Mike Johnson

Supergirl relaunched for the New 52 as a teenager who arrives on Earth angry, grieving and unwilling to accept that Krypton is gone. The Red Lantern arc is the run's most interesting stretch: Kara's rage qualifies her for a ring, and the book takes her anger seriously instead of treating it as a phase to be corrected. The Cyborg Superman reveal, that he is her father, is also one of the New 52's better retcons.

Kara Zor-El spends the second half of the New 52 run angry enough to be handed a Red Lantern ring, which is exactly as bad an idea as it sounds. Red Daughter of Krypton is the stretch where the series finally works out what to do with a Supergirl who does not want to be a symbol.

Superman/Batman, collected as a pack of 2 oversized omnibus volumes and cheaper than buying them one by one. Superman/Batman Omnibus Vol. 1 is built around the simplest DC contrast and one of its strongest: Superman and Batman together, friends despite everything that should make them opposites. Jeph Loeb and Ed McGuinness lean into scale, speed and iconography, making the partnership feel huge without losing the personal spark. Superman/Batman ran for eighty-seven issues on a simple format: the two characters narrating the same events in alternating captions, each convinced the other is doing it wrong. The dual narration is the reason the book works, the reader sees both men misreading each other in real time. This second volume includes the Sons of the Father arc and the Annuals, which are self-contained stories by rotating creative teams and among the most enjoyable single issues DC published that decade.

Superman/Batman ran for eighty-seven issues on a simple format: the two characters narrating the same events in alternating captions, each convinced the other is doing it wrong. The dual narration is the reason the book works, the reader sees both men misreading each other in real time. This second volume includes the Sons of the Father arc and the Annuals, which are self-contained stories by rotating creative teams and among the most enjoyable single issues DC published that decade.