Review: Supergirl Cosmic Adventures In The Eighth Grade #6

Supergirl:Cosmic Adventures in the Eighth Grade #6 came out this week, the final issue in what has been a wonderful mini-series on many levels. This was one of those happy/sad moments in comic reading. I was happy that a new issue came out and continued to be of high quality. I was sad knowing it was the last issue ... at least for now.

Congratulations to Landry Walker and Eric Jones for collaborating on such a top notch product. This mini-series was truly for all ages, equally enjoyed by me and the three Supergirls at home (aged 10,7, and 5). When you appeal to all those levels of comic fandom, you know you have hit a home run.

One thing I will say about this issue is that it was very dense from a story point of view. As such, I don't know if there was room for the usual amount of Easter Eggs. I only noted a couple although one was the best of the series.


The issue picks up right where the last one ended with the city in shambles and a face-off between the Luthors, the Superman Family, and Mxyzptlk.

Belinda Zee activated the quasi-space communicator in last issue's cliffhanger and we learn that she has been turned into a crystal statue. Despite all of the wickedness she has done to Kara, Supergirl still mourns her perceived death. Well it turns out that Belinda is in some form of stasis and is able to communicate with Kara telepathically. The sudden intrusion of Belinda's thoughts sort of sickens Kara, a quick switch in her emotions now knowing that Belinda has not died.

Lena attempts to attack Supergirl but before she can Mr. Mxyzptlk captures them both and begins to gloat over his grand plan. I love it when super-villains monologue.

Trapped in the 5th dimension, he spied Kara on Argo City and realized her emotional state was perfect for some magical fun. It was Mxyzptlk who nudged Kara into hiding in the rocket, made the rocket land in Metropolis, and had it crash into Luthor's robot.

One thing I did like in these scenes was the use of actual panels from earlier in the comic to show the points where Mxy did his pranks.

But his plans were much more nefarious than just messing around with Supergirl's life. His hope was to absorb emotional energy from her to power a machine he had made. His hope was that Kara's emotional lability would super-charge his device.

Unfortunately, Kara in this comic is an eternal optimist. So despite manipulating the world to conspire against her, Supergirl always saw the bright side. No family ... alien world ... evil doppelganger ... murderous best friend ... nothing changed Kara's outlook on life. And that is one of the things that I love about this comic. I don't think this Supergirl was a 'pie in the sky' dreamer ... she just persevered and saw the goodness in everything and everyone. That *IS* Supergirl!

When Supergirl's emotions weren't aiding his plans anymore, Mxy (as Prinicpal Pyckelmeyer) began manipulating Belinda. He brought her to the peaks and valleys of pre-teen angst: popularity, loneliness, happy, sad, and mad. And she proved to be a great power source for him.

And powered by Belinda's mood swings, his device is now operational, slowly eroding the 3rd dimension and giving Mxyzptlk ultimate power over the entire multiverse. Although not shown here, the collapse of the 3rd dimension is shown as the universe degrading to 2 dimensional crayon drawings. I thought that was a clever touch.

But there is another hero here that Mxyzptlk forgot about. Supragirl and her time-altering powers is still around and is able to thwart the 2D decay because she is infused with 4D (time) energy. She frees both Supergirl and Lena but is forced to shunt back in time. This is where she returns to issue #2's timeline (wearing the crown and scabbard .. remember) only to dissipate.

We also know that Supergirl is still destined to meet Supragirl at some point in the 31st century. Hopefully we get to see that meeting.

With the universe in peril, Supergirl asks Lena to help modify her biological wavelength to chase Mxyzptlk down and stop him.

I love this moment above. A handful of pages ago, Lena was aiming an arm cannon at Supergirl. Here, maybe swayed by Supergirl's complete selflessness ... her willingness to head into unknown danger to save others ... Lena helps Linda and tells her to be careful. Maybe there is more than hatred in Lena after all.

Ahhhh ... and now my absolute favorite Easter Egg of the entire series. Bloated with his new found energy, Mxyzptlk giggles as he sees the multiverse in its entirety. It is his to play with ... that us until he sees a hand 'emerging from all reality'.

