With Supergirl flying high on CBS in her first-ever TV show, DC Comics has followed up with a digital comic series by writer Sterling Gates and a rotating team of artists including Bengal, Emma Vieceli and Cat Staggs. The Adventures of Supergirl takes place in the same continuity as the show, telling stories of Kara Danvers saving National City from alien threats as Supergirl.

Gates is no stranger to writing Supergirl comics, so we hopped on the phone with him to talk about what’s changed from when he wrote her comic, how he’s telling stories relevant to today’s youth, and how the series went from digital to graphic novel, to digital to single issue.Also, we have your first details on a brand new Supergirl villain that will debut in the comic.Note that the first print issue of Supergirl has been pushed back to May 11.Finally, feast your eyes on the print cover to Supergirl #5 by Staggs, which will collect Chapter 10 (by Staggs) and Chapter 11 (by Emma Vieceli).Check out what Gates had to say, then let us know your thoughts in the comments.

Oh, I love the show. I think it's a really great adaptation of the DC Universe. I love its positive, optimistic tone. I love that it is all-ages appropriate, which can sometimes turn people away, that phrase, "all ages." But I love that young women and men ages eight all the way up to 80 can sit down and watch it. It feels like a family show, and it's a show based on heart, humor, superheroics, positivity, even in the face of danger. I think it's a very necessary show to have in the TV landscape, and I think it's a very, very remarkable show in the context of other superhero shows.I love all superhero TV shows, but a lot of them can be very dark. The things Greg Berlanti and his company and his producers put out tend to be widely varying in tone, and Supergirl and The Flash, too, are both extremely uplifting shows, and I really appreciate that. But I think it's a great show.The cast is engaging, and I think Melissa Benoist is a perfect Supergirl, personally. I think she brings such charm and such light to that role, that you can't help but root for her, and that's a quality that character needs, frankly, in an actress. It's a great show. I really enjoy it.Well, one of the things that we do in Adventures of Supergirl is we try to offer stories that the show couldn't necessarily do because of budget or other reasons.We're doing right now in the book a huge dream story, and that allows us to get deep in some surreal imagery and do things -- like Chapter 7 opens with this Lord of the Rings battle, right? There's no way they could do that on the show. There's no way it would fit with the show, but when you do it in a comic, there are no budgets in comics. You can get away with Supergirl having sword fights with giant werewolves for five pages -- and that's not a joke. We do that in Chapter 7. [Laughs]You can get away with that stuff in a comic because there's no monetary value attached. You're only limited by your imagination and what an artist can draw.We're very fortunate, we have a woman named Emanuela Lupacchino drawing that story, and she is awesome. I asked her what she was interested in drawing, because I knew it was going to be a very surreal chapter and have a lot of different story elements that would be not just Supergirl at the DEO; she's fighting werewolves and stuff. So I said to her, "Is there anything in particular you wanna draw that I can fit in here?" And Ema said, "I would love to draw my cat, Mario." [Laughs] So Supergirl rides a giant Battle Cat like He-Man's Battle Cat, and we do that because we can get away with things like that that the show necessarily couldn't. But the magic and fun of comics is you can do anything, including Supergirl riding a giant Battle Cat.I mean, big changes -- obviously, she's older as a character. Kara Danvers is in her mid-20s. She works for a media conglomerate as an assistant. She has a secret identity that she sticks to; she is Kara Danvers first before she is Supergirl. Whereas, when we did the book back in the day with Jamal Igle, it was a lot more about Kara Zor-El and Supergirl and the House of El and Alura and New Krypton -- all that stuff -- but at it's heart it was the story of a teenager trying her best to live up to this mantle, this symbol, that she has chosen to take on, the symbol of the House of El. So it was a lot about family and a lot about aspiring to be as good as the Superman, in that universe, that came before her.I think that the show doesn't necessarily stick with that. She is far more self-actualized when we pick up Kara in the pilot than she was in the DC Universe -- gosh, when was that? 2008 -- and I think it offers some different opportunities, it offers different types of stories, it offers us a chance to explore Kara as she has built this life around her, for the 12 or 13 years she's been on Earth, before she becomes Supergirl. You know, if you're familiar with the Jeph Leob/Mike Turner Supergirl story that reintroduced Kara Zor-El in 2003 or 2004, she essentially turns up and becomes Supergirl that week. She puts on that costume and flies around, and she's Supergirl, and she fights Darkseid.Here, you're looking at the story of a woman who immigrated from a dying planet, came to Earth, was adopted by a family on Earth, had to learn how to acclimate to her new scenario and succeed within that. And then, over a decade later, a number of events happen that lead her to putting that uniform on and deciding that she was going to use her powers in a big way.So it's a very different journey for that character, and that comes with its own set of circumstances to deal with. But at her heart -- my take on Supergirl when I wrote her in the comic almost 10 years ago and my take on her as I'm writing her now are more or less the same, which is, she is a bright, hopeful, optimistic voice in a very dark and cynical world. So while the situation around her has changed, she as a character, to