Review: Action Comics #1073 Supergirl Story

Action Comics #1073 came out last week, another of the weekly releases for the title during this Mark Waid main run. 

I was excited when I first heard that Supergirl was going to be the backup for this weekly run. But when the writer was announced as Mariko Tamaki, I had some trepidation. Other runs of hers, and in particular her inscrutable and boring Supergirl Special, made me worry this wasn't going to be a strong arc for Kara.

We are now four chapters into this Supergirl story and, I suppose not surprisingly, it is inscrutable and boring. Supergirl has been sent into space on a secret mission. But the details have been left unknown to the reader as well. I suppose Tamaki thinks a big reveal at the end will be a jolt for the reader. Unfortunately all the coy dancing around the actual plot has made this feel like a slog.

This chapter we get to finally see the prisoner Kara has been sent to fetch. There is a lot of vague dialogue from the villain that is more maddening than mysterious. It seems to imply there is some connection between Kara and the prisoner but there isn't a whiff of specifics.

Supergirl as a character doesn't get a lot of room to shine on her own in the DCU these days. Features like this are a sort of showcase for her, perhaps to drum up support for a new solo run. But a story like this (and like that Special) do the opposite. Kara doesn't shine her. She doesn't do much at all. She seems almost like a side plot device in her own story. And as readers we aren't invested because we don't know what the heck is happening. It's a shame.

As always, I like the art by Skylar Patridge. While there isn't much action in this chapter, there is some fun contrivances that allow Patridge to stretch a bit. The art is definitely the high point of the story.

On to the details, the few there are.

Kara's mission has changed from bringing a prisoner to court to bringing a convicted criminal to prison, a prisoner with supposedly universe-destroying power. 

We finally see the prisoner, a masked cloaked being in an empty cell. The prisoner seems more sad than angry or evil.  It sort of sulks talking about how it is filled with memories of life and death. 

The mask, a sort of screen to the being's thoughts, keeps the identity of the prisoner hidden. 

It makes me wonder if we will know who this is. Is it an established character? I can only hope.

The prisoner talks of moments playing in its brain, moments of noise and silence. The images are varied of young plants, baby fawns with mother deers, and even Kara running her race (from that Supergirl Special by Tamaki again ... a story I'd rather not go back to).

But then that moment of connection. Somehow Kara understands the power of silence. 

I am wondering if 'silence' in this instance means death. That Kara understands grief and mourning more than most given her loss. But lingering on a morose Kara isn't a take I like. Kara should be optimistic and bright, having processed her loss and instead fighting so others won't suffer like her.

And then a stronger connection. That Supergirl and this prisoner are linked by the future.

I have any number of theories. 

Someone with time-travel or time-altering powers could be a 'universal threat'. And perhaps from the future?

A recent anonymous commenter on the site wondered if the prisoner was Supergirl herself. I can unfortunately see some story where Tamaki has a depressed Kara from the future in our time, imprisoned because a future-swapped being is some chronal timebomb. I hope that isn't the answer. Kara herself as sad, imprisoned, universal evil.

Kara arrives at the prisoner's cell, a small planetoid ... like extremely small. Small enough that Kara is able to walk around the whole thing.

Eventually she finds the prison door and uses the key given to her by the judge to get in. 

I don't know why the prison is like this other than to give Patridge some artistic freedom. There is something very much like 'The Little Prince' on this page with Kara walking the entirety of the planet in a short time. This is an interesting page to peruse and muse over. Kara looks great. 

Well, I was intrigued enough to ask Patridge on social media and got an answer.

Always grateful for creative info and love when social media is used for good, not evil.

Because true facts are so sparse in this story and the pages brief. So some of it is hard to follow.

This is the last panel. 

We know that others are racing Kara to the prisoner. I guess this is another ship coming to the planet to stake a claim. But the perspective is weird and shape seems ship-like. I think that is what is happening.

This is just another incomprehensible chapter, all too brief. We meet the prisoner but other than the baffling inner monologue we don't get much information. And Kara's big action in the chapter is opening a door. 

I can't imagine anyone is finding this gripping or interesting.

Overall grade: C- (raised a grade by art)