Random Back Issues #148 - Supergirl #62

Wow, I'd have never recognized him. What a master of disguise.

Supergirl's in Gotham to find Buzz, the demon she's been uneasily working with to find the "earth angel" aspect of herself that disappeared roughly a year's worth of issues ago. Buzz had tried to help a girl being menaced by a gang, got accused of being her attacker, then got the shit kicked out of him by the gang, topped off by Supergirl not believing his claim of innocence. Because he'd been a lying shitheel since the moment he showed up.

Linda wants to apologize, but she's gotta find him first. To that end, she's. . .dressing up like a cheerleader and visiting dive bars? Did Lois teach her this? A little judicious throwing of jerks through windows gets the patrons in a helpful mood, but in the meantime, Buzz has hooked up with Two-Face.

Two-Face abducted Dr. Max Tuefeld, who's been advocating making cloning available to everyone. Buzz lifted a blood sample taken from Supergirl at a hospital after she got badly injured during some crossover event when she fought a big alien robot. Two-Face is on board with the idea of having a super-strong henchwoman, especially since Buzz swears he's got some 'mystic mumbo-jumbo' to speed up the aging process. And it avoids the whole "changing diapers" phase.

Supergirl's still trashing bars (somehow Batman hasn't gotten wind of a metahuman cheerleader carving a path of ass-kickings through "his" town), when "Big-Mouthed Murray" tells her Buzz was looking for Two-Face and got sent to another bar to speak with Janus. Setting aside how a guy with that nickname hasn't been killed yet, Janus is a rather ordinary - if vaguely froggy-looking - guy to have that name. He coughs up the location of Two-Face's current hideout, Mark Twain Books, which Linda eventually realizes is Two-Face making a play on words - "the place of two."

Maybe she's dizzy from all the thinking, but her attempt to sneak in fails when she falls through a weak spot in the roof. Or maybe it's the massive lifts in her boots. Buzz is waiting for her, with a spiel all ready about how the beating he took helped him remember who he was, and that he'd strayed from that by being in love with her, since before she was born.

(It'll turn out Linda's been reincarnated and she and Buzz were married back in Roman times. It ended badly, and the next time they met, he'd been encouraging Jack the Ripper and the guy killed her.) 

Thank goodness Bizarro Supergirl is here to put a stop to all this whinging by beating the crap out of Supergirl. Or, as Buzz puts it, being gentle with her, as Two-Face apparently ordered Tuefeld to genetically program(?) the clone to only obey Two-Face and Buzz, by doing the opposite of what they say. I assume that's some play on "two-faced" by saying one thing but meaning the other?

Buzz leaves the girls to their fight (which is just Linda getting pummeled), and joins Two-Face on a trip to Arkham, where they'll collect blood samples of all the inmates, so Two-Face can have clones of them that are loyal to him. Which sounds stupid as hell. Why do you want a clone of the Riddler or Calendar Man, whether it's loyal to you or not?

It's a moot point, as they'll get Jokerized between now and the next issue, which we looked at 3 years ago.

{11th longbox, 15th comic. Supergirl (vol. 3) #62, by Peter David (writer), Leonard Kirk (penciler), Robin Riggs (inker), Gene D'Angelo (colorist), Digital Chameleon (separations), Bill Oakley (letterer)}

Saturday Splash Page #109

 

"Roll Call," in Supergirl: Cosmic Adventures in the 8th Grade #6, by Landry Q. Walker (writer), Eric Jones (artist), Joey Mason (colorist), Pat Brosseau (letterer)

An updated, more comedy-oriented approach to Supergirl's arrival on Earth, which starts with the rocket carrying Kara Zor-El crashing through Luthor's latest giant robot focused attempt to destroy Superman. From there, we learn Kara hid on her father's rocket in an attempt to teach her parents a lesson for grounding her for asking them to pass the salt. . .wait no, I'm sorry, for telling her she couldn't be part of the cheer squad for the launch of the rocket because she got 72% in Temporal Mechanics.

