Action Comics #1076 came out this week. This included the seventh part in the Mariko Tamaki Supergirl story.
And once again I have to say I am frustrated. Because once again, the story goes nowhere in this chapter. It once again makes little sense. It once again has Supergirl doing pretty much nothing. And it is horribly padded with 5 of the 10 pages being splashes or near splashes that don't warrant that much story space.
We are 70% done with this story. Think about that. And even Supergirl doesn't know what her mission is or how this prisoner is.
I can't rail against Tamaki any more. I have to accept that this is her writing style: slow, plodding, confusing, and worst of all boring. Now maybe this will wrap up in some amazing way. But knowing what I know of prior Tamaki works I doubt it.
I can't rail against Tamaki any more. I have to accept that this is her writing style: slow, plodding, confusing, and worst of all boring. Now maybe this will wrap up in some amazing way. But knowing what I know of prior Tamaki works I doubt it.
The person I really blame is editor Brittany Holzherr. Someone should have recognized the mess this story is. It is a shame. Because it doesn't shine a light on how great a character Supergirl is.
Of note, Skye Patridge is not on art for this chapter, replaced by Meghan Hetrick. The two artists are close enough in style to have the feel of the story remain consistent.
The prisoner is shown to be passed out on a bed on the escape ship. Remember that the prisoner blasted the guards with fear last issue.
While the prisoner is out, the protocol droid says that the prisoner is charged with destruction of worlds.
I don't know exactly what this panel is supposed to be telling me. Specifications on the prisoner's helmet? The charges brought against her by 3 different survivors from destroyed planets? Something else?
Sueprgirl seems as confused as I am.
This 'destroyer of worlds' hasn't done anything violent or aggressive the whole time.
But once more we hear how she has no idea why Superman chose her to go on this mission. She truly doesn't why she was sent.
I'll say it again. We are 70% done with this story and I don't know what this story is about. And apparently, neither does the main character.
We do get one piece of information.
This being has destroyed 157 planets.
So the threat is real.
The prisoner then awakens and makes a beeline for the cockpit of the ship. This is the second time they have tried to run or escape.
You might remember a couple of issues ago when the prisoner seemed more threatening to Kara. Remember the reaching out their hand and trying to 'join with Kara again'?
Well now it seems much more sad.
It grabs Kara and looks at her in the face.
Here is one of those splashes. And the split look gives some hint about some connection between this being and Supergirl. So perhaps this unknown connection is why Superman sent Kara?
The problem is we know nothing ... NOTHING ... behind this. So this panel becomes one more inscrutable image for this story. It could mean something. It could mean nothing.
And then this panel, where the prisoner begins a plea for Supergirl to kill them.
So this is another page that I am trying to figure out what it means.
This looks like maybe ... maybe ... there were two beings, with some interlocking glove pattern? And maybe the fought and one died and blew up a planet? Is this how it destroyed 157 planets? Is this prisoner actually two creatures in one? One that seems more menacing? One more sad?
I simply don't know.
7 chapters of me saying 'I simply don't know' AND 'Supergirl did nothing'.
Maybe you all can explain it to me.
I know I haven't mentioned Meghan Hetrick's art too much. She isn't given much to do here. Her close-ups of Supergirl are quite nice.
Anyways, as always the biggest losers here are Supergirl fans who hoped this would be a spotlight on her that would lead to something bigger like a solo title.
Overall grade: D
15 comments:
Picking up directly from my comments on the last issue. Maybe Tamaki thinks her script shows that Supergirl is an inquisitive detective, though she's wrong - her Supergirl is a boring idiot. But here comes a litany of questions from Supergirl again, which form around 75-85% of her dialog.
She asks:
What are they?
What were you told about their identity?
What exactly did the records say?
Based on what evidence?
How many worlds did they destroy?
How is that possible?
What am I supposed to do?
What are you doing?
Do you understand?
What are you trying to say?
What -- is this ...
What, indeed?! Did Tamaki or her collaborators actually read this out loud? This is just such a bizarrely written story. Of course, the story itself is awful. But the dialog is -- unspeakable.
And, I know it's Hetrick on art this time, but whether her or Patridge, the book just has this dreary look to it. You can like the way Supergirl is drawn (I think it's really nothing special. Don't get confused between quantity (lots of panels) and quality. I can't think of any recent artwork where she didn't actually look better), but what of the scenes, the backgrounds - there's just nothing there. A few lines. Very minimal, boring backgrounds. It's barely finished. It's hard to seriously look at any page and not think it's just sketches. It's extremely undercooked, just like the story, just like the dialog. One big empty mess of nothing. I'd say the only significant work put into the art is that the prisoner's robe requires that some effort be made drawing the natural drape of the garment.
T.N.
I believe the reason Skylar Patridge isn’t on this issue is that she fell asleep.
This story has dragged on unconscionably and now an absolutely ridiculous development. Does Tamaki really expect us to believe that Superman has sent his cousin on an incredibly dangerous mission from which she may not return and he hasn't even told her the reason for it? Fortunately, there is an alternative. Capstone books is currently publishing a fun, exciting, imaginative series of adventures of the classic animated adventures Supergirl/Batgirl team. Each adventure is done-in-one, so it doesn't matter what order you read them in. I have read the first two and highly recommend them. I can hardly wait to see how they continue this series in 2025. https://shop.capstonepub.com/Shop/s/product/detail/01t4z00000AdeFxAAJ
I miss the days when DC had strong editors. Not the part where they strangled creativity (look at what Cary Bates has done in the days since and you'll see he was capable of much more creative dialog and plotting than he was allowed back then) but where they would actually curate the quality of what sees print and enforce a sense of continuity. My solution would be a set up Marvel has, though more of the Quesada or Alonso days. Line wide creative summits where even if not strictly involved in the Big Things, creatives and editorial had a sense of structure and Big Picture there work appeared in. However Tom Brevoort handles the running of the books he shepherds would be great also. His Avengers line and now the X-Books have a sense to them. You might not like a certain direction but you know there is one and crap like Tamaki's inexplicable plotting/writing wouldn't last long even if it squeaked through at a title's inception.
