By: James Peaty (writer), Bernard Chang (artist), Blond (colorist)
The Story: No way is Supergirl going to play these mind games with a horny freak!
The Review: In comics, like in most other fiction, corniness and clichés aren’t crimes as long as they’re done sparingly, or with some kind of irony or self-awareness. In fact, they can inject some good humor or lightness to a comic that takes itself too seriously. But that’s only when you have a writer who knows how to use them in a crafty sort of way; in the hands of the non-honed, they turn any story into a cringing mess.
Peaty seems like he thinks he can actually get away with lines like, “M-my powers…wh-why aren’t they working?!?” (The use of “?!?” really brings that one over the top.) The stammering villain backed helplessly into the corner is not only older than probably most of us, but it’s also the least flattering gimmick there is for a character. Any respect you may have had for “Alex” pretty much goes out the window once you see him babbling like a kid caught in the cookie jar.
But then, Alex lost credibility as a villain long ago, once his actions became less meticulous and more erratic and senselessly vengeful. You can’t even tell where his thirst for revenge comes from, nor where it’s directed. Once Peaty revealed him as a Dubbilex-clone, the gates opened for all sorts of senseless developments: Alex’s loss of Kryptonian genes (no sign of which gets seen in this story arc at all), his Oedipus complex for poor Catherine Devereux, etc.
The only vague indication of Alex’s goals is when he offhandedly mentions “breaking…the Man of Steel’s heart.” Putting aside for a moment the random leap to targeting Superman, this change in goal ultimately hijacks the focus of the story away from Supergirl. Considering Peaty himself has been trying to make this arc about elevating Kara’s heroism to her cousin’s level, suddenly turning her into more of a means to hurt Superman seems like a humiliating demotion for her.
And anyway, from the start Alex never intended even Supergirl to be his sole, or even his primary target. By now you may have forgotten about the Flyover app—a great idea that never got a chance to take off—but its original aim was to help Alex kill off all DC’s young heroes. But along with the stakes of this story arc, Alex apparently scaled down his mission hardcore, now content to use Blue Beetle and Robin as a “bio-base for my next generation of drones.”
I don’t know if Spencer didn’t leave behind enough notes for his initial story pitch or what, but Peaty seemingly has no idea how to use Lois Lane in this story, which may explain why Alex tries to bump her off this issue. She leaves the hospital declaring, “I’ve got a story to write,” but in the final pages, we see she doesn’t even get to do that. Yet another sad sign of how impotent Peaty’s made most of the characters this issue.
Chang can’t save this title from an inglorious conclusion with his art alone, solid as it is. He and Blond gives the look of the issue more credibility than it earns, but that’s not enough to excuse the absolute confusion in the story’s events. Let’s hope they get a more promising project to work on next time, as they surely deserve better.
Conclusion: Though I have no idea who Kelly Sue DeConnick is, I look forward to her takeover of this title next month. May she save this title from falling into my drop list.
Grade: D+
– Minhquan Nguyen
Some Musings: – In one of the aftermath panels, Miss Martian is apparently levitating a KO’ed Alex. I think Peaty may be basing his knowledge of these characters a little too much from the Young Justice cartoon.
Grade
Conclusion