Review: Action Comics #1072 Supergirl Back-Up

Action Comics #1072 came out this week, the third weekly issue and therefore the third part in the Supergirl back-up feature by writer Mariko Tamaki and artist Skylar Patridge. 

I have exactly liked this story so far. As a reader, I still have little idea of what Supergirl's mission is, why she needed to be alone to do it, and what (if anything) Superman knew before he sent her off. She has hypnotized friends. She has asked questions that don't lead to information. And she has been mostly ineffective in accomplishing much of anything.

Alas, this chapter is more of the same. We get, maybe, a small crumb of information about the 'prisoner', at least a concept about them. But not much more. A question I had from last issue is answered here, explaining something I thought was a plot contrivance. But another plot point is added that makes this story feel even more dodgy. For the most part, Kara is basically ineffective. She asks a lot of questions and is otherwise failing on every aspect of her reason for being there. 

Honestly, I really feel we are treading water. And there is nothing I have seen so far that makes me understand why this had to be solo mission. That is the crux of this story and three parts in, I have no clue.

Maybe by the time we get to the end, Tamaki will have made this ride understandable.

As for the art, I remain a fan of Patridge's work. I feel like her work is a wonderful stew of other artists I love. This issue I felt there was a sort of Joelle Jones feel to things. We get more action sequences here and I liked how those flowed.

But still, this is mostly a slow boil. And I was hoping for more.

Last chapter, Supergirl didn't learn who her prisoner was or where they were. Before they could get far in their questions with the judge, a spider-like assassin clobbered the judge and took off with them.

This chapter opens with Supergirl admitting that she hasn't been successful in her mission so far. In fact, she is farther back now than she was before.

The options are clear. She needs to find and save the judge to then find out where the prisoner is and finish the mission. 

Tamaki's take on Supergirl always seems to be that Kara isn't sure of herself, doubting herself. I'd love to see some of the more confident Supergirl we have seen co-starring in the super-books more recently.

Supergirl begins asking the slightly helpful droid assistant questions about this station and this judge.

This was indeed a robot (hence Supergirl not using her hypnovision on it - a question I had last issue). In fact, this robot was built to be the judge and jury for this one case. The powers that be wanted there to be a truly impartial judge for this case.

Does this line mean anything more? What crimes could be so extreme to make even the most impartial person be unable to be objective.

This is a Thanagarian satellite court. But as Supergirl flies through to find the judge, the terrain looks much more hive-like or insectoid. Did the spiders terraform this place? Or is that what it always looks like.

Regardless, Supergirl finds the battered robot judge strung up in webs.

We get another small nugget of information. The spiders wish to kill the prisoner is 'honest and fair'. We already know that this prisoner is a universal threat and has been found guilty by a completely impartial judge. But interesting that the judge still feels compelled to tell Kara that the spiders desire to find and kill the prisoner is 'honest and fair'.

So who is it?

Maybe I should be thinking of DC Cosmic? Someone like X'hal? Or Auron? 

Pariah?

There really isn't much to go one here.

The one assassin we saw last issue turns out to be one of many. They are all over this place.

I like this panel, a defiant Kara yelling at all the spiders that all she wants is to get the judge out.

This is the best moment of this story so far. She looks great here. Great work by Patridge.

We do get a bit of a brawl.

One of the things that happened out of Absolute Power was the shuffling of powers. Kara got hypno-vision. But she also lost heat vision. I was thankful for the dialogue in the top panels, showing us her heat vision failing but also words to cinch that home. 

We also get to see a decent fighting Supergirl, using not only superbreath but also a super clap to keep the swarms at bay. 

Again, cool art by Patridge.

And then, a weird ending. 

This is a robot. It realizes that Supergirl needs to get that prisoner to the jail. It then says 'the information in my mainframe regarding the prisoner's location was sold and transmitted across the galaxy'. If the spiders found out the information, why not head to the prisoner's whereabouts (isn't that their mission)? Did they transmit it because there are other races out there who want the prisoner dead and they just care about the end, not the means? If so, why sell it? Rather confusing.

Anyways, the judge knows they aren't going to make it and so rip into themselves to pull out the map to the prisoner.

So this prisoner isn't even being kept locked up here? I suppose that might also explain why there is no security. 

But it seems it is now a race to get to this prisoner. Will Supergirl get to the prisoner first? Or will any of the spaceship armada that also have the information beat her to them?

Can I also say the last page is odd? It seems like the robot judge 'dies' but there is also a panel where it looks like Supergirl uses her hypnovision on the judge before. I don't know what that means ...

We still don't have any solid information on who this is or why Kara is alone here. Any guesses yet on the baddie? Someone big enough to tick off a lot of people.  Maybe it will all come together in the end.

Overall grade: C+