Tamaki And Jones Tell Supergirl's Origin in 'Being Super'

Supergirl is getting a second comic series (or a third if you count the digital-first Adventures of Supergirl based on the TV show). In addition to the regular monthly Supergirl series that started this week, December sees the launch of a four-issue miniseries by Mariko Tamaki and Joëlle Jones, with the title Supergirl: Being Super.

Being Super focuses on Kara's earliest days on Earth, as she deals with being a teenager on a whole new planet. It's a perfect fit for Tamaki, the writer behind the award-winning graphic novel This One Summer, a collaboration with her cousin Jillian Tamaki. She sees Supergirl as a chance to do something similar, as she explains to The Hollywood Reporter:

Supergirl is the perfect starting point for writing, for me, what it means to be sixteen years old. We had a lot of free rein to take the character as the inspiration for our story.

Joëlle Jones, known for Lady Killer, recently signed an exclusive contract with DC. Her art on these preview pages is gorgeous, and while the lack of words makes it harder to judge what approach Tamaki is taking, this series is clearly doing things with Supergirl that we've never quite seen before, and making her feel the most like a fully realized human being that she ever has in comics.

Tamaki offered some thoughts to the Hollywood Reporter on telling teen stories:

I come from a very John Hughes place, because I'm very old and that's my starting point for starting to talk about adolescence. There's something about taking a weekend in someone's life and just focusing on what happens in that time. Although, obviously, if you're writing about superheroes, then about ten times more things can happen than would if you're a regular kid living in Toronto, Canada.

Check out an extended unlettered preview, courtesy of DC Comics: