Candor, part II
Supergirl #7
One Year Later
Cover Date: June 2006
Released: 5th July 2006
- Writers: Greg Rucka / Joe Kelly
- Pencilers: Ian Churchill
- Inker: Norm Rapmund
- Colourists: David Moran / Beth Sotelo
- Letterer: Comicraft
- Editors: Jeanine Schaefer / Eddie Berganza
We start with Kal-El and his Kryptonian equivalents of the Female Furies looking for Nightwing, in this case Supergirl, who has a tattoo that apparently is a holy saying. I know that you can translate Kryptonian, but I want to be surprised so we’ll see if it revealed before the end of this story! Kal-El is super (heh) pumped because he’s the figure head of the church that’s running this city.
We find Supergirl having an angsty shower, because it’s the long 90s, telling through flashback the story of why she was sent to Earth. You see because you can’t just have cousins being cool with each other apparently Kara was sent to kill Kal-El, and she’s trying to workout just what she wants to do about this missions. And this is where the conflict part of Supergirl and Pee Gee kicks off, Pee Gee wanting to stop Supergirl making the mistake of taking a life, and Supergirl acting like the sulky teenage that she’s meant to be! It’s ironic because the way it’s plotted and drawn Supergirl, who is naked whilst Pee Gee is fully covered, tries to act all bad ass and older but just comes across as immature.
Meanwhile Kal-El and his warrior nun have finally found the tattooist who did Supergirl, torturing him until he find that he did the aforementioned tat. He then reports this to a mysterious woman, who he calls mother! Meanwhile Nightwing and Flamebird are meeting with the alien resistance movement who’ve they been working with to try and free them from the malicious Kryptonian church. Look no one said comics were a subtle medium, but don’t worry because Kal-El announces that unless the two turn up at the church before sunset, but using fancier words because this a sci-fi city, he’ll kill a hundred aliens. To prove how serious he is he hold the wounded, and tattooed figure of the tattooist.
Nightwing and Flamebird come in just in time to rescue the first aliens that Kal-El was going to heat vision to death, except not because those aliens were Krypto-nuns in Total Recall (the original) masks. They blow up, but it’s not our two Kara’s, instead aliens pretending and the real ones punch Kal-El in a full splash page. Supergirl begins to rail on Kal-El, punching him continuous whilst again flashing back to the orders to kill him. Pee Gee tries to stop Supergirl, getting zapped by some church goons for her trouble, her words obviously had some effect as Kara remembers them before they’re replaced by the thoughts of someone else. Removing her mask, revealing that she’s a Kryptonian (though that should have been obvious) and she kissed Kal-El, you know her kinda sorta cousin!
The final page reveals who’s behind all this, Saturn Queen a powerful telepath and enemy of the Legion of Superheroes. Though the page doesn’t say who she is, so unless you recognized her symbol (or have a wiki) the reveal whilst very nice falls a little flat.
This is a competently told middle part of a story, but I got to admit I just don’t like angsty Supergirl, I know it’s transitional one writer (or two in this case) trying to transition over to a more traditional version. Though that’s only because I have the advantage of hindsight, or at least an ability to read ahead! It doesn’t help that as the story has gone along the focus has shifted more from Supergirl away from Pee Gee, which is totally fine as it’s comic, but not if thats the only character I’m rooting for. Truth be told though these are more niggles in a story that’s solid if not amazing.