This scene has been played out in countless DC Comics. This is the beginning of the DC universe.

It was the Oan Krona who defied Oan law and first gazed at this sight (repeated here in Crisis on Infinite Earths #7). The true owner of that hand has never been revealed in comic history.

That is until now !!!

Yup ... that hand belongs to Supergirl! I don't know if I can tell you how awesome I think that is. I was absolutely giddy reading the comic when I first saw the hand emerging because I knew what was coming. Absolutely perfect!

I wonder if the original art is for sale!

And Supergirl isn't exactly happy with Mxyzptlk. Despite his claims to holding the keys that unlock the 52 layers of hyper-reality (another Easter Egg), Kara makes short work of him. First she has the 'Moon Gang' from her daydreams throttle him. Then she ties him to a giant stick of dynamite which explodes. Just as she is about to vaporize him, Mxy realizes that discretion might be the better part of valor and quietly retreats to the 5th dimension by saying his name backwards.

Well, I have to say it was fun to see Supergirl finally cut loose on someone after all she has been through. This wasn't the awkward shy Supergirl from the first issue. It is clear that she has grown.

The 5th dimension isn't exactly a safe haven for Mxyzptlk though. He drained his comrades of their power in his mad bid for universal domination and they aren't happy. They punish him by banishing him into a 2-dimensional prison.

Look in the background and you'll see an Easter Egg: a couple of other well known DC magical 5th dimension imps: Bat-Mite and Qwsp.

When her 10th dimensional powers wear off, Supergirl returns to Earth only to find a seriously injured Lena telling everyone to beware the red skies, a nice reference to the Crisis-y feel of this issue.

I also like the classic Crisis on Infinite Earths #7 pieta pose here with Supergirl holding Lena.

Lex is able to rig a machine to drain off the destructive energies in Lena's body. When Lena awakens she tells Supergirl that she is her best friend. In fact, like many adolescents, she couldn't explain why she was so angry on the inside.

Well it turns out she was conflicted between her loyalty for family and friends. And when Lex saw that her loyalty to Linda was stronger, that Lena was rejecting hatred, he had to let her go. In essence, Supergirl robbed Lex of his last loving family member.

The ending is a nice capstone to the series.

First off, Superman, in talking with Kara, says that if Mxyzptlk returns that 'we can handle him'. 'We can ...'. Basically he is welcoming Supergirl into super-heroics. She isn't going to be tucked away at a boarding school any more.

Superman also gives Supergirl a key which will open up quasi-space and allow her to return to Argo. But rather than jump at the chance (something I think she would have done early in the series), she says she'll return later and zooms off to protect the planet. Nice!

I had to include the credits to make sure I thanked everyone on the creative team.

There are so many things I liked about this series but the thing I liked the most was the maturation of Supergirl over the course of the series. Reading her in this issue as opposed to the first issue, you can see how different Supergirl acts ... confident, strong, heroic. And I loved to hear Mxyzptlk discuss her optimism. Regardless of Easter Eggs, humor, and my love of Belinda Zee, this comic was about the characters and personalities. It is the strength of that characterization that made this such a great book.

As for primo Supergirl at home, she also thought it was great. She laughed out loud at the 'moon gang' bit. She giggled when Kara asked herself what she would do with a super-horse.

Overall grade (issue): A
Overall grade (primo Supergirl, issue): A
Overall series (primo Supergirl and me): A

I can only hope that a sequel happens. Come on DC !! Do the right thing!

Jamal Igle Costume Redesign

Over on Jamal Igle's blog, he has posted a proposal he did for a Supergirl costume re-design. Here is the link ( http://jamaligle.blogspot.com/2009/04/way-back-machine-6-not-so-much.html ) and a quote.

Here's a rejected Supergirl redesign I did prior to actually starting the series. Everyone thought it was a good design but at the time particularly it would be too radical a change from the Michael Turner costume.

I have always been partial to the 'red skirt' look so this is appealing to me. I especially like it's shape, being longer in the front and coming to a point. This has sort of a Matrix feel to it.

Things I find intriguing are the off the shoulder cape and the short boots. I don't think I would end up liking the 'shoulderless' look.

