Review: Supergirl #36

Supergirl #36 was released yesterday, representing part 8 of the now 10 part New Krypton storyline. On his blog, artist Jamal Igle had talked about how emotional this issue was for him to draw and I have to say I agree. This was a powerful issue. And when issues move me, I talk a lot.


Of course, now is the time in reviews when I show the variant cover. Here is another winner from Chris Sprouse showcasing our mystery hero Superwoman and a great looking Supergirl. This variant works better for me than Sprouse's variant for Action Comics #872.

The issue starts in the immediate aftermath of Zor-El being struck down by Reactron. A depowered Kara sprints across the battlefield to attend to her father.

She suffers a shoulder injury, gets saved by Superman, and then her powers kick back in.

I almost pity the Brainiac drones who get in her way. Look at the heat vision spread she demonstrates! And that last panel! Whoa! I can't get enough of a mighty Supergirl.

Kara rushes to her father's side and tells him to hang on, calling him 'father' in their native tongue, a show of love and a very nice little touch.

Alas, it's too late for Zor-El. He dies in her arms. But not before he tells her that she should watch out for her mother. “Watch out” as in “take care of her”? Or “watch out” like a warning? He also tells her how proud he is of her. I am somewhat surprised that DC would bring Zor-El back only to kill him off so quickly. But in some ways it gave it more impact. I was not expecting it and therefore was completely shocked. But after years of the mad Zor-El, to see this one's dying words be ones of pride for Kara was a nice capstone to the troubled recent history of the character.

In a very nice 'silent panel', we see Kara's grief as she cradles Zor's body. It is another take on The Pieta but it works here. It is striking to show Kara screaming without sound effects or word bubble. To add a dialogue bubble or text, well it would detract from the art and cheapen the moment. This is just a wonderful powerful page.

In the commotion, Metallo and Reactron escaped through a pre-built escape tunnel. And Alura sees Zor's body and cries that they should have left Earth.

But even the news of her father's death doesn't deter Cat Grant from her 'search and destroy' mission. She will still run her article 'Supergirl: Science Police Murderer'. At first I thought this was a strange scene to cut to, but later I thought how this effectively showed just how petty Cat Grant is. As news of Zor-El’s death come across the airwaves, she is talking about how she will take Kara down.

We cut to Zor-El's funeral and hear Alura's eulogy. There are some nice touches here. She talks about how an alphahedron was stolen while they were in Argo City and he had faith that the thief would return it. An Alphahedron! Of course, it was an Omegahedron that was stolen in the Supergirl Movie so this was a great little Easter Egg for dedicated Supergirl fans.

But that nice homage is forgotten when Alura says that humans attacked Kryptonians and they should not be surprised if Kandor responds in kind. I love the look of concern on Kara's face. She doesn't have to say 'Kal, I'm concerned' ... the art does all the talking.

A more private moment of mourning is shown next. Kara is seen holding Zor-El’s headband in front of a monument for her father. Superman warns Supergirl that despite this tragedy they still need to deal with the police murders. In a moment of self-doubt, Kara wonders if she is somehow responsible for her father's death. This did not sound like the over the top self-doubt we have unfortunately heard from Kara at times in this series. This seemed and sounded natural.

Much more than Alura's angry response where she blames both Kara and Kal. Look at how she derisively calls Kara ‘Supergirl’, blaming her for the state of Earth and therefore her father’s death. This is simply emotional cruelty on Alura's part.

But Kara has grown a lot. She knows she doesn't need to hear this tripe and flies off. I cannot tell you how much I appreciated this scene. This shows just how strong, just how independent Kara has become. She didn’t argue with her mother. She didn’t break down crying.

I haven’t seen a Kara with this much intestinal fortitude in a long time. I have missed her!

And who meets her as she flies off, Superwoman. Hmmm ... lots of clues here. She definitely has blue eyes. She speaks fluent Kryptonese but is only so-so in English. Here is the translated text. “I don’t mean to bother you but with everything that’s happened in Kandor you look like you could use a friend right now.”

