridiculous miniskirt outfit, don’t worry! This is audio and you can dress her in whatever you like. Personally I picture her as looking similar to Shalimar in Mutant X, but you can imagine whatever you like, including her blue miniskirt persona. A lot of the old school Superman fans have not heard of Supergirl– my parents, for example, grew up in the days before she had been created. To this day I’m not entirely certain where she came from or how she got to Earth, because I don’t read the comics and haven’t enough interest to google about. It might be interesting in the future to have a miniseries of Supergirl: Origins or something for those of us who kind of wonder where she appeared from. That being said, all you need to know when beginning to listen to this series is that:

A) She is a very powerful alien who receives her abilities from sunlight
B) She is related to Superman and looks up to him, but feels a bit overshadowed as well

I began listening to this series from the moment episode 1 (issue 1) was released, mostly out of curiosity. I had tried listening to the Superman series put out by Pendant for a few episodes, but discovered I wasn’t keen on it, preferring the original OTR Superman radio plays. When I heard Supergirl was going to be released I thought I would give it a try, as I am a fan of girl power in general and enjoyed Wonder Woman. At first, the series was a bit confusing, because it was a spinoff series of the other Pendant shows, and didn’t entirely explain what was going on. That wasn’t too much of a problem, since it added a mystery element as to why Supergirl was suddenly on her own and hiding from everyone she knew. There have been many series’ who didn’t all the backstory right from the pilot, so just be warned that this is an audio drama that you need to piece together for the first ten episodes or so. Writer Macalla Eaton creates a fascinating character for the first story arc– Supergirl is basically on her own, so there aren’t a lot of characters to worry about keeping track of. She is shown as a real sort of person going through a tough time, and her powers are drained leaving her basically human. I think this is a brilliant way to introduce a superhero character– rather than all the flashy save-the-world cartoonish elements, we get to see what kind of a person she is without all that. Here we have a young woman wrestling through all the usual issues with that age, but compounded by the fact she doesn’t know who she is apart from the Superman/Supergirl combination. We see her grow into her own during the first arc, and as a result befriend an old enemy– Metallo. He is an equally fascinating person, because he is still partially a supervillain, but his caring side keeps coming forward by accident. He isn’t good or evil necessarily, and you aren’t quite sure what to make of him– more like real life than black and white comic book characters. The two of them put together are quite a hilarious mix– they behave a lot like brother and sister with fights, banter and of course saving each others lives. Metallo is very much not Supergirl’s sidekick– even though she often likes to treat him as such. Whether or not the two of them would agree, we as the audience see them as a team.

The later episodes were taken on by David Alexander McDonald, and we saw Supergirl returning to school and mingling with her old friends. This brought in the usual element of her alter ego and hiding who she really was to her human friends. There were a lot of funny moments with Metallo trying to fit back in with “normal” society, and though his blunders were many, in the end he might be even more clever than Supergirl herself. He is able to tell when she or the city will be in danger, even when she insists nothing will go wrong. Dragonblink, who voices Supergirl, took over as writer up through the current episode 31 and I believe she will be the writer for some time to come. If you are worried that she will just write fantastic stuff for her own character and start neglecting others, relax. I was a bit concerned when I heard she took over, but it turned out just fine, and if anything the storylines for alternate characters on the show have grown. With a gradual introduction of characters, you are never overwhelmed on Supergirl like some other superhero shows, and by 20 episodes in, the cast has grown to include several intriguing supporting characters.

The production level is about standard for a Pendant show, although there is less background music in Supergirl than other shows, which I appreciate. It is a minimalist soundscape, but it is usually well done when it comes to effects. Some of the characters aren’t human, but the odd filters put on their voices are not overdone so you can still easily understand what they are saying. If you enjoy the comic books, I would recommend looking over Eric Thomas Pacheco’s lovely issue cover art. There are some very fun colourful drawings of the stories that are well executed. This is usually a family friendly show, but not entirely. I’d say upper teens and above would be fine, and college age is the idea listener slot. This is very much a college level show, so the older and younger audiences might not find it as interesting, but you never know! If anything this is a great look into the mind and thought processes of the early 20s, alien or not.