Supergirl #5 Review

My Name Is...

Written by: Steve Orlando
Art by: Brian Ching, Michael Atiyeh and Steve Wands
Cover Price: $2.99
Release Date: January 11, 2017

This book has so much going for it...an awesome lead character, a fan favorite villain and enough shoutouts to the television series to get a whole new audience involved.  So why am I not enjoying it?  There are a bunch of reasons, but mainly it's that it just doesn't seem to take itself seriously.  For every cool moment with Cyborg Superman we get a ridiculous scene with Cat Grant and for every Moment with Kara, we have to sit through a meaningless scene with Ben Rubel.  I don't mind having a supporting cast, but I don't like these characters (yet?) and every time they arrive, the story suffers. Oh well, this issue continues the Reign of the Cyborg Supermen arc and let's see if things heat up a bit now that Kara is headed off to confront her dad.


The issue opens up with Cyborg Superman confronting Jeremiah Danvers and it ends with a big moment when Zor-El tells the world...he's Zor-El!  Yep, Cyborg Superman is "what" he is and he's not letting labels bring him down.  It actually felt like a moment that was supposed to be bigger than it really was.


We then head downtown to get some hokey explanation of why the rest of the world is unaware of National City's plight.  It's kind of like Speed, but with wi-fi enabled Kryptonian cyborgs.  So, just like Speed!

After Supergirl saves Cameron Chase, she kind of explains the whole Odic Force thing again and it makes as much sense as it always did.  Lucky for Ben Rubel, she hears trouble above and saves him from a cyborg toss.  It's a nice Reeves - Kidder moment, but why would a cyborg needing a human's life force to become "real" toss away a perfectly good kid?

While I am nitpicking a bit, I was enjoying things enough...until Cat Grant enters the scene.  The dialogue is suddenly really bad and even feels like some word balloons are missing at points.  In the end, Supergirl does what she told Cat to do and she feels unneeded and thus, forced in.

The big confrontation between Kara and her father finally happens, but it continues the broken record that is Zor-El...I'm doing it for you...this isn't your home...stop listening to that rap music...wait, that was my dad!  Supergirl does get to be heroic here which is good, but it's nothing surprising because we've seen it recently.

After all this, however, the issue ends with a pretty cool cliffhanger.  I can't say that I'm that excited to see what happens next only because everything before it has been so cookie cutter, but it still looks great.

This book just continues being here.  It shows up, I read it and review it and then forget about it almost immediatley.  Nothing sticks because their is no real character development and so I have no connection with any of them.  This story had so much potential, but as of now, it's almost all been wasted.

I do like Brian Ching's art in and of itself, but it's cartoony look is another reason this book feels less important than others. The story may be dark, but the art doesn't convey that at all.  I'm not saying that a different artist would change things for the better, but it might be a start.

Bits and Pieces:

There really is nothing here to get readers excited.  Cyborg Superman's dialogue seems stuck on an endless loop and Kara just flies around trying to save our main characters.  The art seems like a bad match for where the story is going and with nothing new happening, I can't recommend this to anyone.

5.5/10