Supergirl #38 Review and *SPOILERS*

What’s Even the Point Anymore?

Written By: Jody Houser
Art By: Rachael Stott, Inaki Miranda, Hi-Fi
Letters By: Tom Napolitano
Cover Price: $3.99
Release Date: January 8, 2020

*Non Spoilers and Score At The Bottom*

Once again, we come to the Supergirl comic and at this points, my hopes for this book have plummeted. I was trying to remain positive about this book and the way it is going as of right now because I want the book to be compelling even if we are being sucked into another book’s storyline. That being said, when I looked at the list of comics being released this week, my heart sank because I knew I had to read Supergirl again. Now, there are some things to like about this book but I am completely unenthusiastic about reading it. However, they did drop some nice things in the last issue that could be built upon. However, the book really need to show itself off in this issue to bring me back into it. It’s going to be a tough sell, that’s for sure. Maybe that’s what DC wants from this book though? If that’s the case, I feel bad for Supergirl fans. Let’s jump into this issue and cross our fingers that things turn around.

We start things off with Krypto who is following Kara’s scent. He races through National City but finds nothing there. He follows Kara’s trail to a rural town which we later find out is Smallville. As he narrows in on her location, we see a large red spire that has been built in the middle of this small town. As he flies through town, Krypto hears the people talking about the spire. Some are worried, some think it’s new tech for the town. Overall there’s a lot of confusion. Krypto flies up the spire and flies in through a window to find Kara working on the computers. When he sees her, Krypto flies up and shows affection as any dog would, but instead of welcoming it, it grosses her out. She is still under the influence of the infection. Taking the opportunity to monologue, Kara shows Krypto what she has been working on. The device is similar to the one that was destroyed in the Fortress. With this new and improved version though, she will be able to spread the infection to all humans at once.

We cut to the Fortress of Solitude where Batman and Superman are meeting. Thanks to Krypto finding Kara, they too have found her location. Superman wants to immediately go after her but Batman reminds him that there are five other members that need to be dealt with as well. Bruce warns Clark that if this information gets out that it will start a panic. Because they can’t risk going there themselves, they decided to entrust someone else with Kara. We cut to the Smallville Public Library where a group of students have gathered. The teacher is trying to ease their minds but Kara blasts through the roof to interrupt her. She does the classic villain monologue, saying how she won’t lose another planet. She asks them all to imagine what it was like to lose everything. She insures that they won’t have to experience it because she will save them all with the infection. One of the students records her during this time before Kara leaves to once again return to her work on the spire. As she does so though, she hears a crowd gathering. They are expressing fear and hatred towards her.

Kara falls down to meet the crowd which leads to another monologue about pretty much the same things. When she calls out the crowd, a young girl confronts her and sends Supergirl into a rage. Before she can hurt anyone though, she is beaten back and it is revealed that Wonder Woman has arrived to face her. Wonder Woman tries to reason with her and offers her a hand in peace but Kara isn’t hearing any of it and soon a fight begins. Despite having an initial advantage though, Kara is quickly overmatched by Diana and gets wrapped up in the Lasso of Truth. Diana tries to reach the true Kara inside but the lasso appears to not be working as Kara once again goes on an evil rant but she suddenly begins to change and we see that Kara is still in there but she is going through something traumatizing. This is where the issue leaves us.

Where to begin with this issue… Well, let me start by saying the art in this book is pretty good. It’s not the most amazing I’ve ever seen, but I like it. However, that’s where a lot of the things I like comes to an end. We jump back to our hero and she is suddenly doing The Batman Who Laughs bidding (even though it’s for her own reasons) with an identical device from a different story. It’s a significant jump from when we last saw her in this book. In addition, Kara’s actions are cartoonish at best. We are supposed to believe that she is a legitimate threat, however she certainly doesn’t act like it. All she does this entire issue is monologue. She monologues to Krypto, then she monologues to a random group of students for no reason. She then monologues to the crowd outside of the spire. Once was good enough, two I can understand if done for the right reason. However, 3 separate monologues, most of which make little sense? This is terrible writing. Then at the end Wonder Woman shows up and kicks Kara’s ass. That’s it. We get hints of what is actually happening to Kara at the end, but we have the annual where we all saw what was actually happening to Kara. We don’t’ need to see it again…

Bits and Pieces

Some decent art isn’t enough to save this book as the writer clearly has no idea where to take this book. Perhaps DC is forcing them to keep it vague because of their future plans for the storyline that Supergirl has been dragged into. However, this book is quite literally three different, at times random, monologues from Supergirl. Then Wonder Woman shows up and they fight. That’s it. I used to really look forward to this book. Unfortunately, DC won’t let me have nice things. They were talking about cancelling this book before Andreyko took over… Maybe they should revisit that idea.

3.0/10