Friday, February 15, 2013

Review: Superboy #17


Superboy #17 came out this week another chapter in H'El on Earth, and thankfully another step closer to the end of H'El on Earth.  It is hard for me to read H'El in any sort of unbiased way because, unfortunately, Supergirl is the villain of the story. And ... let me tell you something ... in this issue, she is the villain. She is the hysterical, deluded, angry, ignorant villain.

And if making a long time Supergirl fan dislike this Supergirl character was a goal of Tom DeFalco, Scott Lobdell, and Eddie Berganza, then congratulations are in order. Because after I read this issue, I really really disliked this Kara. And my condolences to Mike Johnson and Michael Green because the powers that be have simply undone everything that those guys were creating over in the main book.

Should Superman fans be happy with H'El? Well, he acts a bit erratic and his plans are often muddled. But at least he is a hero and leading the charge to prevent Earth from being destroyed.

Should Superboy fans be happy with H'El? Hell yeah. He comes off great in this book, realizing what it means to be a hero and working hard to be a hero! In this book, he comes off as selfless and strong. In fact, most of the parts of the book I am going to highlight show just how far Superboy has come on the hero's journey.

In fact, I am not hating on Superboy when I say that I find it amazing that his character, the guy with violent mind programming and a deep-seeded hatred of Superman, is the guy to rise above the fray and be the hero. Meanwhile, Supergirl plays the patsy.

I have always been a fan of RB Silva, especially when he is inked by Rob Lean, and his art is slick here. For some reason it works best in a sci-fi setting and so he shines here.


The book opens with the Justice League organizing their attack against H'El and his star chamber. The draining sun is creating havoc with our weather, resulting in natural disasters. While the rest of the Leaguers go on rescue duties around the world, Superboy, Wonder Woman, and Superman will take the battle to H'El himself.

One thing I like here is that while, once again, Superboy opens the book by saying he is a living weapon, he also calls Kal and Diana living weapons as well. But they are calm, confidant, and clearly in control of their decisions. It is yet another way to show that Kon is starting to think of himself more as a person and less as an automaton. Living weapons can be in charge of their own lives too.


Meanwhile, listen to how starstruck Supergirl sounds when talking to H'El.

Talk about gushing. She takes about his vision ... his tireless dedication. Does anyone outside of the most infatuated, most inane say such things?

Yes, she is still thinking H'El is the good guy. And she is so blinded by love for this guy she met maybe 2 days ago that she can't see straight.

So she is gullible. And she is infatuated. And she falls exceedingly quickly into a superficial kind of love.

How does that make Supergirl a likeable character.


Before the heroes can intercede, H'El teleports in and again lays some serious damage on Superboy. He rips the healing Kryptonian armor off him and throws Superboy aside.

I said it before, there is a little too much venom in H'El surrounding Superboy. I think this is transference of some sort of self-loathing. H'El has to be a clone of some sort.


But it is here that we see the best of Superboy.

Despite being battered, despite his genome being unraveled, despite no real dog in this fight, Superboy decides he isn't ready to thrown in the towel. He is going to pull himself together, maybe literally, and fight on and try to stop H'El and his plans.


When the Hornblower arrives and says that he is calling The Oracle to come to the doomed planet, Superboy even goes one step further, attacking the alien, and saying the world still has hope ... Superman.

So pulls himself together, recognizes Superman as a hero, attacks the Hornblower, and then navigates around the raging atmospheric chaos to get to the Star Chamber.

After all my worries about Superboy, his dark side, his bank-robbing, his hatred of Superman, it turns out he is the brightest star in H'El on Earth.


Now contrast that to Supergirl.


Here is the thing, one of my biggest complaints about this arc is that no one has told Supergirl that H'El is going to implode the solar system. Superboy finally ... finally ...tells her the imminent danger.

So what does Supergirl do with this new information?

She attacks the ailing Superboy when he arrives. She calls him a time bomb, someone willing to kill Krypton again, someone who she can't trust in the way she trusts H'El. She says he is lying. And she is vicious in battering Kon despite the fact that he is obviously dying in front of her.


And let's add more.

Despite Superboy telling her over and over that Earth will die, telling her that she can't be naive and must realize what is happening, Supergirl still doesn't believe him. She doesn't even pause.

And here she basically says she is going to kill him if he doesn't walk away.

Supergirl is too blind and too stupid to recognize the impending cataclysm, pounds on a dying boy, and then plans to kill him.

How am I supposed to like this Supergirl? How am I supposed to feel empathy for her?

I'll say it again, I am a life long Supergirl fan and I don't like the character right now. I haven't felt this way since the issue by Kelly/Garza where we saw her gun down her high school classmates on Krypton.