She listens to Supergirl talk about her mother's grief. As Kara talks, we see shots of Alura talking to Zod's soldiers asking for their loyalty.

And boy this Superwoman seems chipper. She says she put on the uniform (including lead-lined mask) because Superman and Supergirl inspired her. She tells Supergirl that she wants to be a friend.

But check out the evil look on her face as the issue ends. It seems this call for friendship is all a ruse.

Not to be lost in the shuffle is this scene of Nightwing and Flamebird taking out some of Alura's personal guard and finding the blueprints of the White House in their possession. This does not bode well.

And Flamebird seems more like a true redhead here than the strawberry blonde we have seen prior.

Wow. Another great issue in the New Krypton arc. This one is a bit more introspective than the action packed prior issues, dealing with the fallout from Zor-El's death.

I have to say that the initial scene as he is dying is done just right ... not overly maudlin, not overly emotional, not a lot of improbable speech. In fact, the dialogue throughout the issue is simply spot on. Thank you Sterling Gates! And that silent splash page was just perfect.

But Kara doesn't have much time to mourn does she? Events are spinning out of control, and her mother seems to be teetering on the brink of madness. "Expect a response in kind?" Sounds like a declaration of war. I do have to say we see just how strong Kara has become in this issue. Not only does she risk her own life heroically to try and save her father, she also knows she doesn’t have to be mentally berated by anyone ... not even her mother. Those days are over.

Despite all these things, the part that intrigued me the most was the appearance of Superwoman. Blue eyes, speaks Kryptonese - Alura and Thara Ak-Var remain possibilities. But we see Alura in Kandor while Kara talks to Superwoman. So I don't think Alura is Superwoman.

I also seems to take Linda Danvers and Cat Grant (a dark horse candidate I have read in places) out of the running. She still could be Thara who may feel that Kara didn’t earn her hero status and that she has been a part of all the mayhem. She looks too young to be Karsta.

Ah well ... still early in the mystery.

I have already complimented Sterling Gates for the pacing and dialogue of the issue. I couldn’t finish the review without commenting on how phenomenal the art was in the issue. Jamal Igle really outdid himself here. I really love his Kara ... a healthy-looking strong young woman. And he does expressions so well. You can tell just how the character feels as they speak their words. That adds to the power of the script. I think this is the best stuff that Igle has ever produced.

One small complaint: Alura calls Zod's troops 'soilders'. Isn't there an editor out there? That typo was just off-putting.

I can’t thank the new creative team enough. Three issues into their run and everything seems right again.

Overall grade: A

Poll Results: Who Is Superwoman?

Two weeks ago, in the aftermath of the first Superwoman sighting, I posted a poll to get a sense of who people thought was under the cowl. I'd like to thank everybody who took the time to vote and post.

In some ways, I have to say I am pretty surprised by the results. Here they are.




I thought for sure that there would be 3 or 4 choices that would all be close to each other. There certainly are reasons for people to think that Karsta Wor-Ul, Linda Danvers, or Thara Ak-Var is Superwoman. But it was clear that most people think that Alura is Superwoman. I really thought that Karsta and Linda would get more than 2 votes each. And I thought that Lesla Lar and 'Split Kara' were real long shots but each got some votes!

22% of folks did mark 'other' as their choice but no write-in candidate rose to the top.

That's why I like these polls. It let's me get a sense of what everyone else is thinking. Heck, I'm the guy who thinks she is an evil clone.

But Alura with 36% of the vote ran away with this and so I thought I would do a quick review of what we know of her so far. And see why so many people think that she might be the character on a 'Faces of Evil' cover.


We first met her in Action Comics #869 when she was trapped in the Kandor bottle. Remember, at this point we did not know Kara's parents were alive. We had seen the Loeb/Kelly 'Kill Kal-El' Zor-El and in that origin, Kara had killed Alura! I don't think that sat well with Supergirl fans.

