August 17, 2016: Steve Orlando on Writing “Supergirl: Rebirth #1”

Supergirl: Rebirth #1HitFix.com caught up with writer Steve Orlando to discuss “Supergirl: Rebirth #1” and what fans can expect from the new “Supergirl” comic book title moving forward. Here’s part of the interview…

Rebirth is not a reboot, so this version of Supergirl is one that was already in the new 52. Correct? She is just being repositioned and reintroduced.

STEVE: Absolutely, she is the same character we have seen but, just like you said, its a re-positioning. It’s getting her into that classic mode. New readers can find out why she’s great and long time fans will welcome her back.

I was actually surprised how much family features in this first issue. It’s really all about blended families. Superman has always really been about that because he is adopted and he comes from another planet. But it’s different for Kara, having a birth family which she can remember. That’s an interesting space to play in. Is that going to play a big role in her new comic?

STEVE: It has to, I think. Her experience, like you said … They’re both from Krypton but Kara’s experience, in many ways, I think is more real for readers and speaks more to real world experience. We say that the super characters, Superman were created by two Jewish immigrants, his is an immigrant story. But when you come right down to it the first face he saw were loving human parents. Kara’s is much more like what people go through. She’s left real things behind. She has real things that she lost and she remembers. That adjustment period is important to her.

Beyond that, it’s not just a source of drama in her life, it also is why she is who she is. She was welcomed by Earth despite all these things. Despite being an alien, despite being different. I think that that more than anything, that experience informs Kara’s wealth of understanding, the wealth of compassion that she shows. She’s been there, she’s been the one that people are afraid of. She’s been the one that people don’t trust and so that experience she had, being welcomed to Earth and coming into her own, she wants to pay that forward for people. That’s who she is, it’s what makes her a great person.

Read the full interview at HitFix.com

“Supergirl: Rebirth #1” arrives on store shelves today, Wednesday, August 17, 2016.