Monday, June 28, 2010

Supergirl #53

I loved this issue.  Everything about it was spot on.


That cover.   It's not often you get to see Kara in this pose, usually it's Clark, so it's really gratifying to see this as the cover.  The confidence of her!  The complete invulnerability and the pride and ease at which she's striding into action.  She's so self assured.  It's just fantastic.

Of course, the Kara we greet inside isn't quite like this.  The New Krypton saga has just ended and she's lost everyone, again.  We open with a nightmare that she's having, where she's back in project 7734 and the dead Superwoman and her dead parents are trying to take her back.  She's bursts awake and notices that she's burnt the ceiling with her heat vision.  Which leads us onto this scene:



This is my absolute favourite scene in the book.  I love the curl of her lip, the fact she's actually fixing the damage, that she's flying while doing household chores, and the way she describes what she's doing to Lana.  This is justa  really good Kara Zor-El character moment, I think.

Also, notice how her hair has got shorter.  I love details like this.  This is not a pencil error, through the entire book her hair has been cut short, presumably as a symbolic thing to help her move on from the trauma of New Krypton being blown up.  Kara also asks Lana to call her Linda from now on - she wants to drop the whole Kara identity and settle into being Linda.  On first reading I dislike this direction, but on second reading it makes more sense.  She's had a pretty rough time of it, no wonder she wants to get away from the El identity.

Later on we see Dr Light and STAR Labs trying to cure Superwoman, by using the machine Kara developed to save Lana from the Insect Queen.  I don't think this is going to end well. :/

Then we see Kara and Lana having coffee and the window explodes.  Kara refuses to go investigate and Lana storms off declaring that she won't support Kara when she refuses to help people.  This is whole issue is character driven.  Even with the obligatory explosions and fights, this is justa  damn great portrait of Kara's life.

Finally, we see Dr Light and Gangbuster investigating the crash, which turns out to be Bizzaro Supergirl.  A fabulous ending to a great comic.  I am so looking forward to Bizzaro Supergirl, partly due to Amy Reeder's superb covers.

All in all, this is a great issue to kick off a year of crossover free stories! Comic of the week, no doubt about it.

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

This issue made me so happy. I love the fact that Sterling is such a talented writer that he can capture my interest without having Kara..i mean Linda change into Supergirl and save the day once throughout the entire book. I like her new hair to maybe we will get a new costume once this arc is over. Possibly something with pants or tights. Great review.