Supergirl #40 Review and *SPOILERS*

Bad Hair Day

Written By: Jody Houser
Art By: Rachael Stott, Cris Peter
Letters By: Tom Napolitano
Cover Price: $3.99
Release Date: February 25, 2020

*Non Spoilers and Score At The Bottom*

Well, we have finally reached the end of Supergirl’s crossover and it could not have come soon enough. With no ability to actually provide a meaningful reveal to this story because the meat and potatoes of it has been happening in the Batman/Superman book, this book has stalled horribly. It has been littered with boring dialogue, random events in order to keep the story going, and just an all-around lackluster approach. I really cannot state enough how bad this has been for the Supergirl title which has already been bogged down by being dragged into every crossover event in the past year. Thankfully we will end this story and hopefully go forward into a proper story of our own. Before that though, we must wrap up this book but expect nothing to really be resolved by the end of it because our story must finish in another book, as per usual. Let’s jump into this latest issue and see where it takes us.

Our issue begins with Supergirl reveling in her new power as the kryptonite has allowed the infection to take a deeper hold upon her psyche. Wonder Woman looks taken aback by the new Supergirl before quickly realizing what is causing it. The two once again engage in combat and Wonder Woman makes it a priority to collect the kryptonite sources near them and get them away as fast as possible. Unfortunately, this leaves her vulnerable to Supergirl’s attacks. Supergirl gets the upper hand and produces a spike that will give Wonder Woman the infection. However, just before she is able to use it, Wonder Woman frees herself and is able to block it. Supergirl’s singular focus on infecting Wonder Woman then gives Wonder Woman the upper hand and she is able to create some distance between the two of them.

The battle continues but Wonder Woman is able to appeal to Supergirl’s true nature and gets her to stop for a while. Unfortunately, the infection fights back and Supergirl goes on the offensive once again. This time, Supergirl is able to overwhelm Wonder Woman with attack after attack and eventually pins her to the ground once again with the spike in her hand trying to infect her. This time she is stopped by none other than Krypto. Just as she turns to him to lash out in anger, she stops herself. Supergirl questions why Krypto is stopping her since she is doing her best to save everyone. Wonder Woman tells her to turn her attention to the town and hear what people think of their “hero”. As she does so, Supergirl hears the people of Smallville in fear. They are scared of her.

Check out our Supergirl #40 Video Review

This shakes her as she still sees herself as the hero and suddenly the words of The Batman Who Laughs rings true in her ears as she starts to believe that she will never truly be seen as a hero but Wonder Woman is there to convince her otherwise. She has been seen as a hero in the past and she can be seen that way again. She extends her hand in friendship but Supergirl instead flies away telling her that she has to do this on her own. Krypto follows her but she tells him that he cannot follow her this time. He licks her cheek once more before allowing her to fly away. Kara flies into space and gets closer to the Sun which she believes will help her. Slowly she begins to fade and plummets back down to Earth. Kara lands in a desert and when shed rises out of the crater we see that while she is no longer the monster that we saw previously, she is still under the hold of the infection. This is where the issue leaves us.

Well, this issue went about as expected. Kara became an uncontrollable monster and fought with Wonder Woman once again before Wonder Woman was able to reach Supergirl with her words. She was able to convince Kara that she was simply being used by the infection and we see Kara take steps to free herself. However, at the last moment, we see that she was unable to truly free herself as she will still play a vital part in the finale of this crossover. Honestly, I don’t hold the creative team too responsible for this book. I think it must be extremely difficult to write a story when you are being told that you cannot change things in the main story. This results in us being in the exact same place that we were when this story arc started. Kara is still infected and she is still under the hold of The Batman Who Laughs. Hopefully going forward we can see some better stories featuring our heroine, but as for now, this book ends on a sour note.

Bits and Pieces:

As is the case with most crossover tie ins, this book is unable to really make its own strides in the overall story and thus, we pretty much end where we began with this book. The Supergirl book has been dragged into crossover after crossover and I’m frankly kind of sick of it. We need to see new and exciting stories for this title and unfortunately, DC doesn’t seem to keen on giving us that. This book is a disappointment and I wouldn’t waste a dime on it.

2.5/10