Final Psi Sighting: Secret Six #17 & #18

Just when you thought it was safe to forget about Psi, the misunderstood empath from The Daring New Adventures of Supergirl, I show one more Psi-sighting. I have really gotten a big kick out of this look back at the character, spurred by the reintroduction of her to the New 52 by Sterling Gates in Forever Evil: A.R.G.U.S..

So we have seen her fight Supergirl as a dupe for Mr. Pendergast, trying to stem the tide of Decay. Then we saw her turn on Pendergast. We have seen her die on a mission for the Suicide Squad. And we have seen her resurrected as a Black Lantern.

So what did she do as a revenant? The sad answer is 'not much'.  Secret Six #17 and #18 were Blackest Night crossover issues, co-written by John Ostrander and Gail Simone. And art is done by Jim Calafiore, whose style perfectly fits the grimy mayhem of these issues.

The plot itself is an insane mix of action. Amanda Waller's Suicide Squad is trying to rein in and maybe even absorb the Secret Six, a similar group of super-villains. This brawl takes place on 2 fronts - one Belle Reve prison, the other in front of the Six's headquarters the House of Secrets. But added into the mix is a group of dead ex-Suicide Squaders, raised as Black Lanterns and led by the Fiddler. Brief alliances, back-stabs and treachery, retreats and attacks - it is all there in 2 crazy issues.

But I was so hoping that the Black Lanterns would have more lines. The Fiddler and Yasemine get the most. Psi unfortunately remains silent (Psi-lent?). And there would be so much fun there ... taking about decay, etc.

 Instead we see her (far right) tearing through Belle Reve guards and prisoners.

 And then taking the fight to the Secret Six outside the prison walls.

 Somehow this group - Bane, Black Alice, and my gal pal Nightshade - are able to hold them off until some back-up arrives. But these are Black Lanterns. Any physical damage done can simply be regenerated. This will eventually be a losing fight.

It is clear that both the Six and the Squad, now temporarily united against this common foe, have to retreat. They use Nightshade's shadow-path power to head to the House of Secrets.

Unfortunately, it is Black Alice (who has drained Nightshade of her powers) who opens up that path. And, like the novice she is, she leaves it open. Suddenly, the Black Lanterns, including Psi (over on the right) are there and ready to brawl.

Luckily, Amanda Waller has an ace in the hole. She has a partially powered old Manhunter robot. And she uses it as a Green energy grenade.

Now it has been a while since I read Blackest Night. Is this a valid weapon for Black Lanterns?

At least in this book, it is.

The Black Lantern rings connections are severed and the zombies blow away like ash.

And that my friends ... I promise you ... is the last we saw of that Psi.

I wish we could have had some lines from her in this form!

Outside of the Psi sighting, these issues are a wild romp. And if you see them in the 50cent box, you should buy them just for the action and some excellent moments. I wanted to share a couple.

First off, look at Nightshade just hammering away at Bane. He can't lay a glove on her. I love how she is shown to be strong and battle-savvy.

But this was my favorite moment.

Yasemine looks at Deadshot to see his emotional energies. I love how Deadshot has buried his emotions so deep inside his psyche that we only see cracks of will and rage. Just a nice little characterization moment.

So this certainly isn't important from a Supergirl point of view. Heck, it isn't even important from a Psi viewpoint. But it is her last moments. So, for completeness sake, I figured I would finish off the Psi-sightings.

Hope you enjoyed this look back at this purely Supergirl rogue.

Review: Action Comics #890

Remember the good old days when Superman was the star of Action Comics?

I do.

I liked those days.

With New Krypton wrapping up, I was looking forward to seeing Superman back in Action. But with Grounded keeping him busy, Action Comics needs a new star.

Enter ... Lex Luthor?

