SUPERGIRL #23

Tesseract

January 2008

Written by Kelly Puckett

Pencils by Drew Johnson

Inks by Ray Snyder

Cover by Drew Johnson

Synopsis

When Supergirl returns to her apartment, she visits a package wrapped in a bow waiting for her.  Inside is a single piece of paper with the word “Mistake.”  She then gets a call from Batman, who is disappointed that she opened a package that may have been dangerous.  Suddenly, she hears a distant call of her name.  When she investigates, she finds Superman and Green Lanterns in the midst of a battle.  Superman asks her to help by following the enemy’s command center back to their base and then returning to let the Green Lanterns know its location.  As she flies, she must hold breath and only has 2 hours.  She follows the ship, but when it goes through a sun, it notices her and attacks her.  Supergirl returns home, unable to get the location of the base.  Supergirl returns home.  In her apartment, she remembers she has “two hours” so uses the portal to return to space.

Review by Binkley (e-mail)

For awhile I had trouble with this issue.  I liked it and I like what Puckett is trying to do with the character, but there are moments that work against the story.  First and foremost is the presence of the Green Lanterns, which made me think immediately of the Sinestro Corps storyline.  It doesn’t look like this story ties into the war, but very little of what they are fighting and why they are fighting is not actually revealed.  So, is this a tie-in or not?  Normally this wouldn’t be a problem, but the way DC is trying to tie everything together, it seems strange to have Green Lanterns, but not Sinestro (If that makes any sense). 

Second, it would seem odd for a new writer to a series to spend his first issue writing a number of scenes with no dialogue, but oddly enough it worked.  Supergirl’s flight with the spaceship really emphasized the distance she was traveling and the time it was taking to get there.  I do question the flight through the sun.  Since it is a yellow sun, shouldn’t Supergirl now be the most powerful creature given how much the yellow sun should have done to her.  It gives her powers when she is standing on Earth, so being in it, she should be more powerful. 

Despite some of these problematic scenes, the best part of this issue is the ending in which Supergirl picks herself up after failure and decides to try again.  Besides the fact that this is a positive message for anyone reading this issue, it also builds upon previous issues of this series in which Supergirl failed and refused to do anything about it other than whine.  I give Puckett credit for building on previous issues (and I include the brief bit with Batman as well, which builds upon what Loeb did at the beginning) without making it seem too obvious and clunky. 

There is something about this issue that makes me think that Batman’s admonishment about being attacked mentally is the sign that none of what is happening in terms of the Green Lantern war is actually happening.  Beyond the door opening to another reality and Superman confirming a different reality, we also have the odd image of Superman wearing a ripped costume and dirty hands.  It is also strange that Superman wouldn’t go on the mission in the first place, which becomes odder when you look at what he is doing and you wonder, what is he doing?  Sticking his hand into a hole (and you can’t see part of his arm, so it is going somewhere) but for what purpose.  And the, you don’t really see any of the Green Lanterns fighting anyone, just a bunch of people flying around.

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