We also had seen her as a loving scientist under Puckett.

But there she was with a Zor-El, the Argo City origin suddenly back in continuity.



In the New Krypton Special, she was reunited with Kara. Alura did have this sort of strange reaction when Kara flew down.

From the beginning she has been a bit nationalistic, espousing thoughts that Earth will be named New Krypton, that humans will begin adapting Kryptonian culture, and being confused by Superman's love of Terran ways.



Later, during her conference with the President when Doomsday attacked, she did askThara Ak-Var to evacuate the humans to safety while she dealt with the threat.

Of course, she then balled up her fists and took part in bludgeoning Doomsday to death. Suddenly, we realized there was a streak of violence in her ... something concerning given her love of country and feelings of superiority.

She further renounced Earth culture when she told Kara in no uncertain terms that her days of co-mingling as 'Linda Lang' were over. Like many of Alura's ideas, she was able to cover this one with a respectable veneer. She worried about Kara's safety and wanted her home.

But it is clear, our ways are beneath her.

At least for me, the biggest clue is the above panels, where Alura gets pumped full of the K-poisoning that was effecting Kara. If this poisoning could make Kara think Zor-El was an insane murderer, could make her moody and prone to fly off the handle ... well what would it do to a political zealot like Alura. Make her crazy enough to kill people? Give her a seperate personality? Make her want to don a costume and hide her face?

Well, it seems it would make her crazy enough to kill people or at least to order people to. Here she tells Superman that the deaths of the Science Police officers at the hands of Zod's troops were simply collateral damage. Again, she states this cool and calm; she once again brings up Kryptonian safety as the rationalization for her beliefs.

Now throughout these scenes, both Kara and Zor-El seem shocked by Alura's behavior, stating they haven't seen her act this way before ... perhaps another clue that the K-poisoning is affecting her.

In fact, she seems to have turned the corner this last issue. She says there will be 'no limits' to what she will do to protect her people and advance her cause.

And that includes crossing the line of lethal force. She gave the order. It is even hinted that she has promised Zod's supporters access to the Phantom Zone projector (and by extension Zod) if they will follow her.

Now personally I think she is full of Kryptonite poisoning but not Superwoman. But you can see that Alura is a cold-hearted calculating leader who seems unhinged enough to put on a mask and hood.

That said, I still cling to the 'evil clone' theory. Actually, my theory is that while in the bottle, Alura and Zor-El took a young girl into their home and became surrogate parents. Whoever this 'surrogate Kara' is ... be it a new Lesla Lar or a clone of Kara herself ... that is Superwoman. She is someone who would want to replace Kara in every way.

Once again, thanks to everyone who voted. We should find out in a couple of months just who Superwoman really is.

Supergirl #35 Sales Redux!

Well ICv2.com did come out with their sales numbers today after my initial post. Here is the link: http://www.icv2.com/articles/news/13915.html

I like ICv2 because they give actual unit numbers with their sales. Seems a bit more concrete to me. I don't know how they get their numbers, but they post them. They must be true right?

Here are the Supergirl numbers.


I was hoping for this issue to sell around 40K. The issue actually sold 45,518! Again, this was as a chapter of New Krypton, so I don't expect sales to be so robust after the storyline. But again, I can only hope that newcomers like what Gates and Igle are doing and stick around.

Issue #34 sold 33,958. Thus November sales were 134% of October's.

That is great news!

Supergirl #35 Sales!

I usually wait for ICv2.com to post monthly sales when I comment.

But this was too huge to wait the few days it will take for their analysis.

As posted on Newsarama - http://www.newsarama.com/comics/081215-diamond-november-sales.html


That's right. Supergirl #35 was 34th in sales, an incredible leap of 41 spots on the sales charts.

