Review – Supergirl #32: A Gathering of Villains

Supergirl #32 – Marc Andreyko, Writer; Kevin Maguire, Artist; FCO Plascencia, Colorist

Ratings:

Ray – 8/10

Ray: Marc Andreyko has had a pretty big uphill battle in his Supergirl run, as he has to deliver a lot of plot advancement and reveals and good Supergirl characterization in a title designed to be a tie-in to a controversial Superman run. As usual with Supergirl #32, this title is better than the parent title, but it also suffers from a lot of the same problems keeping it from reaching its potential. While Superman and Jor-El are dealing with Rogol Zaar, Kara and her younger (older now?) cousin Jon are chasing down Empress Gandelo to hold her to account for her role in Krypton’s destruction. Gandelo is one of the weakest parts of this run since she’s little more than a generic evil cosmic empress who speaks in cliches. However, the issue begins with a fun gross-out segment courtesy of one of Gandelo’s henchmen spontaneously making himself give birth to thousands of minions – leading to some off-color jokes from Jon and a fun back-and-forth between him and Kara.

The final battle with Gandelo has some of the issue’s best visuals, as the weakened genocidal dictator shows she still has some tricks up her sleeve and debuts a new winged form. Ultimately, though, she’s what she appeared to be – a random new villain appearing in a secondary title, and her story ends as you’d expect it to end against Rogol Zaar.

Z’ndr’s arrival to play hero was a return I was glad to see, but his reaction when his adoptive mother died made me wonder where his loyalties really lay. She was a monster and he seemed to realize that. Zaar is, unfortunately, uninteresting and his battle with Kara looked great but didn’t hold my interest. He’s Doomsday with more dialogue.

The ending, back on Earth, threw some new wrinkles into the ongoing Brainiac subplot and had Lex Luthor make a new offer to a major player. I’m looking forward to seeing Kara return to Earth and get away from the likes of Zaar.

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Disclaimer: GeekDad received this comic for review purposes.