Supergirl as a stupid killer ... who can honestly think this was the right direction for the character.


Luckily before she can deliver the killing blow, Wonder Woman shows up and the two begin to battle.

So now Supergirl is fighting all of Earth's heroes.

It makes me so sad.


Again, contrast that to Superboy. Despite dying, despite being bloodied and bruised, he wills himself on ... striving to 'make like a hero and save the world'.

Unbelievable.

I have to say this was a tale of two issues. If there has been an upside to H'El on Earth, it has been the character development of Superboy. He has really changed during this short time with Superman. Suddenly he isn't interested in living in the posh apartment and clubbing. There are bigger things in life. He really is becoming the hero.

On the other hand, Supergirl has de-evolved from the smart, sad, over-cautious young woman in her book to this lovestruck idiot who can't see the truth even when it is shoved in her face.

Again, congratulations to Tom DeFalco, Scott Lobdell, and Eddie Berganza. You have made Supergirl pathetic and unlikeable. The writing has been on the wall since the beginning of this arc.

And to Superboy fans, I hope you like the new direction he is taking here.

Overall grade: C+ (B+ for Superboy characterization, D- for Supergirl stuff)

19 comments:

  1. I give this issue an F for Supergirl's characterization, she has been jobbed out well and thoroughly, we have hit rock bottom with Kara this week. Its like Joe Kelly never left the feature.

    JF

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  2. If that characterization is who they think Supergirl is then RIP Supergirl.

    If only social media were strong enough to get Tom DeFalco, Scott Lobdell, and Eddie Berganza banned from any and all future Supergirl books and/or crossovers.

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  3. While I agree with you about a lot of what you said, especially about Superboy, I think that you're being a little too harsh on how they're portraying Supergirl. This version of her might not be what you're used to, but she hasn't been on Earth for very long and she has just recently learned English, so she has very little reason to know about Earth's heroes, much less respect them. Also, she did, at one point in this issue, question H'el's actions only to be answered with a lie, so she's not just naively following him. And Superboy wasn't the best person to tell her of the danger, since she believes clones to be homicidal maniacs. I'm sure that Wonder Woman will have better luck convincing her. Hopefully, she'll use her lasso on H'el to force the truth out of him in front of Kara. Now, that would be something.

    P.S. the part at the end with Superboy flying towards the star chamber reminds me of him flying towards the tower in "Infinite Crisis". That tells me that there could be a scene where he almost dies saving the world, but somebody saves his life. That would be epic.

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  4. Also, it has already been confirmed by Scott Lobdell that H'el is not a clone, so that "self-loathing" theory of yours is pretty unlikely, if not impossible.

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  5. Let me try to defend Supergirl for a moment. Remember that no one has told her that H'El's plan will destroy the solar system, and I take that as a fault of the whole arc.

    Also, remember Krypton's prejiduce towards clones. I can see why she wouldn't believe Superboy. Krypton didn't have it well with clones.

    So there. I don't like what they're doing with the character either, but I can see why she could side with H'El. He simply wants to bring back Krypton and you can tell that Kara yearns for her home.

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  6. Thanks for all the comments.

    I think it is hard for me to swallow Supergirl acting like this when you contrast it to her characterization in the first year plus of her own book.

    I know she misses Krypton. I know she distrusts clones.

    She also accepted it was gone, didn't want to hurt Earth people, and stopped twice when she had a chance to kill Kon (even calling him 'him' and not 'it').

    She is forced to play the role of fool in this arc and it is unforgiveable.

    Also, it damages her character (and therefore her solo book).

    Would anyone who isn't reading Supergirl regularly read this arc and want to add the title to their pull list? I doubt it.

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  7. arw1985 said...
    Let me try to defend Supergirl for a moment. Remember that no one has told her that H'El's plan will destroy the solar system, and I take that as a fault of the whole arc.


    That doesn't work - The first years worth of Supergirl has her learn directly about Kyptons fate, her visit to Argo City alone was proof enough. Now some bizarre looking alien drops to earth with a story about how he's from Krypton and was a favored pupil of her Uncles, how he was Jor's first choice for a major test flight that neither Kara or Clark ever heard about, then the impossible Dragon from Krypton Superman 'kills' which again she refuses to ask obvious questions.
    So she repeatedly chooses to believe this newly arrived nutter from space over the man she accepts is her cousin? Clark is just being an absolute ass in fighting tooth and nail to stop H'el?
    No, whichever way you look at it Supergirl does not come out of this well. Only a moron and utter narcissist acts like this.

    now don't take that to mean I'm as angry as Anj is, I'm not, I agree it's terrible treatment and sure to alienate any potentially interested readers following this storyline into her book, but on the bright side I can't believe there isn't a plan. Or at least better times head for Supergirl.
    This is Superboy's event to shne in and he both needs and deserves, who's to say the next event won't be Supergirl's time to shine...?

