You can’t always get what you want…
Creative Staff:
Story: Steve Orlando
Art: Brian Ching
Colors: Michael Atiyeh
Letterer: Steve Wands
What They Say:
“REIGN OF THE CYBORG SUPERMEN” part three! At last, Supergirl returns to Argo City! But when Kara Zor-El arrives back to her childhood home, a grim discovery awaits, courtesy of the Cyborg Superman! Supergirl must battle for the fate of not one but two worlds as yet another face from her past returns to stop her!
Content: (please note that content portions of a review may contain spoilers):
The opening storyline for the Supergirl series is one that I’ll easily admit that I enjoy, but I kind of wish it was the second or third arc in the series as opposed to the first. There’s a lot of material at play here that’s off-putting for new readers, something you hope for since there’s a mildly popular TV show out there that would pick up a book like this. Orlando and Ching are handling it well, even if some aspects feel like we’re getting a compressed series of events unfolding, so that you get the core ideas, characters, and the motivations behind it all. Ching makes for some very dramatic takes throughout this issue and there are some wonderful layouts with the placement of the camera and movement. And he caps it off with a great ending splash page as well that sets a proper tone.
Kara’s life has been a rush of events since this book kicked off and watching her deal with the realization of what her father has become has put her in a place where she has to know the full truth. This is balanced nicely with the time spent with her foster parents as they try and get her to see things from their side for a bit but work with her toward the goal that she’s set. It is, admittedly, a bit complicated because of the whole DEO thing and what Eliza has to do to be at Kara’s side for this adventure into space, but the DEO side itself and its relationship with Supergirl still feels kind of wonky. That really should have been the sole focus of the first arc along with expanding our view of Kara in this iteration of her.
What Zor-El has done is certainly intriguing with his modified Argo City in space around Neptune and seeing how he’s revived the citizenry is particularly creepy in a Brainiac kind of way. His attempt at giving Kara what she wants is misguided to be sure and it’s unfortunate that it goes more toward action than intense dialogue and just close physical anger. Zor-El is setting things up so that he can do what he wants for the greater good of their society and even Kara won’t be able to sway him, making for a standard kind of mini-invasion to happen. What sells it for me is the visual presentation of it as we get what’s basically a robotic kind of citizenry that’s been modified like Zor-El. It’s utterly creepy with the bland and expressionless faces combined with the tech. In particular, Alura really comes across wonderfully here with her design as it harkens back in a weird way to some old Legion of Super-Heroes designs for me. I got a significant Princess Projectra vibe from her.
In Summary:
Supergirl still feels like a book that should be biweekly in order to space things out a bit more and cover more ground in terms of character. As a monthly book it’s going through a lot of stuff quickly and it’s not hitting the full emotional resonance that it should because of that. That said, the book continues to be fun and offers up some great material for Kara to deal with and further work the bonds of her human family side, albeit in very simple and sidebar kind of terms. This installment is a big win for me with what it does in Argo City as Brian Ching really gets to just go all out with some great set and location design for it and some wonderfully creepy character moments that just click in a very big way for me. It’s definitely a solid arc overall.
Grade: B
Age Rating: 13+
Released By: DC Comics via ComiXology
Release Date: November 9th, 2016
MSRP: $2.99