The blurbs on the side of the picture are also interesting to read as it shows were Igle is coming from in his interpretation of Kara, one we have now seen fleshed out in stories.



I even did a penciled drawing to pitch it as well.

Now that is a lovely picture. I sort of miss the trumpet-ended sleeves on the costume, although the 'amazon bracelets' are one of my favorite parts of the current costume.

This drawing of Supergirl flying among the clouds reminded me of this:


Igle drew this picture to promote his taking over the main title. This was colorized for his banner at NYCC but I am pretty sure has never been printed. Maybe it can be included at the end of the eventual trade of the initial Gates/Igle run.

I love it when I am able to see some of the background pitches and creative processes of artists (like Drew Johnson's proposed redesign I posted here a long time ago or Josh Middleton's cover designs). Makes me appreciate the hard work the professionals do and their personal viewpoint on characters.

He's Back Already?

Final Crisis:Legion of 3 Worlds #4 came out last week and brought Superboy back from the dead. Superboy died at the hands of Superboy/Superman Prime just a couple of years ago in Infinite Crisis. While fans of Connor are elated, I just wonder if he has been dead long enough. It felt too soon for him to be back.

Of course, Final Crisis:Legion of 3 Worlds also resurrected Bart Allen after he had only been cold in the ground for little over a year!

I think the turnstile on the afterworld is spinning a bit too quickly at DC for my tastes. Heck, at least Barry Allen stayed dead for 23 years .

The mini-series is a dense mess of action although it is fun to see all these Legion characters interacting with each other. And the return of Conner does nicely set up a Superboy and the Legion of Super-Heroes run in the upcoming Adventure Comics.

I also wondered if Connor is the person kissing Kara in her 'Origins and Omens' story from Supergirl #38. Hmmmm ...

A Superboy-Supergirl romance would be a new twist.

Superwoman Clues Reviewed Part Two - Lucy Lane Scenes

We know that Superwoman is Lucy Lane. But we don't know how she is Superwoman just yet. And we don't know why just yet.

Now that we know it is Lucy, I figured we could look back at the scenes Major Lane was in to see if anything should have tipped us off.



One thing we have seen in the 'Who is Superwoman?' story arc is that Superwoman will listen to General Sam Lane's orders no matter what they are. I get the sense that Lucy Lane has that same degree of loyalty to her father.

We first see Lucy Lane in the Superman:New Krypton Special #1.

Here Lucy talks to Lois at their father's grave. Lois asks her sister if she joined the military more for herself than for her father. Lucy answers she did not, implying that she joined the forces more to please Sam Lane. That sort of blind fidelity, changing her life completely for him, makes it more plausible that she (as Superwoman) would kill for him.

Later Lucy chides Lois for loving Superman more than their father, an act that killed General Lane. It is said with such venom, you can feel that Lucy has just as much hatred for Superman as her father does. That also should have made me suspect Lucy more.

The next time we see Lucy is in Supergirl #38.

Here she demands the body of Agent Liberty before Inspector Henderson can complete his investigation. She states she is doing it on orders of the President. I assumed she was doing it on orders of General Lane to hide the evidence of his death. He was spying on the General when he died.

Of course, now we know Lucy killed him. She may be acting on her own here, covering up her own trail.

Maybe this should have made me think Lucy was Superwoman.

This exchange happens just after the prior one.

Look at how Lucy pauses when Henderson asks if she is related to Lois, as though that struck a nerve.

I don't think Lucy likes Lois that much. The fact that Lucy might have an 'anti-Lois' agenda which could include hurting the super-family also would make her being Superwoman more plausible.

We next see her in Supergirl #39.

Not much to this scene to add to her being Superwoman. It is clear that she is using the discovery of Superwoman's killing of Agent Liberty as a smear to the 'House of El'.

Again, if Lucy became Superwoman to disgrace the Super-family then this scene could make me more suspicious of her in retrospect. But I think I am grasping here.

Here is the only solid clue that Lucy Lane was Superwoman, as seen in Supergirl #40 (just pages before the reveal). Her cell phone makes the same 'vee vee vee' noise that Superwoman's communicator does.

