Supergirl #33

History

The issue was written by Marc Andreyko and drawn by Kevin Maguire (the majority of interior pages), with Eduardo Pansica handling a portion of the art; inking was split among Scott Hanna and Julio Ferreira, with colors by FCO Plascencia and Chris Sotomayor, and lettering by Tom Napolitano. Editing was handled by Jessica Chen under group editor Brian Cunningham. The production recall was triggered when DC — citing advance scheduling misalignment — determined that the original covers bore 'Year of the Villain: Dark Gifts' branding that did not apply to the story inside; replacement copies with a new Kevin Maguire cover on the main edition were provided to retailers at no charge, arriving September 4, 2019. Bleeding Cool subsequently reported, and the replacement printing appeared to confirm, that colorist changes to at least one Legion of Super-Heroes member's skin tone between the recalled and replacement editions pointed to internal editorial disputes as the deeper driver of the unusually aggressive recall — the first of its kind in the modern DC era according to contemporaneous industry coverage.

Trivia · 8 facts

• Published September 4, 2019 (cover-dated November 2019); part of the DC Rebirth-era Supergirl ongoing series (vol. 7, launched 2016), written by Marc Andreyko with primary art by Kevin Maguire and additional pages by Eduardo Pansica.
• Serves as the concluding chapter of the 'House of El: United' story arc, resolving Kara's extended space-based conflict with Krypton's destroyer Rogol Zaar and featuring the Legion of Super-Heroes traveling from the 31st century to witness the founding moment of the United Planets.
• Contains the first cameo appearances (in this continuity) of a new Dr. Fate — identity unknown at publication — and a character identified as X-Ray Girl, both appearing within the Legion sequence.
• DC issued an industry-wide recall of both the main Eduardo Pansica-covered edition and the Derrick Chew card-stock variant, asking retailers to destroy all copies; replacement editions with a new Kevin Maguire main cover were shipped at no cost to retailers.
• DC's official reason for the recall was that the original covers, including 'Year of the Villain – Dark Gifts' branding, no longer reflected the interior story content due to advance production scheduling; a similar recall simultaneously affected Superman #14.
• Bleeding Cool's reporting, corroborated by comparing the recalled and replacement printings, identified at least one colorist alteration to a Legion member's skin tone between editions — suggesting that internal DC editorial conflict, not just cover branding, was a contributing factor.
• The Superman group editorial team on both this issue and Superman #14 was operating under the broader creative direction associated with Brian Michael Bendis's then-ongoing Superman line, which was simultaneously building toward the Legion of Super-Heroes: Millennium launch.
• Issue #33 marks the final issue in which Kevin Maguire served as the primary interior artist on the series; Eduardo Pansica took over interior art duties starting with the next arc, with Andreyko continuing as writer.

Full credits

Variants (3)