This was a more casual experience compared to the final end of the first 10 issues. With a new artist Kirk, the art has taken back a bit compared to Gary Frank who was really getting good. Peter David still has a charm that what would seem like boring outings or table talk to more interesting life-like moments.

Mattie has an outburst during the trial of the store owner who murdered her brother PJ during Gorilla Grodds Primordial revolution of #3-4. Cutter stops her from being in contempt of court and invites her and Linda to the comedy club. The comedian is Cutter's ex, and we find out his real name is Wendell. He's lived a crazy life going from Hollywood, trying to make it but he clearly is having plenty of trouble.

Dick is Linda's date and comes from a wealthy southern family but is living on his own to prove his worth. He has a rolls Royce though as a "gift".

Alot of comic writers don't make such little characters like this stand out like David does.

The big reveal as to the monster in the cave is Banshee! So can't wait to see what the hell Banshee is up to back in 1997 lmao! more

This annuals best short story is the one written by Chuck Dixon hands down. While it has nothing to do with what is going on with Supergirl's main story by Peter David, it offers a horrifying glimpse into the hell of some random character being used by some evil planetary corporation mining for rare minerals on a hot planet.

The character as an adult speaks no words at all, we just see her being forced against her will to be strapped to a machine and transfer her mind to an autonomous android "tooljerk" on the hot planet to mine resources. The only context we get from her is memories from her childhood. How her father would retell childlike stories of Supergirl to put her to sleep.

The horror of this was that was all the memories the tragic character had left that gave her any happiness at all. So a malfunction happens where her consciousness leaves her mortal body completely and permanently attaches itself to the tooljerk which has a God Like form that can change into anything.

From the memories of Supergirl's tales, she transforms herself into Supergirl and destroys her corporate slaver's. While I simplify the message, the experience while short was very emotional and sad. As for the next short stories after this one, eh, nothing to write about. more

Here Peter David again puts Supergirl to the fire literally (as seen on the cover of the ish) and most importantly metaphorically. Tempus blows up Linda's home and from what it looks like he murdered her parents before she could do anything about it. We discover further that Buzz has been laying the foundations of everything up to this moment. From corrupting the innocent Linda, to even using Chakal just to entrap Supergirl and Linda to mix their souls together. Buzz is not the mastermind totally, as he is doing this for some other force not yet revealed to us. He is stuck in some kind of hellish bargain.

So many things a happen here and in Supergirl's moment of vulnerability, some really good emotional writing comes out of here. When Linda's parents die, Supergirl looses her mind.

SUpergirl says to herself;

"Yes... as his cloud surrounds me, I see the world as it truly is. SUpergirl died with Linda, instead of saving her. We're burning together."

In the background you see distorted faces of her parents and ma and pa Kent, SUpergirl continues;

"It's all been a joke. A sick cosmic joke. I understand the world now... It makes so much sense... It's all sickness and depravity wherever you look. That's the reality of it. All it takes is the guts to see it that way, and that's what Supergirl provided: The bravery to meet the world on it's own twisted level."

"We look to the skies-- look to the super-beings to give us hope--but at the end of life, we sink beneath the earth, and God and his "heroes" laugh down at us all. Because God is insane, and he made us in his own image."

Then the next page have these great intense panels of Linda trying to shake SUpergirl out of her nihilism. Linda tries to say to Supergirl;

"No... You're wrong... I was wrong...I... I've seen the world through your eyes... Seen so much... Seen what you aspire to...What humanity aspires to...God Supergirl... You thought you weren't human... You're the most human creature I've Ever met. You've learned--"

A panel of Supergirl screaming with blooddripping on her face interrupts,
"I've learned it doesn;t mean anything! I sacrifice and people die! I show mercy and people die! Love begets hate, trust begets betrayal...No more! It ends here! It ends here! No Mercy! No Mercy! Because now they die for their sins! I'll leave their bodies in ruins and let God worry about their souls!"

Now on just this write up you may say that's not anything special, but from the intensity of the panels, and the desperation of Supergirl I really felt each moment and heard their voices.

Buzz shows some compassion, a panel shows a subtle glint in his eye of sorrow for what he had to do to Supergirl. As she is about to kill Tempus, Buzz interrupts her and tells her;

" Is this what you want. Angel? When alls said and done? It's my way sure.. And it was Linda's way... Except maybe it's not anymore... Which makes you the swing vote. As in whether you swi9ng that fist or not. Do you make Linda's way yours? Or your way hers? Here and now Angel you'll finally truly become one. The only question is: One what?"

This all shakes Supergirl to her core and she chooses the right way.

more

We find out more about Buzz in this ish, I was close but he's not Lucifer. Buzz is a demon that was exiled from hell, all the demons exiled ran to space, other worlds or earth like him. But Buzz in his time away from hell turned himself into some kind of cosmic business man and made a mysterious deal with an unnamed force to turn Supergirl into their personal weapon.

Buzz is still evil, but he does seem to have an understanding with Supergirl which shows more in the next ish. Most of this comic was Linda having Dinner with her mom and dad who set up the "blind date" with Buzz. Believe it or not but this was really well written, an entire comic devoted to a slowly intensifying dinner table conversation works beautifully here.

You learn so much about Buzz in this and the reactions of Linda and her parents only add to the believability of the situation.

