Superwoman #8 Review

Better But Still Not There

Superwoman #8

Written By: Phil Jimenez

Art By: Jack Herbert and Stephen Segovia
Cover Price: $2.99

Release Date: March 8, 2017

With the end of the terrible first arc, I thought this might redeem the Superwoman title somewhat. That is not the case here with this Superman Reborn tie-in. I use the term “tie-in” loosely as this issue almost has nothing to do with Reborn but it does say it on the cover, so there you go. Phil Jimenez is still on board with writing, so let’s see what Superwoman #8 brings us and see if it’s a turning point for the title now. Spoilers: It’s not.

Explain It:

I’ll start this by saying most of the time spent on Lana in this issue is a dream and it’s pretty evident in the first couple pages (and also the last page but I won’t get into that). I actually like the idea of the start of this and was hoping it was getting better. It’s Lana battling her inner demons that she actually lets go toward the end of the issue. It’s a great idea and a good way to deal with a dream sequence, since most of the time they’re a waste or are used for shock value. The problem is is that, again, most of Lana’s dialog is way too wordy and it’s her constantly whining, to the point where I actually want to punch her in the face. We get it, she’s broken so just let it go. She eventually does but she takes so long to do it.

Steel is spending most of the time trying to bring Lana back from unconsciousness. Lex is only shown briefly just to show that he’s sealing Lena away at Stryker's Island, which is a nice conclusion to her annoyance. We see Atomic Skull also wanting to talk to Bizarress #1, setting up something sinister, I assume. What’s great about this issue compared to past issues is that it really wasn’t a chore to read this one, but it was still heavily wordy. The panel layout isn’t as bad as previous issues either but it still isn’t great. That's a great way to sum up this issue, it’s better than past issues but it still isn’t great. The entire issue is riddled with absolutely confusing dialog and events, to the point where it’s losing me every single page. There is literally one panel dedicated to tying this issue into the Superman Reborn event. It’s as if Phil Jimenez was sad that DC didn’t invite him to the event so he tries to throw a little party of his own but ultimately fails.

The art is also really inconsistent. Sometimes it looks good, sometimes it looks terrible. Sometimes Lana has huge boobs, sometimes she doesn’t. People's faces can be off so bad sometimes but other times not so bad. It really threw me off and I was not enjoying even looking at the damn pages.

Bits and Pieces:

In the end, Superwoman #8 is all over the place. The story is confusing, the art is inconsistent, and I didn’t have any fun. Sure, it’s better than all seven previous issues, but that’s not saying much. It’s average at best, and that’s being very generous. That generosity is coming from the fact that I didn’t hate this issue as much as I hated past issues.

5/10