Now I understand that much of the new sales can be attributed to this being part of the New Krypton storyline.

And a variant cover by Stephane Roux surely helped spur sales.

But still! That is incredible.

I can only hope that a few of those who joined in for New Krypton decide to stay a while!

Congratulations again to Sterling Gates and Jamal Igle as well as the other Super-title creative teams!

Supergirl #36 Preview

Supergirl #36 is coming out tomorrow, but Newsarama put up preview pages yesterday. You can see the first 5 pages in their entireity at this link: http://www.newsarama.com/php/multimedia/album.php?aid=24780

Well, it looks like Zor-El is dead.

And Kara has been exposed to Gold K, leaving her vulnerable on this battle field.

And it looks like Kara is going to run to defend her father's body, perhaps to avenge him!

Wow! This looks like it is going to be great! And I think this is the best stuff that Jamal Igle has ever produced!

Review should be up Thursday!

Review: Final Crisis #5

I keep wondering if I am being too hard on Final Crisis. I keep wondering if I am missing the boat here. Final Crisis #5 was released last week and we finally saw the beginning of the promised Supergirl/Mary Marvel fight. This is a dense issue and therefore a long review.

The truth is I went back and re-read all 5 issues before I started this review and I now feel I understand the story much better. What I don't quite get is the execution of the story. But more on that later.

The story begins on Oa with the trial of Hal Jordan. Do you remember this plot thread? Last seen in issue two when Hal was being carted off for some Oan justice.

Luckily, off screen, Guy Gardner and Kyle Rayner have somehow figured out that Alpha Lantern Kraken is housing the spirit of Granny Goodness. They also think that the scar on Hal's forehead was not secondary to his purported fight with Orion but instead due to a 'supressor field chip' placed there to block his memories.

Kraken divulges that she is Granny and that as an Alpha Lantern she has the ability to drain rings and lanterns. She makes a break for the central power battery with the plan to suck it dry for the glory of Darkseid.

Hal remembers the 'tried and true' weakness of the emerald energy - you need to be able to concentrate to use it. He physically pummels Kraken while the Guardians activate the 'Krona protocol', zipping the main battery away for safe keeping.

With Kraken unconscious, the Guardians scan Earth and realize that things are bad there. Darkseid has taken root and, in case the Lanterns forgot, he and the New Gods are pretty powerful. Earth is now home to a Doomsday Singularity which will destroy the universe.

Hal is officially cleared of his charges and given his ring back. He grabs whichever Lanterns will join him and head to Earth to join the fray and defeat Darkseid. Hal rallies the troops saying it is time to "go in after him (Darkseid)" and "kick his ass".

This is a great opening scene for this series. For one, it was about as straight forward a scene as we have had in this comic. For another, it had the usual Morrison flourishes which enrich his work. The Krona Protocol? That is fantastic, mentioned quickly and once. It is these 'throw away' ideas that make me love Morrison. He stuffs so much into his series, things to think about later. Second, the 'you have 24 hours to save the universe' ending of the scene was stirring.

That said, the Oans weren't watching Earth closely enough to realize Darkseid had taken over? Didn't they quarantine Earth in issue 1? They needed to be told by Guy and Kyle?

And after this scene we have a page of Renee Montoya and Amanda Waller discussing the war and Renee's place in it. It is pages like this that make me concerned about Final Crisis. I am sure that it will be eventually unveiled what part Montoya has. But that page felt wasted to me. Would I have even noticed if that page wasn't there? Did it move the main story along? Wouldn't I have liked more pages about the main story?

We cut to the Apokoliptian stronghold in Bludhaven. The human hosts of Simyan, Mokkari, and Glorious Godfrey are all burning out. They have no other host to jump to and fear they will die in service to Darkseid.

Darkseid reminds them that all occurs through his will. He realizes the heroes are preparing a final assault and ask his new Furies, led by Wonder Woman to ride and end all hope.

