Supergirl #23

"Out of the Past"

Michael Alan Nelson – Writer
Diogenes Neves and Chad Hardin – Pencils
Marc Deering and Wayne Faucher – Inks
Guy Major – Colors
Rob Leigh – Letters
Rickey Purdin – Associate Editor
Eddie Berganza – Group Editor
Based on the characters created by Jerry Siegel and Joe Shuster by special arrangement with the Jerry Siegel family

The cover is by Mahmud Asrar, and I don't care for it one bit. It feels more like a variant cover than the actual standard cover. Some people may really enjoy Asrar's style, but I'm not one of them. Also, I'm always a bit annoyed when the cover artist does not draw the inside pages. But at least this shows Supergirl fighting Cyborg Superman, which is what happens here.

Our story takes place on the planet I'noxia, where Supergirl is being chased by Cyborg Superman and physical manifestations of her memories.

Supergirl eventually defeats the ghosts of her past, but she succumbs to kryptonite poisoning (she must have been exposed to it in a previous issue). Cyborg Superman then easily captures her and seemingly disintegrates Supergirl's flesh in an attempt to restore his own humanity and memories.

The Good:

So I have absolutely no idea what's going on here. I haven't read Supergirl since H'el on Earth, so I only have myself to blame for being lost here. However, I did enjoy watching Supergirl fight Superman, Superboy, Wonder Woman, Flash and H'el again. And I credit Michael Alan Nelson for writing Supergirl like an emotional, whiny teenage girl. She stayed true to her character, which helped me enjoy this issue, even if the story perplexed me.

The Bad:

Well, there is very little Flash here. He only shows up in the background of a few panels, never says anything and doesn't directly confront Supergirl. But I think that's right for this issue. Supergirl did recently fight the Flash, so he should be included in her memories attacking her. But that fight was rather brief and not as personal as any of the other fights, so it would have been a bit of a stretch to expand the Flash's role at all in this issue. This is one of the rare instances where I will applaud the restrained use of burying a character in the background.

Final score: 5 out of 10

Next time: Justice League #23.1/Darkseid #1