Linda not wanting to expose her identity as Supergirl hesitates to do anything until Buzz surprise attacks the family with Tempus Fugit showing up. more

Wow Peter David's writing style and Gary Frank's 90's-esque art really combine here to create an almost perfect comic in so many ways. From learning more about Linda's past and how Supergirl handles it, to the seamless flow panel by panel that made this read nothing but pure bliss for me. The colors really popped as well in here.

We really dive into Linda's psyche to understand why she fell into the dark side before merging with Kara's blank protoplasm soul. Linda's father and mother visit her and look through her old sculptures and art, her father takes and angel statue out that brings back memories of Linda when she was going to church to listen to Reverend Meeke. Meeke's wife was sweet and gave Linda the statue as a gift. Linda went to visit Meeke and his wife one day and she caught the reverend beating the wife to a bloody pulp.

She came to visit again after that and saw a bunch of professional men hauling a rolled up carpet into a van. Her eyes caught the cloth and slight blood dripping from the inside of the carpet. This experience forever changed Linda from the naïve little girl, to a skeptic on the bible, to a full blown rebel thanks to meeting Buzz. Buzz of course is supernatural and waited to speak to Linda by a tree after she witnessed the horrific murder of Meeke's sweet wife.

Whether this was pre-ordained by Buzz to form Linda to his molding is yet to be seen, but this moment where Buzz and Linda first meet is obviously a reference to Genesis. As Buzz jumps down from the tree to tempt Linda into seeing the "Truth" of the Church and the Bible. Buzz is the Snake (and quite possibly I suspect is actually Lucifer himself) and Linda Eve. Peter David's biblical themes from my description may sound on the nose, but on paper and through the experience of the comic it is a smooth and very sinister atmosphere he creates.

While Buzz imparts many truths to Linda to feed her justifiable questioning of the church, his goals are evil. Pointing out how the church was created by the Romans to control the masses is in fact a very accurate way to view it. If you listen to either Jordan Maxwell (who is now deceased) or the current Professor Jiang on Youtube (Predictive History), both talk about how the Romans manipulated Christ' teachings to control the masses through Catholism etc. Professor Jiang specifically talks about how Paul was the true deceiver and a sort of double agent for the Romans and the Pharisees to spread his false system of beliefs. Only to convert the roman slave system into the roman faith system.

Buzz is clearly Lucifer in the actual Luciferian Helena Blavatsky sense, where he is "The light". In this belief, Lucifer was actually telling Adam and Eve the truth, that God was keeping them chained through ignorance, and through the apple, Lucifer would impart knowledge to help them break free from God's oppression. However through the art and symbolism in this comic, Buzz lead Linda through Anti-Christ principles. Murdering the Priest Meekes and his mistress, being apart of orgies, etc. We are shown this through ish #7 where she first enters Buzz home where there is an orgy going on, with illuminati symbols adorned on the walls. From the triangle, to the head of Baphomet.

This comic unlike many modern iterations of today, does not treat the reader like an invalid snowflake that can't handle anything. Like many mediums of the time it reaches toward the darkest parts of humanity but unlike the many overly-done pieces of the time, this piece stays grounded and feels very real at the same time. more

Not the best in the line-up so far, basic story of how Rampage gets betrayed in her human life to be set up in some financial fraud scheme. Superman intervenes since Rampage is his friend Kitty Faulkner.

The story now is a bit less dark than the last three issues and is going back to a more science fiction theme now bringing back Chemo! It was nice to have Kara visit Jonathan and Martha Kent back in Kansas. She didn't tell them what happened to her mixing it up with Linda Danver's soul. This makes me wonder at what point will she talk to Superman about what happened?

Chemo started to grow in a lab randomly again and the lab owners didn't tell anyone because they said he was growing on their private property thus making Chemo their property. Well he keeps growing so eventually he breaks out on his own.

Supergirl doesn't defeat Chemo in any physical way here, she gets caught inside of him like the blob, but once she is inside she can hear his conscious. He is struggling with what he is, and Supergirl lies to him that he is not a living being and can't live any kind of life. This makes him go super-nihilistic and I guess he self-detonates. But I'm sure he will randomly show up in the future.

BONUS

In the TPB edition after this issue there are two bonus stories. Perceptions is a really good short that is unafraid to delve into the idea of false accusations based on perception. Mary from Captain Marvel visits Supergirl's town after having a fight with her mother and father for disappearing all the time. Hanging out with Linda Mary in her child form wonders off and gets taken by a Police officer who recognizes her as the missing runaway child.

The officer is a good friend of Linda's father who saved his life on multiple occasions. When the officer took in Mary. Mary freaked out because she thought he was trying to molest her. Losing her cool she transformed to Captain Marvel but was stopped from doing any damage by Supergirl. Supergirl insist on the process of justice to Mary and they listen to the officer's side of the story.

The comic does a great job of not being bias toward any side and lets you be the judge at least until the last panel of the comic.

The officer didn't try to do what Mary said, and no charges were made.

If this was made in our time now, Supergirl would immediately believe Mary's accusations and beat the hell out of the cop or whatever. Instead Peter David holds Supergirl's principles to the fire in this bonus story and she proves she is not all talk and truly stands behind "Truth, Justice ands the American Way."
Supergirl felt extremely guilty about lying to a creature that needed to hear some kind of solace or affirmation of what it's existence meant. But to save the lives of the town of Leesburg again she had to make the hard choice in this case. Otherwise the town would be absorbed like the Blob. more

Gorilla Grodd uses Supergirl for a short period to do his bidding. She breaks out of it when he tries to make her throw Linda's mother into a pit of fire. When she breaks out of it she has an intense fight with Grodd, strangely an icicle kills Grodd by piercing him into his head. This is not Kara's doing but most likely Buzz or someone higher working the chess board.

