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Mild Mannered Reviews - Supergirl Comics

Supergirl #13

Supergirl #13

Scheduled to arrive in stores: December 27, 2006

Cover date: February 2007

Writer: Joe Kelly
Penciller: Ian Churchill
Inker: Norm Rapmund

"Love at First Fight"

Reviewed by: Jeffrey Bridges

Click to enlarge


Kara's recovering under yellow sunlight generators at STAR Labs, having more flashbacks about her father telling her to kill Kal, bring down the House of El, etc. She awakens and her twin, Lois Lane, comes to visit her, applying a passive-aggressive guilt trip in the process that Kara doesn't take too kindly to.

Powerboy arrives and they take off together on patrol, and help stop a hurricane in Mexico and then get yelled at for it by a Mexican military officer.

Somewhere in Tibet people in shadows are trying to be mysterious and someone gets someone else (confusing, ain't it?) to send a metahuman hit squad after Supergirl for reasons not explained.

In her apartment, Kara is talking with her OTHER twin, Wonder Girl (I guess they're triplets) who is swooning all over Powerboy, who again shows up to give Kara her cat back and they fly off together through space and have a little chit-chat atop the Hollywood sign in Los Angeles (with snippets of another flashback of Kara almost killing Kal when he was sick and powerless). Enter Gakidou and Sakki, two utterly forgettable villains who can apparently temporarily turn people into ghosts (the former) and feed off of the hate of their enemies (the latter, who looks like a sumo wrestler with tattoos).

They fight, Sakki mentions Superman must hate Kara because of how full of hate she is, she flashes back to not knowing how to eat ice cream with Clark and him asking her to patrol Metropolis for him while he was depowered, and her apparent subsequent near-attempts to kill him as the voices in her head drive her nuts.

Supergirl defeats them with some sort of Silver Banshee-esque sonic yell and Sakki is all "Whoa, she has too much hate for even me, man!"

Subtle.

Powerboy recovers and asks if getting his butt kicked impairs his chances for a second date, and Supergirl kisses him.

A still recovering Grace, from the Outsiders, tells Boomer he needs to stay away from Kara because she's crazy, and it's revealed Kara's been out of recovery at STAR Labs for three days and she never even told Boomer about it.

1Story - 1: I have looked. And looked. And LOOKED for a reason to rate this issue higher.

I have beat my head against the wall in desperation.

But there's just nothing there.

All of Kara's flashbacks offer NOTHING new. Not one single thing. It's just the exact same "Kill Kal, I don't want to kill Kal, maybe I'll try to kill Kal, waaaaaah I don't fit in" stuff we've been getting for... how long now?

I feel like I've reviewed this same issue ten times already.

Kara's relationship with Boomer, while not something that was ever explained or that there was a rationale for, was at least there and, once it started, kept its own continuity.

Until now, when she suddenly decides for no reason whatsoever to not even tell him she's out of the hospital and then she's off kissing some other guy?

There was no rationale for her to be with Boomer, this I admit. But there is even LESS rationale for her to suddenly abandon him sans reason and start kissing another guy.

But but but but but Kara's just a teenage girl, I hear you cry. True.

And not all teenage girls act like that, and to claim that as a valid reason for her highly out-of-character actions is to stereotype all teenage girls as confused bints who'll kiss the first thing with muscles and a strong chin that happens across their path. Watch out, Mr. Clean!

This book has ceased to even be able to keep up its own storyline that was baseless to begin with. But now maybe Boomer will feel jilted and he'll have a confrontation with Powerboy (who, from now on, I'm just gonna call "Dues Ex") and OH THE ARBITRARY DRAMA.

And Lois! She's suddenly being incredibly passive-aggressive and laying a guilt trip on Supergirl? This didn't feel like Lois to me. At all. There was nothing about her that actually seemed in character... and she served no point other than to be someone to make Kara feel guilty so she could fly off in a huff with Powerboy and whine about just how terribly confusing life is while having completely redundant flashbacks that we've seen plenty of times before and in no way advance story or character! Wow, that sentence went on forever.

Won't someone help poor Kara? Please?

For that matter, won't someone help us poor readers and give us a coherent story with strong characterization?

Rao help us all.

2Art - 2: So if Kara, Wonder Girl and Lois all have the exact same face, they're triplets. And if so, that means they're related. Which means Lois is also Superman's cousin, and they're married. Once again it this book comes back to incest!

I'm on to you, Kelly!

I kid of course, if only to make you laugh.

Ha ha, right? Well I can pretend it was funny. Come on.

A little. Right?

Hello? Hello?

Point being, more of the same old junk in art (as in story), and boy is it tiring.

4Cover Art - 4: Not sure who the artist is. The cover says "Lashley", but I have no idea who that is and couldn't find any information on the interior of the book about the cover.

For as much as I dislike Powerboy and I don't understand why they're fighting random robots on the cover (what the heck? Was it that vital to keep SAKKI a secret? A tattooed sumo wrestler named after a Japanese drink? Don't let THAT secret out, guys, it's GOLD!), the art itself is quite nice and it's got some nice action... even if Supergirl seems to be laying a karate chop into Powerboy's neck.

Hey, that's what I'd like to do to him. Maybe she was just giving a gift to us fans.

In which case thanks, Kara, we appreciate it. Happy Festivus to you, too.

Mild Mannered Reviews

2007

Note: Month dates are from the issue covers, not the actual date when the comic went on sale.

January 2007

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