SUPERGIRL #31

Way Of The World, Part Three

September 2008

Written by Kelley Puckett

Pencils by Brad Walker

Inks by Jon Sibal, Jesse Delperdang, Rodney Ramos

Cover by Drew Johnson and Ray Snyder

Synopsis

Tommy’s mother returns to the hospital with a present for her son, but when she reaches his room, she learns that Tommy is dying.  Superman tries to help, but fails.  Superman then tells the news to Supergirl.  Still with Resurrection Man in her grasp, Supergirl flies to the hospital.  She intends to inject Tommy with Resurrection Man’s blood.  Superman believes that it might turn Tommy into a monster.  Supergirl is willing because then Tommy would be alive.  Superman tells her that it is not up to them to decide, but Tommy’s parents.  Supergirl appeals to them.  Tommy’s parents turn down the offer.  Supergirl then grabs Tommy’s mother and flies her to a mountain.  Supergirl talks about the chance her parents took, not knowing how she would turn out.  But her parents took that chance.  Supergirl flies her back to Tommy where she injects her son.  But nothing happened.  Tommy’s still dead. 

Review by Binkley (e-mail)

This has been an uneven story.  Puckett has some interesting, challenging ideas about the concept of morality and playing God, but while the ideas are there, Puckett slips up in the execution to that point that it starts to undermine the story.  Case in point, in this issue Superman tells Supergirl that she needs to give up her quest and that it is not her decision to help Tommy, it must be the parents’ decision.  Good thought.  Puckett easily spells out that Superman disagrees, but he allows it is not his decision.  But then, just a page after telling this to Supergirl, he is arguing on her behalf.  If he truly believed it was wrong, you wouldn’t argue the opposite position.  You would stick to your guns and let the parents know about the risks.  Moreover, it should be Supergirl who makes the pitch to the parents.  She is the idealist who wants to cure cancer, so why doesn’t she explain to the parents what she wants to do?

I also don’t buy Supergirl’s argument to convince Tommy’s mother what to do.  Yes, her parents did everything they could to save her and there were risks in what they did, but then Supergirl was already alive and able to confront whatever bad things might’ve happened.  It is one thing to send your kids out into the world and not know what they might encounter and another to raise someone from the dead and have the memory of your child tainted by what it might become. 

There is absolutely no reason for Superman to make the attempt to save the kid’s life.  Superman doesn’t interfere in the efforts of trained professionals. He knows he is nota doctor and knows what he doesn’t know, so he would leave it to others to save Tommy.  Now, if they asked for his help, he would do it, trusting they know what they are doing.  But Superman wouldn’t do it on his own, which seems to be the case here. 

Ultimately, it is things like this that make the story fall apart, make the characterizations fall apart, and result it a haphazard, uneven story.  There are good ideas, but the execution just doesn’t quite work.

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