This has a special guest appearance of Gorilla Grodd! Using the heart of Darkness Grodd turns the little town of Leesburg into a primordial soup of insanity. Chakat was defeated last issue epically by SUpergirl when she fought him in his own realm. My favorite part was when she figured out how to get rid of him. She tore off his nail and used it to cut him and threw it across the demonic realm. The blood scent attracted the giant Dog demons that have been hunting Chakat in that realm to finally find him and get him away from entering Earth's realm.

So Buzz, the mysterious character who seems to be the main villain behind the scenes creating all of these obstacles for Kara somehow summons Grodd to cause havoc in Leesburg. Every human in the town devolves into apelike violent creatures killing one another, screwing each other literally, and all the base animalistic things you can think of. Grodd manages to turn Kara into an ape only because she is now mixed with a human. more

This is where we find out that the soul Kara now shares her life with was a twisted and evil soul who murdered did strange sexual things with the cult that attempted to sacrifice her for Chakat. Sharing a soul means she shares all the memories as well, and she now has to live a double life. As Linda Danvers she has Linda's mom and dad while also as Kara she has Jonathan and Martha Kent who raised her in this series.

This would make a difficult and weird experience to attempt to write in any form of media, but Peter David manages to keep the pacing good, and the story makes sense as you go on. more

So I will go back in read the last short volume of 4 issues to understand this whole notion of Supergirl becoming some kind of protoplasm experiment of Lex Luthor. It sounds really 90s but I am curious now. Nonetheless Peter David was given a difficult task to correct a strange choice in Supergirl's character and I have to say this was the best solution for the time. While it may have been better off just to ignore that chapter of her being protoplasm and start over completely you have to give David credit for sticking with the universe's story at that time.

It is an interesting way of giving Kara actual human traits with a twisted evil person like Linda who murdered and did all sorts of dark things, as were shown she literally was laying naked in a pit of snakes. This is very biblical so far this story with it's symbology and themes and not in that ham-fisted way.

I never pictured a Supergirl comic feeling like an addition to the lore of Vampire the Masquerade but here we are. It was the mid late 90s after all. The art by Gary Frank is good but again not to be mean but it is very 90s. Dark, grungy, a bit on the teen angst side. It works but is not the preferred style for a Supergirl but this was endemic of the period.

So the question is from the Supergirl protoplasm saga, is this the real Kara? And also does this connect to the Crisis on Infinite Earths when the real Kara died? Is that why Lex Luthor created another Kara? I read Crisis on Infinite Earths Deluxe Edition but never read anything else after that at least in the Superman Universe so far so I'm out of the loop with that.

So lacking any soul according to this comic, Linda Danvers provides Kara with that actual human soul to replace the emptiness she feels in the beginning of the comic.

This is certainly strange and weird but honestly it is interesting. And with all of this dark stuff, from Cultist, sacrifice, summoning giant cat monsters like Chakat from another realm, I am enjoying this strange mixture of the superhero genre with VtMB lmfao.

With all of this darkness not a single curse word comes out of Kara's mouth throughout all of this. *This is a dig at Tom King*. more

Okay so this ish really throws a ton of bullshit at your face and then it drops a piano on your head.

We go from this entire bs scene where Ruthy who is not a warrior or has not shown any prowess besides lucking out and killing a giant dinosaur with one blow has an equal fight with the genocidal maniac Krem who has killed god knows how many people. All she does is kick him a few times in the face and bites his arm. The depravity of Krem should have been on full display here and the reader should have been put on edge that Ruthy might get killed becaue of her arrogance to fight a genocidal monster on her own. But no we need to Girl Boss this. It made no sense at all.

Tom King do you like Last of Us? Because I felt like I was reading TLOU II when Abby and Ellie were having their bloody cat fight on the shoreline. And just like Abby and Ellie, Ruthy doesn't cut off Krem's head. Then to teach Ruthy a lesson Supergirl attempts to cut off his head only to be stopped by Ruthy because she learned her lesson that killing is bad or something.

Okay it gets more contrived and stupid. So they put Krem in the phantom Zone and he serves 200 years and is rehabilitated. Supergirl with Krpyto who by the way, Supergirl lied about having to find the antidote on Krem just to have an excuse to go with Ruthy on her chase for vengeance. Krypto was fine the whole time, Kara lied. This is not Supergirl, toying with us on Krypto is disgusting, Superman would throw Kara into a tub of kryptonite for being so douchey.

So Supergirl visits th boring and lame Ruthy who is now an old woman, Supergirl is still young with a short haircut okay. She releases Krem unto Ruthy, Krem is an old man begging Ruthy for her forgiveness. Ruthy kills him. So what was the point of that over-bloated moralizing throughout the entire issue Mr. Kingfucius? Supergirl didn't even stop her she just stood there. So if Ruthy was goingto kill him then why didn;t they kill him on the beach when he was evil? Killing him when he did 200 years begging for forgiveness (while he is still a douche) still makes Supergirl and Ruthy look like unhinged psychopathic murderers.

