To Russia With Love!
Creative Staff:
Story: Marguerite Bennett
Art: Mirka Andolfo
Colors: J. Nanjan
Letterer: Wes Abbott
What They Say:
Steve Trevor accompanies Supergirl on a train back home to Russia, where she still has hopes of rescuing her father. During the ride, the two unexpectedly meet Alexander Luthor, who offers Supergirl an unusual glowing green rock.
Content: (please note that content portions of a review may contain spoilers):
The “All Good Things” three-part arc draws to a close with this installment but it’s all essentially prelude for what’s to come. This arc has been good as some place setting material and digging into the characters a bit, whether as a larger piece working through the cast as a whole or the smaller one like we had last time around. With this installment, Bennett again weaves a little bit of music into it that allows for some great layouts from returning artist Mirka Andolfo, one of my favorites that works on this property. I particularly like in this chapter how Steve Trevor almost looks like he’s stepping off of some manga pages here as the boyishness of the character and the time period shine through beautifully. And Andolfo continues to do great in bringing to life some period costumes as we get a couple for Kara and others here.
This installment keeps things pretty narrowly focused and that’s certainly a plus as I like the reconnect with characters that we haven’t seen for a while. Putting Kara and Steve together, under forged passports, so they can head into Russia through Turkey in order to try and find out more about where he father is being held and hopefully rescuing him from the gulag is a solid smaller story that you know can lead to bigger things. The two are definitely fun in a classic kind of train ride here, especially as Steve is kind of serving as a guide of sorts to help her process some of the loss and pain she’s going through after what happened to her sister. She at least retains some sense of humor, such as when Steve holds up a dress for the bar car for them and she jokes about how he’s going to look wonderful in it. Yes, it’s presumptuous of him, but it’s also the time and setting and the fact that he knows she wouldn’t buy something like that herself – or allow herself some happiness.
Where things take an awkward turn is when they discover that Luthor is on the train as well, among some other spies that eventually take note of Kara and who she really is. The time with Luthor is interesting as you know he must have an idea or plan to do something with her but she ends up laying it all out for him what she thinks he may really be up to, all while being frustrated that he’s as good of a dancer as he seems to be. Luthor’s plan isn’t revealed here, though we know through other appearances that he’s certainly up to something, but he does make an impact on Kara, first with the reveal of a small kryptonite blade that weakens her and then the more psychological impact of how all her troubles stem from her and not others. She’s in a fragile place still and it’ll be curious to see how this all unfolds with how she copes and reacts to this.
In Summary:
The next stage of the Russian adventure is here and bringing Kara and Steve more formally into the mix is only going to open things up more as we get deeper into it. I really like the dynamic between the two here as they both have very different backgrounds but are able to be friends and allies in the bigger and smaller picture. The chapter is all about setup and placement but it does it well and it once again just has such a great smoothness thanks to Andolfo’s artwork and layouts, especially with the great color work that Nanjan once again delivers on here, to make it a fun and engaging read with so many little details to soak up. I just can’t get enough of this book.
Grade: B+
Age Rating: 13+
Released By: DC Comics via ComiXology
Release Date: January 13th, 2017
MSRP: $0.99