Most of the six issues are concerned with Kara attempting to learn how to fit in on Earth while also adjusting to having superpowers, by attending a boarding school as "Linda Lee." This goes poorly, as she doesn't understand anything about Earth, like money for example. This allows Jones a lot of chances to draw Linda having daydreams about what she could do instead. Like flying to the Moon to become Moon Supergirl, who stops Moon Criminals from stealing Moon Money from Moon Banks.

Landry Walker adds several elements beyond the usual issues the new kid faces in school. Kryptonite rays filtered through an overhead projector can an evil opposite of her, who is popular and cruel and pranks Linda repeatedly. A piece of Kryptonite that gets electrified gives a cat super-intelligence and causes it to start kidnapping students. The one friend Linda makes at school turns out to be Lex Luthor's little sister. And the principal turns out to be Mr. Mxyzptlk, with some scheme to use collected Kryptonian emotional energy, combined with his 5th-dimensional magic to. . .let him rewrite all reality?

That part doesn't make a ton of sense, but Walker's Mxy is a more malevolent version, at one point implying he might have gone so far as to be responsible for destroying Krypton, just to engineer this entire circumstance. Still, the amount that gets crammed into the final issue, along with Belinda's statement that Linda was gaining more and more friends, which we don't see any evidence of, makes me wonder if things didn't get rushed by a premature ending.

Saturday Splash Page #108

 

"Judgement's Due," in Supergirl (vol. 3) #48, by Peter David (writer), Leonard Kirk (penciler), Robin Riggs (inker), Gene D'Angelo (colorist), Bill Oakley (letterer)

As mentioned last week, one effect of Crisis on the Infinite Earths was to make Superman the only Kryptonian again. But DC couldn't put the Supergirl idea away entirely, so we got the. . .unusual "Matrix" Supergirl. I'm only vaguely up on her backstory. Something about an alternate reality, a Luthor with a full head and beard of red hair? Made of pink, protoplasmic goo, has telekinetic powers.

I don't know where he got the notion, and I'm a little surprised DC let him do it, but Peter David combined Supergirl with a young woman named Linda Danvers, to create a composite person. Linda's memories, but filtered more through Matrix's perceptions and attitudes.

The first year is largely Supergirl figuring out what's happened to her, how it happened, and what things are going to be like for her going forward. This involves a lot of Linda's friends and acquaintances trying to figure out the 180 she's pulled in personality, and "Mae" realizing the girl she's merged with wasn't quite what she figured at first glance. It also involves a demon called Buzz, who is a persistent source of both advice and irritation for almost the entire series.

Around the end of the first year, Leonard Kirk takes over as regular penciler from Gary Frank. Kirk and Riggs' art tends to soften Supergirl's appearance relative to Frank's, who had more of a thin, sharp edge to faces and expressions (though he hadn't drifted into the overly busy and stiff work he would by the time he's working with Geoff Johns a lot.) While Kirk's fully capable of drawing a furious Supergirl, he rounds jawlines and cheeks, which allows for a wider range of expression.

I think David ramps up the humor and puns more once Kirk takes over the art duties as well, but that might just be the shift in the direction of the series. Once Supergirl has some handle on the basics of her new life in Leesburg, David starts to unravel the nature of what she is (or has become, maybe.) She'd already begun to manifest new powers - flame wings, literal flame (not heat) vision -and seems to be attracting a particular kind of weirdo. Oddly dressed little boys who claim to be God, demons, fallen angels, a lady who changes into a superfast cyborg-horse person (that is also physically male, and no I'm not talking about Beta Ray Bill. Different cyborg horse-person.)

Supergirl also has to deal with people looking up to her, worshiping her, and the expectations that come with that, on top of the usual subplot stuff of parental issues, relationship issues, work troubles. That all culminates in a huge battle in issue 50 against a being out to claim Earth for his own, by forcing God to renounce his hold on it.

