Supergirl #39 Review and *SPOILERS*

Government Incompetence

Written By: Jody Houser
Art By: Rachael Stott, Cris Peter
Letters By: Tom Napolitano
Cover Price: $3.99
Release Date: February 12, 2020

*Non Spoilers and Score At The Bottom*

Supergirl continues to be in a bad place as not only are we not focusing on her own story, not only are we dragged into ANOTHER crossover story, but we can’t even do that well. In the previous issue we got three monologues about the same thing, from the same person. It was lazy. It was boring, It was legitimately one of the worst issues that I’ve ever read. The only saving grace of that issue was having a face off between Supergirl and Wonder Woman near the end that is going to lead into this new issue. That battle is interesting to me especially with Kara’s true self starting to shine through with the Lasso of Truth wrapped around her. However, we will only really find out the quality of this issue by jumping in and seeing what this creative team has for us in this issue so let’s get to it.

Our issue begins in Washington D.C. where some governement officials are reviewing the footage of Supergirl monologuing to the students in the Smallville library. Now that they all know Superman’s identity, they know the significance of this town. However, one member asks if this should really be their priority considering they are dealing with Leviathan. However, that is short lived. The government decides to act on this by using the technology that they have recently acquired from Lex Luthor’s holdings. They will be able to properly fight Supergirl. We cut back to Smallville where Kara is still struggling against Wonder Woman’s lasso. There’s a quick scene where they forgot to draw the lasso but it is quickly followed by Kara getting a cheap shot on Wonder Woman which allows her to escape the lasso’s grasp.

Kara rages at Wonder Woman and Krypto. Her words hit Krypto hard as he decides to leave with his head hung low. This leads to Kara and Wonder Woman once again resuming their battle. Eventually their fight is interrupted by the very machines that the government was talking about earlier. The beams used are using Kryptonite. Wonder Woman decides that these machines are a bigger threat than Kara and decides to defend her against the robots. This angers Kara as she hates being protected. She ends up destroying one of the machines herself but it ignites a fire that leads to a nearby barn. Kara is able to hear some townsfolk inside the barn in danger of burning alive. She thinks about leaving them but eventually she decides that she has to do something.

She creates a small hole on one side of the barn and enters in order to help the people get out. The people are hesitant to trust her as she has taken over the area but she explains that the other option is burning to death so they all agree and take the escape route. Everything seems to have turned out okay but one survivor who was at the library earlier is terrified of Supergirl to the point where she still doesn’t trust her. After a quick talking to, Kara convinces her to trust her and saves her from a fall beam which allows the girl the chance to escape through the hole. Kara flies out of the barn but is quickly met with more kryptonite beams by the machines. They focus their fire on Kara which gives Wonder Woman the opportunity to destroy them but they’ve done their damage. When Wonder Woman finally reunites with Kara it is revealed that the kryptonite has made her infection even worse. Madness has consumed her and she has set her eyes on Wonder Woman, with a newfound bloodlust. This is where the issue leaves us.

The good news is that this issue is definitely better than the previous one. Though considering the previous one, it would be difficult not to be. That being said, while this issue is overall much better, it still has some very big amateur mistakes in it. Forgetting to put the lasso in that one panel is not that big of a deal, but things like this shouldn’t get past the editor. In addition, the barn scene is ridiculous. I never thought I’d have to read a story about a hero convincing a crowd to avoid burning to death. Now, I understand that Kara has been a villain to these people and they don’t exactly want to trust her. However, as Kara points out, they are obviously going to die if they don’t trust her and that was obvious from the very first moment she began to help them. So much about storytelling is about writing characters that are believable. In order to become immersed in a story, we have to see the people in that story act the way we know people behave. That didn’t happen in this scene. The final girl being hesitant because she was at the library in the previous issue, THAT makes sense. The entire crowd thinking that burning to death is an alternative to trusting Supergirl, THAT is ridiculous.

Bits and Pieces

While this issue is a significant improvement on the previous issue, it still has some rather big mistakes. I assume that this comes from a relatively young creative team as I cannot see one of the big names in the industry making the same mistakes but they also shouldn’t have gotten past the editor so there is plenty of blame to go around. At least, the main plot points of this issue make enough sense that the book still is able to pull the story forward and set up an exciting next issue. It’s it good? No, it very much isn’t but at least it’s not completely incompetent like the previous one.

4.5/10