I still wonder if this really is Lucy Lane. I keep wondering if she is talking about herself somehow when she says Henderson is 'harboring an illegal alien'.

It still doesn't make great sense for me why Lucy is Superwoman, what she was hoping to achieve.

From a metatextual point of view, Lucy Lane only appeared in the Supergirl title, not Superman or Action Comics, making her an important Supergirl character, not a super-title character. As a reader, that should have made me wonder more about her as a suspect.

Anyways, I am eager to read the finale of the arc. It has been a great mystery.

Supergirl #45 Cover - Finished Product

PICTURE REMOVED


Josh Middleton has posted the final colorized version of the cover of Supergirl #45 over on his blog ( http://joshuamiddleton.blogspot.com/2009/04/supergirl-45.html ).


As usual, Middleton really hits this one out of the park. One thing that always stands out is his use of lighting on the covers. Here we see Alura and Kara bathed in light from 2 sources. One is the ceiling/logo which creates almost a halo effect around Alura. The other is a more muted light from the floor. This is just wonderful.

But there are a couple of other things I really like about this composition.


PICTURE REMOVED

I absolutely love that Alura is running her hand through her hair. We have come to realize just how close to insanity Alura has come. For some reason her flipping her hair has a chilling effect.

First off, there is something suggestive about this (and her expression), almost as if she is somehow aroused as she holds up Reactron's helmet. Look at the smoldering look out of the corner of her eyes as she tosses her hair back

Also, it looks as though she may be adjusting her hair using Reactron's helmet as a mirror. The fact that she would be doing such a mundane task as she holds up her enemies 'head' is frightening.

I think this simple pose and action just speak volumes of who Alura is. And isn't that what good art is all about.

PICTURE REMOVED


I also love Kara in this cover.

First off, look at the expression on her face, the distance she is keeping from her mother. She doesn't want to get close to Alura.

And Alura dwarfs her on the cover. One thing that we have yet to see is Supergirl really stand up to her mother. She has sort of remained a bit subservient to Alura, doing anything to please her. Alura dominates the cover over Kara just as she dominates her in the story.

All together it makes the cover a powerful piece.

PICTURE REMOVED

This whole cover was a treat for me as Middleton shared with us the process from thumb nails to sketches to finished inks to coloring.

I hope he does the covers on the title for a long time.

Review: Superman #687

Superman #687 was only the second issue of this title's 'World Without Superman' run but it already felt like it was a little bit of a step backwards. After a couple of months which felt like prologue, last issue seemed to firm up where the title was going with Mon-El and The Guardian.

Unfortunately, this issue again seemed like it was more introduction then progression. James Robinson certainly has a lot of players on the chessboard of Metropolis. If anyone can weave together multiple storylines it's Robinson. I just hope I don't lose patience before things start to come together.

And of course it didn't help my initial impression to see a glaring editorial error on the cover. Steel's S-shield should be backwards in the reflection of the Guardian's shield.


The issue actually starts very strongly with a frenetic 16 panel page showing just snippets of the Science Police's battle with Shrapnel. The odd panel shapes and up close perspective gives a sort of claustrophobic feel to the fight. You don't get a great sense of what is exactly happening until the 2 page splash above where you see the officers getting perforated. That opening page is just a good way to suck the reader in.

While 'Jon Kent' is nowhere to be seen, Mon-El shows up and tears into Shrapnel. The Guardian comments that Mon is not as polished as Superman. I mean, when was the last time you saw Superman use his head as a battering ram?

It is a nice touch. Mon-El has been in the Phantom Zone for years. I doubt he has been sparring there. He would have to be more a brawler than a polished combatant. A devastating uppercut later and Shrapnel is down for the count.

The Guardian however realizes that it won't take the SciPo officers long to realize that whenever Jon Kent disappears that Mon-El shows up. Even if Mon-El has some tech which vibrates his face to make it indistiguishable, the situation is doomed to fail. The Guardian states he will need to think of a way to make the Jon/Mon situation work.

But The Guardian isn't the only one watching Mon-El.

The Parasite is stalking him hoping to drain him again.

And General Lane rears his ugly head again.