At which point David and Kirk pivot again. Now it's just Linda, with Golden Age Superman power levels, and the white t-shirt look Supergirl was sporting in the Timmverse Superman cartoon, with no idea where her other, angelic half, is. The story becomes a quest of sorts, with Linda having to team up with Buzz, and neither seeming to bring out the best in each other. That leaves Linda wondering if all the good she did, all the good that was in her, was really that other being. And if so, can she really change? Can Buzz, and does he even want to? 

That builds to another big showdown in issue 74, this time in the Garden of Eden. David pulls together threads he introduced over 40 issues earlier, and even uses elements from his Joker: Last Laugh tie-ins (in general, I find the event tie-ins and crossovers to be the weakest issues, but those two issues were pretty enjoyable.)

It feels like the book should end there. All the major threads tied up as they're going to get. But the book hung on another half-dozen issues, now with Ed Benes as artist. David brings in the Silver Age Kara Zor-El, somehow diverted to this world, and has her and Linda interact, until Linda tries to take Kara's place in the Silver Age (Earth-1?) timeline, including the showdown against the Anti-Monitor. Doesn't work, natch, no thanks to the always useless Hal Jordan Spectre. Plus, there's some idiot in a Skyrim mask out to kill Linda, but he can't find her.

It feels less like a Supergirl story than David lining up his future plans for Linda's character, which would play out over the Fallen Angel series at DC and then IDW.

As for Supergirl the concept, DC would bring back "Superman's cousin" in a Superman/Batman arc by Jeph Loeb and Michael Turner, then prove to have absolute fuck-all clue what to actually do with the character. So she bounced from one concept to the next - Outsiders this week, hanging out in Kandor with Power Girl the next week - probably getting the most traction when Waid and Kitson used her in their Legion of Super-Heroes book.

Saturday Splash Page #107

"Denial," in Supergirl (vol. 2) #21, by Paul Kupperberg (writer), Eduardo Barreto (artist), Gene D'Angelo (colorist), Milton Snapinn (letterer)

I've got just this one issue of Supergirl's second self-titled solo book. I don't remember how it came into my possession. My best guess is in some random grab-bag of comics I picked up at a grocery store or something like that, but it may have been part of a gift from a family member that just knew I liked comics.

This issue is essentially the second part of a story that started in Superman. Supergirl follows some alien spacecraft to Metropolis and finds Superman tangling with the Kryptonite Man. His people species lived on Krypton long before, and were in hibernation when the planet blew up. The mountain he was in was thrown clear and turned to Kryptonite, which his body fed on. He thinks the later Kryptonians made the planet explode, so he wants to kill Superman. Supergirl's basically a throw-in, since he didn't know she existed until she gets involved.

There's also some mysterious group of aliens after the K-Man for stealing one of their ships, and they've booby-trapped it to kill him. They talk of themselves as some big wheel, the unknown movers and shakers in the galaxy, but they're played as a bunch of losers. Their played as indifferent to the lives of anyone other than themselves, to I guess make the K-Man look a little better in comparison.

I don't guess it's representative of the book as a whole, given no members of Supergirl's supporting cast appear, nor are there any updates or even allusions to any subplots going on in the book at the time. Of course, the book ended 2 issues later. Then Supergirl was killed off in Crisis on the Infinite Earths. Then DC decided they wanted to go back to Superman being the only Kryptonian, so no cousin that also survived (no Kryptonite Man either, presumably, unless you count Metallo.) That didn't mean they were satisfied keeping the concept out of circulation. . .

Random Back Issues #87 - Supergirl #63

Each version of the World's Finest has to find their own equilibrium.

Been a couple of years since we looked at an issue of Supergirl. That was the conclusion of what Peter David had been building towards since the beginning of his run, but here we're still a year away from that, with Linda Danvers trying to find the "earth angel" she used to be bonded with. Unfortunately for her, she has to deal with a Joker: Last Laugh tie-in first.

Also a Bizarro version of herself, who kicked Linda's ass last issue. Good news, Batgirl's here to help! And because she doesn't talk much, Peter David can't write as much dialogue or as many puns. That must have been killing him (although he used Cass in an issue of Young Justice, too, so maybe he likes a silent character to react to all the gibbering idiots.)

