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Mild Mannered Reviews - Supergirl Comics

Supergirl #11

Supergirl #11

Scheduled to arrive in stores: November 15, 2006

Cover date: December 2006

Writer: Joe Kelly
Penciller: Joe Benitez
Inker: Victor Llamas

"Fish Out of Water"

Reviewed by: Jeffrey Bridges

Click to enlarge



Kara has decided, after talking with Boomer, that she wants to try joining the Outsiders. This doesn't go over well with most of the team, especially Nightwing, who fears that if she makes a mistake someone could end up dying.

Kara then displays an unexpected understanding of a situation involving some meta-human pirates that have been terrorizing people, and this is apparently enough to warrant them giving her a test mission.

She and Grace are sent out to attack the pirates, only undercover and posing as pirates themselves (read: chicks in bikinis with big guns) and end up getting recruited into the pirate group just like they'd hoped.

After creatively faking killing someone on a job the pirates sent her on to prove her loyalty, Kara is offered a piece of fish that the pirate leader says is the source of all their powers. Kara discovers that there's a sort of fish-person being held captive and apparently eating pieces of this fish-person is what gives the pirates their powers.

The fish-person asks Kara to kill her because it's the only way to stop the pirates, but Kara can't do it and flashes back to Krypton and her mother begging Kara to kill her and make her father proud (and there's also a panel showing Kara with a bloody crystal dagger in her hand as she cries, implying she did in fact kill her mother). Kara can't do it, so Grace does it for her. And just as the pirates are about to kill Kara, someone named Powerboy shows up and defeats them all as he tells Kara he's here to help and that this day will be the one that changed her life forever.

There's also another brief flashback scene where Kara is brushing her teeth at a window in her apartment and looks up, and we see Superman's feet hovering out in space above the earth. She tells him she's not ready to talk to him yet, but promises that she will be soon.

3Story - 3: You know what made this issue a 3 and not a 2?

The single panel on the top right of page 18.

Superman's feet.

It's about damned time there was at least a hint of movement on that front! Cripes.

Rar rar rar.

This book is taking way too long to get where it needs to be, if you ask me. We still don't even know WHY Supergirl won't talk to him and doesn't seem to like him. She even says, as part of her motivation for wanting to join the Outsiders, that she wants a family... because she doesn't feel like she has one.

You know, I could buy her feeling that way... if we had a reason. I think they're trying to wait for some "big reveal" at some point as to what that reason is, but you know what? I don't think it's working.

Things of that nature can work, of course, and often do. But I don't think it's working here. With all the delays this book has had the story has been moving at a snail's pace here in the real world.

In all honesty I'm already TIRED of this story. It's been going on forever with little to no explanation or development in each issue, just mostly pointless filler stuff with a couple of pages of flashback between. And every step forward results in another step back.

Kara's search for Argo? Apparently forgotten about. Again. And the whole thing with the pirates is moot and forgettable, as it seemed only a vehicle to get Kara into a tight bathing suit and give her a big gun to hold to please the fanboys. And I won't even get into the OTHER outfit she wore in the book which makes her look like a Vegas-style $2000 hooker. Oh, and don't forget the incest joke. That's the second time Kelly's brought that topic up since he took over a few issues ago. That's, um... interesting.

Maybe it says something important about the state of this book when the thing I get the most excited about is...

Superman's feet.

4Art - 4: There's a new artist on the book this month, which is very refreshing.

Alas, not my particular cup of tea.

It wasn't bad, and I certainly liked it a lot better than anything I've ever seen from regular penciller Ian Churchill. It's very... cheesecake. And don't get me wrong, I love me some cheesecake (especially the stuff prepared from the exquisite recipes of Ed Benes and Adam Hughes).

It was just a little too... bubbly for my tastes.

That makes no sense, but there you have it.

Supergirl's cheeks, lips... bubbly. Bubbly, I tell you!

Also, since Grace is like 7 feet tall, according to the art in this book Kara is over 6' tall and... really, she's not so much.

2Cover Art - 2: Do you know why Kara's looking at the words "Secret Admirer" on this cover?

Because they suck, that's why. And she's obviously all, "Dudes, you're ruining my cover!"

Pretty generic pose, and since Kara kissed Nightwing before, her admiration of him isn't so much a secret. So not only does it suck to have words on the cover at all, they're completely incorrect words. Double plus awesome it is not.

And it's Churchill art, and I'm really just so tired of seeing his Supergirl that I can't even tell you (even though I do, for every issue that he pencils).

Oh, and Ian? The Powerboy you drew all dark in the background?

He's got the wrong costume.

Blah.


Mild Mannered Reviews

2006

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

January 2006

February 2006 March 2006 April 2006 May 2006 June 2006 July 2006 August 2006 September 2006 October 2006 November 2006 December 2006

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