Action Comics #890 is the first chapter of Lex's year to shine. Written by Paul Cornell, drawn by Pete Woods, covers by David Finch, DC certainly has put togetger a tremendous creative team for the book. Will such an amalgamation of talent lead to a great story? And will it captivate me enough to make me forget the fact that (assuming this story goes 12 issues) we will have gone 2.5 years without Superman starring in the book he has headlined for the last 70+ years. I can only hope.

But having Luthor star? Bold choice. To make it work, we need to really get inside Luthor's mind and understand him. This needs to be as much an examination of him as a character as it is a story of him lusting for power.

The issue starts with Luthor being hung upside down from the penthouse of the LexCorp tower by a number of armed men. Despite being kidnapped and a dropped rope away from death, Luthor seems more amused than scared and remembers what led him to this point.


Earlier in the week, Luthor is working with his staff to track down a 'power' he wishes to obtain. When one of his underlings says Luthor can't have that power, Lex casually destroys the man's life, firing him and vowing to destroy his reputation.

It is enough to enrage the scientist who attacks Lex, striking him in the head with a flashlight.

I do like how nonchalant Lex is when he discards the man. He obviously thinks he is completely above this man who can be crushed like a bug for simply disagreeing.


Discussing the events of the attack over dinner with Lois (??), Lex simply cannot continue until he rids the world of the man who attacked him. Destroying his reputation is not enough. He has a sniper kill him.

I thought this was a good moment to see deeper into Lex's twisted mind. For a split second, Lex was helpless. It's true ... if this man had better aim or more strength he could have really damaged Luthor. And Lex can't bear to think of that. All threats need to be eliminated.

It also reminded me that Luthor is simply a man living amongst super-beings. A well-placed blow from a flashlight could kill him. And perhaps that motivates Lex most of all. How can he be considered powerful on this planet. How can he achieve that power?

Well, he tasted it in Blackest Night. When he wielded the orange ring, he suddenly had more power than he has ever known. But with that orange light came that absolute need for more. It is powered by avarice after all. And that need ... maybe like an addict needing a fix ... has made Lex less calculating than usual. His needs are driving him to work faster, less safely, less hidden than usual.


He needs power now. Unlike the old days when his plots and plans would slowly unfold, he wants everything to come to him quickly.

And he knows what he would do if he had that power, make everyone bow before him.

Again, this sort of story only works if you can dig deeper into the protagonist's mind and make the reader care. Sure, this looks like your standard image of a victorious Luthor. But the people kneeling at his feet are Superman and Lex's father. It shows that his abusive father still has some sort of hold on Luthor, that trauma still gnawing at him.

But add the that the universal pantheon before him (Darkseid, a Guardian, Brainiac included) and you understand just where Luthor thinks he belongs in the Cosmic arena.

Unfortunately, the story takes a bit of a left turn for me when Lex states he needs to find a Black Lantern ring. Why would he focus his attention on the destroyed rings? Why not try to snatch and grab any other ring he can get his hand on ... you know ... the ones that exist? If he really needs instant gratification, wouldn't grabbing a ring from any of the countless Corpsmen be more expedient?

With his mind reeling, Lois, in a flirty coquette-ish way, wonders if he should 'sleep on it'.

Thankfully, at this point in the story I realized that there is no way ... NO WAY ... this was the Lois.

With his quest for the Black Ring just starting, Luthor shows he still is keeping an eye on his enemies. Sure Superman may be out on a stroll, but he has other enemies.

I love how he simply dismisses Supergirl. He doesn't care that she is flying around LexCorp. It shows how he can underestimate those who he believes beneath him.

And I love how he wonders why Superboy would stay in Smallville. Remember Lex did everything he could to get away from the town. He can't understand why anyone would stay, let alone someone with Conner's power. It shows how Lex's priorities are all wrong.

That desire for the ring's power makes Lex decide to take even more of a risk.

He immerses himself in the 'isopod' ... a sort of knowledge immersion tank where he gets flooded with information in an attempt to see a universal pattern about the rings. It is an untested device that could kill Lex, or drive him insane, but he cannot wait.

