Supergirl #39 Review

SUPERGIRL #39
Written by Sterling Gates
Art by Jamal Igle and Keith Champagne

Actually ended up picking this book up after giving it a flip through on the shelf today and was glad I did. I had never been much of a Supergirl fan and still can't stand the costume DC has her sporting, but I was surprised at how much I enjoyed this issue.

While I had not been reading this series, I was given the liberty, thanks to my excessive reading habits, to skim through just about anything at my shop with little fear of outrage or retaliation from the proprietors of said establishment, giving me free reign to 'Byrne' most issues that catch my fancy. As such, I had been following along with this "Who is Superwoman?" storyarc and knew about the whole situation with Reactron going in.

As I had speculated in last month's Moments of the Week, where we saw Reactron blasting Superwoman with his gold kryptonite beams, it was actually revealed that Superwoman was wearing a special suit to block out the radiation, much like how she has a lead plated mask to stop Supergirl from seeing who she is under it. As such, she's back on the Kryptonian watchlist. The bad news about this mystery is that Supergirl's and my only suspects for who she actually is was thrown out the window with last week's reveal that Flamebird was Supergirl's Kryptonian friend, Thara Ak-Var. As I haven't been following the book very closely (mostly skimming) up until now, I have no idea if there have been other clues to Superwoman's identity and there didn't seem to be any dropped her either.

The majority of this issue was actually spent dealing with the Superwoman and Reactron situation, which was actually a mission from General Lane for Superwoman to bring Reactron back to base and kill his former girlfriend to tie up any loose ends. Once completed, the duo were then teamed up and told to take down Supergirl, which was a fight promised for next month.

The remainder of the issue dealt with supporting cast and Supergirl's personal life, which, to be honest, wasn't nearly as entertaining for someone just jumping into the book as the Superwoman/Reactron bits. However, the parts with Supergirl communicating with her mother were solid and the emotions conveyed were strong from both the writing and art standpoints.

Verdict - Check It. Sterling Gates has done an impossible job of actually making me like a Supergirl comic, which will probably lead me to picking up some back issues of his short run and continuing with it for the time being. While not an absolute Must Read comic, entertaining and a solid pick if you are enjoying the current World Without Superman event.

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