SUPERGIRL #33

Aftermath

November 2008

Written by James Peaty

Pencils by Ron Randall

Inks by Ron Randall

Cover by Stephane Roux

Synopsis

In the middle of Supergirl fighting Clayface, Empress arrives.  She puts Clayface in a hex-field to hold him until the police arrive.  Empress then asks Supergirl for help.  Someone called Aftermath has kidnapped Empress’ parents.  They go to Aftermath’s mansion, where Supergirl learns Aftermath is wheelchair bound.  Suddenly, Supergirl falls to the ground, the victim of a spell by Aftermath.  He then orders Supergirl to kill Empress.  Supergirl attacks Empress, but still has the presence of mind to ask Empress to conjure a hex-field, which negates Aftermath’s spell.  Later, Supergirl realizes she can’t change the world, only try to help people and get on living.  

Review by Binkley (e-mail)

Essentially, this issue is a “life lesson” story similar to the one from the previous issue, except this time it happens to the present Supergirl and not to the future Supergirl.  On the one hand, this issue is simply a bridge between here and there, trying to clean up Puckett’s story in order to begin the big Superman story that is coming later in the year.  On the other hand, it feels rushed and haphazard to the point where I get the feeling the story was written based on an editorial decree rather than someone thinking they’ve got a cool idea.  It also feels like it might’ve been condensed from the original story; did we really need three pages of Supergirl fighting Clayface?  Other than the hex-field thingy, did it serve any purpose?  Moreover, the appearance of the villain was nothing more than exposition with Peaty telling us what we need to know.  Hey look, here is the bad guy and here is why he is the bad guy and here, we’ll even have him explain his plan.  Aftermath is not really And I’m not even sure what Empress has to do with anything.  What exactly was her role, other than to get Supergirl to the mansion, which could’ve been handled by any character (and don’t get me started on the hex canceling out the spell on Supergirl; that absolutely makes no sense whatsoever).  Ultimately, I think the heart of the story is in the right place and I think it helps to put the character of Supergirl into a good place, but the execution of the story fails to deliver anything compelling or interesting.

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