If anything, this 'throwing caution to the wind' element in Lex's persona is new and will at least make the storyline feel a little fresh. I wonder if this impetuousness will be played up throughout the arc.

Luckily, the isopod works and Luthor deduces a galactic pattern of the Black Lantern's energy pulses. By visiting those places he might be able to construct his own ring.

Giddy from the discovery, he asks Lois to join him. Lois ... join him ... in deep space?


Yep. It ain't Lois. It's a robot constructed from Brainiac and Kryptonian tech.

Maybe realizing that he is losing control, Luthor made this Lois to act as a sort of sounding board for his ideas. She can offer alternatives, new perspectives.

Maybe she is even a consort. Eeew.


The armed men from the opening pages burst into the lab forcing Lex to activate the Lois-bot's defenses.

There is something disconcerting about this picture of Lois with her machine gun arms. It shows everything that is wrong with Luthor.

And that brings us back to the present. With Luthor hanging from the building, the real mastermind behind the attack shows himself. It's Mister Mind.

Sure he looks huge here, but I'll bet anything that it is all in the perspective. I bet he is still a tiny little bug.

I suppose the book did what it was supposed to do as an opening chapter. It laid out the basic plotline, showed the motivations of the protagonist nicely, and ended with a cliffhanger. And the new wrinkle of an addled Luthor reaching for power so aggressively, without pause or second thoughts, is an interesting new take.

But I also think that the quest for a Black Ring seems a bit off. And I still miss Superman being here.

Pete Woods art looks a little different from his prior work. It looks as though he is using a finer line than I am used to seeing in his art. It is still smashing stuff.

I guess I'll have to see where this is going.

Overall grade: C+/B

Review: Adventure Comics #7

It's hard to believe it, but these first issues of Adventure Comics has actually made me interested in the character of Superboy! That opening arc when he tried to figure out who he was, as he struggled with his past, the dark side of his ancestry ... it was written well and drawn lovingly. With that arc over and Geoff Johns and Francis Manapul moving on to the Flash, I wondered what I would think of subsequent Superboy stories. Would I continue to want to read about him?

Well, Adventure Comics #7 continued a stretch of good Superboy stories which makes me want to at least follow his adventures a little bit longer. That Superboy introspection continues here as he struggles to regain control of his body which has been taken over as a Black Lantern. Written by R.E.B.E.L.S. scribe Tony Bedard, we really get to see just how much Superboy is still trying to discover who he is and where he is going.


Like most of these Blackest Night cross-over issues, the story opens with a quick recap of the characters history as the Black Ring downloads the memories. So we get to see Superboy in his leather jacket and goggles phase. We get to see his bald Luthor-controlled time as well. And we read about his death at the hands of Prime.

One thing I enjoyed about this book is that Superboy appears to be trapped within his own body. He can hear what his body is saying, he can see what it is doing, but he can't stop it. We saw that technique used well in Blackest Night:Wonder Woman. Superboy's love for Wonder Girl really permeates his internal dialogue here. We heard his words of love in the first arc. Here we read a bit of his regret as he remembers hurting her when Luthor triggered his rampage.


That internal struggle for control is shown artistically in an interesting way. We see the live action Black Lantern and hear the awful things he is saying. We then see a wraith like Conner wasting away as he sees the real world. This 'soul' is somehow able to stick around but as the issue goes on it becomes more gaunt and sickly. It is as if the Black Lantern is slowly eroding this sense of self.

Cassie tries to maintain control and attempts to coax the real Conner back to the surface.

As usual, the Black Lantern is trying to evoke an emotional response from Wonder Girl so that he can feast on her heart. Within his own mind, Conner hears the awful things this Superboy is saying to Cassie. And he knows that there is a small kernel of truth in all the things this thing is saying, enough of his voice is there for Cassie to know he means it a bit.

And then comes the coup de grace moment for Black Lantern Superboy. He tells Cassie that when he is alone he sometimes thinks about Supergirl not Wonder Girl. It is a delicious low blow. One that Conner knows hurts.

