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Mild Mannered Reviews - Supergirl Comics

Supergirl #25

Scheduled to arrive in stores: January 4, 2008

Cover date: March 2008

"Boom"

Writer: Kelley Puckett
Penciller: Drew Johnson & Lee Ferguson
Inker: Ray Snyder

Reviewed by: Jeffrey Bridges

Click to enlarge

Kara is remembering people she knew on Krypton, and then somehow seeing them dead as they tell her what happened to them. She's in... the Fortress? Maybe. And says she wants to do it again.

Then Clark worries about her "changing" and Batman broods over her. BROODS!

Kal goes to talk to Kara, who says she's fine. He asks her what she sees when she looks at Earth, she sees a planet exploding, Kal somehow knows what she says and then says "Me too". Uh... 'kay.

Then he goes to save a cat in a tree (really?) and Kara is randomly attacked by some guy made up of stars and space who calls himself Reactron, and he nukes her. She finds him, learns nothing except that he's made of stars and that he wants her to shut up, and then he nukes her again.

Story - 2: Will someone put Rucka or Bedard back on this book, please?

I can't take this anymore.

If Kara is in the Fortress going through some sort of simulation of the destruction of Krypton, why would she make her family and friends talk to her from beyond the grave? Can someone tell me how that makes sense as something someone would actually do? Anyone?

Clark, despite having about zero interaction with Kara, oh... EVER, is suddenly worried she's changing. And Batman, well, he BROODS. Yes, you know it's serious. I mean his fingers are steepled and everything!

So Kal goes to talk to Kara, who by one page previous he's worried about, and then he leaves her to go save a cat in a tree. Way to prioritize there, buddy! Maybe he should have just barfed on her again. Oh that wacky baby Kal.

Kara looks at Earth and sees Krypton exploding. Yeah, I buy that. I do. It makes character sense. But then Kal asks her what she sees, and before she says anything other than "Um... well..." he says "ZOMG, me too!"

So is he reading her mind, then? He must be.

And why would Kal, after all his years on Earth, see Krypton exploding every time he looks down at it from space? That also makes zero sense.

And then... Kara is attacked out of the blue by Random Villain. She falls, they fight, she kicks his butt, he nukes her, they banter, and just stab me in the eye.

And we are treated to such paragons of dialogue as:

"Like the costume? Unusual, isn't it?"

"By the way, the name's Reactron!"

And let's not forget Superman narrating his every action as if we had no idea what he was doing.

"Supergirl. Thank you for coming. I haven't seen much of you lately."

Well why not just follow it up with:

"Perhaps you have noticed, Kara, how I am wearing clothes similar to yours! Do not worry, Supergirl, people can still tell us apart for I only wear MY skirt on the weekends, Maid of Might!"

What kind of name is "Reactron", honestly? It sounds like a name a ten year-old came up with in 1988.

"Hmm, well let's see... he's got to be mad, right? Why else would he be EVIL? So he must be... REACTING to something! But I can't call him "reacting", no! But if I add a "tron" to the end, it will sound cool and futuristic like "Voltron"! YES! SUCCESS!"

As I pleaded before, just stab me in the eye.

His power is that... he's made up of condensed space? And can pull stars out and drop them on people? Who comes up with this stuff?

And I'm sorry to say, but dropping a STAR on Supergirl while she's on Earth? Well, not only will that just power her up, but it would kind of, you know... DESTROY THE PLANET.

A random attack, worries without reason, hackneyed dialogue and Superman leaving a family member he's worried about to go save a cat add up to yet another travesty of an issue, I'm afraid.

The only thing bringing this up from a 1 was the continued use of storytelling WITHOUT dialogue, which is ignored far too often in comics. They are a visual medium and story can be told as such, and I do appreciate and enjoy this book's continued ability to tell story in "silent" panels.

Especially given how bad the actual written dialogue is!

But this issue still fails to make sense and fails on character in numerous ways. What's curious to me is how they can keep finding so many different ways to make this book bad.

This is bad in entirely different ways from Loeb's only-half-there run and Kelly's abomination to all that is good in the world. It's like they invent new ways to produce something other than a decent book rather than just give us a decent book for a change.

I want Rucka and Bedard back.

Now.

Art - 2: Where I thought the art got better last issue, this issue it got worse.

Clark and Lois on the top of page four look like someone broke in, severed their limbs and then reattached them at grossly disjointed angles while they slept. What the heck!

And then we go from things like the truly great panel on the bottom of page 7 to pages 10 and 11, when Kara is underwater and flying back up, which look like they were done by a different artist entirely and are devoid of any detail and Kara doesn't even look the same as she did a few pages earlier!

Did someone fill-in on pencils for a few pages and not get credited or something? It's very strange.

Blah.

Cover Art - 2: "Look who's back"

Back? Back?! From where?

I know he wasn't created specifically for this issue but, his utter lameness aside, "back" sort of implies Kara's encountered him before, and she hasn't.

And she's lifting a rock up off of... herself? While Reactron punches her in the back?

Pointless and, frankly, kind of boring. Especially given I bet most people know little to nothing about Reactron and so why would they care? It's not like he's Darkseid or something.

And THIS is what you give us for issue 25? A milestone issue... and we get a random villain with no motivation as the big guest star, touted on the cover as if he's someone we should be excited to see.

I'd like to replace the words on this cover. Just get rid of them all and put "TRAVESTY!" instead, and it'd be more apt.

Kara still deserves better. I wonder if she'll ever get it?

Mild Mannered Reviews

2008

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

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Mild Mannered Reviews - Supergirl Comics

Supergirl #25

Mild Mannered Reviews

2008

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