This is not Supergirl, this is Tom King placing his psychosis on her.

You guys giving this a high rating are taking some kind of DMT, bath salts, or bio-engineered weed. more

This is by far the best ish in the series, the art is magnificent here.

However it still suffers from Tom King-Itis and it really shows here. Tom really tries to impress the reader here with some of his greatest hits on "wisdom". Clearly after reading and being pleased by "The Analects of Confucius", King miracuosly summoned the very soul of Confucius and imparted this ancient piece of knowledge;

"This is the question of a fool who has never hit a man in the face knowing that one hit won't do it and the next thing that's going to happen is that man is going to hit you right back as hard as he damn can. And you will taste your own blood before this day is ended."

From that another Tom King characteristic that shows up, rather mildly compared to Wonder Woman for example. Is how frenetic and unfocused the pacing of the story is. For example in WW around ish #18, or the one with Detective Chimp I think, the narration goes from Day 1, to Day 21, to day 12, etc. It is a mind numbing and pointless experience. Well it is not that extreme in Supergirl, but it doesn;t allow you to develop any connection to anybody at all. Comet comes in the comic too fast, Krpyto has been barely mentioned at all still and I still feel was totally treated like shit. Krem's capture was anti-climactic, Ruthy's arc has been not only predictable but too easy as well. Supergirl is just a pissed off walking tank that adds nothing interesting to the story dialogue-wise oher than the fact that she is Supergirl.

I have seen mini-series do a better job with getting the reader to buy the world and setting, this fools most readers because of the colorful fun art.

DC's tired strategy of putting make-up on a pig can't last forever. Or can it, are most people okay with the pig?

Lastly here is why I gave this a 4 instead of a 2 or 1 like the last issues. Solely for the art. Clearly the artist here really went all out, from the Supergirl fighting the Brigands on their D&D Spelljammer cosplay session Space Pirate ship, too the boring uninteresting Ruthy on the beautiful blue utopian planet. The setting, Comet, lines, design, and the beautiful color is truly perfection here. If anything, it would be improved if you just took out all of King's narration bubbles and just showcased the art this Deluxe Edition would be a 9 out of 10. more

Wow I can't imagine what everyone was smoking to give this such praise. It must just be the colorful art because otherwise the story is still really bad and the pacing a slog. And again the cursing is so redundant and off putting because the artstyle feels like it is aimed at 5 year olds. So one can't help but feel like they are reading a well drawn, colored book that was written, edited and approved by monkeys, but frankly I think monkeys would do a much better job.

If the art style is childish and colorful, where does saying fuck every other panel match? Am I reading Supergirl or MAX Punisher By Garth Ennis which I would rather be doing but I need to finish this to have a full opinion.

Good try about Kara's experience wth her father surviving the aftermath of Krypton suviving in the floating asteroid city. But honestly even the goofy Supergirl 1984 movie did a way better job than this lmfao. yeah I brought that movie back from the grave. Atleast Supergirl 1984 was funny and even had Faye Dunaway. This isn;t fun, funny, or the least bit intriguing. CIA Ghoul continues to prove to me tha the comic industry deserves to collapse f it continues to put phonies and pseudo-intellects like King up on a pedestal. more

While this is so far th most bearable ish, it still sucks. The art is top notch here, the monsters, the deadly planet with a green sun that was made to kill superman is all awesome. Kara is weak and unable to defend herself, and so Ruthy is holding the line until the green sun sets and Kara can power back up. But throughout this beautifully renditioned ish, the writing itself turned reading through each page a total slog and I was thankful for each moment I was getting closer to the end.

Now look, I'm not a stingey goody two shoes when it comes to cursing, I curse plenty in my daily life. So having Kara curse doesn;t bother me totally however it is out of her character. When people complained about Batfleck cursing on BvS I defended it. Knowing it was out of Bruce's character I always used the excuse "it's Snyder's universe, its darker, Batman's mortality is more prevalent than ever, and his human side comes out more." Still you won't see me advocating Bats cursing on comics though, leave that in the films.

So Kara cursing gets really annoying in this, I mean she makes me look like a saint! It just comes off like constant b*tching and complaining. Now if Superman ever cursed I would call it out in any medium comic or movie. Superman unlike Batman is not a human being, he is a Kryptonian with super god like powers. And retaining his "boy scout" image everyone these days scolds him for is not Superman being a hypocrite. I don;t even believe it takes much for him not to curse, in fact I believe the urge to curse never even occurs to him even under his worst moments. He's just so above that, that's like Wonder Woman cursing like a sailor too, a goddess formed by clay or in ther renditions the daughter of friggin' Zeus.

So actually Mr. King, holding our darling Kara Supergirl to the same standard as our boy Kal and wanting her to avoid cursing is more of an equal progressive attitude than what you are lowering Kara too in these sh*te comics sir. Your basically saying Kara is so much lower than Kal, weaker mentally, that she resorts too cursing constantly under duress. She just can't handle the pressure, and even says "I get why people f*cking hate Kal". Even in some of the worst action comic runs during the Phillip Kennedy Johnson times, Supergirl was positive, as mentally strong and compassionate as Kal. The artist even give her this constant b*tch face through most of the panels. If she is going by Supergirl act like it. But no we can't do that, the former CIA ghoul has to deconstruct some of the most iconic women in comic book history.

