Action Comics #1075 came out last week, a 'special milestone 1075th issue'! I don't know why that number deserves the extra attention but here we are with special trade dress.
It also is the 6th chapter in the Mariko Tamaki and Skylar Patridge Supergirl story meaning we are officially at the halfway point of this plodding story.
Once more we have a brief, sparse, boring chapter with nearly no progress to the story. Tamaki seems to be treading water in this tale, stretching out a story idea until it is so decompressed it is difficult to read. Worst than that, Supergirl again has almost nothing to do in this story. Every conflict that has arisen in this story is solved by someone else. Supergirl seems ineffective, inept, lost. And even more worse is that as of this chapter - six chapters in mind you, you could pull Kara out of this story and replace her with any other character and it would read the same. Yes, Superman keeps saying that this is a mission that only Supergirl could pull off but we have yet to read why. And even Kara doesn't seem to know anything about it either.
As a Supergirl fan this is frustrating. She doesn't get many solo stories. She needs to shine when she is given the chance. And this story isn't that.
The art remains top notch. I like Skylar Patridge's breathy style with an ethereal sort of style. Her Kara is fantastic. The cover by Clayton Henry highlights some memorable scenes from Action Comics history including a shot of Kara leaving her rocket (Great Guns!).
The first 3 pages of the story are in Metropolis. Superman, Power Girl, and the Twins battle and defeat the Ultra-Humanite. Despite the hypnotic suggestion, 'Paige' now recognizes that Supergirl isn't at some concert ... she is missing. She asks Superman where Supergirl is.
Superman again states that Kara is on a mission uniquely suited for her because of Kara's history.
So much to talk about here in these first three pages.
One, Tamaki again leans into the pseudo-competetion between Kara and 'Paige' by having Power Girl say that with Supergirl gone no one will confuse them again. This doesn't need to be an ongoing thorn for these characters.
Two, how great to see Power Girl actually doing something, battling a super-villain. There is more action in that one panel for Power Girl than Supergirl has had six chapters into her own story.
But third, and most importantly, we are just too far into this story for Tamaki to continue to dance around the central point that Supergirl needed to do this mission and do it alone. Superman saying this isn't enough anymore. I need to know why. Because this mystery is no longer making me curious. It is frustrating.
Last chapter ended on a sort of ominous note with the prisoner reaching its hand to Kara and saying they would merge. I thought for sure we would get some conflict or progress from that cliffhanger.
But no.
Instead, we see Kara simply escorting the prisoner through the facility looking to get to a ship and escape.
Even this is boring. This is supposed to be a place teeming with people so angry at the prisoner's crime they are bidding to kill it. But the hallways are somehow completely empty. This isn't a battle run to freedom. It's a stroll.
Once in the hangar, the aliens running the auction arrive to reclaim their prize.
We finally have a good Supergirl moment where she defiantly says her name as proof of her authority. But it doesn't matter.
Now you would think we would get a battle to freedom with Kara needing to overcome the pursuers.
Instead, the prisoner for some reason has an emotional breakdown and emanates such powerful fear it incapacitates the aliens.
No conflict. Nothing for Kara to do. They just walk to the ship.
Is this the alien's power? Why isn't Supergirl affected? And does Tamaki want to write Supergirl because it seems like she is a prop in her own story?
The alien doesn't seem to want to go with Supergirl. But we get no discussion, no debate, no backstory. We get nothing.
Why include this panel of the prisoner walking away if it will only be herded on to the ship. This is a waste of story space.
I mean it. We are now 60 pages into this mess and I have no idea about what is happening. And we are just wasting space that could bolster the story.
At last, some sort of revelation and story progress. The annoying protocol droid says it has unlocked the prisoner's files. The prisoner is known as a 'destroyer of worlds'.
Even this doesn't seem to be a major reveal. We knew the prisoner's crimes were enormous.
But the real reveal here is that Supergirl didn't seem to know anything about this prisoner, even the crimes. Did Superman really send her out with no knowledge? If he did ... why?
From a reader viewpoint, this makes no sense.
Shame we are wasting Patridge's art. This artistic theme of splash pages with circular centers (suns, eyes, staff heads, eyeglasses) bookends every chapter but it doesn't add much.
Overall grade: D-
3 comments:
Somehow, the droid finds the aliens' ship, and knows it's the best in their fleet. Supergirl just asks questions, as she has in every installment of this mess: "Where is the ship?" "This?" "Where are you going?" "What's happening?" "I don't understand. Are you trying to escape?" "What's the other piece of information?" In every single issue of this story, 75% or more of what Supergirl says is a question.
I have not thought much of the art. There's always stuff I don't understand. What is on page one of this story? Some random man with a pierced ear and red sunglasses lying on the ground next to someone's pink sneaker while looking up at the sky? If we were supposed to understand what we were looking at, Patridge would have shown him and those sneakers in context in one of the subsequent panels, but we get nothing.
Once again, Supergirl's eyes put out a blip of red - as in all cases in this story, we don't know if she's using heat vision or hypnovision, or why she is trying to use either on the prisoner. Is it disrupting the red waves emanating from him? Perhaps so, but then -- how would that work?
Mariko Tamaki doesn't write anything well, but when will DC at least stop asking her to write Supergirl stories?
T.N.
I took it that Random Guy was standing in front of someone wearing the trainers, and that the extreme close-up made it seem as if he were lying down. I may be being too kind. Also, why make him so Clark-ish?
Fair comments, Anj, this was my least-hated chapter so far, but that’s on a par with saying something is my favourite sweet potato - low praise indeed. The robot is growing on me.
I agree that Tamaki needs to stop dawdling. Otto Binder, Leo Dorfman, or Jerry Siegel could have told the whole story so far in one installment and it would have been far more gripping.
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