Supergirl #27 – Review

By: Tony Bedard (writer), Yildiray Cinar (penciler), Ray McCarthy (inker), Dan Brown (colorist)

The Story: Turns out bringing the assassin with the healing factor into your remote research outpost wasn’t the best strategy…

The Review: Kara Zor-El is one of the few characters for whom the New 52 has been a general success. Ever since she donned her bizarre cut-out knee boots, Supergirl has been an undiscovered gem of DC’s line. It’s great to see a character who’s struggled to find her voice be represented so well for so long, however that also means that the pressure is on for Tony Bedard who took over the series last month.

So far Bedard’s take on Kara has been excessively depressing and that’s not a trend that entirely turns around this issue. The story opens with Kara mournfully crying “I DON’T EVEN KNOW MY OWN STRENGTH!” with all the subtlety of Stan Lee at his hammiest. To this one of the Vertias’ replies “Was that really necessary, Supergirl?” I know it’s trendy to dismiss the problems of teenage girls, but this just feels silly.  Kara lacks the bite behind her angst that she demonstrated in previous iterations, her suffering feels less like something she struggles through than something done to her to illicit a reaction. Mentions of her strained relationship with Kal-El find a better balance, but ultimately it’s too little too late and Kara feels like a side character in her own title.

In many ways that’s not surprising, Bedard has a lot to juggle. In addition to Supergirl’s mounting frustrations, he also has to resolve the Lobo plotline and justify the inclusion of Shay Veritas. It hasn’t been long but I’m already growing tired of The Block. The facility’s mysteries are hinted at a little more this month, possibly even handwaved, but the answers we get are so vague that it makes you wonder if they’ll even be revealed in this series. Still, it does make a great setting for this issue’s slasher film plot, as our new pompadour-ed Lobo stalks its halls.