So yeah this ish was just waiting until the green sun set, and boring Ruthy holding up her sword and killing a dino 10 times her size in one shot. And King trivializing Kara to a petty jealous piece of trash. more

Just... just when I think Tom King has started to get it. Just when I think he has read up a bit on the character and I will be happy to finally give this book the score that the art deserves, he burns it all down again in the blink of two pages.

There it is again - the out of character cursing... the care-not attitude that is the opposite of everything the character has stood for. Destroying the very soul of the character that Binder created.

This isn't the greatest idea ever. Every single writer before knew that it was possible to write Supergirl this way. They chose not to. more

So I've made a mistake. Krypto is not dead. But me thinking this only proves King is a horrible writer. Why?I went back to issue #1 to see where I misread Krypto's death and here's what the last few panels say. "The mender explained that there had been hunting poison on the arrows-- it didn't affect people too bad, but it was killing the animal." "He could save the pup, but he would need a hefty sample of the original poison, for each hunter mixed it differently." Here's where I misread and thought Krypto was dead.

"As Krem of the yellow Hills was nowhere to be found, the animal was lost". And the panel shows Krypto with his eyes closed, and the artist drew his body disfigured and emaciated. Everything about this panel screamed "KRYPTO IS DEAD". Even the artist interpreted it that way clearly.

Further evidence of King's tell don't show philosophy Ruthy goes on too narrate "Later, I was by her side as she stroked the sick dog's face, I saw her tears fall." This should have been an amazing one page panel of Kara tearing on a sick Krypto with his eyes open looking at her eyes too. This would have made Krypto's fate more clear and hopeful, maybe with Kara whispering too him "I'm gonna find you that cure boy, just hold on."

So in ish #4 when Kara randomly shouts out "I have to save Krypto" it comes off mental and completley random because there was barely any mention of Krypto's status in ish #3. I'm happy he's still alive but this comic still suffers from Tom-Kingitis.

This comic has no grounding, no consistancy at all except the generic themes of adult and child journeying and seeing evil things with moral lessons as cliche as Taylor Swift. Gail Simone's Wonder Woman for example had that grounding, familiar characters would come in to remind you of Diana's world, and Diana's world of supporting characters and lore only made her story more of a rich experience. King takes Kara away from her grounding and expects her to float all on her own. A clever writer would make Kara the main character in her own story and use the familiar characters of her past runs serve as supporting structures. But no, Kara has to be strong feminist who needs no writing structure.

And yes, King fails at using supporting characters in his WW run as well but in this they don;t exist at all. more

Okay so where to begin on this, lots of thoughts from this sh*t ish. I'm still bummed about how Krypto's death was handled like nothing happened. I mean this is KRYPTO. King completely glossed over any emotion this could have brought out of Kara,but I guess we can't afford Kara to look or be vulnerable because muh feminism...It comes off though like Kara didn't give a crap after he died. I know the real Supergirl would never act this way, I mean c'mon Superman showed more emotion in James Gunn' horrible movie when the robot died in the end then Kara did for Krypto. POOR WRITING.

Secondly the more annoying and overly written Ruthy is the more her bubbles just go over my head. I find my mind forgetting her meaningless tripe the second I finish her dialogue. She is also a reminder of wy I hate the Last of Us, (I love the Last of Us) but I hate how it createdthis trend in all media of the little girl being carried around dangerous situations and bonding with the protector. It only worked beautifully in LOU I, everyone else trying to do this it comes off bland, lame and unimaginative. But with Ruthy it is worse because King doesn't do anything to me her stand out or be likeable at all. A particular immersion breakingscene in this ish is when Ruthys gets hot at while sleeping and Kara bviously saves her. But in his action packed moment that should be intense, King ruins it with this over the top bland narration that makes you say "damn, they missed!"

I must also question further James Gunn who after Superman I suspected to be a poser. And no Gunn posing in pictures with old Action Comic issues is not enough to convince me, that is pure PR. Gunn wanting to base his Supergirl movie off of this only solidifies my feeling that he is a fake. Why? Well this is the worst Supergirl comic I've read, and this only exposes Gunn's level of Comic lore. you can go back to Peter David's Supergirl run and have superior content you can use for a Supergirl movie compared to this generic trash. So that also tells me that he is only picking this because it is the newest thing by Tom King and for some reason DC has a hard on for King, as King also influenced Superman movie which is evident because how bad it was. Gunn's decisions are corporate based, he is no Sam Raimi who had a genuine love for Spider-man comics in his life for example.

Back to this ish, the art has taken a major hit and looks worse than previous two. The beautiful color design can't make up for the lackluster pencils in this particular ish. The story continues to suck and clearly King has no original ideas in his mind and regurgitates concepts he reuses. For example his horrid Wonder WOman run, issues 22-24 i believe with the "Mouse Man Knows" mantra seems to have seeped it's way into this. Kara and Ruthy discover the Blue aliens committed a holocaust on the Purple aliens and Krem joined in on the genocide before Kara and Ruthys arrived. Wow he must have committed this systemic genocide pretty quick from when they left the first planet to this one. MORE BAD WRITING.

King can't help but lecture his readers about things we already know about. He forgets he's writing a superhero comic. more

I'm starting this off with a 1 out of 10 for Krypto. Really,you had to kill off Krypto? Is that what we have to look forward to in the Supergirl movie? What BS, now we get stuck with Ruthye who is as interesting as Bebe Newell playing Lilith on Cheers but atleast Bebe is funny and talented. The story is already crap, and Tom King continues his campaign of over-narration and he completely missed the lesson "Show don't tell.

