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Mild Mannered Reviews - Supergirl Comics

Supergirl #43

Supergirl #43

Scheduled to arrive in stores: July 22, 2009

Cover date: September 2009

"Guilding Day"

Writer: Sterling Gates
Penciller: Jamal Igle
Inker: Jon Sibal

Reviewed by: Jeffrey Bridges

Click to enlarge



It's Kara's birthday, and the day she must choose which guild to belong to. Kara's mother is getting stricter and Kara is punished and sent to work with the people who were "born into" the Labor Guild. Then she and Kal (in the Military Guild) go to investigate Superwoman's apartment and find one of Lucy Lane's hairs.

Kal then tells Kara that he talked to Lois, who is demanding that Kara stay on New Krypton, even though that's unfair to Kara and Kal believes that Kara did nothing wrong. Kara is then sent to check on a member of the Artist's Guild, who has made a statue to her father and was her father's mentor. He asks Kara if she'd like to study under him.

Kara then has encounters with the Science Guild and the Religious Guild and wonders if her punishment is her mother just keeping the two of them apart. Kara follows Alura out one night, and they talk by her father's grave and Alura reveals she's been sending Kara all over as a GIFT, so she can experience the different guilds and make her choice as to which one she wants to join.

Kara picks the Science Guild to try to learn more about her mother.

4Story - 4: This was better than last issue by a good amount, but it still had inconsistencies and problems. If Kryptonians all get to choose their own guild on their "Guilding Day", why would people in the Labor Guild refer to being "born into" that guild? Why wouldn't they get to choose whichever one they wanted like everyone else?

Kara choosing the Science Guild to try and learn more about her mother, and why her mother might have joined the same guild when she was Kara's age, was a nice touch.

It all felt a little slow, though, and like the story was being dragged out to fill 22 pages. There really wasn't that much story here and it would have been nice to get a little more into what Kara wanted in terms of a guild. Not only would that have given us more insight into her, but if she then chose to learn about her mother via a shared experience in the Science Guild over choosing what she wanted for herself, that would have been a really great character moment. I feel a little like the ball was dropped there.

Also, reference was made to Kara painting. Really? Since when?

If they knew that moment was coming in the comics, why not, oh... SHOW HER PAINTING a few times here and there leading up to this? And then you play up that she actually wants to join the Artist's Guild like her father, but chooses the Science Guild for the selfless reason of trying to better understand her mother.

That would have made this a lot better.

3Art - 3: Sometimes it was spot on and great, and other times I couldn't help but wonder what was wrong with some of the people's faces. Very hit or miss.

4Cover Art - 4: Kara still looks a little too young here, I think, but other than that I think it's a fantastic cover and one of the best this book's ever had.


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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