The heroes last stand is a two-pronged initiative. The first step takes place in the watchtower in Switzerland. Manned by Mister Terrific and a small band of heroes, the tower has opened itself up to attack as a diversion.

There are a couple of nice moments in this scene. For one, it is clear that the heroes know that their part of this plan is a suicide mission. They are there only to keep part of Darkseid's troops occupied. And we finally hear a nice nugget of how Darkseid's 'falling downward through space' is effecting Earth physically when Oracle say the Swiss border has moved farther away.

Mister Miracle, gunned down last issue, has survived thanks to his protective gear. He tells Mister Terrific that his Mother Boxx is like a 'living iPod made by the Gods only better'. He also advises that all of Terrific's troops should paint their face with the symbol that is on his mask and the Asian super-team's faces.

My guess is that this is some sigil to ward off an angel of death which will come when the 5th World finally materializes and cleans out the chaff. The symbol does not look like anything from the Metron diagram given Anthro way back in issue one.

With the troops drawn to the Watchtower, the other half of the hero plan kicks off. Their army invades Bludhaven to try to shut down Darkseid's headquarters.

This isn't exactly the group of heavy hitters assembled to take on the Anti-Monitor's fortress in Crisis on Infinite Earths #7. Sure we have a Green Lantern, 2 members of the Marvel family, and Supergirl. But we also have Red Arrow? Mister America? The 2 Wildcats? Not exactly a power heavy group. Let's hope that Darkseid's forces have weakness to arrows, bullwhips, and left hooks.

In some ways it is a great comment on the courage of these heroes. I mean, does Mister America think he is going to survive this? And yet, there he is ready to jump into battle.

Bludhaven has its own defenses though. Kalibak, in tiger form, is there with his pack. And, of course, Mary Marvel is there and she seems a bit obsessed with Supergirl.

Maybe she is so obsessed because Kara represents all that she is not ... a symbol of purity and goodness. Or maybe it is because Kara is all that Mary was and this represents some self-loathing. Or maybe it is because Kara represented all that Mary could have been and Mary wants to defeat her to prove to herself that she made the right decision to embrace darkness.

Or ... maybe she is actually the vessel for Desaad! Because as Black Adam gets defeated by her, he sees a 'leering old man in her eyes.'

Even if possessed by Desaad, I still had to cringe when I saw Mary taunting Captain Marvel. I mean, that first panel is such a testament of how good art can move you. I shuddered to see Mary grind into Freddy and bragging about her 'dirty magic word'. That is so far removed from the Mary Marvel I know.

And how about Talky Tawny holding Sivana's 'Quantum Blunderbuss' as another throwaway idea. Just another Silver Age sounding idea tossed into the tornado.

Within Bludhaven is a holding cell for those humans who have somehow resisted the Anti-Life Equation. One of those is Uotan Nix, the Earth 51 Monitor cast down to mortality. He has always seemed to be a big part of this story but also has not been seen for a couple of issues. Within the cell are 2 other unnamed humans.

One, in a wheel chair, talks about magic numbers and Rubik's cubes. He has to be the human vesel of Metron, right? The other is not shown but clearly has very hairy forearms. He hands Uotan the circuit drawing Metron gave Anthro as well as his sketches of beings from parallel universes. Remember, Uotan had earlier been searching for the word which would somehow re-ignite his powers. Here he discovers it, the name of the female monitor he loved, Weeja Dell.

So who was this other hairy-armed person? Highfather?

Scenes continue to shift rapidly, perhaps a way to make us feel the chaotic nature of the universe right now. We are taken to a Secret Society lynching where the Calculator is about to get hanged for purportedly sneaking info to the heroes on the Unternet, the villains' internet.

Look at how Luthor clearly is conflicted about this world he is going to inherit. He most likely was the leak to the heroes, not the Calculator.

