My on again/off again Matrix Monday series returns today as I finish the Showcase '95 story written by Charles Moore with art by Stuart Immonen. In part 1,a newly sentient AI, housed in a robot body came to Earth to collect crystals in which to download his essence. Along the way, he ran into Supergirl and felt that the Matrix body would be a more suitable receptacle.
This was a story that focused mostly on the true form of Supergirl, really showcasing the purple gloppiness of the Protomatter form. In some ways, focusing on that aspect of her on the heels of her self-title mini-series felt like a step backwards. In the mini-series, Matrix seemed to grow as a person. Here I was reminded a bit too much that she is 'other'.
The art by Immonen is very good. I have always been a fan.
On to the book!
The book starts with the Matrix Protomatter captured. Dichon, the AI housed in the robot, is hoping to purge the Matrix personality from her body so he can commandeer it. His essence cannot survive long in an 'artificial' body and needs something organic.
As I said before, the one thing I didn't like about the Matrix character is how every story featuring her needed a 'devolving' moment. Every story needed to show her in this raw form to show how injured/damaged she was.
After the Stern mini-series, where she embraced the Supergirl persona and wanted to move forward as an independent person made me think we would see less of these this sort of scene.
At the very least, we see that she has some more control and more will power than the Matrix who was unsure of herself and beholding to people.
Despite being tortured in that tube, she regains her Supergirl form and destroys her prison. And she is unhappy. In fact, she is downright angry. Her 'rip this ship apart starting with you' is pretty dark for her.
Perhaps that is an appropriate response. If, as I surmise, she wants to move past her 'protomatter state', being put into that form must be infuriating.
Great panel by Immonen.
There is a little face off with Dichon. He has complete control of all the drones in the ship. With a thought, he controls an army and tries to recapture Supergirl.
Supergirl gets a sense of just how deadly Dichon is, spying the dead crew of the Khund ship still littering the floor. That is a chilling panel.
But using her telekinetic blasts in a new way, she escapes.
And outside the ship she has to rescue the Bone Dagger Labs team from death. They had flown a hovercraft close to the ship only to have it damaged during Supergirl's escape. She scoops them up in her cape and brings them safely to the ground.
She tells them all she has learned. Dichon wants the crystals they were trying to mine to create a body. He will transform them using a molecular shift, a process requiring so much energy that the fallout will probably level the city.
Nice classic superhero rescue here.
It is up to this strange team - Supergirl and some excavators - to save the day.
Bailey, the head of Bone Dagger, a somewhat unscrupulous man, thinks he can jam Dichon's connection to the drones but he needs to be close.
Matrix knows she is trying to prove herself. So why not be the hero? She grabs this guy and flies up to the ship.
This felt like a continuation of the mini-series. Here is the Supergirl who wants to be the independent hero, acting on her own.
On board, the jamming tech works. Dichon loses control of all the drones.
Dichon feels his essence dissipating. It needs a body and soon. There can be no more delays.
So it heads into battle itself, grabbing the Bone Dagger Lab leader and frying him, almost to death.
This attempted murder triggers a rage in Matrix, having her switch into her EXTREME form, all spiky hair, leg bands, and blades. Ahhhh ... the 90's!
And as I said, Bailey isn't the nicest guy. While Matrix and Dichon brawl, he finds some samples of Matrix protomatter. If he can't have the crystals, he can at least have this, something to build on.
Dichon, sensing his impending death, knows he can't waste time in this stalemate fight. If Supergirl will allow him to leave, he will.
Tough choice. She knows that he has murdered the crew of this ship, which is massive. Who knows how many other people he has killed or will kill. But if she keeps him here, he will die.
What should she do?
In the end, it is moot.
The battle that has happened on the ship has damaged the ship to the point it explodes and crashes. Supergirl was able to grab Bailey. But Dichon is dead.
Once more we see the difference between Supergirl and Bailey. He is thrilled that Dichon is dead. She is upset. For his faults, Dichon was a new lifeform now gone.
Of course, there is some resonance there with Supergirl. She is also a 'new lifeform'. She also had a turbulent start. She is trying to redeem herself. Maybe she identified a little with Dichon.
The crystals that started this whole thing have been melted to slag by Dichon's attempts so Bone Dagger Labs has no prize.
And just to make sure, Matrix tells Bailey that he better not have kept those samples she saw him eyeing on the ship. Switching back to the spiky form, she warns him, Schwarzenegger style, that she'll be back if Bailey did grab them.
Heading back to her hotel room, Supergirl has no time to relax.
A rather evil looking Raven shows up. Matrix is needed. Once again, her protomatter body is needed to host Trigon.
I have to admit, I don't have this Titans story.
And, to be honest, this story was pretty average. After the catharsis of the mini-series, this seemed tame or even a step back. The mirroring of Dichon and Matrix wasn't played up enough. And I was (and am) pretty sick of seeing this Supergirl hurt so badly she reverts to her 'clay' form.
