Supergirl #16 review

We're still in the Superman Family's H'el on Earth crossover, with the Flash trying to rescue Supergirl from the influence of creepy Kryptonian H'el. Kara, though, doesn't believe she needs rescuing. She's bought H'el's claims that together they can go back in time and rescue her homeworld and thinks that Superman is having his Justice League friends try to stop them out of spite and wrongheadedness.

Can a man with one super-power prove a threat to a woman with many, including his own? He can. Because Flash has just the one power, he's learned more ways in which to use it - Kara is astonished when he vibrates them through a wall. Plus, his super-speed is more intense than hers, putting her on the back foot. So it is that the Flash holds his own against Supergirl, until an unscheduled trip to Superman's interplanetary zoo forces them to work together.

Not for long, though. Once out, Flash makes a last-ditch effort against Kara, utilising an alien weapon from the Fortress armoury. It's only the intervention of H'el that saves Kara's bacon.

This issue also features a flashback to H'el's arrival on Earth, showing that he was observed by the alien herald of The Oracle. And at the end of the book, we see that said Oracle is standing outside Earth's atmosphere and ready to do Lord knows what. He certainly puts the willies up some passing aliens ...

... so, even if Superman and the JLA stop H'el's plan to use the Earth as time-trip fuel, the planet's in big trouble.

You know what Kara's biggest problem in facing the Flash is? She's been de-brained. Not content with having her swallow H'el's tales of planetary rescue as instantly as she protested Superman's revelation that Krypton was dead, writer Mike Johnson has her forget that she has any powers beyond flight, fists and speed. With freeze breath, vision powers, a sunburst and more, there must be any number of ways she could take down The Flash. But it's all speedy flying punches - and a rather vicious knee to the face - with Kara remembering she has heat vision only for an instant, to save Flash from an alien beastie. I realise Flash's speed has Kara off guard, but she's previously proven very capable of adaptive thinking on her feet.

Supergirl really is a dumb blonde at the moment.

It doesn't help that when Flash manages to speak to her, keeping the story going requires that he asks her only to come and talk to Superman, rather than bark out that if she's to have a chance of saving Krypton, Earth must die. That would have given her pause. Instead, she stays angry, focused only on serving H'el.

It really is shocking treatment of a superheroine in her own book.

Kara calms down only when she comes across Krypto, learning for the first time that baby cousin Kal's dog survived Krypton's destruction. Of course, she takes it as a sign that H'el's plan must go ahead. The girl meets dog reunion is the only happy moment in the comic - who knows, perhaps Kara will see that Krypto trusts Kal and think again about her new alliance?

Johnson, despite having been on this book since the beginning, here writes a much better Flash than Supergirl: he's smart, compassionate and wonderfully everyman in his reactions to learning that Superman has a) a zoo and b) a dog. Again, though, I believe Johnson is hobbled by the role Kara's been assigned for this crossover.

The Flash also fares well under the pencils and inks of Mahmud Asrar, who manages to channel some of the kinetic dynamism of Francis Manapul in Flash's own book. The frenetic layouts match the super-speed action, while the alien critters are suitably eerie. Kudos to colourist Dave McCaig for not only lively interior work, but for the wonderfully Silver Age treatment of the logo on Asrar's eyecatching cover - it really stands out.

Next issue, we're promised Supergirl versus the entire Justice League roster. I fully expect her to come across as a shrewish idiot. Please let H'el on Earth end soon, so Kara can stop being a misguided plot point and recapture her previous character growth.

Comments

  1. To be fair to Mike Johnson, Kara is an awful character and he's probably trying his very best to forget as much about her as humanly possible.

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    1. I do try to be fair, but it is him whose been writing and co-writing Kara for 17 issues. And there have been some good moments.

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    2. Oh I'm just being flippant, Martin, though I would think a book like Supergirl would be editorially-mandated and would be surprised if Johnson calls all the shots on her character - her role in this crossover, for instance, seems to have been plotted out elsewhere. Supergirl has been a character buffeted upon the winds of editorial whim for years now, even when PAD was writing her consistently and entertainingly.

      Speaking of: when I think of Supergirl crossing over, I think of that daffy Disco Inferno crossover with Young Justice. It's my mental go-to image of distinct titles mashing up and telling fun and entertaining stories outside their usual milieu even if I cannot for the life of me remember if I even enjoyed that particular story - in comparison, H'el O'n E'arth just seems like work to me, so fair play for seeing it out on the blog.

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    3. Oops, sorry Brigonos. Just call me Margo Leadbetter. That Young Justice team up was great and yep, more such comics would be wonderful. A couple that featured the last Supergirl would be the Draculas story in Batgirl, and the Robin team-up in World's Finest. More of This Sort of Thing please.

      And many thanks for bringing 'daffy' into my day!

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  2. Good point. If she's a crappy character it would be his fault. But I don't think she is a bad character. I think you (Martin) made the correct observation. ... Kara/Supergirl is a plot point in an over reaching cross over likely designed to be the "Super" version of the recent Bat-crossovers. Sigh I miss the single or double issue stories of old when we werent required to follow a soap opera approach to comics.

