Supergirl #12 review

Supergirl finally reaches out to Superman to learn what he knows of Krypton's fate and it turns out that he's learned one or two interesting things. First, that the comatose Kara orbited Earth's sun for quite awhile prior to landing on Earth, explaining why she was so powerful on emerging from the pod that brought her from Argo City. Secondly, that a large piece of the shattered craft may be on the ocean floor.

As you'd expect, Superman offers to accompany Kara on an exploratory mission into the depths. And Kara tells him to sod off, basically. Until she knows for definite that they're cousins, she's not trusting him.

So it is that a solo Supergirl must fight off mutated sea creatures while following a Kryptonian voice summoning her to a crystal structure. There, she learns that she's been duped by an old enemy.

Serves her ruddy well right, that's all I can say. Superman opens his fortress to her, shows her the bottle city of Kandor and shares the research he's done on her behalf, and does Kara say thanks? Nope, she insults him and threatens a fight should he try to stop her going off half-cocked.

Stupid girl. And annoying script. Finally we were at a point at which it would make sense for Kara to start trusting Superman a little, but writers Michael Green and Mike Johnson go down the stroppy teen route again. I get that Kara's been attacked a lot since she came to Earth, but Superman's not given her a reason to distrust him. Au contraire, she's giving him another reason to distrust her judgment.

Really, Kara's behaviour is getting old. She's fine with having a banshee for a pal but won't extend an open hand to someone she knows is recognised as a hero? I'm not one for having the title character of a book upstaged, but please let Kara have to be rescued by Kal-El. Heck, bring in the Silver Age Superman to give her a spanking ...

More pleasing aspects of this first-year closer include Kara's understandable qualms about drowning, before learning she can breathe underwater, and the mystery of who caused Kara's pod to orbit the sun. This issue's returning bad guy makes some sense, and the concept that stepping into the crystal palace feels like an emotion rather than a physical sensation is good.

I'm less pleased with her manifesting a personal force field, as I like my Kryptonians to share the same basic power set; hopefully this, and the earlier sunburst power, will be explained away by her being super-charged at the moment

I'm not delighted with the introduction of crystal architecture, it's an aspect of screen Supermen I've never liked. Crystal buildings are so much duller than the coloured structures of classic Krypton, and talking crystals are lazy and naff. Please God there won't be any interactive holograms of El patriarchs.

Mahmud Asrar's art didn't quite hit the spot for me this time - Kara looked mopey and dopey, and Superman about 14 years of age. Having two inkers on the pages Asrar didn't finish may explain the look. Plus, the crystal structure really doesn't merit the splash page it's assigned. I dunno, maybe there was a deadline crunch. I do like the new look for Last Page Villain, it makes the character more interesting.

So, not my favourite issue. The origin storyline is dragging and I'm dismayed to see the return of sour Supergirl after progress in recent issues. Next month's zero special promises answers - I hope they're good, and that we can then move onto something else for awhile.

I just hope 'something else' won't be Supergirl joining Animal Man and Swamp Thing' 428-part Rotworld storyline ...