Behold, The Animals Of Steel — Reviewing ‘Supergirl’ #5

While Supergirl is away, the Super Pets will play. Rather, they’ll play and take down threats in their own ways. Pull out the treats, head scritches, and scratching posts, because Supergirl #5 brings out an animal adventure.

Sophie Campbell continues writing while inviting in Paulina Ganucheau, Rosi Kampe, and Kendall Goode to join Marissa Louise and Becca Carey on the artistic side of things.

What a truly delightful issue in an already delightful series.

Ganucheau is a perfect artist to join up for the first story in the issue. Always really having a softer but still weighty approach to artistic stylings. This gives everything a more fun vibe from start to finish. Whimsy is built into the style and really flourishes with every panel and bit of movement. These characters command the space and their overall emotional energy is apparent every moment.

Even with the softer touch, the action sequences and paneling go hard, really highlighting the way these beings would move in such a situation. This gives us a sense of depth and weight that are needed. Much of this carries over to the colors as Goode delivers them. He chooses to go with a denser palette with a lot of the background and backdrop colors being more of a middle neutral appearance. This adds to the detail and presence of the spaces that the characters are occupying.

Simultaneously, there is a large streak of vibrancy happening. These are pets who are superheroes in their own rights, with flashy colorful capes, powers, and more. They take on threats that are just as colorful and loud as them. All of this is perfect for the story featuring the adventures of Krypto the Superdog and Kandy the Super-Bunny.

On the other hand, what Kampe brings to the table is much more fitting for those featured in the second half of the series. It’s a Streaky the Super-Cat and TinyTano (a shrunk Titano the Super-Ape), two rougher, angrier, and sassier Super-Pets.

So the rougher textures that Kampe employs really work well here. This gives, again, a real sense of weight and depth that is similar but also much different than Ganucheau’s work. One of the pets is usually a villainous threat while the other is a cat, so sometimes not much difference. They’re tougher in presence and Kampe really pulls that into every drawing.

There is a frantic nature to the paneling choices, which echoes the tension from the two characters. They’re dealing with a confounding issue and aren’t working well together and the sharp cuts and shifts really play to that. Things shape up quite differently the further into the story we go, playing into the idea that they are more unified and coming together. Not only that, but it just frames the action and motion well enough to give it such a tangible quality.

Regular series colorist Louise brings a heavier and fitting color palette into these sequences, leaning into the darker and tonally stronger colors while also allowing the lighter and flashier variances to seep in where they work best. This highlights the fantastical elements that surround these characters and their quest.

This is just such a fun overall issue. Campbell works out a way to not only keep on some of the series plots while deviating to the animals, but craft two tales about the beauty of teamwork. That’s such a tall order to juggle all those things but, naturally, she nails it. Character and plot work are both strong suits for Campbell as a creator. She never flinches at really developing either one deeply.

There is a richness that permeates anything that Campbell writes. We’re only five issues into this run but it already has such a firm foundation with so much depth, it feels like we’ve been here for years. Trying to balance such a feeling in that few of issues is a difficult task for writers. When they nail it, though, it’s such a sweet thing to behold.

Another aspect I need to highlight, once again, is how well this series balances a line. That line being one that runs from classic to modern in scale. That means this series has so many hallmarks and feelings tied to more classic superhero comic books while also having many hallmarks and feelings from the more modern sensibilities. It’s a throwback in a way that doesn’t actually go backward.

Each of these animals has their own voice, even if it’s just them thinking about things. There’s such an inspired usage of thought bubbles, giving the voiceless a voice on the page. Carey makes sure there are enough little quirks that set each animal’s proverbial voice apart in its unique little corner. Just reading each, I instantly feel like it’s exactly how a dog or cat or rabbit might speak if they had the ability to suddenly. It’s very simple and to the point, but with a lot of feeling behind it.

Supergirl #5 is now available from DC Comics.