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    1. Ditto. We'd get maybe a dozen stories a year, all with their own plotlines and perhaps a few subplots. Now things just go on and on and on ...

      ... bit like me, I know.

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  3. Will this storyline ever turn out to have something to do with the Daemonite Helspont? Because the similarity in names seems like a red flag.

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    1. I'd guess not - variations of Hell are all over popular culture ... I'm good with Wildstorm connections being kept at bay, Jonathan.

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  4. If you haven't reviewed "Superboy Annual #1" because you thought that Rose Wilson would be there, you can rest easy because she's not actually in there. It's actually a good issue, it shows Superman and Superboy getting to know each other and in my opinion, a lot more happens in that issue than in "Supergirl #16".

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    1. Yeah, it's a pretty decent book, I loved the banter and snark and suspicious giving way to a little respect and appreciation.

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    2. Thank you for agreeing. What I'm asking is why haven't you reviewed it yet? Though it depends on if you want to.

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    3. I want to, I made notes, I'm not 100% this week! A bit poorly sick.

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  5. We agree on lots of points here Mart. Supergirl says the right things but then does the opposite. Makes me think Mike Johnson is trying to salvage her character despite and editorial mandate to make her an idiot.

    And I also noticed that she didn't use her other powers in the fight. Heck, just flying above would have changed things.

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    1. Time for me to go read your review - it'll be up by now, I reckon!

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  6. "It really is shocking treatment of a superheroine in her own book."

    Well, as others here have said, it's not really her book, it's a volume of the H'el on Earth book...

    "Johnson, despite having been on this book since the beginning, here writes a much better Flash than Supergirl: he's smart, compassionate and wonderfully everyman"

    If you add in 'competent' that's how he's being written in his own title (as opposed to JL). I still think Flash is the best title out there.

    Question: How can Flash survive a knee from Supergirl? Remember this lady can juggle battleships.

    Also, if Flash can vibrate through things, could he have offense similar to the Vision where he could vibrate his hand into someone's chest and then slightly lower the vibration until it caused pain (though I guess he would share the pain, right)? And did Flash use that 'super-speed punch' thing I once remember him being depicted as using, where he essentially gets a running start and hits his opponent somehow channelling the momentum into the force of the punch?

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    1. Yeah, how did Barry survive the Boot of Steel? Involuntary molecular control?

      And the Vision thing sounds entirely possible, though so painful that the Flash would never do it. Well, not the pre-New 52 Flash, anyway.

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  7. I visited the Comichron website and did some comparing of pre-52 sales and the current sales and the difference? Almost identical in sales. Only a 100-200 issues in sales. If Johnson (and Green) have Supergirl so right why are the sales falling and now hovers at its old sales level?

    Maybe we will see a change in sale figures after the H'el crossover event and see where its sequel crossover event, later this year takes it.

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    1. Who knows, maybe some interesting plans for Kara will come out off the upcoming DC creators retreat in North Carolina. I could certainly back an end to the constant origin/Krypton business, an actual life on Earth for Suoergirl.

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    2. I just read this issue today and it does explain how he survived, Barry says "nnh-if I hadn't vibrated that would have smashed my head" or something to that effect. Enough for me ;)

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    3. I must have 'guessed' that cos I read it ...

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  8. If only Johnson and Green hadn't stuck to a "real time" pacing for the Supergirl series. Even Lobdell admits Kara is only days (two or three weeks at most) in the 52 universe in a recent interview about the H'el crossover event. I wish the story was moving faster than it is. I find myself wanting Kara to be well into her new life on Earth by now, at the working to adjust to it stage. Not wallowing in self-pity this long.

    At the pace they plan to go by the time issue 50 comes around (if it does) Kara will be finishing up her first month on Earth and just coming to terms about it.

    Green plans to come back to Supergirl eventually after taking care of his commitments to television work. Johnson said he plans to stick to their master plan for the first 50 issues they have mapped out for Kara as best he can.

    With this H'el crossover and its planned sequel later this year and not fully finished until 18 months from now, according to a Lobdell interview. I wonder how Supergirl will be after the H'el story lines are completed in 18 months.

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    1. It is all being so very dragged out,isn't it? I know the Silver and Bronze Ages had some nonsense, but blimey, they didn't half get on with telling us a variety of stories. I'm pretty much fed up with Kara's New 52 travails. Can't she just settle down and have a bit of fun alongside all the angst?

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  9. Can Supergirl #16 and Superboy Annual #1 be read together in whichever order or separate because *spoiler* both endings point for the reader to read Superman #16 instead of 'continued in Supergirl #16' or vice versa

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  10. Superboy #16 came out first, leading directly into the annual and Supergirl #16 came out the same week as the annual. I forget which order I read the latter two in, but I don't think it matters. If I'm wrong, someone will put me right!

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