me -- and this is my take -- is still the same. She is hopeful and optimistic. You know, you throw the hardest, darkest days at her, and she will find ways to shine in spite of how hard things are. I think that speaks to the strength of her character.No, we had meetings last summer. I had meetings with [Supergirl executive producer] Andrew Kreisberg and some of the DC editorial guys, and we discussed potential villains, and then I assembled a list of villains I thought would be fun to use. Andrew I think asked me to use Vril Dox. I don't remember exactly how that all shook out, but I had a list of villains that I'd been wanting to use in Supergirl back in the day, and I wasn't sure who the show had approval on, because each DC show has their own set of approvals as far as I can tell. So I submitted my list and figured out who we could use and sort of built the story around all of that.As well as, bee-tee-dubs, we're making a new villain that is debuting in this story in the back half of this story. I can't tell you anything about her yet, but she'll debut in Chapter 9. That will be the first time we see her.We're introducing a brand new villain to the Supergirl mythos, and she's a villain we absolutely could not do in a DCU Supergirl book. She is wholly unique to the Supergirl television universe. She's also tied directly to Kara in a way that no one will expect… though we've already laid the clues out for you in the first issue!Digital readers will get to see our new villain first, too. She'll turn up during an enormous battle in Chapter 9, a fight which is wonderfully rendered by Carmen Carnero. So if there's ever been a reason to read a book digitally, there it is! [laughs] [Laughs]Vril Dox represents some of the darker parts of the Internet. I think doxxing is a very new and scary phenomenon that young people are going to have to face in the 21st century, and I specifically wanted to write a Supergirl story that addressed it… albeit in a very broad way. You've seen celebrities “swatted” and online personalities getting their information leaked online the last few years. I think Dox taps into that very valid fear, that every time you use the Internet or Twitter, you could potentially be inviting someone in to destroy your life.Now obviously we can't do too deep down the rabbit hole with that story -- Adventures of Supergirl is meant for a fairly wide superhero audience -- but openly discussing doxxing or swatting felt like the right story to tell at this time with this character. Covering social issues that could affect young women and men in the future feels very in line with what the show is about.Also, Kara is very new to the superhero game at this stage in her career, and she's worried about her secrecy. Dox wants to take that away and do so irrevocably, which makes him a particularly scary villain to me.Adventures of Supergirl is coming to print because of both the incredible fan support we've received from the Supergirl community, and also due to the high demand from the comic book retail world. The second DC released those first Bengal drawings of Supergirl last December, fans started asking me when they'd have this book in their shop. Then when the first chapter dropped in January and everyone saw how positive, fun, and accessible this book was, retailers started asking DC how they could get it.This release allows us to reach an entirely different audience. We've been massively successful on the digital platform, and we're all thrilled that now fans will be able to find us in their local comic shops. The digital comic audience is not necessarily the same as the physical comic audience and vice versa.Our story takes place during the first half of the season, so J'onn J'onnz is still in hiding. And I'm not gonna say where, either, because I don't want to spoil that huge plot point for your readers if they haven't seen it yet! [laughs] As for your other question: You might not see other DC heroes...but that doesn't necessarily mean you won't see other Supergirls...Yeah! How exciting was that?! I was thrilled to see Steve writing the new Supergirl book. I can't wait to read it. I loved his run on Midnighter, just a top notch title. Steve doesn't need my advice. He's a great writer with a wonderful voice. I guess I'd just tell him to make her shine.Sure. Right now, we're in the middle of a story involving a villain called Psy -- and I don't think that's really a spoiler at all. She invades dreams and has invaded Supergirl's dreams. If you read this week's chapter, Chapter 6, you'll see that Kara has turned the tables. So we'll see the ramifications of that in Chapter 7. Chapters 8 and 9 are a Alex/Kara team-up story. They go investigate some information they get from Psy. Chapter 10, Cat Staggs is drawing the Alura chapter, and it's Alura-focused, and it's beautiful. Cat Staggs is an incredible, incredible talent. Then Chapters 11 through 13 are Emma Vieceli, and it is a drop-down, drag-out giant fight through the DEO, and it's big. It's epic. It's our version of a season finale. I tried to blow it out, pull out all the stops and make it as big as possible.And Emma is another extremely talented artist working right now, and she's rising to the challenge. The pages she's turning in right now are just gorgeous. So I think fans are in for a pretty wild ride. I mean, the idea was always to do a really big Supergirl story but keep it within the confines of how the show operates. So, again, if you pick it up and you haven't seen the show, you will not be lost. We're telling a Supergirl story that I think anyone can enjoy. Hopefully we're addressing some pretty critical modern issues that young men and women are dealing with, while at the same time doing this big, fun action-adventure, sci-fi superhero story.

Joshua is IGN’s Comics Editor. If Pokemon, Green Lantern, or Game of Thrones are frequently used words in your vocabulary, you’ll want to follow him on Twitter @JoshuaYehl and IGN