Digging into the details.
Creative Staff:
Story: Sterling Gates
Art: Carmen Carnero
Colors: Sandra Molina
What They Say:
Road trip! Kara convinces her big sister that a trip to the Fort Rozz crash site is just what they need to get some answers-but what they find leads to more questions!
Content: (please note that content portions of a review may contain spoilers):
The Adventures of Supergirl is serving a new purpose for the next couple of months as the bi-weekly digital-first series continues as it’s giving me my Kara fix as the TV series finished outs its (first) season. Having enjoyed the show a good deal, problems and all, the comic works in its own similar way as it’s doing its blending while playing to a larger storyline of its own. I don’t have expectations of anything here carrying over to the show, though any nods would be fun, but the book does it right by complementing the show all while standing on its own as well. It’s doing some nice fleshing out of things since there’s plenty of areas it can dip into with ease that won’t contradict anything else.
With this issue, it’s all about the setup that’s to come and Gates gets to work with Carmen Carnero here, an artist that I’ve enjoyed before. She brings a similar sense of the book as we had in previous issues with her own stylistic elements so it’s a solid blending that again would have me pleased to see her on it regularly. The book essentially works two tracks here as it moves toward the goal it has for the limited run and one of those tracks involves the DEO. Often this can be pretty bland material in general and the comics are no exception, but it’s fun to see the rank and file doing their job and getting freaked out by how Vril Dox is enjoying himself in there, manipulating things exactly as he wants them by all appearances – even if the DEO hasn’t figured it out yet. It’s not a huge part but Carnero definitely captures the fear that can be installed by Dox’s little grin.
The big part of the book is the Kara and Alex Road trip as she gets Alex to grab a DEO truck and head to one of the splinter impact sites from Fort Rozz when it crashed. This fleshes out a bit of what went on after the incident and the various sites where things ended up before being carted off to what we know happened in the season finale. This aspect of the book is fun as it’s an exploration angle that’s played as they find an underground chunk of the Fort that was missed and there’s some nasty stuff in there that’s being manipulated by someone named Facet. Again, it’s all setup, but it’s designed to further the kind of person Kara is as she’s initially there to find Psi’s body and give her a proper funeral while also providing more sister bonding time. That it goes into some action material against Kryptonian guard droids really shouldn’t surprise anyone, nor that someone has been watching Kara for a long, long time. It adds to the overall unease and the way she really is/was so unaware of the larger world around her.
In Summary:
The series continues to be a good bit of fun with what it does and this issue is no exception, even if it is mostly setup for what’s to come. I like the larger narrative that Gates is putting together as it really does blend well with Kara’s discovery phase in the first season of the TV series. It also doesn’t hurt to have a good bit of Kryptonian thrown around in here, something that the show needs to grab onto and work with. It’s also a solid installment with Carmen Carnero on board for the artwork as she has some good panel layouts throughout and a very good flow for the dialogue, especially in that driving sequence. Definitely a good bit of fun that has me interested in seeing what’s next in store for them.
Grade: B
Age Rating: 12+
Released By: DC Comics via ComiXology
Release Date: May 2nd, 2016
MSRP: $0.99
