DCU Comic Book Reviews

SUPERMAN/BATMAN #10

The Supergirl From Krypton, Part Three:  Warrior

July 2004

Written by Jeph Loeb

Pencils by Michael Turner

Inks by Michael Turner

Covers by Michael Turner and Jim Lee & Scott Williams

Synopsis

On Paradise Island, Wonder Woman trains Kara Zor-el under the watchful eye of Superman and Batman.  Superman wants to bring Kara back to Metropolis, while Wonder Woman and Batman believe she should remain on Themyscira.  Later, Harbringer reveals to them that the orb predicts Kara will bring death and destruction.  Suddenly, a boom tube opens up and a horde of replicated Doomsdays appear on the island.  Batman realizes too late that the Doomsdays are a distraction.  While the Amazons and the heroes fight, a second boom tube opens, taking Kara back to Apokolips.  The find the lifeless body of Harbringer and the orb, which shows Darkseid.  Angry, Superman vows to bring Kara back.  

Review by Binkley (e-mail)

“Whoever she is, anyone who can look both Clark and Diana in the eye and not flinch is either the greatest asset to the world... or someone we should all be very afraid of.”

Pretty, pretty art (except for the fact that all of the women look exactly the same, but that is one hell of a double splash page).  Horrible, horrible story.  Unfortunately, I am having a difficult time trying to find the right words to describe how I feel, which is horrible for someone attempting to review this issue.  A lot of it is just that I don’t find anything in this issue all that interesting from the holy trinity discussing Kara’s fate to the doomsday’s to Harbinger.  I mean, what does this have to do with Supergirl?  Well, you could ask why the story of Supergirl is in a book about Superman and Batman, but that is not the point.  Batman’s continued presence in this story doesn’t really make much sense.  Yes, he found her and yes he has concerns.  But you’d think that after awhile he would hand her over to someone else and get back to Gotham.  Why would he care?  Out of loyalty to Superman?  I would think at some point Batman would trust the man of steel.  Or even Wonder Woman.  Apparently, the big battle at the end of the previous issue was at Batman’s request for Wonder Woman to take Kara under her wing and train her.  So, now Kara is on Themyscira.  Why is it still Batman’s problem?  And, for that matter, why would Wonder Woman care about her?  Because she is a woman?  Because Batman asked?  I guess my concern is that people who should not be concerned about Kara are and it doesn’t seem like they are concerned about her as much as concerned about her based on who they are.  Thus, Batman is paranoid about what Kara might do and Wonder Woman wants to train a warrior. 

Perhaps this is my problem.  This is a story about Kara, but there is very little Kara in it.  My favorite scene last issue was her reaction to Metropolis.  My favorite scene in this issue is her defiance at what the trinity was arguing.  See, in both cases, we are seeing glimpses of her.  Which, I think is better than the trinity trying to run her life.  The ending was also botched.  Someone died when Darkseid’s minions came to get her.  What was Kara’s reaction?  How well did she fight?  We saw none of this because Loeb was more interesting in the cool factor of Superman fighting Doomsday. 

When I saw Doomsday I think I might’ve yawned.  The use of this character as a way to suggest that here is a fight that Superman might just lose has lost its luster.  The fact that the creature was not alive and could be defeated jut made it more of a yawner.  If you wanted to create an effective scene of Kara getting kidnapped by Darkseid, then that’s the scene that should’ve been written.  Although, I must admit, the scene of Superman using his heat vision was just beautiful. 

Finally, what was the deal with harbringer?  Her death really did nothing for the story.  And while her prediction is important for the story, such a prediction could have come from the Amazon’s oracle, who has done similar things before.  Methinks Loeb could’ve dug into the history of the amazons.

 

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