Ruthye and Supergirl in this ish are traveling through space, and Supergirl teaches Ruthye to wash her hands with soap. Yeah seriously. Back to the over-narration point this is no joke. Most of the pnls are filled with Ruthye's annying, emotionless, wordy bubbles that don't add anything to the story. She literally at the end ofish 2 explains to you what happened right after ish #1 on how Krypto dies. This was a cheap trick by King, and should have been shown to you the reader in the beginning of the comic not told to you by some manaquin. But whatever King would have done would not make up for killing Krypto. This is a comic, you could come up with any solution to save Krypto.

So with Krypto out of the story, the interest is already dying down. This would be unique and nice with a favorite super-pup besides Kara (even this raunchy, nasty, modern Kara OF version). In fact with Krypto this story would stay tolerable but already the tolerability is low. So hat was really dumb Mr. King...

The art is still good but that's it so far. I know you don't believe me but I tried to go into this positively despite King's involvement but he makes it very difficult... more

I'm reading this through the deluxe edition because I want to get an idea on what the upcoming Supergirl movie will be like. Not being a fan of Tom King on how he has been handling WW and Trinity so far this is tolerable compared to those atrocious depictions. Nonetheless I can;t help but feel like Kara is out of character and written like a trashy whore you would meet at 3AM in a dark part of the city. I understand it is her birthday and she goes to planets with weaker suns so she can feel the affectsof getting drunk but frankly this feels like I am reading e beginning of some Deadpool knock off. Which urks me greatly because this is why I hated king's Trinity so much where he turned her into a wanna-be Deadpool.

Now it's a very basic introduction to this version of Kara and of course you can;t go without King's over-bloated narration which in this is done by Ruthye. Ruthye is seeking someone to kill a wretched killer named Krem who murdered her father in cold blood. She crosses Kara's path in a bar and the story goes from there. Krem steals Kara's ship and the ish ends with Supergirl stuck on this planet, Krypto has an arrow in his upper shoulder etc. This is very basic so far and feels like I am watching a storyboard for a movie.

Now the nice part about the deluxe edition is the re-coloring really makes this a stand out, and the drawings are really nice. Each page feels like it flows beautifully from one to the next. I can see there might be some good development of Kara as you go through this series but so far so good.

Lastly, Tom King has an introduction in the Deluxe Edition and I have to give him credit for being slightly aware that he is aragant and bragadocious and his story about his daughter was a nice touch. Yet this does not make me overlook his destruction of WW sorry. And as always everything is about him. I have read many introductions written by the greats from Stan Lee, Peter David, etc. They write about themselves in such a way that was entertaining and educating at the same time. Peter David would tell you in detail what inspired him to create a darker Aquaman and thoughout his preface didn't need to brag about his "career", he imparted his comic knowledge and love of the medium in a beneficial way toward the reader.

Another example is how Stan Lee in his introduction to the Silver Surfer Omnibus made it very clear that comics were designed to transcend Hollywood movies, not be Hollywood movies. He wrote that beautiful intro back in 2007 in such a beautiful and honest way that I always refer back to it once in a while when talking about Stan Lee.

Tom King however always has to remind you that he was in the CIA, served in war twice in his "misspent" youth. While in this intro he seems to attempt a stab at modesty, it fails again and comes more off like bragging points. I don't get a sense of a true love of the medium of comics like I always did from the past greats of our time. more

Just EPIC and totally underappreciated series...

There are some amazing two page splashes of the robo dragon that look stunning.

The highlights of this ish however is the conversations between the Mandarin and Tony. Plus all of this insanity and the creation of the monster turns out to all be a test he Madarin made for Tony Stark. For what ends we don;t really know but can only guess at.

Anyway Tony is tied up and the Mandarin and him have a heart-to-heart, mono e mono, and these moments produce beautiful dark dialogue between them. You see the ish references how Iron Man defeated Mandarin in Iron Man Vol. 1 #312, and the Mandarin (Mandy for short) reincarnated as a janitor who worked in Stark Towers. This new life from this perspectvie gave Mandy a new evil plan. No longer did he want to destroy all the worlds technology to bring us back to feudalism and make China the world conquerors.

Dont take my word for it here is Mandy and Tony:

Mandy says, "My mind clouded -- my true memories only surfacing in dreams -- I endured unspeakable humiliation for one such as I. But I must thank you -- and the heart -- for such a valuable lesson." Tony confused, "A lesson --?

Mandy goes on, " I'd thought to destroy technology -- to erase two thousand years of progress and restore feudalism. But I discovered -- That feudalism was not dead, merely transformed as I. Coolies, masters, magistrates, mandarins -- the manual labor of peasants generated power, which flowed ever upward -- growing greater at each level, until it rested in the hands of the truly deserving -- the noble classes. And nothing was changed -- My coolie labor enriched those above me, and above them -- until it reached yu. Anthony Stark. Feudal Lord of a modern age." TOny disgusted, "Not lord..."

Mandy continues, "How foolish to reject what I should have sought to understand. And more foolish still, to rage at the idea of Iron Man, a vassal, as my greatest foe -- rther than see beyond him, to my true enemy."

