The start of something new?
Overall I was quite impressed with this run of Supergirl, this new issue however didn't seem to live up to the beginning of her 'reign'.
The artwork was ok; to be honest I don't think it works well for Supergirl. Alé Garza is a good artist, don't get me wrong but I don't feel that his artworks works well for the story or for the characters involved in this plotline.
As for this new plotline involving 'Phantom Zoner's'... I’m not too sure what to think about it at the moment, on the one hand is has stopped the 'powerboy' nonsense that had been going on; I’m just not too sure where they are heading with this. They seem to be rewriting a part of the history of superman with Kara's parents, hoping to bring some more 'action' into the book. I think this could be better accomplished by bring the Supergirl character into the limelight a bit more.
Again, the one thing that I keep coming back to when I think about this issue is the artwork. Admittedly Michael Turner is a hard act to follow after his run on the introduction and the first few issues but Alé Garza's art is just lacking something for the character in my eyes. Supergirl in his artwork seems more childlike, a more innocent naive Kara. Now while I’m not against bringing this side of Supergirl out into the open, I don't think that it is right for the storyline at present with the end of the issue telling Kara that she must kill Superman.
Overall I’ll keep reading Supergirl, but out of this run I will rank this issue quite low down on the scale.
Just rereading the issue now I was left with more questions than answers... The phantom zone is supposed to be a dimension away from our own, where nothing can affect anything in this dimension. if this is true and that Jor-El created the 'Zone' to house criminals, I’m not too sure that he would have knowingly used it to house the Super criminals which Superman met later on in his life.
Another thing I did have a slight problem with, this is really minor but it niggled at my brain through the entire read. Superman's father was Jor-El, and so Superman, his son was named Kal-El. different 'first name', same surname. Now in this issue, Supergirl's father was named as Zor-El, Jor-El's brother. So why is Supergirl named as Kara Zor-El, following what I can of Kryptonion names shouldn't it just be Kara-El?
Anyway, that aside the plotline was reasonably well done. I still had a few niggling doubts about the story surrounding the Sunstones and 'ghosts' that came out of the phantom zone to possess people.
So, if you’re a diehard Supergirl fan like me pick it up if only for your collection. If you’re just looking to get into the books and the Supergirl mythology I recommend going back and starting at the beginning of this run. It’ll probably leave you with a better taste for the character than the last few issues have.
M