In fact it irks Cassie enough that she unleashes the power of her lasso onto Superboy. That shock to the system frees his body long enough for the real Conner to whistle for Krypto.


I've commented on the emotional registry as a nice plot device before. Here I think it is great that Krypto is all action. There is no fear here.

Who would think that Krypto would ascend to such a big role in the super-family? But he has been everywhere recently.


During the ensuing battle, Conner again wrests control of his body and gives Cassie a cue to head to the Fortress of Solitude. As I said, his love for Cassie really is the running theme in the book. Conner says the only reason he thinks he is able to do what he is doing is because his girlfriend believes in him.

There, Wonder Girl runs interference while Krypto digs up Conner's body which is currently healing in the Kryptonian matrix. It is a gamble that works. The ring isn't quite sure what to do with 2 dead Conners around.

It is something that I wondered about back in Final Crisis:Legion of Three Worlds. So there are 2 Conners existing in current time ... one a dead body healing, another a resurrected body brought back in time. In the old DCU, the same person couldn't exist more than once at a single time. Remember all those time travel stories where 'time traveller Superman' observed his youth as a ghost like phantom? He couldn't be in the same time twice. I guess that soft rule doesn't exist now. It seems weird that there is a regenerating Conner buried in the ice while this one runs around.

With the ring 'confused', Cassie reminds Conner of his 'training'. It is revealed that after Luthor took control of him, Superboy and Cassie visited telepaths so they could build up his mental shields. With this training in his back pocket, he is able to reject the ring. It completely makes sense that he would do that and so I thought it was a nice twist.

And as it flies to the corpse-Conner, Superboy finally manifests the final Superman power he was missing ... super-breath. Imagine ... a double page splash of super-breath! With the ring encased in ice, Cassie tosses it to the moon.


With the ring gone, Conner swells with pride. And Cassie swells a bit as well. They both realize that Conner is a worthy legacy of the Superman name.

This book reads almost like an 'epilogue' of the Johns/Manapul run and was a nice capstone to that story. What would Superboy do? Act like Superman.

I also like how the relationship between Cassie and Conner is showcased here. Bedard writes it in such an easy way. You can tell the two have deep feelings for each other, that they truly love each other. And it feels right that they should be together. I especially liked how Cassie was able to shrug off all the terrible things the Black Lantern was saying. It shows some maturity. This is a love story worthy of being posted on the weekend of St. Valentine's Day.

The cover of the issue is drawn by Aaron Lopresti who has completely floored me with his run on Wonder Woman. The internal art by Travis Moore is sort of pedestrian.

I still love that Kara comment!

Overall grade: B+/B

Review: Adventure Comics #5

Well, it took just over one week for me to get the energy up to review Adventure Comics #5. I don't know what to say. I just don't find Superboy Prime to be an interesting character. What's more, as I said with last issue, I'm unsure exactly how I am supposed to be interpreting this current story.

Is it supposed to be comedy? Is it supposed to be drama? Is it supposed to be dramedy?

What's more, it just feels a little out of place in comparison to the rest of the Blackest Night crossovers. I have never had to ask if any of them are supposed to be read as comedy.

The story is written by Geoff Johns and Sterling Gates. Art is done by Jerry Ordway. I have nothing but great respect for all three of these creators.

You may recall that in the last issue Alexander Luthor brought all of Superboy Prime's murder victims to Earth Prime to fight him.


With the battle raging, Superboy Prime decides that he will bring the fight to those he holds responsible for his current ordeals. He actually goes to the DC Comics headquarters.

What follows is several pages of Prime ripping apart DC's offices. While I recognized Dan Didio, I unfortunately was unable to identify anyone else ... people I assume are actual members of the DC staff. Throughout this chaos, Prime rants about the quality of the stories that are being produced and how they affect people like him.

So Prime shatters the fourth wall. And it is amusing that he is complaining about the stories in DC comics to the very comic creators that produced the books I consume. Is this supposed to be funny? An amusing way for the creators to insert themselves into the story? Or is it supposed to be taken seriously? Is it supposed to be some sort of commentary on the obsessed fan?