Tony also finds out here that the Mandarin wasn't behind everything, just the death squad in the beginning, so there still remains many unanswered questions as to who else is after Ton. We are then shown something about Madame Masque in her secret HQ getting murdered by an unknown killer. Not sure I remember what that has to do wit anything.

While this is going on the Guardians and the Avengers are trying every trick in the book to take out the giant Dragon ship with no success.

The epic conversation continues:

Mandy "But ahh -- then my dreaming ind awakened -- and I returned to myself! It is a thrill few people in the world can share, I know -- But surely Anthony, you are among them! To know you are superior --- in mind, in body, in spirit. EVERYTHING! To know that power is your birthright -- to know that untold thousands exist on thisworld for no reason but to serve you-- To channel their power through your empire, be it of land or of business -- channeling it upward to fuel you, to fuel your glory!"

Iron Man repulsed goes back at Mandy with "It doesn't -- power doesn't work that way Mandy. Or it shouldn't... The people who worked for me -- wrked at Stark Enterpises -- Werent slaves! They didn;t work because they were property -- They worked there by choice, to better their lives, provide for their families! Employees not vassals -- Give their employers their best because they hope and trust that employers will do the same. And they'll be rewarded in kind, paidfairly for their efforts. Too often employees are disappointed -- Disappointed by people like you, who see loyalty as a one way street -- who think they have a right to power. Instead of earning it by winning their employees loyalty fairly!

Mandy saddened by this explanation, "You disappoint me, Anthony -- mouthing such populist cant, as if you've been brainwashed by the world's ignorant rabble. BUT by all means, go on -- And convince me if you can -- How there can possibly be any sort of parity between those who sweat and toil in the fields -- and men such as ourselves..."

We never really here a verbal counter argument by Tony because as they were conversing he was figuring out ow to slowly regain control of his suit and break free from Mandy's hold. Iron Man flies around to find the very core of the roo beast and with all the taunting and talk of Mandy Tony stayed focus and aimed at the core. Mandy was overjoyed that Tony ignored the all the emotional obstacles and mental games andproved to Mandy that Tony is the one and only TRUE ENEMY.

As the beast is falling apart Iron Man attempts to save Mandy but Mandy throws himself itno the fire.

This was epic beyond words, as good as any movie you can watch...Great end to this little arc! more

So Tony literally dies for a moment, and Natasha uses her electric bracelets to bring him back to life. Grasping for life, pulverized, bruised, bloodied internally and out, Tony ask Black Widow to get his suitcase and she reluctantly does this worried for his life. Putting on the Iron Man suit in half a daze Tony tells her to call the Aveners and meet him where e ends up.

A cool detail is while Tony travels the skies in his Iron Man suit how he drinks water is by pressing a button with his chin and it automatically delivers water. Being almost dead the water makes him vomit almost. Feeling tired he sets coordinates aand activates auto-pilot to fall asleep in his suit. Little details like this really give life to Iron Man and makes me imagine being in the same scenario.

Ending up in Russia some kind of skirmish is happening with the Red Guardian and his crew (Darkstar, Vanguard etc), he tries to convince them the attack on their soil is being led by Mandarin. Without any evidence they stay on the frontlines to deal with the attack while Tony goes to the Mandarin up in the sky. So the Mandarin was behind everything in previous issues, the Death Squad, Stark Fujikawa, the Arms Merchant, the forced technological enslavery. It was all to hep the Mandarin create a huge Dragon ship.

The Robo Dragon swallows Iron Man and as he follows the vast empty tunnel of its inner body, the Mandarin traps Iron Man. The entire ship is empty of soliders and only the Mandarin is in it. With the power of his rings he controls every facet of the Dragon and torments Tony by crushing him, tying him up with metallic wires and has Tony near death. more

Another solid issue here, it immediatly starts off with Tony being chased by Whiplash. WHiplash is jacked, donned in S&M gear and proves to be pretty deadly for Iron Man.His whips are so fast even against Iron Man's speed and technological advantages that he overcomes Iron Man multiple times. Tony blieves the whips must work at a "molecular level", since he can feel his armor becoming brittle with each hit.

Whiplash' motive is really unknown and apparently he use to go by the name Blacklash, and he eventually ent straight for his family and kid. But during the Elektra run of this time around issue #6 or #7, he was deemed unfit and is going berserk over this. Now one might argue that Whiplash' design up against Iron Man is ridiculous but it makes sense in it's simplicity. Mark Scarlotti is ripped to an extreme degree and simply relies on his natural acrobatics and ability with the only technological instruments he uses are external like his glider and his molecular whips. With the mobility of the glider, Scarlottis natural talent, and his ferocious whips he can end Iron Man pretty fast if Tony let's his guard down. Whiplsh gets away and knocks Tony out of the game.

While Tony is on his search for Scarlotti and also looking for some mysterious recording's origin he enjoys his time in France with a woman named Yvette. Every issue does not shy away from Tony being a smooth guy with the ladies, I would be disappointed if these comics decided to stop this.

After that while searching for the mystery man, Pepper and Happy have an argument, Happy falls on the floor from Pepper's dog treat and finds a bug under her desk. They figured out that chick Happy was going out with bugged the room and that means whoever was listening knows every location TOny has been at and that he is Iron Man.