Still, it was nice to see Stuart Immonen draw her. And I was glad DC felt good enough about the character to give her some solo stories, trying to pump her up.
Overall grade: C+
7 comments:
"And, to be honest, this story was pretty average. After the catharsis of the mini-series, this seemed tame or even a step back. The mirroring of Dichon and Matrix wasn't played up enough. And I was (and am) pretty sick of seeing this Supergirl hurt so badly she reverts to her 'clay' form."
I agree with your conclusions. It wasn't a bad story but it was... forgettable. And it focused too much on Matrix's real form being a ball of glob.
"After the Stern mini-series, where she embraced the Supergirl persona and wanted to move forward as an independent person made me think we would see less of these this sort of scene."
How naive, right? DC will never allow Supergirl to move forward. As soon as a Supergirl grows up and/or overcomes their issues, the reset button is pressed, often entailing a retconning out. Kara always needs to (re)learn to love Earth. Linda can't ever be happy. Matrix can't move past the fact that she is an artificial lifeform.
The last thirty-four years have proved that.
"Ahhhh ... the 90's!"
Shudder.
God the writers just loved that "Supergirl is a Purple Glopdroid" meme didn't they? Everyone wanted to get housed in that body, Trigon, Luthor, these Jobbers...its a subtle demotion to the status of a object being fought over if you think on it.
Matrix had three modes, naive' dupe, someone else's raw materials or spiked anger...didn't take long for DC to writer the character in an inescapable corner...
JF
Ah yes, this odd little 2-part story. I failed to comment when you reviewed the first part recently.
Near the end Matrix hopes her "flashy exit didn't undermine Liz's business deal," referring to Part 1 where she JUMPED OUT A WINDOW in front of everyone. Huh? That was from the balcony of a very high floor in a hotel - landing, say, in a bin of trash bags or on an awning isn't going to cushion that fall. The leap is right in front of everyone else also on the balcony, so I guess they could look down and see her transform into Matrix. Weird story choice!
Just who are these Bone Dagger Lab guys? How did they get their cannon drill under a street with no one knowing? How do they happen to have a hover craft? Are these guys from the future?
How does Matrix know Dichon wants to extract crystals using a "molecular shift?" He doesn't tell her that. How do the miners know what a molecular shift is, or that the energy to execute it would require "fusion on a stellar level"? (Which I guess is essentially a hydrogen bomb.)
But don't *molecules* "shift" around all the time? Molecular reactions don't need fusion.
Somehow Matrix escapes Dichon's ship, but we don't see that - we just see her rescue the miners whose hovercraft gets in the way of the green beam that must be part of Dichon's mining process.
That mining is kind of odd - it started out with tendrils in Part 1, but Matrix disrupted those. So I guess whatever they were supposed to do, it must have been optional. And we also know the extraction is supposed to use a fusion level molecular shift. Is that the green beam? If so, the city should have been annihilated. I simply have no idea what's going on!
The notion that this nascent sentience was waiting to take material form was interesting, but it would have had to wait a long time indeed for a suitable ship, or even ANY ship at all, to happen to come along. Space is a big place, and I think he'd have had to wait billions of years, and still would not have succeeded.
The story has a few good but very undeveloped ideas. I don't like seeing Matrix in goo form either. Overall, I found the plot completely bewildering.
The Titans arc that follows was pretty depressing. Matrix is in her monster form for much of it, and I think she's under Trigon's or Raven's spell(s), so she's being used most of the time. That is Wolfman's story, and not the only time he favored his creation, Raven, over Supergirl.
T.N.
This is just a guess, but I believe that showing Matrix/Supergirl devolving to glop form every story was done to remind readers (and help clue in new ones) that THIS Supergirl is no survivor from Krypton, and certainly NO RELATION to Superman.
Good call Professor! Every comic is someone's first comic! Perhaps the 'glop event' was back history.
"That is Wolfman's story, and not the only time he favored his creation, Raven, over Supergirl."
Raven's appearance at the end reminded me of that Wolfman's "Brave and the Bold" issue, too (reviewed by Anj many, many Moons ago). Wolman portrayed Supergirl in a even worse light than Joe Kelly did. It was especially galling because the Supergirl book was in the midst of the "Way of the World" arc and had abandoned Kelly's interpretation several months earlier.
"This is just a guess, but I believe that showing Matrix/Supergirl devolving to glop form every story was done to remind readers (and help clue in new ones) that THIS Supergirl is no survivor from Krypton, and certainly NO RELATION to Superman."
You may be right. Good guess.
I find ironical they needed to make sure that everyone knew Matrix wasn't a character who didn't exist anymore and had supposedly been forgotten.
I was thinking of that Brave and Bold 2-part story too. Supergirl comes off as a jerk.
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