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Mild Mannered Reviews - Supergirl Comics

Supergirl Annual #1

Supergirl Annual #1

Scheduled to arrive in stores: September 2, 2009

Cover date: October 2009

"Secret Identities" and "Second Born: The Secret Origin of Superwoman"

Writer: Sterling Gates
Penciller: Fernando Dagnino
Inker: Raul Fernandez

Reviewed by: Jeffrey Bridges

Click to enlarge


Kara hears about a hostage situation and infiltrates it dressed in normal clothes, taking out the aggressors. The Science Police find evidence of heat vision and decide to use red Kryptonite to discover which of the hostages is Kryptonian. Kara worries, but it turns out a little boy in the room (and his mother) are also Kryptonian. The boy mutates and Kara takes him into space to heal with unfiltered sunlight, when his mother appears and attacks Kara.

She tells Kara she was in hiding on Earth with her son because she wanted a better life than the "laborer" she was assigned to be on New Krypton. And she tells Kara she thinks her father would be ashamed of her.

Lana tells Kara she did the right thing in trying to save people, but Kara wonders if she made matters worse.

"Second Born: The Secret Origin of Superwoman"

A man is running from a storm on Mt. Katahdin, where Superwoman died. He is disintegrated and Superwoman is reborn.

Lucy Lane remembers her birth and trying to earn the affection Lois already had from her father, and never felt she lived up to Lois. Sam Lane never liked Clark or Superman, and died as seen during "Our Worlds At War", which was when Lucy enlisted in the Army. She was almost killed during "Amazons Attack", when she's brought in by her father who is alive and faked his own death due to "people he couldn't trust". He then gives Lucy the Superwoman suit, saying she's better than Lois and the only one who could wear it.

Lucy is then discovered alive and it's implied General Lane will not be happy with that development.

3Story - 3: There's really not much here. The first story with Kara doesn't really add anything new to Kara or her book at all, it's just more of the same "am I doing the right thing, what's my place in the world?" wondering that Kara's been doing for four years with no real movement or exploration.

The second story finally gives us all the details on how Lucy became Superwoman, but no mention at all is made of her marriage to Ron Troupe or, worst of her, their CHILD. I suppose these were retconned out, then, but it would have been nice to have that confirmed... perhaps a panel where she walks right past Ron or treats him like a stranger, some clue as to the fact that that portion of history no longer exists.

Some of this felt weak, too... like General Lane still dying but it being faked because of "people he couldn't trust". Well that's great, Sam... I have people I can't trust, too. Should I also fake my own death? More detail there would have been nice.

In short I don't think this issue accomplished anything except for getting the full story of Lucy Lane/Superwoman out there... so once again we have Kara playing second fiddle to someone else in her own book, and once again it's Superwoman.

I wish they'd give Kara half the depth and motivation that Lucy now has, that'd be swell. It's only been four years, though, maybe I'm asking too much.

3Art - 3: The art in the second story was better than the first, where Clark looked like some kind of Neanderthal, Lana's clothes changed entirely in the middle of the same day, and Lana looked no older than (and arguably even younger than) Kara did.

5Cover Art - 5: This is a pretty excellent cover, no matter which way you slice it, even if Superwoman is sullying it.

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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