Cass is able to avoid Bizarro Supergirl's attack easily and flip her into a piece of damaged equipment sitting in a pool of water. Seems like an oddly lethal response from Cass (who is still in her "death wish" phase.) Maybe she could somehow tell B-S-Girl could take it?

Elsewhere, Linda's partner in her search, the human-turned-demon Buzz, is hanging out with Two-Face, and both are Jokerized, crashing an armored car and throwing the money to the passerbys. They return to the warehouse, where Bizarro Supergirl is now happily electrocuting herself, and visit their hostage, Dr. Tuefeld, who created her. They've scrapped their plans to bring him DNA samples or Arkham residents to make clones of, and Two-Face is just gonna shoot him, if the coin says so. 

Buzz, meanwhile, can't figure out why he wants to cry while he's laughing. He's still sporting the injuries he got from trying to help a girl a few issues ago, and in the aftermath of that beating, Linda accused him of probably doing something skeevy to deserve it. Gee, it's almost like repeatedly proving yourself to be an untrustworthy and duplicitous demon makes people question your motives! Weird how that works out.

Batgirl wakes Supergirl up and the two head back to the warehouse. Two-Face has decided to just shoot the doc anyway, so Cass takes away the gun. Of course Harvey's got two but decides to shoot at her instead. That doesn't work and it takes him a couple of tries to remember how to get Bizarro Supergirl to help. Fortunately, Linda steps in to punch her opposite through the wall onto a dock.

Unfortunately, Bizarro Supergirl suddenly demonstrates the flame vision Linda had when she was bonded with the earth angel. Someone has no doubt violated safety regulations and a host of environmental regulations by storing a bunch of fuel canisters on the dock. Cue big explosion and Linda diving into the ocean. By the time she surfaces, there's no sign of Bizarro, but there is a trail she's been told she left behind when she used her "shunt" ability. Something for her to worry about.

{11th longbox, 4th comic. Supergirl (vol. 3) #63, by Peter David (writer), Leonard Kirk (penciler), Robin Riggs (inker), Gene D'Angelo (colorist), Digital Chameleon (separations), Bill Oakley (letterer)}

Random Back Issues #37 - Supergirl #74

Would reverse psychology for Bizarros just be honesty?

We looked at one of the issues of this volume of Supergirl for Random Back Issues #4. That was in the brief epilogue of the series, after Ed Benes took over as artist and the Silver Age Supergirl showed up. Today, we're at the culmination of what Peter David had been doing since the book started. Which means there's a lot of stuff to explain about this issue that's taking place in the Garden of Eden.

The Earth Angel aspect of Supergirl vanished after a big fight with The Carnivore in issue #50, leaving Linda Danvers with Golden Age Superman-level powers as she traveled the world trying to locate Supergirl, with the help of Buzz, a pest of a demon. Buzz acts and talks like he wandered over from one of Warren Ellis' more phoned-in works. All British sarcasm, cynicism, smoking and drinking.

Mary Marvel joined them about 8 issues earlier, leaving Linda increasingly frustrated with how much better and more competent of a person and hero Mary. To the point she ignored Mary and charged into the fight immediately, and Mary got stabbed in the heart with a Hell Lord's dagger. Buzz spends the first three pages of the issue yelling at Linda about what a fuckup she is. Then the Earth Angel Supergirl (being controlled by a Bizarro version of Linda-Supergirl, created by a scientist at the best of a Joker-gas infected Two-Face during a Last Laugh tie-in) pulls from the Man-Thing playbook and starts burning Linda for her hatred and doubt and whatever.

Bizarro S-Girl is herself being manipulated by Lilith, God's first attempt to create a woman (who was not down with hanging out with Adam or serving him as God told her to), and the Carnivore's mother. She's gonna use Angel Supergirl's powers to open a portal to rescue her son. Linda, looking more like Deadpool trying to cosplay as Supergirl after falling in a fire pit, tries to take her down, but is outclassed. She manages to convince the Bizarro to help, but as Bizarro is more plant than flesh(?), the Hell Lord Hurmizah unleashes a plague of locusts that devour her.

