brian ching

Last week saw the release of Supergirl #1, by Steve Orlando, Brian Ching, Michael Atiyeh, and Steve Wands, and as you might expect, the new direction pushed Kara Zor-El a little closer to her television counterpart. The book is set in National City, reintroduced the Danvers Family as DEO agents, and even gave the teenage Supergirl a run-in with a very snarky Cat Grant. But for as much as it lifted from television, there was one aspect of the book that came straight from the comics, dropped onto the first three pages to help readers catch up with just who Supergirl is and how she came to be. So just in case you missed it, Supergirl #1 kicked off with an All Star Superman-style origin story, and it's pretty fantastic.

At this afternoon's DC All-Access Panel at San Diego Comic Con, unlettered pages were revealed from both Supergirl: Rebirth #1, the one-shot that relaunches Supergirl as part of DC's Rebirth event, and Supergirl #1, the first issue of her new ongoing series. Both books are written by Steve Orlando, with Emmanuela Lupacchino, Ray McCarthy, and Michael Atiyeh providing art for the Rebirth issue, while Brian Ching and Michael Atiyeh handle art for the ongoing. The art in the one-shot has more of a "DC House Style" look to it, while the ongoing's art is a little more stylized and "cute." But both feature an upbeat-looking Supergirl in basically her classic costume, which is something we haven't had in the DC Universe for years. And that's exciting.

DC Comics hosted a special livestream event at WonderCon in Los Angeles on Saturday afternoon to unveil the creative teams behind its DC Rebirth event, which relaunches the entire DC Universe line with new issue #1s and multiple double-shipping titles. The relaunch will set the future course of DC Comics at a time when fans are wondering whether the company will embrace a new and diversifying audience or double down on serving a shrinking core audience. The event was introduced by DC All Access host Tiffany Smith, with DC co-publishers Jim Lee and Dan DiDio and chief creative officer and Rebirth chief architect Geoff Johns introducing and interviewing the creative teams as they joined them on stage at the Los Angeles Convention Center.