Monday, 15 September 2014

Supergirl #8. A Head Full of Snakes - Part Two.

Supergirl #8, A Head Full of Snakes
Here it is, the concluding instalment of my look at a comic that's so epic, so awesome, so multi-layered in its themes and plot twists that it's taken two posts to review it.

Here's what happens.

Having been cast in a play, our heroine is busy leching after her co-star Mitch when she spots one of her college professors being mugged.

No sooner has she dealt with the muggers than she spots something else.

That her head's sprouted a load of snakes and she's turning people to stone.

Needless to say, the Justice League of America can't tolerate such a thing and turn up to give her a good kick in the asp.

Also needless to say, Supergirl polishes the lot of them off in about two seconds and then sets about trying to find a cure for her condition.

Supergirl #8, A Head Full of Snakes
It turns out that the ghost of Medusa is to blame and Medusa has a brilliant master plan, which is to get the ghost of Perseus to possess poor old Mitch and get him to chop Supergirl's head off with his magic sword. Then Medusa's ghost will be free to take over Supergirl's dead body and conquer the world with it.

Now Supergirl has to sort out Mitch and his magic sword and find Medusa's tomb to put a stop to all this.

Supergirl #8, Perseus
It has to be said that the main attraction of this issue is that you get to see Supergirl with snakes on her head and no cape on. Oddly enough, I have to say she looks a lot better like that and I can't help feeling they should have left her looking like that forever.

Other than that, I'm not sure it's a story that makes any sense at all. Medusa's plan would involve her taking over a headless corpse which, I would have thought, would pose certain practical difficulties when it comes to using it to take over the world.

Also, Mitch sees Supergirl's snakes on at least two occasions and suffers no harm.

Not only that but Supergirl and Mitch see the original Medusa's snakes at the climax and it has no effect on them at all.

With its illogical villainous scheme, petrification anomalies and the JLA and Supergirl showing no sense at all in their brief showdown, it does come across like a story that was written in a bit of a rush, without any great thought.

Still, Supergirl looks nicer in it than she's ever done before and that has to be something.

6 comments:

Kid said...

That was the real appeal of Supergirl 'though, wasn't it? She looked nice. The stories tended to be pants.

Anonymous said...

You're right about this issue coming across as a bit of a rush job, Steve, but for some strange reason that works in its favour; theres a quirkiness and unpredictability that results which makes up for any careless plot holes. At least, it does for me. But possibly not for everyone....

Yes, Supergirl does indeed look nice - that goes without saying - but I have to sound a critical note about the continued lack of boots.

-sean

Aaron said...

I know I'm really late to this, but when Supergirl turned people to stone, did Supergirl kill them?

Steve W. said...

Fortunately, once she was cured, everyone returned to normal.

Aaron said...

Thank you, Steve. :) I appreciate your reply. :)

Steve W. said...

You're welcome, Aa3on. :)