Comic Book Review: Supergirl #36

For the most part, The Revolution continues to enjoy the New Krypton story arc. I am curious to see if how the Superman creative team is going to handle Zor-El’s death. Hopefully, it will be a springboard for something more original than what I think is headed our way. Let’s go ahead and hit this review.

Writer: Sterling Gates
Pencils: Jamal Igle
Inks: Keith Champagne

Art Rating: 7 Night Girls out of 10
Story Rating: 7 Night Girls out of 10
Overall Rating: 7 Night Girls out of 10

Synopsis: We begin with Supergirl screaming at the sight of her father being killed. Supergirl rushes toward her father. Superman yells for Supergirl to stay near him since she is still temporarily without her powers due to the gold Kryptonite. Supergirl ignores Superman’s please and charges forward. A Brainiac robot attacks Supergirl and stabs her in the shoulder. Superman then takes out the Brainiac robot.

Supergirl keeps running forward toward her father. Three Brainiac robots then hop out in front of Supergirl. Fortunately, Kara’s powers kick back in and she melts the three robots with her heat vision. Kara rushes to her father’s side. Zor-El stammers how nice it was to see his daughter once again. Zor-El says that his daughter is all grown up and beautiful. Zor-El tells Kara to watch out for her mother and that Kara has made him proud. Zor-El then dies. Kara screams out.

We cut to Superman and Thara commenting that Brainiac’s robots have all been shut down and that the robots were just a distraction so that Reactron and Metallo could get close to Zor-El. Thara uses her super vision and states that Reactron and Metallo used a tunnel running out to the sea in order to make their escape. Thara says that there are no signs of either villain.

We see Allura arriving on the scene and rushing to Zor-El’s body. Allura sobs that they should have never stayed here.

We shift to the Daily Planet. News of Zor-El’s death is buzzing all over the Planet’s offices. Cat brushes it off and says that they should be busy trying to learn who killed the SP officers. Cat believes that it was Supergirl.

We slide back to Kandor at Zor-El’s funeral. Allura gives a nice eulogy about what a wonderful man Zor-El was. Allura then states that Earth is not safe for Kryptonians. That the people of Earth have treated Kandor as a threat. That the people of Earth have responded with violence and should not be surprised if Kandor responds in kind.

We zip to later that night with Kara at her parents’ house. Kara is holding Zor-El’s headband and looking at a hologram of Zor-El. Superman enters the room and says that he wants to speak to Allura. Kara says that her mother has not left her room since they got back from the funeral.

Superman says that Allura refuses to tell him who killed the policemen and that the Justice League of America will be coming soon and that they will want answers. Kara asks if it can wait till tomorrow. Kara says that she is going to Metropolis to get her stuff. Kara continues that she is moving to Kandor since her mother needs her at this moment.

Superman says that he is worried that some of the Kryptonians will use Allura’s words from the funeral to lash out at the Earthlings. Allura enters the room and snipes “And why shouldn’t they?” Allura continues that humans murdered Zor-El as he stood there defenseless. Superman counters that Reactron and Metallo are not representatives of mankind as a whole.

Allura says that mankind is so afraid of Kryptonians that they sent assassins to their front door. Allura states that Superman and Kara should have done a better job maintaining order here on Earth. That if they had done that then Zor-El would probably still be alive. Supergirl is stunned. Allura states that if Kal-El and Kara had done a better job keeping their enemies from running wild then Zor-El would still be here.

Supergirl starts crying and says that she does not have to listen to this. Supergirl then flies off. Kal-El asks Allura why she would say that. Allura answers “Because it’s true.” Allura then walks out of the room.

We cut to Supergirl standing on a nearby mountain. Superwoman suddenly appears next to her. Superwoman asks Supergirl if she wants to fly with her. The two take off and Supergirl talks about how Allura blames Supergirl for Zor-El’s death. Superwoman says that she is sorry to hear that. Superwoman says that Allura is wrong.

We shift to Nightwing and Flamebird taking out some Kryptonians at the Fortress of Solitude. Nightwing finds blueprints of the White House on the bodies of the Kryptonians. Flamebird says that she knew that they assumed these identities to stop Zod’s followers, but that she did not know that they would have to end up fighting the good guys.

We zip back to Supergirl and Superwoman landing in Metropolis. Superwoman states that Allura cannot blame anyone in Kandor for Zor-El’s death. And that Allura needs to remember that she does not control all the people of Kandor. Superwoman says that Allura is beside herself in both grief and anger. And those two emotions combined can lead people to do horrible things.

We cut to Allura arriving at the Military Guild’s building where Zod’s followers are located. Allura states that the soldiers followed Zod and never questioned him once. Allura says that they are loyal to Krypton and that Krypton needs them. That Allura needs them. One of the soldiers asks Allura “For what?” Allura responds “To defend our gates from the oncoming storm.”

We shift back to Supergirl and Superwoman on top of the Daily Planet’s building. Superwoman tells Kara not to do anything rash. Kara responds that Superwoman sounds like Kal-El. Superwoman smiles and responds that Kara and Kal-El inspired her to put on her Superwoman costume.

Supergirl says that she appreciates Superwoman’s advice and shoulder to cry on, but Supergirl does not know who Superwoman is. Supergirl continues that Superwoman has lined her mask with lead.

Superwoman responds that they all have secrets to keep and people to protect. But, when the time is right that Superwoman will tell Kara her identity. Until then, Kara can call Superwoman her friend. Kara responds that she would like to be Superwoman’s friend. Superwoman says “See you back home!” and takes off. End of issue.