I just don't seem to have a sense of what the underlying theme here is supposed to be ... what I should be thinking as a reader. I suppose I can put my own theme here but the scenes seem disjointed as though they were written for drama but are a little comedic or vice versa.


Luthor decides that he doesn't like the DC offices as an arena and teleports everyone back to Prime's basement.

There, Luthor calls Prime's comic book collection his Kryptonite. Luthor states that Prime does not belong to the community of comic book fans.

Unclear of how to defeat these enemies, Prime grabs one of the Black Lantern rings and puts it on his hand.


What happened next in the book is actually the most interesting piece.

Despite being a black ring, Prime systematically adopts the other colors of the emotional spectrum.

He eventually seems to settle on one color that serves him best ... red for rage.

I don't know exactly why the Black Lantern ring responded this way to Prime but it is clear that he is a seething emotional cauldron.


In fact, he swirls through the spectrum so quickly and thoroughly that the resulting combination of lights shatters his Black Lantern ring and seems to destroy all of the Black Lanterns surrounding him.

Now that is pretty nifty writing. That is the first time that we have seen that particular use of the emotional spectrum used to destroy the Black Lantern threat. Maybe it is some depth to Prime after all.


Unfortunately for Prime, the story ends with a tragic twist. His girlfriend Laurie returns from the dead telling Prime that she has returned to give him a happy ending. She says that "they" have given her back to him ... the they apparently being the DC is staff.

In fact, while she may have been returned to him by the writers she is not so innocent. She is a Black Lantern.

For once, I actually felt bad for him. I suppose making me care even a little bit for a character that I don't like is the mark of a decent story.


The second feature of the book was a Conner Superboy story. It was good to see Johns and Manapul working with the character again.

In it, Conner discovers that his classmate Lori has been vandalizing a local doctor's office. She has done this because the physician has refused to care for her chronically ill mother since their medical insurance has run out.

While such a minor incident speaks of the little-town feel of this book, it just seemed off that Conner would actually put on his Superman list that the Man of steel 'stopped vandals'. Somehow this felt too small to be put on the list.


One thing this interaction to cement is that Superboy considers Wonder Girl to be his girlfriend. Despite some romantic efforts on her part, Lori cannot sway Conner from Cassie.

Another thing it does show is that Superboy is wise enough to know that he cannot solve everyone's problems. He doesn't specifically attempt to help Lori's mother. Instead he tells Lori that she should look to the town for help. That sounds like something Clark would say.


Unfortunately this warm scene is broken up by the sudden arrival of Lori's uncle ... none other than Lex Luthor. And he comes bearing gifts: a big chunk of Kryptonite.

I'm going to miss this creative team working on this character.

So I was a bit underwhelmed by this issue. I shouldn't be surprised given that I don't necessarily like prime as a character and he was the star of the book. Still there were some nice twists to his story and the Conner story was pretty good as well.

Overall grade: C

Review: R.E.B.E.L.S. #11

R.E.B.E.L.S. #11 continued the momentum that started to build with last issue's Blackest Night crossover. Over 50,000 people read last issue and the hope, of course, is that some of those new readers enjoyed the book enough to come back.

In this issue, Tony Bedard throws all the plot lines together into a frenetic action packed story. This sort of crazed pace is wildly entertaining. And, as usual, Brainiac is the most interesting character in the book.

Last issue ended with Black Lantern Stealth attacking the team in deep space while Black Lantern Harbinger attacked several Sinetsro Corps members. With the Sinestro Corps members being wiped out, Vril was offered a Yellow Lantern ring.

With their starship ripped in half by Harbinger, most of the team is incapacitated. Adam Strange begins to teleport them to the surface of a nearby planet Kandato.

In the meantime,Hakk attempts to repair the ship. Apparently there is technology on board that will help the ship's hull seal automatically. Of course, he has to line up the symmetric halves to have this work. I found this to be a little bit silly.

