Now this is more like it.
Last month's launch of a new direction for the title left me a little luke-warm, but Peter David reels me back in with this second chapter. The Silver Age spoof continues, both honoring and mocking the title character's 1960s origin, but at the heart of this issue is some real emotion. One gets a strong sense of the characters, and there's a good bit of fun to had along with it.
Supergirl, a bit overwhelmed from her supposed teenage Kryptonian doppelganger, calls in another hero closer to Kara Zor-El's age to help her out: the clone known as Superboy. Kara's power levels are off the scale, though, and they lose track of her pretty quickly. Kara turns up in Metropolis, trying to save lives in the midst of Mr. Mxyzptlk's latest visit (the bulk of which plays out in this week's Superman: The Man of Steel #132). As she and the two more experienced heroes deal with the chaos, Kara receives a rather blunt and disturbing message.
Benes's art is much more enjoyable this month. There's less of a focus on the title character's bazoombahs, so to speak, and more about what the characters are feeling. His work here reminds me a great deal of Gary Frank's artwork on the first several issues of this very series. Benes captures Superboy's and Kara's youth nicely, and there's a nice clean-cut, mature look for the Man of Steel as well. I'm still not a fan of the Britney Spears version of the title character's costume.
David's sense of humor is well suited to tackling the weirdness and illogical nature of Silver Age storytelling that we all loved but that just doesn't hold up upon closer examination. Newer readers, though, who don't have the benefit of exposure to those old Action Comics stories that introduced the Supergirl concept decades ago might feel a little left out of the loop... but not completely, I suppose. The Mxyzptlk encounter adds the required action sequence, and while it's diverting and playful, it's pretty run-of-the-mill stuff.
The stronger moments come later in the issue, and Kara is disappointed when her dream doesn't play out as she expected. Her solitude and sadness rings true here despite her fantastic circumstances. I also enjoyed seeing the beginnings of a friendship forming between Kara and Linda. That relationship -- along with David's trademark humor -- point to some strong storytelling potential in the months to come.