As if there aren't enough balls in the air already, a lady named Twilight steps in to help. She has shadow powers, and the ability to bring people back from the dead, but lost faith in God after her power couldn't save her sister back in the Middle Ages. Lilith's forced her compliance by keeping the reincarnated sister as a hostage, but the Queen of the Fairies frees her, and little sis convinced her to throw in with Linda. That wouldn't be enough, but with Bizarro dead, Angel Supergirl is free and able to step in as the Carnivore begins to emerge.

I thought trying to explain all the shit in that issue of Amazing Spider-Man last month was making my head hurt, but we have a new champion. I can actually feel my headache growing in intensity as I type.

Things aren't looking great, but Buzz hits Lilith in the heart with Hurmizah's knife, which throws the villains off enough they can be forced back through the portal to, wherever. Buzz crows about how this was what he wanted all along, because Lilith's husband is Baalzebub, who tricked Buzz centuries ago and cost him his wife (who was eventually reincarnated as Linda, yeesh), and this is Buzz getting payback. The money quote is, "And all that business about vengeance being a hollow pursuit? Pure bull. Vengeance is great. I highly recommend it."

Day is saved, minus the part where Mary, Linda, and Twilight are all dying or dead. Angel Supergirl prepares to fuse with Linda again, who tells her to fuse with Twilight instead, since she's a better, more deserving person. A better, more deserving person with the ability to revive the dead, so Linda and Mary are alive again, and Linda's powers are a little closer to what they were before. She can fly again, which is nice.

Buzz vanished, Twilight and Angel Supergirl are the combined being now, Twilight has her sister back, Linda and Mary leave the Garden and out in space, there's a rocketship with a blonde girl with an "S" on her chest. This was the last issue for the Leonard Kirk and Robin Riggs art duo, after Kirk had been artist on the book since about issue 13, and Riggs had been on the team since #24.

{11th longbox, 50th comic. Supergirl (vol. 3) #74, by Peter David (writer), Leonard Kirk and Robin Riggs (artists), Gene D'Angelo (colorist), Digital Chameleon (letterer)}

Everyone Can Use Friendly Ear Sometimes

In the same vein as last Wednesday's post, I had an idea about two characters I would have liked to see interact at some point. In this case, it's Peter David's "earth angel" version of Supergirl, and Reverend Craemer.

Craemer served as chaplain at Belle Reve, and later wound up as a sounding board for spiritual matters to Jim Corrigan, aka the Spectre. So he has experience with both erratic, violent personalities, and aspects of a supreme being combined with a human soul that are struggling to figure out what they're supposed to do. In The Spectre, he was eventually given the boot from the Catholic Church because he wouldn't toe the party line when it came to his sermons. He seemed open to varied conceptions of God and other faiths, so I doubt Linda being an earth angel is gonna faze him.

Plus, once you've been crucified by an out of control Spirit of Vengeance, an angry lady with telekinesis and fire wings maybe doesn't seem so terrifying. To say nothing of having to deal with Amanda Waller.

From Linda's perspective, she could have used the support of someone with a little more background in religious matters she could trust. Buzz is giving her some information, but he's a chaos demon or whatever. Not trustworthy. You've got Wally, the little kid who claims to be God, but he's being mysterious and vague a bunch of the time. Nobody has time for that bullshit. Most of her superhero acquaintances aren't much help, and if she's around them, then there's probably a crisis to deal with. Linda's friends don't know anything about what's going on.

Her mother's faith waxed and waned, to the point it seemed Linda was usually trying to prop it up, rather than being able to get support from it herself. Which has a big part of Supergirl's issues, everyone pinning their hopes and faith on her, leaving her to try and live up to it, without anyone she could lean on. Craemer seems like someone that would have at least tried to keep her from being too hard on herself, keep her from beating up on herself for not being able to help everyone, which might have kept her from losing hope. If nothing else, he can point out she never wiped out an entire country like the Spectre did. So how bad can she be doing, really?

