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.
The one assassin we saw last issue turns out to be one of many. They are all over this place.
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.
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+
I was wondering what your pitch for “Absolute Supergirl” would be like
ReplyDeleteYou're more generous than I am! I mostly don't understand the story.
ReplyDeleteWhat is the red round beeping thing we see at various times?
Isn't this place with catacombs a separate space vehicle? Shown from the outside, it has a different shape from the one the judge was originally on. How and when did Supergirl find it and travel to it?
Why did the judge's head/headgear look completely different when held captive?
The judge says the prisoner's coordinates were stolen and transmitted everywhere, so why are many ships seen converging at the kidnappers' space vehicle instead of at the prisoner's leaked and transmitted coordinates?
(I suppose it's possible the "other" vehicle in space actually is the prisoner's site, to which other ships are headed, and not where the kidnappers and judge are, who would be back on the judge's station still - but there is no reason to interpret it one way or the other. If the "catacombs" are inside the judge's ship, that's a very strange transition from a metallic sterile space station section to a different station wing made up of strands of what looks like organic material, to an area filled with the invading spiders. Maybe the goo is webs spun by them? But that second station was given an "establishing shot" in space, followed immediately by Supergirl walking through these catacombs - that should establish where she is, inside the thing in space that was just shown in wide shot. So, I just don't know where any of the action is taking place.)
Why hadn't the judge already told Supergirl the coordinates if the location had already leaked to everyone else throughout the galaxy? The judge previously told Supergirl "I am your map." When and how did the judge learn that the information was leaked? Why is is that everyone else in the galaxy can use coordinates, but Supergirl doesn't get them - instead, she alone, the only one actually charged with this important transport task, is given no information and is expected to travel with the judge?
Supergirl spends the entire issue continuing to ask questions, like last time. She asks:
- Where would they have taken her?
- What do you know?
- Possibly this is some sort of revenge plot? Right?
- Can you give me like a record of the judge's other judgements? Plaintiffs?
((Tamaki surely means defendants. This is not civil court where plaintiffs can sue. It's the prosecuting state vs. defendants. And, is she supposed to, like, sound intelligent by asking, like, questions?))
- What other cases has the judge ruled on?
- You don't have the coordinates?
- Where are the staff of the facility right now?
Awful, boring dialog.
I don't think these are the questions that will be answered - I think these only seem to be questions because the written and visual storytelling stink.
Why publish a story this bad? Most reviewers don't even mention this story in their reviews, or devote one off-hand sentence to it. They don't find the story interesting, or fun, or coherent enough to comment on. Can't say anything if you have no idea what you're reading.
Did DC contractually owe Tamaki something? Maybe this weird story was repurposed from the work Tamaki put in on Green Lantern before she was replaced by Jeremy Adams (well before #1 was published). A prisoner transport space adventure/mystery would make more sense for Green Lanterns. DC said "Nuh-uh" to GL, "we're burning this off in the last of the deplorable backups." (All other books have eliminated backups in the last month or two!)
T.N.
Yer a better man than I, Anj I've officially thrown in the towel on this one, its boring confusing and is depicting Supergirl as a credulous dolt. At this point my only explanation for this mess, is that "Mariko Tamaki has the negatives", nothing else accounts for DC's willingness to publish something this bad. It just bugs the hell out of me, that metaphorically this is a homecoming for Supergirl she started out as a back up feature in Action Comics now she back there again...and the story is an utter embarrassment to the craft of comic book narrative. I would take the dregs of Mike Sekowsky, Leo Dorfman or Edmond H. Hamilton over this dreck....JF
ReplyDeleteJeez, I didn't even notice that the ship the Judge was in was different from the Thanagar court. Thanks for pointing that out ... at least it makes the ship interior make sense.
ReplyDeleteBut perhaps that is just a symptom of the story itself being pretty incoherent.
Thanks for comments!
Thanks for the review. I'm going to go out on a limb and say that the prisoner is actually Kara is herself. If you think about it this explains a great deal about what's gone on so far. Part of why Clark treats this with such gravity is that he knows he's telling Kara to turn herself in and hope for the best from a justice system that seems out to get her. When he says, "I wish this wasn't on your shoulders," it could easily be interpreted as him saying that he wishes he didn't have to put the burden of turning herself in and facing the accusations against her upon her. Kara's statement that she, "knows all about one way trips," could also be read as having a secondary meaning that she knows by turning herself in that she might not return because she'll be imprisoned or killed for her alleged crimes. That risk is particularly acute given both the stacked nature of the court sentencing her where the judge is functionally prosecutor, jury, and judge, and because her lack of access to yellow or white sunlight imperils her ability to rescue herself.
ReplyDeleteWhen Kara arrives, the judge claims the prisoner has already been tried and convicted, which could imply that Kara has been tried in absentia. The judge then takes Kara to the prisoner's cell, which is notably empty (except for the spider people) until Kara and the judge step in. This could be seen as the judge escorting Kara to the cell in line with some programmed directive prior to sending Kara - the prisoner - to the "final prison." This may also explain the spider people's desire to kill her: they know she's the prisoner and want her killed for whatever crimes she's been convicted of by this court. Finally, when in this issue the judge hands Kara the map and directives for escorting the prisoner and Kara finally says she understands what to do before she proceeds to the final prison, it could be taken as an indication that she realizes she's the prisoner and she has to escort herself to the prison.
If this is the case it explains why Tamaki has been so cagey about Kara's mission and the identity of the prisoner. The thing is, while making Kara the prisoner may seem superficially clever, all of the vagueness, bizarre dialogue, and odd characterizations negate whatever effect the twist has. Tamaki basically sacrificed narrative quality for the sake of a gotcha moment, which demonstrates fundamentally bad writing instincts on her part, and gives little hope that this story will get better as events come into focus.
For the record, I'm quite open to this theory being wrong (though based on what I've laid out and solicits I think it makes a great deal of sense). The thing is, even if it is wrong, it doesn't change the fact that this whole story is badly constructed and presented, and that this is a deeply off putting, emotionally shallow and dead take on Kara. Tamaki has given no prospects she'll turn this around, and has blown through whatever good will some of her better previous work might have bought her, while the editors' greenlighting this mess reflects very poorly on them.
Thanks for the review. I had a more extensive defense of the following position that was published but then mysteriously got deleted. I don't why that was the case, but in any event I'm not going to rehash the whole argument. Here's my prediction: Kara is actually the prisoner, and the whole reason this story has been so weirdly written was to try to conceal that twist.
ReplyDeleteI'll be interested to see if this pans out, but regardless of if it does that twist doesn't justify the poor quality of this story's narrative construction, writing style, and emotionally stunted portrayal of Kara. I don't expect Tamaki to turn this around in the future, and the very fact she wrote this has greatly reduced my respect for her as a writer. D.C.'s editorial also deserves a lot of criticism for allowing a story this bad to be published. Competent editors would have seen that this script was a mess, particularly when portioned out over the space allotted to it in each issue, and either demanded revisions to make it more coherent or canned it. What a shame that this drivel is the best D.C. can muster for a Kara centric story.
Hey anon,
ReplyDeleteThe system registered your first comment as spam, easy enough for me to re-post.
That is a very interesting theory. And you seem to have laid out enough ideas to make it very plausible.
But would Superman really send Supergirl off to be imprisoned without telling her??
Interesting theory indeed, but why is Supergirl self consciously referring to the prisoner in the third person? Because confusing the readership is mistaken for good writing at DC I guess. But rewind a little for me, what exactly did Supergirl DO to merit indictment, trial and conviction?? Did I miss something in "Absolute Power"? JF
ReplyDelete