During this time, Brainiac tries to stymie Stealth and her attempts to kill the team members. As always, I enjoy seeing the emotional registry of characters through the eyes of the Black Lanterns. Here, despite their history and despite the horror around him, Brainiac is pure will. I love how he uses the ring to blast a hole in her head.

With Stealth temporarily incapacitated, Brainiac retreats to the planets surface and joins the team. He reminds the group that the Flash has told them the Black Lanterns' weakness against multi-spectrum light. Brainiac's yellow light is only part of the solution. They need a massive energy source to replicate other types of light and they need it soon.

They need Wildstar.

She has just arrived in the area of space where the R.E.B.E.L.S. are after escaping Starro's vanguard off the planet Voorl.

As we saw last issue, despite their unbelievable power,Starro's vanguard are no match for a Black Lantern. Wildstar tells Hakk how she saw Stealth rip the heart out of each and every one of them. We have seen the damage that the vanguard can do. We know the type of warrior that Starro picks to join that elite group. It is absolutely amazing and kind of scary that one Black Lantern could kill them all.

Now that she has arrived, she is able to help Hakk maneuver the pieces of the ship together.

Speaking of Starro's vanguard, Lyrl has recently joined the group as Brainiac 3. And during his short time of servitude he has been able to create a transmatter portal which will circumvent Vril's force field wall which has trapped the Starro wave.

With the teleporter online, Starro asks that a door be opened to Voorl so he can see how his vanguard has fared against the R.E.B.E.L.S.

The conqueror is in for a big surprise because the now zombified members of the vanguard emerge to do battle with their former master.

With nowhere else to turn, Lyrl opens up the teleporter gate and brings that fight to Kandato where the R.E.B.E.L.S. are barely holding their own against their Black Lantern opponents.

There are some great parts to this scene. First off, it is wonderful to see Vril's responses to Lyrl's efforts. He is both impressed and annoyed at Lyrl's inventing the transmatter portal, something Vril has never been able to do. But he is also angered and disappointed at seeing the large vanguard Starro star attached to his son's body.

I also love seeing Starro's response to his troop's defection to the Black Lantern cause. The Conqueror has been looking for something to give his life more meaning than merely overrunning the universe. He seems to relish the battle. And his pure rage is intoxicating to the hungry Lanterns.

Another thing we learn during this battle is that the Starro face hugger is powerless against the 'mindless shells' of the Black Lanterns. Stealth simply rips the star from her face.

She had been about to kill Lyrl when Starro made her pause for a moment. With Lyrl in her grasp, we see Vril's emotional registry again ... this time pure fear. He is afraid his son will die. Maybe the 'benign dictator' does have an Achilles' heel with his son.

The battle between the Black Lantern forces (Stealth, Harbinger, Starro's Vanguard) and Starro and Smite and the R.E.B.E.L.S. devolves into chaos. Despite a temporary alliance between the Dox's to try to mimic Green Lantern light to destroy the zombies, it is clear that the Black Lanterns are simply relentless. The R.E.B.E.L.S. team members begin to fall.

Luckily, Hakk and Wildstar have fixed the ship. It lands on the planet giving the team hope for retreat. But with carnage and mayhem swirling around them, it doesn't look like escape is even possible.

That's when Yellow Lantern Dox decides to stop the fight by pushing it to a different location. He pushes most of the Black Lanterns and Starro back through the transmatter portal ... back to Starro's base world Maltus.

And when Lyrl shows his defiance against his father, even when facing certain death at the hands of Stealth, Dox shoves them through the door as well closing the door behind them.

How much hate must Lyrl house in his heart for his father, how seething must that be, that he would rather die a slave than be free? What a great relationship to have in this book to explore! What great tension!

And almost as unbelievable is Vril's response.

For the second issue in a row we see the cold calculating facade drop to reveal some emotional anguish. Brainiac has probably shipped Lyrl off to his death. It is clear that Vril loves his son and is tormented by their relationship, by his actions against his offspring.

