Buy Now!

Mild Mannered Reviews - Supergirl Comics

Supergirl #53

Supergirl #53

Scheduled to arrive in stores: June 23, 2010

Cover date: August 2010

"Fallout"

Writer: Sterling Gates
Penciller: Jamal Igle
Inker: Jon Sibal

Reviewed by: Jeffrey Bridges

Click to enlarge



Half a mile below the Pentagon, in the middle of a large battle, Supergirl fights Superwoman who accuses Kara of killing her. Then her face melts off (as do the faces of everyone else) and suddenly Kara's in hell and her parents want to keep her there. And then, predictably, Kara awakens from her dream and has been heat-visioning the ceiling in her sleep.

Lana goes to check on her, and Kara brushes her off at first, but then apologizes and says she wants to be Linda Lang permanently and "Kara" no more. She also says Supergirl is going away forever, too.

At STAR Labs, Dr. Hoshi and Gangbuster talk about Superwoman, who they're trying to restore to being fully human.

There's a sudden explosion and Dr. Hoshi turns into Dr. Light and she and Gangbuster go off to see what caused it. During the chaos, part of Superwoman's restraints are damaged, and no one notices.

Kara and Lana talk about Kara going to college, when suddenly cars fly through the air outside and the windows explode. Dr. Light and Gangbuster are at the scene of the explosion, where there's a giant crater and the ground is covered in ice. Inside the crater is a Kryptonian ship.

Lana argues with Kara about getting her to go check it out, and Kara has no self-confidence.

And then out of the ship comes Bizarro Supergirl.

4Story - 4: This was sadly reminiscent of this book's early days, when we had no idea at all when the next issue was coming out. Because I went back, my friends, and looked at when issue 52 came out.

March 17.

[Editor: Jeffrey had the incorrect release date for issue #52 (which was actually April 21) and apologizes for the error.]

But now that it's finally here, it's pretty good. My only gripe is that Lana seems rather inconsistent... she forgives Kara and wants to help her move on and figure out what to do with herself, but then as soon as there's an explosion (a pretty common occurrence in Metropolis!) she's trying to force her back into being Supergirl.

Those two things didn't really jive for me, I think they could have been a little better connected to show that Lana supports Kara but only so far. I also don't think the opening dream served any purpose that wasn't accomplished by the dialogue later on, other than giving us a magnificent splash page to look at.

Still though, these are minor complaints and it was enjoyable, and very nice to be out of crossover after crossover after crossover. Hopefully the book can finally gain some consistency, though I feel like I've been saying that for about five years now.

5Art - 5: The first splash page is fantastic and wonderful in every way. And the rest of the art is just as fantastic. It felt like a step up from the art in previous issues, and while that was great I certainly hope it wasn't the cause of the three-month delay.

Because great though this art was, it wasn't worth waiting three months for.

4Cover Art - 4: Here's where I'm torn. I think this is a beautiful image and a great cover... possibly one of the best covers this book has ever seen.

Alas, it has absolutely NOTHING to do with the issue at hand. In fact, it goes AGAINST the entire story of the issue which has Kara not wanting to be Supergirl at all anymore.

It's a really great image, but unfortunately it's also a really generic one to be a cover to this issue.


Mild Mannered Reviews

2010

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

January 2010

February 2010 March 2010 April 2010 May 2010 June 2010 July 2010 August 2010 September 2010 October 2010 November 2010 December 2010

Back to the Mild Mannered Reviews contents page.

Check out the Comic Index Lists for the complete list of Superman-related comics published in 2010.