Random Back Issues #4 - Supergirl #78

I have a feeling Deadman uses that one on the Phantom Stranger a lot. Or maybe Guy uses it on Hal a lot. . .

This is within the last few months of Peter David's run on Supergirl (the book ends at #80), the one focused on the combination of Linda Danvers and that post-Crisis, weird goo, "Matrix" Supergirl, which turned into an Earth Angel. Yeah, I'd need to reread a lot more issues to explain it better than that. Leonard Kirk moved on as artist after issue #74, and Ed Benes replaced him, which, yeah. Supergirl started getting drawn as a lot older, with more sex appeal emphasis. The skirt got a bit shorter, and half the time is drawn as so form fitting it might as well be bike shorts. I know, shocking to hear.

By this point, I think the "angel" aspect has been resolved, but now we have two Supergirls running around. One, the Linda version, in the outfit Supergirl had gotten when she showed up in the Timmverse Superman cartoon. The other, Silver Age Kara Zor-El Supergirl, rocket to Earth has been shunted into the wrong universe and time by some guy called the Fatalist.

(That's not the guy mouthing off to Hal up above, by the way. Skyrim Cosplayer up there is called Xenon, and has been trapped in some place by a Supergirl, and has been busy trying to lure Supergirls there to kill them until he gets the right one and can escape. Hal is doing a good job as Spectre by impotently telling him to stop, or else.)

The first part of the issue is Kara letting the half-metal bad guy pummel her, because she thinks her X-ray vision made an elderly woman's pacemaker fail, so she deserves to get beat up. By the time Linda is able to rush to help, Kara's started fighting again because Rebel has explained it was probably the self-diagnostic he ran that caused the pacemaker to fail. I assume he's being serious, but it's possible he's lying just to get her to stop being a sad sack and fight back. Which, considering this is a Silver Age Kryptonian, is a spectacularly stupid idea, but there's no reason he'd know that.

Once Spectre and the Fatalist show up, we learn Kara has to go to her proper universe to die fighting the Anti-Monitor, which she understandably doesn't take well. Also that the Fatalist arranged for Rebel to show up test their might, I mean test their spirit. That old lady with the bum pacemaker will no doubt be ecstatic to know that, you tattooed, three-eyed dumbshit.

Linda promises to talk the Spectre out of making Kara, then goes in her place. That doesn't end up working, either. Still, Linda ends up in Silver Age DC, and eventually marries Superman. She's not his cousin and he knows it, it's OK!

Kara's written as kind and innocent, suggesting to Linda they can restore her secret identity through some sort of scheme, probably involving Batman. I feel like Silver Age Supergirl wasn't quite this naive, but I'm no expert. It helps emphasize the differences between her and Linda, who has been through some shit by this point, and is probably somewhere in her 20s, while I'm pretty sure Kara's supposed to be a teenager.

[11th longbox, 60th comic. Supergirl (vol. 3) #78, by Peter David (writer), Ed Benes (penciler), Alex Lei (inker), Digital Chameleon (colorist), Comicraft (letterer)]

More Tact Might Be Useful

I was looking through that first issue of the Reign in Hell mini-series, and lo and behold, there's Linda Danvers, with fire wings and everything. That was a little surprising, I thought she was persona non grata in the DCU since they brought the current Supergirl in.

I wasn't aware of the fact she was somehow connected to Neron. I suppose the fire wings should have been a clue, but I thought she was an angel on earth, so it didn't occur to me she'd be connected to their devil. I found it a little curious that the Shadowpact, worried that she might get drawn into the conflict in the infernal realms, decided to attack her, rather than approach peacefully. Given that she was doing absolutely nothing threatening at that particular moment, it seems like a needless escalation of things. Yes, she might respond in a hostile manner if they simply walk up and ask if she'll come with them, and certainly you don't want to get killed if you can avoid it, but if you attack you pretty much guarantee you'll get attacked right back.

