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Mild Mannered Reviews - Supergirl: Cosmic Adventures

Supergirl: Cosmic Adventures in the Eighth Grade #1

Supergirl: Cosmic Adventures in the Eighth Grade #1

Scheduled to arrive in stores: December 3, 2008

Cover date: February 2009

"First Extra-ordinary Adventure!"

Writer: Landry Q. Walker
Penciller: Eric Jones
Inker: Eric Jones
Cover: Eric Jones

Reviewed by: Adam Dechanel

Click to enlarge



Lex Luthor is giving Superman a tough time, his giant robot suit is completely invulnerable except perhaps if it was hit by a rocket forged in another dimension - cue rocket! Kara dizzily clambers from her rocket only to be papped almost immediately. The stunned girl is frightened and her powers begin kicking in... first x-ray vision, then flight - sort of.

Before she comes crashing down to earth Superman rescues her and they talk atop the Daily Planet building. Kara explains how when Krypton exploded, Argo inside its bubble shield was forced into another dimension. Kara was a well-mannered, 101% gpa student and a model daughter - too perfect for the House of El so her parents, Zor-El and Alura chained her to a rocket and shot her into space...

Clark shares our disbelief and waits for Kara to fold.

Kara was failing in school and grounded the day Zor was going to send a message to Kal in a rocket to let him know Kryptonians had survived. Kara in petulance hid on board and now here she is... on Earth... with no way back... ever. Clark drops the bombshell that he's nowhere near intelligent enough to duplicate Zor-El's work to repair the rocket and send it back through dimensional barriers. In the meantime Clark suggests Kara learn to control her powers, learn about her new home and its people.

Since the paparazzi have already seen her Kara will have to adopt a civilian identity... Linda Lee! Unfortunately Linda Lee proves to be just as popular as Peter Parker was in his school days. Not only do her classmates think she's a loser, so does her teacher!

Getting the hang of school is hard and nothing seems to be going right, not one class, not one day of the week. Despite hearty efforts, Kara is feeling terribly out of place, so much so she decides she'll try to travel home to Argo herself. She flies, higher, higher and higher, but like Ralph Hinkley she discovers flying is something that doesn't come easy. And she crashes into a nearby park.

Her first few weeks have been a bust and her escape attempt an utter failure, lost and alone Kara heads back to the girl's dormitory at her boarding school. When she walks into her room she discovers a red yellow and blue box with a note from her cousin:

"You are not alone".

Inside the box is a communicator, Clark must have salvaged it! Switching it on Kara is shocked to see Alura staring back at her! Kara apologises for running away and is relieved to hear her mother just happy that she's safe and with family.

Kara smiles, she's not alone and everything will be okay from now on...

4Story - 4: From page one it was obvious this was getting the same treatment as the Billy Batson comic. A good and bad thing. It's nowhere near as good as Billy's book but as a separate entity it functions extremely well. Kara may well be petulant and emotionally driven off course, but she is learning, and the charm of her legacy from the Silver Age is given some wonderful nods.

Landry Q. Walker has delivered a brilliant script that will make you care for Kara and I'm keen to see what happens next! Of note, I find Kara in costume takes to 'superheroing' very much like Ralph, but if you don't know who that is you'll have to do your own research... he he he (Tal0s don't tell em!)

I'm not sure why Landry decided Quasi space was where Argo resided, I preferred Inner Space since that sounds less cheesy and actually scientifically exists. But it's a niggle I'll have to deal with!

Not sure Clark would just shrug off that Argo is out there with the rest of his biological race. He seemed very matter of fact about it all. Perhaps it seems out of place as we just witnessed his reaction over in DCU's Action Comics. Although story and 'history handshakes' wise the book is excellent, I found the humor a bit forced; the gags aren't sharp just yet. I'm sure that will change in subsequent issues though! You can happily let a child flick through this and I'm without doubt they'll see something of themselves in Kara.

In closing, Cosmic Adventures is definitely worth a look whether you're familiar with Kara before the Crisis or a total newcomer. Shame on DC for only giving this 6 issues to run while Super Friends is still slapping us monthly.

4Art - 4: I hated the pre-released shots - the legging and skirt combo and ratty hair wasn't working for me at all. That said the book has such a unique look and inimitable style that it draws you in completely. Once you see Kara in action, her mannerisms and physical movement, you'll see Eric Jones has done an amazing job.

2Cover Art - 2: Ugh. I guess as this image has been pasted all over the net, I grew tired of it extremely quickly - a shame as it's a fun cover - I'm just not enamoured with it. One other thing is that logo.., what the heck?? I wish all the Supergirl books would use her logo that distanced herself from Superman. THAT was a logo, this is spaghetti and it's a shame because it definitely draws you away from the maid of might.


Mild Mannered Reviews

2009

Note: Month dates are from the issue covers, not the actual date when the comic went on sale.

January 2009

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