Four Panel Folly Comic museings.

Best Comic I Read This Week: Supergirl #47

It is fashionable on Krypton to have your best skull bronzed.

Huh. This is funny.

I just guess I never thought I'd be doing this. N—Not that there is anything inherently WRONG with it. I just assumed... from... you know what it IS... that I'd never be making saying this about it.

No, you're taking this the wrong-- I know it's a fine comic book and has been around for longer than many of the titles I enjoy. It's just that... oh come on you know. Doesn't it seem silly? At all?

(Ugh, this is ridiculous.)

Supergirl was the best comic I read this week. Not because of slim pickings though. Nope, this week's haul was pretty great. Supergirl is the best comic because it received the biggest emotional response from me.

Basically, stupid crossover stuff is done for now and we get to be cozy with the characters for a bit.

BASICALLY, there is an actual story being told for a bit.

My problems with the Supergirl title are not huge, unavoidable mountains. They are hundreds of migrating geese flying straight into my jet engines and making the cabin smell like a bed on fire. I think her costume is a misdirected attempt to be “hip”. I think her existence is more ridiculous than a DOG from Krypton. Aaand I also think she'd make a better supporting character rather than have her own book.

Well, that last complaint seems to have been addressed because Supergirl is doing nothing important in this issue. Instead, the star of the show for this issue is Supergirl's mom, Alura.

Alura (for the rest of this review to be called “Ally”) is still grieving over the death of Zor-El (for the rest of the review to be called “David”), her husband. Fortunately she is also starting to get comfortable with her role as the Kryptonians' ruler. The issue is sprinkled with emotional flashbacks of her falling in love with David even though it goes against her scientific upbringing. While this is going on in the past, Ally in the present is dealing with the political drama of her newest prisoner: Reactron, David's murderer.

I know how hack-y this sounds as a story. The use of flashbacks in a description sounds like pure velveeta, and it would be if not for the pacing of writer Sterling Gates and imagery of illustrator Matt Camp. Ally's flashbacks have a direct connection to the direction and eventual ending of the issue. They have a point, they're not thrown in just to tug at your heartstrings. It makes sense for her to be revisiting these memories with the decisions she has to make.

Then there's that twist at the end. It is delivered so off-handedly, the reader feels like they have actually stumbled upon a secret, rather than have it pointed out to them like a dude trying to get his dog to eat the macaroni and cheese he spilled.

Huh, that's sort of the second velveeta reference in this post.

I have no idea where this title is going, and the New Krypton mega-arc going through all Superman titles was old for me the second it began. That being said, if the single issues keep focusing on characters' emotions I will continue to enjoy them and endure the long form storyline.