Considering General Lane's major involvement in the New Krypton story arc, I figured he would be the main villain in this title. But the Parasite is obviously active.

And Mon-El and The Guardian aren't the only heroes in town.

Black Lightning takes out The Untouchables. He realizes that Superman's absence will bring more super-villains into Metropolis looking for an easy score. He figures he'd better stick around.

And The Parasite and General Lane aren't the only villains. Turns out The Prankster is getting ready to make a move. So two more major players.

Oh, and let's not forget Steel and Atlas. Seems they have been introduced by Bibbo and have become fast friends, although I get the feeling that Atlas isn't being genuine here.

So that makes the tally 4 heroes (Mon, Guardian, Black Lightning, and Steel) and 4 villains (Parasite, General Lane, Prankster, and Atlas).

But even after we hear how Steel is having some feelings of inadequacy, how he feels Metropolis is still Luthor's town, we skip to a couple of other players.

Seems Jimmy has not forgotten the Atlas fight or the satellite based weapons used on Supergirl and Krypto. Since Kara was so effected, he wonders if the energy might have been magical. He turns to Metropolis' resident magic expert Zatara, talking to him in an empty theater.

Zatara seems like a narcissistic publicity hound but decides to help and confirms that the two rays were actually two different types of magical energies. While the magic reveal is interesting, I was more interested in seeing how much Jimmy has grown in the comic. This is old fashioned investigative journalism.

Somehow, the Parasite is also in the theater and wonders if magical energy might also be the answer to his problems.

Finally we meet the last new members of the cast. The Guardian introduces us to his elite Science Police squad which includes Jon Kent and Jamie Harper. They have been formed to break into Project 7734 and free Tellus.

That makes the tally 5 heroes (Mon-El, Guardian, Black Lightning, Steel, Zatara), 4 villains, 4 SciPo officers, and one cub reporter.

Just as I was digesting all the characters and plots shown in the issue, it ends on a nice cliffhanger with Mon-El's powers quitting on him in the middle of a flight through town.

While the individual scenes all are well written, this issue worries me a little. As I said before, this seemed to be another set-up issue. At least all the players are in place to now have their stories told. Let's get to the stories!!

But I also worry about the size of the cast. It just feels too big to me. Can Robinson devote enough time to all these characters and effectively move their plots along in only 22 pages? In this issue we basically got 2-3 page snippets for each one. Maybe I am worrying too much. I suppose that some of these stories might be wrapped up in one issue.

One thing I do know, this is a very different style book than Action Comics. I think that is a good thing. I like diversity in the super-titles.

Overall grade: B

Superwoman Clues Reviewed Part One - Superwoman Scenes

So we now know that Lucy Lane is Superwoman.

The question is .... should we have known all along? A couple of other sites have posts that make it seem as if the Lucy reveal was obvious. I have to say I didn't feel that way to me. So I thought I would take a look back at the clues and try to add some commentary as to whether or not I missed anything.

In retrospect, a lot of things work. But it is the Lucy's motivation that eludes me right now. So let's take a look back at Superwoman scenes to see if it all makes sense. I hope to do a part 2, looking at Lucy Lane scenes to see if there was anything there that could have also helped.

As with most 'Superwoman clues' posts, this one will be pretty long so bear with me.

First the clues that fit:

Humanity:





With any number of Kryptonians as suspects, Superwoman tells us herself she is not Kryptonian in Supergirl #38. If anything should have pointed us away from Alura and steered us towards Lucy Lane it was this scene where Superwoman is both immune to Gold K and tell us outright that she is not from Krypton.


Powers:


The easiest thing to explain away are Superwoman's powers. In comics, people getting super-powers seems to be a fairly common event. Given the crackles and sputters and 'vzzt' that are evident in almost every scene Superwoman is in, my guess is her powers are at least partly derived from the suit she is wearing. Super-speed, super-hearing, super-strength all can be explained by the suit. We have even see some form of ice powers (maybe super-breath). And if the powers are tech-derived, Lucy would be a prime candidate to be Superwoman. With the Kryptonian knowledge in Brainiac's database, Lucy would have access to the necessary technology.




