Hello again GEN readers! It’s Jill a.k.a. The Nerdy Bird back with this week’s installment of DoubleDCoverage. This week I delve into the many faces of Supergirl. Or lack there of. Reviews for Justice League: Cry for Justice #3 and Supergirl Annual #1 are ahead. Also, check out my star ratings for my other pulls from last Wednesday! Don’t forget, new books are coming out Thursday this week because of the holiday!!

JUSTICE LEAGUE: CRY FOR JUSTICE #3 (OF 6)

What has eight eyes and two boobs? No, it’s not the alien of the week from Star Trek, it’s the first page of Cry for Justice. The eyes belong to the Atom, Green Arrow, Hal Jordan and Captain Marvel. The boobs belong to Supergirl. She doesn’t have eyes, or a face apparently.

Hal Jordan made Supergirl cry by doubting her dependability as a hero but I think she’s crying because four grown men were just staring at her rack. But hey, maybe that’s just me. I almost feel as if Supergirl should get as far away from these guys as possible since they can’t go long without speaking like they’re in a locker room. Supergirl may want justice for her father’s death at the hands of Reactron but she certainly seems out of place in this group. With Prometheus captured, Ray Palmer goes to work torturing him to get information about why the villains were collecting technology. While shrunk down in Prometheus’ head you’d think he would have noticed something was off. This wasn’t actually Prometheus but one of the Clayfaces sent there as a look-a-like on his behalf. And with a bomb in his belly.

Meanwhile, Bill and Mikaal are on their way to find whoever murdered their loved ones. They are attacked in their plane by a swarm of robots and both of them show their true natures when they unleash blind fury on them. Bill told Mikaal of a gorilla missing from his fallen troop, Malavar, a scientist from Gorilla City. It seems Prometheus has captured him as just another piece of the technological puzzle he’s putting together to destroy the world’s heroes. Indeed, he’s already taken a few out – the Tasmanian Devil is now his throw rug. Ira Quimby (IQ), who had also been helping him, receives a less final but almost equally devastating fate at the villain’s hands. After being poisoned by Prometheus, his mind regresses to infancy. In Opal City, Charity has called the Shade and Jake Bennetti to hear her latest prediction – danger and death.

I feel like I’m missing something while reading Cry for Justice. Great writer, great artist (minus the all-boobs Supergirl) but it’s just not gelling for me. James Robinson is definitely trying to rebuild Prometheus as a force to be reckoned with, he says as much in the back-up feature, and he is succeeding so far. Of course it’s easy when you explain away the villain’s recent appearances as that of an imposter (who has since been dispatched). There was definitely less exposition this issue but the entire series still seems to be moving too slowly.

SUPERGIRL ANNUAL #1

Having reviewed the Superman Annual a few weeks ago, I was interested to see where this first annual for his cousin Kara would lead. We were treated to not only one, but two complete stories.

The first story is a day in the life of Supergirl’s alter ego, Linda Lang. She’s been mentioned briefly during the last year but with all the crazy New Krypton activities, not to mention her father dying, Kara hasn’t really gotten much of a chance to test her out. An extremely tense standoff at a bank robbery was one of her first tries and from the looks of things, she’s got a lot to learn. The Science Police suspect there’s a Kryptonian in the bank and thinking she’s doing the right thing, Kara inserts herself into the situation to help. It quickly dissolves into an episode of The Twilight Zone when everyone starts pointing fingers at everyone else. An unsuspecting child and mother are revealed as the Kryptonians when the S.P. bring out some Red Kryptonite. The child’s mother is rightfully angry with Kara as she was trying to live peacefully on Earth instead of as a Laborer on New Krypton. Now that they’re faces are all over the news they must go into hiding.

Whereas the first half of the book was a brief look at something we know Kara is prone to, making bad decisions, the second half delves a bit deeper and gives us some background we know and some we don’t, of Superwoman, aka Lucy Lane. Even if you hadn’t read any Lucy Lane stories from the past but have been reading about her in Supergirl, you can pretty much guess she’s been looking for her father’s approval her whole life. The proof is here, second born, Salutatorian, she was never quite as good as her sister Lois and their father was never shy about pointing that out. After General Lane’s “death,” Lucy dove headfirst into the army and quickly rose through the ranks with an apparent guardian angel on her shoulder. Before long General Lane revealed himself to Lucy and recruited her to wear the magic-based Superwoman outfit. Unfortunately she died thinking she finally managed to please him but with her revealed resurrection in this story it seems daddy may be disappointed yet again.

A word on the art by Fernando Dagnino. A few things bothered me, like how Kara’s face looked completely different as Linda than as Supergirl. I get it’s her secret identity but her entire facial structure seemed to change. Also, you know how people call tuxedos monkey suits? Well Clark actually looked like a giant gorilla in his during his brief cameo. On a positive note, I thought Dagnino’s work on Lucy’s military battle scenes were excellent. While I liked both of the stories this issue, it was the implied mindf#*$ for Supergirl and Superwoman that really got me. Sterling Gates does a great job with Kara on a monthly basis and this was yet another example of how well he knows the character. I’d say 99.9% of the time Kara has the best intentions and they usually wind up going wrong for her. It’s a shame, but hey, that’s also a par the course for most teenagers. And poor Lucy, her dad couldn’t have cared less about how hard she tried to please him until it suited his agenda and now she can’t even die right for him.

BATMAN #690 – I was pretty bored with this issue but at least Two-Face Batman finally showed up.

WENESDAY COMICS #9 (OF 12) – I’ve come to realize I don’t really know what’s going on in the Batman story but I still like it. Is that weird? Bravo to the awesome comic strip parodies in the Flash.

My pull list for this week:

ADVENTURE COMICS #2
BLACKEST NIGHT: BATMAN #2 (OF 3)
BOOSTER GOLD #24
GREEN LANTERN CORPS #40
RED ROBIN #4
SECRET SIX #13
SUPERMAN: WORLD OF NEW KRYPTON #7 (OF 12)
WEDNESDAY COMICS #10 (OF 12)

Which two should I review for DoubleDCoverage #25?

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