DCU Comic Book Reviews

SUPERGIRL #43

Guilding Day

September 2009

Written by Sterling Gates

Pencils by Jamal Igle

Inks by Jon Sibal

Cover by Joshua Middleton

Synopsis

On her birthday, Kara (aka Supergirl) writes a letter to her dead father.  She writes to tell him that her mother, Alura, misses him terribly and cries herself to sleep.  She also writes that because Kara failed to capture Reactron, her mother has been punishing her.  Kara is forced to work with the labor guild, deliver a message to the religious guild, help out the science guild with information about Earth, and meet with her father’s mentor in the artist guild.  Meanwhile, Kara and Kal-el search the apartment of Superwoman, hoping to learn more about her plans against the House El.  Later, Kara confronts her mother about the punishments.  Kara doesn’t understand her mother.  Alura tells her it was not punishment, but a gift so Kara can choose which guild she wants.  The next day, Kara chooses the Science Guild, so she can learn more about her mother. 

Review by Binkley (e-mail)

This was a good issue.  I thoroughly enjoyed learning more about Kara and more about Krypton society.  The tone of the letter was handled well.  It is not sentimental or gawkish.  It had the potential to get bogged down in soapy melodrama, but instead is used mostly for exposition with some insight from Kara.  And in that regard it works.  The pace is excellent; the story moves swiftly but manages to get its point across without being rushed.  However, it still falls a little short of the mark of greatness.  The biggest problem is that at no point do we get a sense of Kara wants or what she thinks of the guild she will choose.  It is telling that the story is about halfway done before we even learn which guild her father belonged to, or her mother for that reason.  And I don’t think we learn that Kara wants to join her father’s guild.  The entire thought process of Kara regarding the guild seems to be pushed aside in favor of the extended sequence in Superwoman’s apartment.  Those pages, I think, would’ve been better served for Kara to contemplate what she wanted, whether it was to please her father or join with her cousin, or whatever else she was thinking.  Kara had a big decision to make and it doesn’t really seem like a big deal. 

The real reason behind Alura’s “punishment” was fairly predictable before it was revealed to Kara.  I would like to think Kara is smarter than what she was portrayed her.  Having said that, I am not that bothered by it, because the important aspect is Kara’s journey to her eventual decision, so the plot point (while obvious) is not that bad..

Have we ever seen Kara paint before?  Or do anything along those lines of an artist?  It is another point that makes sense in the context of the story, but would’ve had deeper resonance if we had some something in an earlier issue.  I think there might’ve been something in the final issue of Final Crisis about her painting, but I can’t quite remember right now.