March 14th's Meanwhile in Las Vegas...

This week's Las Vegas Weekly comics column provides some obligatory coverage of the "death" of Captain America, and offers up reviews of Frank Stack's New Adventures of Jesus: The Second Coming and Richard Sala's The Grave Robber's Daughter (which is where the panels of Ms. Judy Drood knocking clowns the fuck out with a shovel and such like were taken from). Be sure to check 'em both out, as they're both great reads full of some fantastic art.

Elsewhere in the blogosphere, Project Rooftop is staging a much-needed fashion intervention for DC's Supergirl, including a bold re-design by EDILW favorite, The Abandoned creator Ross Campbell. It's worth noting that not only are all of these costumes superior to the costume the "real" Supergirl is currently rocking, but, for the most part, but all of the artists also seem to be superior to the two artists most associated with Supergirl at this point, Michael Turner and Ian Churchill. I do hope DC has been trawling the 'net for Supergirl input, as this Project Rooftop post alone has a few story arcs worth of alternate Supergirls and a couple must-sign artists.

Up until this point, Dean Trippe's Supergirl was by far my favorite, as it captured that which was most likable about the original Supergirl and seemed like it could be any of the major Supergirls from any of the books or cartoons since, while making her look like a real girl with a real sense of style, but I really dig Campbell's.

His Supergirl looks more like Superman (the dark hair), giving her a family resemblance, and she's ultra-sexy in a way that's not completely stupid (that is, she wears clothes tight enough to show her body off, but she's wearing tiny shorts instead of a tiny skirt, so she won't be constantly flashing people). The color scheme is interesting too—it doesn't really say "Supergirl" the way red and blue do, but I would love to see someone make that scheme work in the DCU. I don't think any superhero has really reached icon status with yellow and blue; the X-Men change their costumes too often to ever become primarily known in their blue and gold colors, and the Sentry is, well, he's the Sentry, isn't he? Finally, having read some of Campbell's previous work, I know he can draw sexy, tough girls who look and move like real girls, a talent that escapes far too many of the artists DC has hired to draw Ms. Kara Zor-El of late.