Even if they had succeeded in restraining her, and putting her some place where she couldn't get recalled to Hell, at some point that conflict is going to be over, and what do you do then? You going to keep her locked up forever, based on her heritage, rather than what she did? Because that's very Marvel Universe isn't it, like an mystical version of the Mutant Registration Act and all those future where mutants are in camps simply because they're mutants. So that hardly seems proper for a team of heroes. So maybe they cut her loose. What's to stop her from turning around and immediately attacking them? They locked her up when she hadn't done anything. More than that, she'd built a life for herself there, and they probably wrecked it (even if they don't have a huge, destructive fight that reveals her true self to her friends and coworkers, she's probably missed work, and her friends haven't heard from her, she may have lost her home), so I'd say Ms. Danvers might feel a bit of butt-kicking was in order. You know, to redress a wrong.

Oh well, she did get recalled, so maybe the Shadowpact won't have to worry about any aftershocks..

It's Sorcerer Supreme, not Sorcerer Inept, Damnit!

Talking Warbird #4 here people. Few quick notes:

- OK, Strange says he bound Traveler with the Crimson Bands of Cytorrak. Great, except I don't see anything crimson holding the guy. I do see some stuff that's brown, looks suspiciously like packing tape. C'mon Doc, save that stuff for when you put antiquated books on Ebay, not when you're holding a guy who's got considerable, if possibly uncontrolled, mystical power.

- And why would you leave the Wand of Watoomb sitting out in broad daylight over your fireplace? The first time I saw that was your first meeting with Spider-Man, when a mage sent some hypnotized super-goons to steal it, and you were at least hiding it in a cabinet then.

- And when the hell did Wong start sporting the Alfred Pennyworth look? A white suit, with a green tie? OK, those aren't Alfie's colors, but it's his style of attire. Wong wears meditative green robes. Maybe he and Jarvis are double-dating these days? Now who could Wong be dating? Mistress Clea (behind Strange's back?)? Maybe Shang-Chi's sister? She was going to marry Black Panther, but he shot her down, so. . . I've got no clue, help me out here.

- Is this Warren Traveler any relation to the Judas Traveler that was such a pain in Spider-Man's butt during the Clone Saga (as if Webs didn't have enough to worry about already then)? Probably not, since that guy was apparently strictly low-level psionic, with perception altering powers, while this guy is a time-traveling sorcerer, but you can never tell.

- Doctor Strange has a publicist? What, she helps him get on Conan O'Brien, where he pulls Mindless Ones out of his cape? Wasting his time with that, no wonder he looks so incompetent these days.

- Speaking of publicists, this lady is up to no good. Her building scans information from your cellphone and records it? Why do I have the distinct feeling that little nugget is going to bite Carol in the rear sometime in the future? Or maybe not. Does she have friends that aren't in the superhero community, people that could be endangered if the wrong people got her cellphone records?

- Never mind. Carol doesn't have any non-superhero friends. If Spider-Man is any indication, having friends that aren't costumed adventurers is as taboo as smoking. Way to keep your heroes grounded in our world Joey, because there's no chance people with superpowers and secret identities would still have friends who weren't like them. Idiot.

Final thing:

- When the publicist calls Carol on her new phone, she tells her that until her apartment is repaired, she'll be staying at the Ritz. And here's the part I find interesting. The publicist says 'You're under the name Linda Danvers, since nobody would be interested in that name.'

There's a meaning there, obviously, given that Linda Danvers was Peter David's Angel-Supergirl. Is it a reference to the fact she's apparently no longer in continuity? Were Bill Reed, Roberto De La Torre, or Jimmy Palmiotti involved with that series? Or is it just a shout-out to Peter David, who's Fallen Angel series stars a character somewhat similar to Linda, that he had to switch to IDW because DC got annoyed about it for some reason? Or is it simply a jab at DC? Or all of the above.

- And why exactly isn't Linda Danvers in continuity? She wasn't a Kryptonian, so why does it matter if she called herself Supergirl before this anorexic, annoying twit that has the title now? Honestly, if you want a Kryptonian cousin for Superman, they should have just stuck with Power Girl. With her origin finally settled, and people who can write her well (and interestingly), she was fine for that role, plus calling herself "Power Girl" keeps her from just being a female version of the male character. Just a thought.

