Review: Action Comics #1078 Supergirl Story

Action Comics #1078 came out this week, the ninth issue of this weekly turn for the title. 

That means we are 9 parts ... 90 pages ... into Mariko Tamaki's Supergirl story. I thought this was only a 10 part Supergirl story but I was wrong. This is a 12-parter. Perhaps I was deluding myself?

This chapter is just as confusing and tedious as the prior eight. We are three quarters of the way through and we haven't been a lot to go one here. I feel lost some times, bored most times. Worse than that, Tamaki brings Power Girl into this story with a bizarre take on the Kara/'Paige' relationship that hasn't ever been seen in the near 50 years of the two characters being around. 

I will again ask how this slog made it past the pitch stage let alone be pushed to print without editorial taking the reins to tighten it up.

Skylar Patridge is back on art and brings her airy style to things. I like Patridge's work here. But she also has been plagued a bit with the script. This chapter has 3 splash pages but only one of the depictions (the spooky last page) deserves the big art. In fact, Tamaki has really padded this whole story with opening splash pages of eyes, scepters, circuitry, and other banal pieces of the story.

Buckle up. This is a bumpy ride.

Last issue we learned that Kara's prisoner is a being that can emit fear (I'll call them Fear from now on). Her sibling is a being that can emit rage. When the two go to a planet, brutality ensues until the two clasp hands which destroys the planet. Not wanting to be part of any more destruction, Fear asks Kara to kill her.

Here, Fear says if Kara won't do it willingly, she will force Supergirl to do it.

Look at this splash page with a distorted Kara reflected in Fear's helmet. But is it worthy of all this space? Especially when the prior page was also a splash, this of Kara's face. 

Beautiful art by Patridge. 

Fear will force the issue by making Kara face one of her fears. Instead of flying the spaceship the two have commandeered, Supergirl is suddenly alone and asleep on her flight from Krypton.

There is a lot unsaid here, stuff we have to assume as a reader. I guess this is how Fear's power manifests itself, as illusions of fear.

But as far as I recall, Kara was never afraid of this trip, feeling alone and fearful. I think she was in suspended animation for it. And this feels a bit more symbioship/Power Girl than Kara.

Kara has faced a lot in her life. Odd this would be the fear Tamaki plays up.

And then this insanity.

Light years away, somehow 'Paige' feels this disturbance in Supergirl.

Never ... I mean NEVER ... have the two had a psychic connection. Does Tamaki know the characters at all?

And I had to look twice. I thought this was Saturn Girl for a second.

But this makes no sense to me.

And then somehow 'Paige' is able to enter Kara's fear dream and calm her, awakening Kara from her terror.

I could again say this ability of the two communicating psychically is odd. But I'll drop that.

Instead I will point out that Supergirl is basically saved by Power Girl here. In her own story, Supergirl isn't able to shake this off herself. She isn't able to get heroic resolve. She needs to be rescued.

Tamaki has made Supergirl ineffective this entire story. But this might be the worst Tamaki turn. Because she had to invent a Power Girl ability to allow 'Paige' to help rather than have Kara be the hero in her own story.

I said 'buckle up' for a reason and I meant it. Because things get worse.

Kara's fear fugue has her lose control of the spaceship and crash it onto a local planet. Both Kara and Fear survive. So what was the prisoner hoping would happen? 

Then Fear says she knows that Kara will eventually kill her because Kara has an irresistible rage inside. So Tamaki thinks Kara is filled with anger. I have never been a fan of that take on the character. Is this why Superman thought Kara would be perfect for the mission?

But rather than Kara refute this on her own, we see that 'Paige' again comes into play, doubling Kara's resolve to say there is always another way. 

Supergirl doesn't even get this moment on her own.

Then the one splash page worth being splashy. Fear worries that Rage will come for them. And that means death. Eerie page of the specter of the deadly Rage being out there.

There is just too much wrong about this story and specifically about this chapter. 

Do you think that someone who isn't a Supergirl fan want to read more Supergirl stories after reading this mess of a story where she has needed to constantly be saved by protocol droids and astral projections, where she has been completely ineffective in her mission?

I'll say I like the art a bit, thankfully at least this is a good story to look at.

Overall grade: D