    There is only so long you can apply the formula DC have applied to Supergirl and keep her book fresh and appealing, I think that time is now up after this storyline. As If they keep up with this characterisation the book and character will not survive very much longer I feel.

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  8. Dave is correct, we can fault everyone not telling Supergirl about H'El's plans as a flaw in the plotting of the arc, a cheap short-cut to keep a story going for 14 issues when if the characters talked to each other the whole thing would have been over in three. But we also have to ignore everything we've been told about Supergirl up to this arc. Again and again in the H'El story she is unable to ask even the most obvious questions, make the most simple of observations, and this from someone who until this point has been almost irritatingly untrusting and unwilling to take anything at face value or trust anyone.

    Bad story-telling or not, the reader is stuck with what's happened. Supergirl has been portrayed as stupid, unremittingly violent, bigoted, hysterical, overly emotional, and willing to move from wanting to punch a character to being in love with them in the space of a single 20-page story like a character from a cheap 50's pulp detective novel. And I'm sorry to say that, combined with a lot of other things I've seen in DC's story-telling over the last couple of years, it says something a little dark and unnerving about the opinion of women held by the DC editorial staff.

    This version of Supergirl has, in the course of a single arc, been turned into a villain. And a rather stupid and credulous one at that. If DC is trying to kill he character they're on the right path. I hope Dave is right, that there's better times ahead for Supergirl, that she's going to get to shine eventually. I hope there are readers left when that happens.

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  9. This crossover is a shame in regards to kara,and a godsend for kon,as a huge SB fan i am very happy with how he has grown,and hope they continue this in his own book after the crossover is over.

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  10. About Superboy: In the last episode of this crossover, remember what he did? Banged in,grbbed karas hair and, well... So how did he go from that to this, and really, why should Kara believe him after that? That Superboy finally tells her, after what he and Superman did last episode (when they had the perfect chance to do so, but decided threats and attacking her was a better approach). Yeah, pretty sure I wouldn't have listened either...

    (Also, consistent characterisation between books? What's that? Editors? What's that?)

    "So she repeatedly chooses to believe this newly arrived nutter from space over the man she accepts is her cousin?"

    The cousin she turned to right after H'el approached her. What was it he told her again...?

    Oh yeah. "Did my uncle send any OXYGEN with you in your pod?!"

    Right. That cousin. The one she turned to while he was "talking" to Lois, and who subsequently acts like a jerk to Kara, for no good reason.

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  11. Thanks for all the new comments.

    I agree with a lot of what was said here.

    But the biggest thing I agree with is the inconsistent characterization of all the characters from issue to issue and title to title.

    Moreover, the way this played out, it is as if the editors didn't read any of the titles pre-H'El and just decided how they wanted it to play out.

    Kim, I agree that Supergirl has the worst of it here. Mostly because she has been set up from both sides - herself as hysterical dupe and the 'family' for attacking her and not filling her in on the details.

    I can't stand the way Supergirl is portrayed here.

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  12. Kim said...
    About Superboy: In the last episode of this crossover, remember what he did? Banged in,grbbed karas hair and, well... So how did he go from that to this, and really, why should Kara believe him after that? That Superboy finally tells her, after what he and Superman did last episode (when they had the perfect chance to do so, but decided threats and attacking her was a better approach). Yeah, pretty sure I wouldn't have listened either.

    The problem with ths statement is it assumes Supergirl is wholly the innocent party, when she plainly isn't. It is made crystal clear that she does not want to know H'el is in any way evil evil.

    Right from her very first appearance last september her character has been defined by being confrontational, utterly superior, and highly aggressive - she just will not listen to anyone and accept the truth in what they are saying. Instead she nearly always flies right off the handle and violently rejects what she doesn't want to hear or deal with, big or small. In one sense she's extremely lonely and isolated yes, in another though she is utterly immature and lacking in any common courtesy. We're all beneath her.