In another cringe moment, Libra promises Luthor that he will be 'first in line' for Supergirl when the villains finally win. Eeeewww. Seems like lots of people have an unhealthy obsession with Supergirl in Morrison's universe.

But remember when Libra was touted as being a very important and central figure to this story? We haven't seen him in a while, have we?

Back to Bludhaven we go, where the heroes aren't having much success. It is clear that the linchpins to this attack are Green Lantern and Supergirl.

As usual, Morrison does a great job with his characterization of Kara in a few brief moments. She calls Green Lantern 'Mister Stewart'. No GL. Not John. Not Lantern. But 'Mister Stewart'.

Morrison always said his take on Supergirl was the she was the perfect girl, pure and innocent. This respectful naming of John is a small way to show that.

She also is the one who can sense that Darkseid is finally coming to full ascension and that when he does, his will will extend throughout his slaves ... like a brain firing commands through a nervous system.

I also like she lets out an exasperated ">Tt<" when she realizes that Green Lantern can't see it. No "#$%**&" cursing here like in the Kelly issues. Not even a mild word like 'Darn'. Instead it is a clucking of her tongue. Okay ... okay ... I don't need my Supergirl to be 'pure as the driven snow', a duplication of her sugary Silver Age incarnation. But for some reason I didn't mind this.

I also like how she pulls no punches when Mary Marvel finally engages her. She unleashes heat vision to the face. And yet, despite the ferocity of the attack, she is still trying to end things peacefully telling Mary there is still time to talk!

Now that's my Kara!

Despite their best efforts, Darkseid does finally ascend. He rises from his chair and proclaims his body as a church for his slaves. We see shots of humans over Earth raising their hands in unison, in praise of Darkseid. He has won!

Or has he?

While the Green Lantern army, led by Hal, freefalls to Earth, Uotan Nix also ascends.

His ascension marks the beginning of the Fifth Age and he is the Judge of All Evil.

Whew .... that was a lot of comic stuffed into 22 pages. And it was probably the most satisfying issue of Final Crisis because I felt as though I understood the big picture plot and that it was advanced.

All that said, I again was left wondering if this series could not have been better. There is so much going on in Final Crisis that we lose track of all of Morrison's plots pretty frequently. Also, so many things happen off-screen that we just need to accept because pages are sort of wasted on small things rather than on the big picture.

We finally saw Libra again this issue. We finally see Uotan Nix. But we did not see the Flash. The return of Barry Allen is one of the signature moments of this series and yet we have barely seen him. Shouldn't he warrant some pages instead of Montoya's plot which I don't quite follow? And we haven't seen Batman (I know he is captured) in what feels like forever and yet we are told the 'Batman psycho merge with the clone army has failed'? What the heck does that mean? Shouldn't we have seen that, been told about that?

Even looking back at prior issues, there seems to be time spent on small events while bigger things happen unseen or are simply not explained fully. While they were beautiful, did we need the splash pages of Anthro getting fire and fighting off another tribe? Did we need pages of Uotan at his pizza delivery job? Or Turpin investigating the Dark Side Club? These are great moments in having us get a 'feel' for the series, but couldn't those pages ... that space ... been better used to tell me the big story in a better way? Maybe Final Crisis warranted 12 issues rather than 7 to let the story unfold and be shown in a way that the casual fan could understand and also allow Morrison to fill the issues with all the small moments he wanted.

I don't need stories to be 'dumbed down' for me. I totally did not like Secret Invasion. And I am enjoying this series but I have to admit ... I am struggling a bit with it. And I come into this with decades of DC knowledge in my head and an appreciation of Morrison's style. I don't know if everyone has the same.

I just feel like this series could have been better .... unbelievably better ... and that makes me feel unsatisfied. Maybe the last 2 issues will wrap things up in a way to squelch that feeling.

On a seperate note, I barely noticed that there were 2 artists on this issue. It was not a distraction to have JG Jones and Carlos Pacheco on this issue.

Overall grade: B