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Mild Mannered Reviews - Supergirl Comics

Supergirl #51

Supergirl #51

Scheduled to arrive in stores: March 17, 2010

Cover date: May 2010

"Last Stand of New Krypton": Part 2 - "Leaders"

Writer: Sterling Gates
Penciller: Jamal Igle
Inker: Jon Sibal & Marc Deering

Reviewed by: Jeffrey Bridges

Click to enlarge


Brainiac has invaded New Krypton. Kara, Mon-El and others try to fight him off. They can't get to his ship, so they try to prevent his robots from erecting a force-field around the city of Kandor.

Tellus contacts Mon-El and lets him know the Legion have been arrested and Superman is in need of help. Mon decides to go after Kal alone on the pretense that Brainiac is prepared to fight off Kryptonians and not Daxamites, and tells Kara to save her people and the Legion. He tells her to be the leader they need. She then kisses Mon-El full on the lips for "luck".

Alura attacks Kon and calls him a terrorist.

Kara notices the Kryptonians are only fighting alongside their guilds and aren't working together. She thinks her mother might be the leader they need, flies off and finds Kon fighting with her. She punches him through the wall.

More probe bots enter, trying to get to Alura, and red sunlight blasts weaken her and Kara. Things look grim, but Kon returns and saves the day. Kara convinces her mother to pardon the Legion, which angers General Zod. Kara and the Legion head off to Brainiac's ship to help Superman and Kara encourages her mother to be the leader their people need.

4Story - 4: Let me say that this issue is not without its problems. There's a LOT of exposition in the dialogue... characters explaining things the people they're talking to should already know, just to get us readers up to speed (in case we weren't already). I know that has to be done sometimes, but there are ways to do it that aren't quite so "this is two pages of exposition infodump".

There were also other times when the dialogue was just plain hokey (AND expository), like when Kara thanks Kon with the sparkling "Thanks for the tactile telekinesis save!" line.

Really? THAT is how Kara talks, is it?

It might as well have been, "Thanks for heat-visioning that robot for me!" What is this, 1955?

I get that the line was there to simply explain how Kon saved them, but it's irrelevant. Even if you don't know Kon's exact powers, there's an art panel of him smashing one of the robot's heads. The point is made.

I'm also rather annoyed that, yet again, we've got ANOTHER crossover running through this (and how many other?) books. Really, DC brass, give it a rest. They are beyond burnout now. There's been like three too many, and it's getting to the point where they're not exciting anymore. There's a general malaise of "oh gee, look, ANOTHER crossover" instead of "Oh man, a CROSSOVER? How cool!"

It's like lightsabers in the Star Wars movies. In the original trilogy, when there was a saber battle you were EXCITED! They meant something. In the new trilogy, they were a dime a dozen and meant nothing. It's overkill. So stop lightsabering our crossovers!

Er, yeah.

All that said, though, this issue was still fun and exciting and mostly well done. If it weren't for the dialogue issues (and if it weren't for lightsabers), this could have been an easy 5.

Surprisingly a much better read than issue 50 was.

4Art - 4: Very enjoyable, especially the splash pages with the robot fight. Who doesn't like a good robot fight? Nobody, that's who.

Good stuff.

5Cover Art - 5: That's just... it's... wheee!

Now that's a cover.

Mild Mannered Reviews

2010

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

January 2010

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