Tony freaks out and immediately leaves the building only to be welcomed by a group of 5 mercenaries who beat the shit out of him to a bloody pulp. One of the mercenearies took his briefcase and threw it in a river, that's why he couldn't become Iron Man and save himself. Whoever hired the mercs didn't tell them he's Iron Man and kept it to themselves. While Tony is getting beaten he sees a man up watching named "The Spymaster". Who is he and what is his role in this?

Tony would have been dead if not for Natasha (Black Widow) coming in to save him on time.

This must of been the handiwork of the Mandarin which should be next ish.

Great stuff here! more

One thing you have to admit about these old comics even these 90s one, you were getting your monies worth in terms of length,size and dialogue. these comics take me a bit longer to read through than most of the modern comics I go through like water no joke. But these issues feel like really good animated episodes you would watch on TV except you would have to imagine the animation in your head. And the amount of detail in the dialogue boxes are really good and allows you as the reader to really get lost in the characters' thoughts and ways.

I remember liking this particular ish when I first read it last year because of he interesting dynamic of Carol and Tony in here. This was the first time I learned that Carol had alcohol problems like Tony too and this made Ms. Marvel more interesting to me to eventually read her comics overtime.

The bad guys in this are okay, the big bad really is the return of the Supreme Intelligence who apparently according to this ish was killed by the Avengers #347. A bunch of douche Kree revived him and need a power plant for some reason.

But what makes this ish great is how Carol gets angry at Tony for calling out her using alcohol to get through her problems. This is also where he first reveals his identity to her for the first time.

When Tony and Pepper go to Power Source Plant where the Kree are secretly based, Ms. Marvel causes a reaction wen she comes crashing at Tony and yelling at him for appearing to judge her even though he wasn't and he completely understands everything she s going through. He smells the alcohol on her breath and it literally makes his"mouth water". These small vulnerable details of both f these heroes for me adds so much depth to them and is why I didn;t mind doing a second reading of this comic series. more

I enjoyed seeing Black Widow and Iron Man team up together in tis issue. Some beautiful old school artwork in this ish, from the character designs to the simple but sweet environmental backdrops or social settings.

Tony and Widow make a good match but to be honest TOny seems to fit well with any woman, I would even go as far to say that he is the Clark Gable of comic books. Devilish, classy, cool and rogue at the same time. And having a set of armor in a suitcase helps this persona immensely.

Anyway, Tony makes a deal with Natasha to help her find out more bout brilliant scientist nd technicians who are disappearing systematically.

Tony and Natasha go all over extravagant places with important officials and the like to use him as bait. Obviously Widow gets distracted by a assassin ad Tony gets kidnapped while she is busy. These scenes here I really liked specifically one page where they are dancing together in a ballroom with jazz musicians playing. These couple pages are really nice to look at and feels very classy.

So Tony ends up at some Technician facility that is forcing all these brilliant minds to create an unknown technology. Tere not told what it is. Unlike all the other hostages Tony eluding the guards creates a beacon that contacts Natasha so she can find him.

They end up fighting Tuatara who has some giant lizard bitch monster form.

This is real 90s stuff here. more

Tony handles Firebrand like Superman pretty much, hacking his less complex suit that contains his energy and using it against him and turning him into a huge laser to cut a new land path for the lava to flow in and save the people.

Firebrand is insane and was created to be even worse by the terrorist organization Flaming Sword. Using his insanity to have him believe he is fighting for a cause against the rich when actuality he is just their tank to make pillaging and robbery easier.

Iron Man gets pulverized a bit here and puts up a good fight with Firebrand.

Im glad this part of the story is over and look forward to see what Natasha is up to on the next ish. Otherwise this just seals off Tony's new relationship with Rumiko, and ends up with him wanting Happy and Pepper to work things out.

I really enjoyed the art but some of the pages blend too much into each other at times. This series will stand out more if it had som more divisions or separations more often. more

So Tony finds out early on in the ish that Pepper and Happy went through a divorce and he feels extremely narcissistic for not seeing this. Even though he was out of the picture for a while, he still blames himself for not being able to read the situation so to speak.

Hanging out in Isla Suerte "The shining jewel of the Caribbean" with hotels, resorts and casinos or as the villain Firebrand would later call it the soft play thing of the rich. Honestly my favorite part of this ish is the introduction of Rumiko. Shes a sexy 27 year old women who is Fujikawa's daughter.From a rich line but not allowed to actually work in the business for being female. Rumiko rebels in her own ways and mixes great with Tony Stark when they are together. She comes off as your cliche rich spoiled brat but you find out she's much more interesting than that and when the island gets attacked by Firebrand Iron Man sees her aiding the civilians and saving lives in the best way she can, fearless girl she is.

In this Firebrand sticks out because he shows his distaste for the rich throughout his moments and some of whatt he says is not wrong at all. "You live off the sweat and toil of others -- live like kings by standing on their backs-- and then fritter away your workers lifeblood in plush, useless places like this!

I did read the first 24 issues back in March of 2024 but honestly I don't remember what happens after this ish, like why does Firebrand have such a hatred toward the rich, does that get explained later on o is it nothing special?

It was funny when Firebrand asked Iron man "Your an employee Iron Man -- a worker! You should be siding with the cause, not protecting the parasites!" Iron man resonds "This isn't exactly the place for a political discussion but business doesn't merely exploit -- it provides people a means to make a living."

The ish ends with Firebrand activating a dormant volcano on hte island. more