Here she says that it was the suit which protected her from Reactron's blasts. She even says she hopes not to learn what would happen if the suit failed. If her powers are not natural and instead technology based, that would not only eliminate Kryptonians but also Linda Danvers, Maxima, and other outliers.


All that said, I don't think that the suit alone explains all her powers. Here Lucy survives in open space. She also shoot eyebeams without goggles. So there may be some biologic basis for her powers as well. Maybe some sort of Kryptonian gene-splicing.

My other problem here is that if such technology existed, wouldn't General Lane be churning out similarly powered soldiers?



Military training and outlook:

Major Lane is a starched and polished military woman who follows orders without a second thought. Superwoman looks about the same.



So when Superwoman says things like 'intruder alert' ...

or 'stand down', it should have clued us in that she was a military woman like Lucy.


And when she gets orders and drops whatever else she is doing, that should also have clued us in to the regimented mindset of someone in the military.

Now the clues/things I need to be explained to me:

Kryptonian knowledge and lair:

At least twice we are shown Superwoman padding around a Kryptonian domicile and getting into her suit. Here is our first look at Superwoman from Supergirl #35.



Just how did Lucy establish herself and a room to ready herself on Kandor so shortly after it was enlarged? And just how did she keep her humanity hidden from 100,000 Kryptonians who were becoming more and more suspicious and angry at humanity?


Here we see Superwoman speak fluent Kryptonese. Okay, if the suit is Brainiac based and Brainiac has total knowledge of all things Kryptonian, then maybe Kryptonese could be downloaded into Lucy somehow.




And not only was Lucy able to fly around unmolested in Kandor but here we see her flying around New Krypton with Kara. New Krypton was established after Alura took her more xenophobic stance against Earth. How could Lucy so easily move back and forth from Earth without being seen by the Kryptonians?


Motivation:

This is perhaps the biggest question in my mind. Why the heck is Lucy doing all this? Why wear the S-shield? Why single out Kara?

Let's look at some scenes. First the opening scene from Supergirl #37, the Faces of Evil issue.


Here is another scene from a Kryptonian room. Now when I first read this scene, I thought when she said 'my people' she meant Kryptonians. But knowing she is Lucy Lane, she is probably talking about humans.

So how does becoming Superwoman help humans?


And the stroking of the S-shield when she says 'my family' now seems like a red herring.

So maybe she means she wants to help the Lanes, specifically her father. In that case, why the deception ... why the mask?

If she means the Kent/Lane family then she means she wants to help Superman and Supergirl which also seems unlikely given her actions.

So what motivates her to wear a 'S shield'? Why that costume? Why the character of Superwoman?


Here she states she Superman 'inspired' her. Even if I read these lines as complete lies now, even if I think that her saying that the super-family made her want to fight for what's right is a falsehood, I still don't understand the 'why'. Why become Superwoman ... unless it is simply to disgrace the House of El.


And what is the motivation behind all of her Kryptonian political talk here?

Is it to spread unrest on New Krypton? Maybe try to plant the seeds of rebellion against Alura to try to weaken the Kryptonian resolve? Become closer to Supergirl?

By why want to get closer to Kara?


Is it to try to keep Supergirl off Earth so that Daddy's dream of a Kryptonian free Earth is achieved?

I need to hear the 'whys' about all of this. Why did Lucy do all this? Unlike her powers, I don't have an easy explanation in my mind here.

Deferring to Daddy:

And then this scene.

Why the worried look as General Lane says 'I know who you are?' Isn't she all about helping Daddy dearest? And in that case why hide her identity around him at all? Unless General Lane has guessed wrong and thinks someone else is wearing the cloak.

More than any other scene, these two panels made me think Lucy was less likely a candidate. I need to hear why she looks so concerned and how General Lane figured it out.



But even though Lucy has already shown her complete loyalty to General Lane, I just find it hard to believe that she would so easily descend into evil such as killing this innocent woman.

Why would Lucy obey such reprehensible orders?

I know that there are a lot of possibilities still out there - the Lucy reveal is another red herring, Lucy has a split personality, etc.

I am confident that all will be explained next issue.