Book: Supergirl volume #3: Sanctuary (issues #13-20) by Mike Johnson (issues #13-17 and 19), Frank Hannah (issue #18) and Michael Allan Nelson (issue #20)
Illustration by Sami Basri (issue #13), Mahmud Asrar (issue #14-17 and 19-20) and Robson Rocha (issue #18)
Color by Dave McCaig (issues #13-20)
Edition: Single Print Issues
Description:
When a mysterious Kryptonian arrives on Earth and convinces Kara that he intends on returning them to Krypton, prior to its destruction, in an effort to save the planet. When presented with the opportunity to return home, the young and sometimes foolish Kara fails to see H'el's whole plan, a plan that will leave the Earth in ruins. Wonder Woman and The Flash must facedown Kara in an effort to make her see the truth and save Earth before it's too late!
Rating: 2 stars
Review:
Please note, this review is only for
Supergirl volume #3, I will review the complete
H'el cross-over event at a later time.
In the first two volumes, Michael Green co-wrote the issues with Mike Johnson, however this volume aside from two issues was written solely by Johnson. But the sad thing is, the quality didn't improve. This continues with the same mediocrity with bad writing and poorly constructed stories.
Issue #13 continues where the
second volume left off with Supergirl being surprised by Simon Tycho in her new Fortress of Solitude. After barely surviving the explosion of his space station (volume #1) he now had superpowers thanks to a procedure that was used to save his life. He tried to force her to make the Fortress obey him, so he could take control of it. But finally using her brain and with some assistance from the Fortress, she was able to stop him. At the end of this issue, the Fortress informed her that Superman was fighting some unknown Kryptonian presence, in which you're supposed to read
Superman #13 to find out more.
Issues #14-17 were the Supergirl portion of the
H'el cross-over story. Even if you didn't read the
Superman and
Superboy issues you can still easily follow this story. In this group of issues, Supergirl feeling lonely and homesick for Krypton, was basically preyed upon by H'el, a powerful Kryptonian. He manipulated her and told her exactly what she wanted to hear in order for her to help him in his plan to travel back in time before Krypton was destroyed.
I don't understand the way this Supergirl is written, although she was slightly angry when she impromptly met H'el, she immediately trusted him and believed in his plan to travel back in time so they could return to Krypton. She also was nearly willing to let him kill Superboy who she regards as "it" since to her he's only a clone.
Meanwhile, she continues to distrust Superman (and anyone associated with him) even though now she's finally accepted the fact that he's her cousin. However, it took the Fortress computer telling her he is before she finally believed it.
The New 52 is by far one of the stupidest versions of Supergirl because no matter what, nothing and no one was going to stop her from helping H'el. Not Superman nor any of the other members of the Justice League were going to stand in her way. She never questioned H'el or his plan, she followed along willingly. It wasn't until she was forced to see the truth that she finally realized that H'el's plan was destroying the Earth.
Issues #18-20 follows the aftermath of H'el's plan which left Supergirl dealing with kryptonite poisoning. It also had an imprisoned Lex Luthor interested in her, he sent one of his minions to try to test her abilities in a fight. But Karen Starr a.k.a Power Girl (Earth 2's Supergirl) was there to help in the fight. Earlier, Power Girl had rescued an unconscious Supergirl who had been captured by the government. Away from Luthor's minion they headed back to Supergirl's Fortress but a problem occurred when the Fortress computer couldn't understand why there were two Kara Zor-Els. The computer then tried to eliminate "fake" Kara but the duo eventually came up with a way to stop it. But at the end it appears that the computer wasn't completely destroyed and will continue with it's plan to stop the "fake" Kara.
This was not a very good read and the artwork wasn't that great either. Even without the other issues of the
H'el crossover this was still a disjointed and fragmented group of poorly written issues. There are scenes that pop up out of nowhere and add nothing to the story such as in issue #18, Kara was flying underground when a lava woman appears and starts attacking her. There was no point in that scene even being there as well as there was no point in Lex Luthor appearing in this volume.
I really don't understand the New 52 Supergirl because DC Comics didn't seem to know what to do with the character or the series. Kara continues to lack any depth and most of the time she's a total idiot with only a few times where she actually was shown using her brain. But I suspect that those instances were included so you don't think the character is a total idiot. She continues not to learn from any of her mistakes and always ready for a fight instead of trying to gauge the situation.
I think one of the biggest mistakes of this series up to this point was Kara's distrust of Clark/Superman and the fact that she has no real connection to anyone or to Earth. With Jonathan and Martha Kent being dead in the New 52 that loss made a huge impact in the Super family comics because it removed all the family togetherness and left Superman, Supergirl and Superboy as three strangers instead of a family.