Given his usual icy demeanor, seeing moments like this for Brainiac make for powerful scenes. But they need to be few and far between. You can't consistently show him like this or the breakdown scenes lose their strength.

Unfortunately, Vril loses his new found weapon against his enemies. After repeatedly refusing to obey Sinestro's command to go to Korugar, the ring rejects Brainiac for insubordination.

Enraged by the whole turn of events, Brainiac decides it is time to stop running. The R.E.B.E.L.S. will become proactive in their war against Starro. I like the sound of that! It might seem a little out of character for Brainiac to respond emotionally like this but I think he simply realizes that running away isn't doing any good.

The issue ends with a one page tease for the next year of R.E.B.E.L.S.

The next year!! Looks like DC recognizes a good comic suffering from lackluster sales. A page like this is like a vote of confidence for the book. DC must not be planning to imminently pull the plug despite the lowish sales. And it looks like R.E.B.E.L.S. will probably be part of the Brainiac storyline running through Adventure and the Super-titles.

Hopefully R.E.B.E.L.S. will be given Jonah Hex status, recognized by DC as filling a niche and allowed to grow into sales without premature cancellation. I have sung the praises of this title since its inception. I am thrilled to see that DC acknowledges the quality here.

The one thing I will say is that I was disappointed to not see Andy Clarke drawing this issue. Claude St. Aubin was back on pencilling duties. And after hearing that Clarke is going to be drawing Batman and Robin after Cam Stewart's run and knowing Clarke's pace, my guess is we have seen the last of him on art here. Too bad, his style was perfect for this title.

All that said, this was a fun brawl-filled issue.

Overall grade: A

Sales Review: November 2009

Over on ICv2, comic sales for November has been released and reviewed. Overall, comic sales for the month were up. Here is the link:

http://www.icv2.com/articles/news/16433.html

In particular, DC comics did very well claiming seven of the top 10. Sales for some titles were dramatically up as they were part of the Blackest Night ring promotion.

I also find it interesting that Detective Comics continues to shine even though Batman is not starring in the title. Batwoman's story continues to shine because of the strong writing of Greg Rucka and the unbelievable art of J.H.Williams.

Unfortunately, sales for the Superman titles continue to be poor.

Supergirl #47, the very strong Alura issue, sold 29,159 copies. This put Supergirl ranked at 66 overall.

This was another drop in sales for the title, with sales down 4%. This was also the third straight month that sales have decreased. It's important to note that Superman, Action Comics, and Superman:World of New Krypton are all selling in the low 30,000 range. Even Superman Secret Origin, with the powerhouse team of Geoff Johns and Gary Frank, is only selling just over 45,000 issues.

I think that sales may rebound a little bit when New Krypton winds down. And I am sure there will be a sales bump when next summer's big event rolls around. But I do find this sales loll somewhat disheartening. In particular, Supergirl#47 was a really great issue and it seems a shame that it wasn't more widely read.

I am not going to read into sales too much. I just always hope that quality comics do well financially. And I think Supergirl is a quality comic.

One bonus to the ring promotion was an increase in sales of R.E.B.E.L.S. #10.

R.E.B.E.L.S. ranked at 30 and sold over 51,000 copies. That is more than four times what it typically sells! And that Blackest Night crossover issue was a great issue showcasing the title very well. I can only hope that some people who bought the comic strictly for the ring stick with it.

I don't really know enough about trade sales to state what sales are considered strong. But the Who Is Superwoman trade came out last month and I figured I would post to those sales as well.

The trade, which featured an introduction by Helen Slater, sold just under 2000 books. This made it 33rd best selling trade for the month.

Again, there is no gloom and doom to this post. Supergirl as a character has really built a lot of momentum this year, she has a big anniversary issue coming out in three months, and she continues to be an important character in the entire DCU. I just always hope that the title will be recognized both critically and financially.