Reflections #17 - Supergirl #6

Opening thought: Why is it that "into" can be written as one word, but "out of" is not? You'd think it could work equally well. The things I think of when writing essays. In case you hadn't figured it how, this is Exhibit #141 in "Calvin Can't Write Good Introductory Paragraphs".

Heh. Ragnell already detailed what DC has apparently decided is Power Girl's trademark symbol. I just thought it was interesting how her Nightwing outfit has the landing strip lights that serve to highlight her contours. Helps distinguish her from Flamebird, who is, shall we say, less developed. As for the placement of some of the lights, well I ain't going there. All joking about it aside, the costumes are pretty cool. Just didn't need those lights.

One disturbing thing I noticed. Page 3, as Kara checks out her new tattoo, her reflection bears a somewhat different expression from her face (God I wish I had a scanner). Her actual face has a sort of curious look, trying to see if it's what she wanted. But the reflection has the visible eye in kind of a glare. It just doesn't look friendly. I guess that, combined with her anger issues later on, are supposed to demonstrate she still hasn't gotten rid of that dark half she had rejoined with at the end of issue #5.

I'm not sure how Kara figures that she'll be able to find Argo with something she'll find in Kandor. It does sound like they're in the bottle (though it still wouldn't explain the aliens to me, as I'd always figured Post-Crisis Krypton was fairly homogenous), so how would a city trapped in a bottle know where a city that survived destruction would be? Am I out of the loop on Kandor's current situation? Maybe her darker half is pulling her strings, trying to escape.

I'm not sure why Power Girl would say their powers are limited. Is it because they've been shrunk down, or some aspect of the environment? Maybe the Fortress got damaged, and only a few rays of golden sun are peeking through the holes into the city?

Does anyone know what that tattoo actually says? I don't speak Kryptonian, nor do I read it.

I have to say the strongest part of the issue is Rucka's writing of the Power Girl/Supergirl relationship. Giving Karen the role of the calmer, wiser mentor, who has to remind this somewhat erratic girl that A) These people have been treated pretty badly by Kryptonians, and aren't likely to feel friendly towards them, B) Flamebird and Nightwing are supposed to be helping these people, not breaking their bones and flash frying them, and C) It is way too easy for Supergirl to do B, if she doesn't stay under control. It really was nice, after watching her kind of get led around by this person or that during Infinite Crisis. Is she portrayed like this in JSA? Some guy gave pratically the entire run to Ken to sell, I might have to pick up some of it. I think Supergirl's fighting in a way actually ties back in to that speech Superman made in issue #5 where he told Supergirl that he grew into his powers, had time to understand them and to realize he had to hold back a lot, which Kara didn't have the benefit of. Not surprisingly, she's still having trouble with that a year later, especially with her having more of a temper than Clark. You know, if I had thrown "closet lesbian" in after "Power Girl/Supergirl", I'd probably get a lot more hits. Ah well.

Given that I've admitted that art often outweighs story for me in a comic, you might believe I was disappointed in the art. Not really. I was pretty satisfied with Ed Benes' art. It looks pretty, Kara appears to have started to eat - guess it just took her some time to adjust to Earth food - but just a few too many shots from butt angle, when there seemed to be no need for that. Cannot believe I just typed that. *Sigh* does that mean I'm maturing?

A Quick request of the DC Universe

No, it's not for their books to stop beating Marvel's in sales. I would like to formally request that someone, anyone introduce Supergirl to the Earth concept of "food". I know that women are rarely if ever portrayed accurately physically in comics, but she's in Kate Moss territory right now, and Kryptonian or no, that can't be good.

You'd think Artemis would have taught her about the importance of eating as a warrior, you to provide the energy for warrioring? Isn't the old saying "An army travels on its stomach"? Well, she's as powerful as an army, so clearly she needs to eat more than the single lettuce leaf she ingests every three days right now.

(I was going to make a joke about "Doctor Light thanks you". Then I remembered Supergirl is Luthor's territory, and . . . I should just stop now.)