The Good: Supergirl #36 was a solid read. I am totally unfamiliar with Sterling Gates and this is the first issue I have ever read by him. Gates showed good technical writing skills and delivered a read that was well paced and plotted. The story moved along with direction and a purpose.

The flow of the story was nicely done as Gates began with a fast paced action scene before dialing back the energy and allowing the story to simmer as the stage was set for the next issue. Supergirl #36 gave the reader a chance to see how Zor-El’s death has impacted the various characters in this story and how Zor-El’s death will dictate the final course of direction of this story.

Gates crafts some solid dialogue. The different characters had well developed voices. The character work was serviceable. The best character work was reserved for Allura. Gates gives the reader an Allura who is even more hard-assed than ever. Allura shows an even more hard-line view towards mankind when she issues her public calls for violence against the Earthlings while giving a eulogy at Zor-El’s funeral. We then see Allura enlisting the help of Zod’s followers from the military guild to protect Kandor.

Gates managed to convey that dangerous cocktail of grief and anger that is fueling Allura’s decisions in this issue. While the reader views Allura as a villain, Gates still manages to get the reader to feel sympathetic for Allura and the loss that she has suffered. While the reader knows that what Allura is doing is wrong, it is still completely understandable that Allura would react to the Earthlings in this manner.

Gates certainly packs in plenty of action into the beginning of Supergirl #36. The opening scene was quick, exciting and dramatic. I loved Supergirl’s reaction to Zor-El being killed. Kara recklessly charged toward her father despite the fact that she was still temporarily without her powers and despite the fact that there were numerous Brainiac robots between her and her father. This is exactly the type of reaction and complete disregard for one’s self that a child would have when seeing one of their parents in mortal danger. And it was a pretty bad-assed moment when Kara got her powers back and roasted the Brainiac robots.

Gates delivered a rather touching little death scene. Yes, this type of death scene was a bit predictable and well worn but it was still well done. Gates also gives the reader another touching moment at the House of El where Kara is holding Zor-El’s headband and looking at the hologram of her father. Gates does not employ any dialogue or narration in the one page splash shot where Zor-El dies in Kara’s arms or in the page with Kara in the House of El remembering her father. This made both scenes much more dramatic and moving.

Gates hints at what is to come as we head toward the conclusion of the New Krypton story. We see Nightwing and Flamebird discovering plans of the White House on some of the military guild Kryptonians. This indicates that Allura has authorized an attack on the President. And this is a logical reaction to the attack on Zor-El. The U.S. military attacked the Kandor leader at their home so Allura is looking to return the favor.

I found the ending to this issue to be a bit muted. Having said that, this ending serves as a bit of set up for this new direction in Kara’s life with her moving to Kandor. It makes perfect sense given all that has happened that Kara would move to Kandor. However, it is obvious that Kara does not view Kandor as “home” and is moving out of a sense of obligation rather than her own personal desire.

Jamal Igle and Keith Champagne deliver plenty of nice artwork. What I enjoyed the most about Igle’s art is how he manages to convey the emotions of the characters via some excellent facial expressions. Igle does a fine job breathing life into these characters and helping to inject plenty of emotion into the story.

The Bad: I had no interest at all in the Cat/Supergirl feud. Of course, the reason for that is probably because I do not normally read Supergirl and only picked up this issue because I am following the New Krypton story.

I am still not overly impressed with Zor-El’s death. It felt mechanical and unoriginal. It came across as a common plot device that rendered predictable and ordinary results. I still would have rather have seen Allura die. Seeing Zor-El turn heel would have been more interesting then watching Allura goes from a villain to a really mad and angry villain. Also, it seems repetitious since we already had one father die when Jonathon Kent passed away.

I am not that interested in the inevitable mother versus daughter battle. It is not a particularly novel concept and it lacks any suspense since we all know that Supergirl is not going to side with Allura. Supergirl has already played the role of the villain in the past and I cannot imagine DC placing her in that role once again.

I found the drama of Allura stating that if Kal-El and Kara had kept order on Earth and kept their villains from running wild then Zor-El would still be alive. This belief by Allura required a real stretch of logic by the reader. I know that it can be argued that Allura is lacking any logic in her beliefs because of the amount of grief that she is experiencing. However, it seemed incredibly tenuous to try and link Zor-El’s death with somehow being Kal-El and Kara’s fault. It came across as weak writing and trying to shoehorn a quick and convenient reason for Allura to be willing to cross swords with Kal-El and Kara.

I have absolutely no interest at all in Superwoman. Of course, this is a personal issue since I rarely enjoy derivative characters. Having Superwoman appear on the scene feels like a recycled plotline from when Superman “died” and we got treated to a bunch of Superman-replacement characters. It seems that DC is once again setting in place various Superman-replacement characters to carry on Superman’s banner when he leaves Earth.

My dislike for derivative characters probably means that I will enjoy Superwoman less than your typical comic book reader. I am sure that many comic book readers will find this character interesting as well as mystery surrounding the identity of Superwoman. And we did learn one thing about Superwoman. She is not Allura.

Overall: Supergirl #36 was another solid installment of the New Krypton story. Now, Gates did not do anything at all to get me interested in reading Supergirl after the New Krypton story has concluded. I still find Kara to be an uninteresting character. However, Gates did do a fine job progressing several plotlines in the New Krypton story and setting the stage for what should be an exciting finish.