DCU Comic Book Reviews

SUPERGIRL #36

New Krypton, Part 8:  Death In The House Of El

February 2009

Written by Sterling Gates

Pencils by Jamal Igle

Inks by Keith Champagne

Covers by Joshua Middleton and Chris Sprouse

Synopsis

[continued from Action Comics #872] Reactron has just wounded Zor-el.  Kara sees her father fall and rushes to be by his side.  Zor-el dies in her arms.  At the Daily Planet, Lana Lang decides to pull Cat Grant’s latest attack on Supergirl from the paper given what has just happened.  At Zor-el’s funeral, his wife, Alura, gives a speech that states humans have treated Kryptonians as a threat and with violence, so they should not be surprised they have responded in kind.  Later, Kara tells Superman she is moving to Kandor to be closer to her mother.  Kara worries that her actions killed her father.  Alura tells her that the humans are to blame and Superman and Supergirl should have done a better job protecting Earth.  Angry, Kara flies away.  She soon encounters Superwoman, who tells Kara that her mother is wrong.  Elsewhere, Nightwing and Flamebird are worried when they learn Alura has the blueprints to the White House.  Meanwhile, Alura approaches Zod’s followers and asks for help.  Superwoman tells Kara she will reveal who she is when the time is right.   [continued in Superman #683]

Review by Binkley (e-mail)

This was a very good installment of the “New Krypton” storyline.  What amazes me about the entire story is how well the writers seem to have meshed together, how seamless this story has become.  It doesn’t feel disjointed, as if the writers are being poked and prodded to contain the overall arc amidst their own stories.  It really is one long narrative.  And, yet, Gates manages to make this solidly a story featuring Supergirl, in the Supergirl book.  The multiple threads in this story that derailed the previous installment are missing here.  It is about Supergirl grief and her family and how they react to Zor-el’s death and how the fit into the world.  But among these things, Gates still makes sure to push the story forward and, hopefully, set up the next book for the next installment.  

In my review of the previous part of this storyline, I mentioned how the death of Zr-el didn’t really have much of an emotional impact.  Despite the efforts in this issue to give his death some resonance, it still didn’t work for me.  This has nothing to do with the way the writers treated Zor-el’s death.  It has more to do with the way they treated him when he was alive.  Which is to say, the character was not used in a way that would generate sympathy from me.  Some might say that Zor-el wasn’t around long enough to have an impact, but I don’t think that is the case.  If this death is central to the story, it is the writer’s job to make it important.  Sadly, this story did not do enough to make me care.  Having said that, I do think Zor-el’s death will have an impact on the plot, specifically in terms of how Alura reacts.  But plot and story are not the same thing and I think this issue demonstrates this very beautifully, for as much as the plot makes the characters react to Zor-el’s death, the story is not about his death. 

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