Superwoman #17 – K. Perkins, Writer; Federico Dallocchio, Artist; Hi-Fi, Colorist
Ratings:
Ray – 6/10
Corrina: The End For Lana?
WARNING: SPOILERS BELOW!
Ray: The penultimate issue of Lana Lang’s solo series tries to pack a lot into twenty pages, and as with the rest of the series, it’s only intermittently successful. The issue opens with Superwoman in the void, facing off against Midnight – the malevolent AI created out of Lena Luthor’s mind that has been targeting the citizens of Metropolis, including Steel. Lana nearly dies, pushing herself to the limit to stop Midnight, and is bailed out by her friends before the end.
Recharging at the Steelworks, she has a brief conference with Superman, at least in her mind, where she thanks him for all his help and gives him what seems like a goodbye. I’ve been skeptical for a bit that Lana makes it out of this series alive, so we’ll see next issue. They seem to be hitting her heroic sacrifice pretty hard in the theming.
When she wakes up, she’s still powerless, and takes a major risk to get her powers back in a hurry. The group of younger heroes that Lana has surrounded herself in this series – Natasha Irons, Traci 13, and Maxima – all add some good dialogue to the issue, and I’m hoping they show up elsewhere after this series is over. Lana’s storyarc as a character, though, is still unclear. She seems like she’s a cut-rate version of Jessica Cruz’s storyarc without the consistent development Jessica got. Her villains, aside from Lena, have been generic, and Midnight is really no different. The one area where this issue does excel is in its depiction of the void – Midnight’s battlefield is impressively creepy. There’s a few great visuals in the last act, but a lot of subplots to resolve in only one issue left. A creative switch halfway through did this series no favors.
Corrina: First off, I have to applaud DC for trying to spotlight Lana Lang and, even with the creative changes, not falling into the trap of making her a rival of Lois Lane. Instead, they’ve surrounded her with a terrific Superman-style support group, including Steel, Natasha, Traci Thirteen and, now, Maxima. The ambition is good because we could all use more titles centered on interesting female characters.
Unfortunately, while all the parts are there, the series has never coalesced into a concrete whole, perhaps because there has never been a clear focus for Lana. First, she wanted to live up to what Lois saw in her. Then she wanted to live up to what Clark saw in her. These are both the same wants and she hardly moved forward from them. Then she doubted herself and her powers and she kept doubting them, without any true progression in using them. As good as the creative team has been on The Wild Storm: Michael Cray, giving that main character focus, this comic has been an example of the opposite, despite its many good qualities. I suspect that might be due to the creative changes.
I, too, feel as if Lana will die at the end of her comic but, if she lives, it seems all but certain she’ll lose her powers. I’m bummed at the missed opportunity here.
Disclaimer: GeekDad received this comic for review purposes.