Here's something I've been trying to reconcile throughout the run of this story. How could Tamaki do such a good job with Kara in Supergirl: Being Super yet drop the ball so catastrophically here? After careful thought, the answer I've come to is that Tamaki is good at writing precisely one kind of story: a coming of age story for a teenage girl who feels out of place and has an awkward relationship with at least some of her close family members. That was the core of Supergirl: Being Super's narrative and was also the main theme of Crush and Lobo and I Am Not Starfire. These were all reasonably good stories in their own way. In particular, Supergirl: Being Super was arguably the best Elseworlds take on Kara from the last decade. Tamaki has an excellent idea of how to structure those kinds of stories, and also possesses a keen eye for how to portray a teen girl's coming of age and reconciliation with her family legacy in a nuanced, non-stereotypical manner.
The problem is that Tamaki doesn't seem to understand how to create a strong narrative arc or develop a compelling portrayal of a character when she can't tell that specific kind of story. That's why I think this is failing. In current continuity, Kara seems to be a woman well into her 20's who has determined her place in the Superfamily, so a coming of age story about the transition from adolescence to adulthood doesn't really work. Tamaki tried to work around this in the Supergirl Special by transposing an isolated aspect of the kinds of coming of age stories she likes to write when she attempted to foster some sense of Kara dealing with an awkward relationship with the rest of the Superfamily by pushing a baseless rivalry with Power Girl and having Kara act moodily towards the rest of the family, but there just wasn't enough viable material for Tamaki to substantiate the idea that the mature, wise, even keeled Kara seen in contemporary comics has a difficult relationship with the rest of the Superfamily. That's why her portrayal of Kara in the Special seemed so off compared to her portrayal in other contemporary titles and was a major reason why the Special more generally failed as a standalone contemporary Supergirl tale. This story has essentially been Tamaki's attempt to create an engaging narrative as well as a compelling character study without falling back on the tropes that she's comfortable working with, and the result has just demonstrated that she can't write a decent story outside of her narrow literary niche.
Beyond that, you're right that Brittany Holzherr is at fault for greenlighting this, as is Paul Kaminski for failing to check her. Holzherr seems to have particularly bad taste in stories, having approved this as well as the Supergirl Special, the wretched Future State story featuring Kara, and every issue of Leah Williams's inexplicably long lived Power Girl series. The most charitable thing I can say about the decision to greenlight this is that it was probably the case that Mark Waid and/or the editors felt it was too much to ask him to write 12 full issues of Action Comics on top of his other writing commitments, so they decided to insert a backup to cut down on the demands placed on him for each issue. Tamaki's story was likely kicking around as a rough draft for a follow up to the Supergirl Special, and the editors decided that it would be easy to ask Tamaki to polish it up just enough to be publishable. The thing is, if that's close to what happened, Holzherr and anybody else involved in making that call should have realized that Tamaki's proposal was so fundamentally bad in terms of narrative structure and characterization that it could never be anything other than a disaster. Asking a few up and coming writers eager to get their foot in the door at the D.C. to whip up some proposals for a few short stories wouldn't have been that hard or costly and would have at least held up the possibility of delivering some engaging tales in the backup rather than the certainty of failure Tamaki promised.
This would explain how her Hulk series starring a grey She Hulk was such a slog. It was so bad I made myself forget it apparently until Googling the writer's name made me relive my first horrible experience with her writing.
Thanks for all the comments.
As you all say, this is not a Supergirl story.
As I have said in other reviews, you could remove Supergirl from this story and replace her with any character - Donna Troy, Starfire, Jess Cruz GL - and it would read the same. This is not a Supergirl story.
It isn't even a story.
That wasn't really the point of my comment, though I do happen to agree with you that there's no particular reason why this story needed to feature Kara specifically instead of any other D.C. character who's capable of surviving unaided in space and has some familiarity with alien civilizations. You might want to check the actual content of comments before posting in the future.
Hey Anon, there’s no need for the passive aggression - Anj was giving a global response, not addressing you specifically.
That last one was me, briefly rendered anonymous by the system
Exactly.
I read all the comments and appreciate.
When I respond to a specific comment I will do it as a reply, not global.
Thanks Mart
No "passive aggression" attended. It just seemed that there was a disconnect between what was being said vs. what other people had actually written. As I noted, you are correct in your main point, and more broadly I do appreciate that you take the effort you take to both write these posts and respond to commenters. Thanks for all of that, and I look forward to your thoughts on upcoming issues of Action Comics and other Superman related titles.
If Supergirl does not know why she is on this mission (she clearly doesn't and neither does the writer apparently) why was she wantonly wiping everyone's memory before she left? Maybe it was out of embarrassment...anyway nothing happened last week, nothing happened this week, and nothing will happen next week or the week after that, At this point there is no conclusion to this misbegotten mishaugas that doesn't stick the landing on "Anticlimax". JF
I read every comment and really appreciate hearing everyone's thoughts.
But I freely admit that I don't have time to comment on all of them as much as I wish I did. It's why I usually try to at least say 'thanks for all the comments'.
Sometimes a theme or line within a comment triggers a response or sometimes I want to add something I forgot.
But I say all the time that I love the audience here and the comments I get. And I'll thank you all again.
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