    So instead of trying to rationalise her point of view look at it impartially. Superboy's very first meeting with Supergirl saw her flip upon learning he was cloned - which is not his fault obviously. She hits him so hard he actually escapes earths atmosphere and might have died if she didn't come after him to deliver a second beating... she made it repeatedly clear there and since she sees him as an abomination and freak that needs to be put down. That is not a nice message to send or take away.
    So upon throwing her lot in with H'el she sides with him to the point she attacks The Flash, despite him not being there for any fight. Superboy knows H'el is dangerous as he left him for dead and only Superman's suit saved him, so yes while kneeing Supergirl is unchivalrous let's accept there was every provocation for him to do so. She's provenly more powerful than he is so it was unlikely to do anything more than stun her in any case.

    What happens this issue though is totally indefensable. Superboy is probobly dying, struggling to stand, and yet despite this obvious and serious illness, and his not fighting back, she inflicts a heavy and vicious beating on him for an extensive period. It is painful to look at those pages.

    He has every right to be terrified of her after this. He SHOULD be terrified. She's a monster.

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  13. "Right from her very first appearance last september her character has been defined by being confrontational, utterly superior, and highly aggressive - she just will not listen to anyone and accept the truth in what they are saying. Instead she nearly always flies right off the handle and violently rejects what she doesn't want to hear or deal with, big or small. In one sense she's extremely lonely and isolated yes, in another though she is utterly immature and lacking in any common courtesy. We're all beneath her."

    I find this impossible to reconcile with the ACTUAL first 14 issues of Supergirl. Like we didn't even read the same book...

    "Superboy's very first meeting with Supergirl saw her flip upon learning he was cloned - which is not his fault obviously. She hits him so hard he actually escapes earths atmosphere and might have died if she didn't come after him to deliver a second beating... she made it repeatedly clear there and since she sees him as an abomination and freak that needs to be put down."

    That's... Not quite how that issue read...

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  14. I find this impossible to reconcile with the ACTUAL first 14 issues of Supergirl. Like we didn't even read the same book...

    Then look again - it's all there.
    The attitude to Superman upon first meeting him, the repeated belittling of earth and its people. Her unwarranted assault on the innocent and passive Superboy.
    It's very clear she would rather be anywhere else that here... earth is a hole to her.

    She is capable of kindness, she is capable of heroism. What she is not capable of (so far) though is fitting in and listening to good advice. Her repeated two fingers to her cousin speaks for itself, that's her all over. Her beating of Superboy this issue is at the very extreme end of that superior attitude but it does follow a trend. With how she's treated him and Superman since she met them can anyone honestly say they think this is 100% out of character for her?

    I don't. It's at the very extreme end, but it is what she's been shown capable of.

    Vindictful, mean spirited heroes are part and parcel of the 'New 52' reboot...


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  15. "Then look again - it's all there.
    The attitude to Superman upon first meeting him, the repeated belittling of earth and its people."

    Where she didn't believe him (and why should she?) and the fight ended when she noticed they were in a populated area, because she didn't want to harm anybody (a theme that was constant during all that time). And she apologised for not noticing that.

    "Her repeated two fingers to her cousin speaks for itself, that's her all over."

    What? Repeated two fingers? Hmm. Where? Superman was portrayed as wanting to control her, despite her having done nothing wrong. If anything, Superman was kindof an ass when he blamed Kara for the destruction that happened due to the military attacking her. (After she saved New York and the world, no less).

    "It's very clear she would rather be anywhere else that here... earth is a hole to her."

    Yet she repeatedly protected earth, and it's inhabitants, DESPITE being constantly attacked...

    That's why it seems like we didn't read the first comic for the first 14 or so issues.

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  16. So SB can not only push things outside of his body,but now he can keep his dna from coming apart,even if its only temporary.thats pretty damn impressive physical manipulation of his own body,i wonder how far he can go with this?
    I think kara beating kon till he cant fight back or mess with her and h'els plans is one thing,but saying and getting ready to kill him is another level,a level no SUPER should reach.
    Does anybody here think SB is going to be set up to take mon-el/valors place as "seeding" worlds throughout the universe,and now maybe the multiverse,after the herald said kon was destined to shape untold worlds?

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  17. Spot-on review, Anj, thank you! Kara is being treated so badly in this crossover that I'd not be surprised were DC planning a phone vote on whether or not she should be killed by the Joker ...

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  18. If Kara gets just one moment of glory by this storyline's end, where she stops being the sheep and becomes proactive to stop what she knows is wrong, then to me, that'll make up for her black sheep behavior in this arc. I don't need this experience to immediately make her fall in love with Earth or have great relationships with everyone all of a sudden--quite the opposite, I want that to grow organically--but I do want to see a concentrated effort within this arc to stop what she helped start. She does that, then I'm good.

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  19. Hopefully Kara gets her senses back by facing Wonder Woman and her magic lasso, maybe she'll see what is right and wrong and question H'el.
    -- DW1550 sath

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