Sunday 24 August 2014

Supergirl #5 - The Devil's Brother.

Supergirl #5, firing squad
Satan. As we all know, he can be a bit of a cheeky one, getting up to no end of mischief and trouble.

But what about his brother?

We're about to find out - as Supergirl comes up against that self-same diabolical sibling.

As it turns out, that's not who she's up against at all. She's up against the ruler of some other dimension, who just sort of very vaguely looks a bit like the devil might if he were bright green and had fairly pitiful pair of horns on his forehead.

Here's what happens.

After receiving a strange book written in a strange language, our heroine starts to lose her powers.

This is bad news, as she's meant to be taking a bunch of kids to a funfair and, needless to say, they keep pestering her to do super things of which she's not currently capable.

Supergirl #5 robbed of her powers
Supergirl being Supergirl, it's not long before the trip to the funfair leads her to another dimension where she meets its feared ruler Dax who says he's the one responsible for the loss of her powers. He says he'll give them back to her - and release one of the kids who he's holding hostage - if she promises to help him defeat some rebels who are trying to overthrow his tyrannical reign and bring freedom to their planet.

Supergirl agrees and, interrupting their plan to blow up a nuclear reactor, brings the rebels to him.

Just as it seems she's done the dirty on them, she then pulls a fast one, thanks to a wristwatch she's rigged to fire knock-out gas at Dax, thus ending his reign of terror and handing control of the planet to the rebels.

And, with that, Supergirl can return to our own world, hostage and superpowers intact and complete her visit to the funfair.

Supergirl #5 Benedict Arnold
It has to be said there are certain things leap out at you with this tale.

One is that, when Supergirl meets up with the rebels, they're about to blow up a nuclear reactor and release its deadly radiation upon the general public.

Supergirl #5. Supergirl loses her powers.Call me judgemental if you want but, to me, that makes them sound like raving lunatics who'd be labelled terrorists in any sane society. And is Supergirl really sure these are a safe bunch of people to leave in charge of a planet?

The other thing is, why does she rig a wristwatch to fire gas at Dax and knock him out? She has her superpowers back by this stage and hasn't made any kind of pledge not to use them against him. Fully supered up, all she has to do is belt him one.

All I can conclude is that Supergirl, like Satan's oldest foe, really does work in mysterious ways.

Speaking of working in mysterious ways.

Where's Wanda Five?

Yes, five issues in and there's still no sign of Supergirl's issue #1 flatmate around whom it seemed an entire story arc was going to be built. Fans of UK soap opera Coronation Street will remember the sad case of Tracy Barlow, a character who spent fifteen years unseen, in her room, listening to music cassettes, before reappearing, sporting a brand new face and transformed into a psychotic murderer.

We can only hope the same fate doesn't await Wanda Five.

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

Its not just Wanda Five, Steve; as far as I know, we don't see Terri and Sabra again after this issue. Whats going on?

Definitely agree about Supergirl working in mysterious ways... it seemed like there was a lot going on in this story at a deeper, symbolic level that I couldn't really grasp.

What does it all mean?

-sean

Steve W. said...

There's no doubt about it. Supergirl's definitely killing her flatmates and then covering it up.

Anonymous said...

I missed a Supergirl Sunday!!!! Ratz farts!!! Where did the time go???


The Prowler (wasted, I tell you, the whole day wasted).