What I Bought Yesterday – Supergirl #23, X-Men #4, Batman and Robin #23 (WARNING – SPOILERS)

Aug 22

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What I Bought Yesterday

Yeah, I know! I finally remembered to do it on time yesterday, and then I forgot to cover three of the four books I got because I got caught up in other stuff. At this point, I don’t even know why I bother calling my comic recaps What I Bought Today…well, other than because Morgan was awesome enough to make the logos for me, and it’d be a huge waste to not use them. Y’know, I just thought of the What I Bought Today Drinking Game: Every time I fail to release it on the day I bought whatever I’m talking about, take a shot. But before you do that, let’s talk Supergirl #23.

So because I just know people probably are already aware of how this issue ends, I’m gonna get right to it: No, Supergirl isn’t really dead. Well, in the sense that even if she IS dead, chances are she’s got a Get Out Of Death Free Card of some sort coming to her next issue. So why do I know that people are likely talking about this? Well, because this issue shows a female character getting axed off, and ever since DC decided to shove Kyle Rayner’s girlfriend in a fridge a long while back, every time a woman is shown to be killed or even possibly killed, DC’s female fanbase (and yes DC, whether you want to believe it or not, you do have a LARGE female fanbase) sets pitchforks on fire and hunt for the head of DC’s head. Now, don’t misunderstand, a lot of times they’re completely right to do so. All I’m saying is that if anyone thinks what happens in this book is gonna be long-lasting, please think again. She’ll be brought back to life, and that’ll lead to a three-way fight of sorts between Supergirl, Cyborg Superman, and Cyborg Superman’s creator, who is confirmed to be Brainiac when he arrives at the end of this issue because Cyborg Superman apparently screwed him over somehow. Other than that, the book is alright, except that Supergirl gets INSANELY angry at the recreations of the people in her memories, but that could just be because of the fact that she was kinda dying at the time.

X-Men #4 was…eh, alright. They got a new artist for this done-in-one story where the X-Men take the Blackbird to save a jet full of people, and the art isn’t that great. Plus, a lot more of the focus is on Rachel Grey and Storm having personal issues, while Jubilee takes Shogo to hang out with Wolverine in Jubilee’s old neighbourhood. But hey, there’re some genuinely awesome and funny moments out of Psylocke, Rogue, and Kitty as they try to save the plane, and the stuff with Jubilee and Wolverine is heartwarming enough. Plus, this is really just an interlude before Battle of the Atom begins, so it’s not like I expect this to be the quality they’ve been at or will stick with.

Batman and Robin #23, AKA Batman and Nightwing, AKA Acceptance. If you didn’t have tissues when you read this issue, you were frakked. Basic premise: Bruce has been running a simulation nonstop for four days of the night where Damian died, trying again and again to save him, because he can’t accept that there was nothing he could do to save him. Alfred brings Nightwing to help, and I can’t help but notice he’s in the costume he wore before moving to Chicago. However, Dick instead joins Batman in the simulation, and between the two of them, they actually do manage to save Damian, and Batman, Nightwing, and Robin are able to take down The Heretic, ending the simulation. Later on, we see Alfred do his own simulation where he manages to stop Robin from leaving the cave, which Bruce catches. Bruce realizes that he’s been alienating the people around him by making the grief all about him and failing to see that he wasn’t the only one to lose someone, and he and Alfred decide to turn off the simulation, finally beginning to move on. Overall, great way to end this particular arc, and a fond farewell to Damian as we see him be badass alongside his father and partner one more time.

So, that’s all for this week. Next week, hopefully on time, we take a look at how Talon’s dealing with the forces of Bane, and we check in on Batman Incorporated, quite possibly for the last time. Ja né!

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About Jyger85

Huge fan of wrestling, Kamen Rider, Power Rangers/Super Sentai, and video games. But I WILL talk smack when one of them tick me off. lol

Posted on August 22, 2013, in What I Bought Today and tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , . Bookmark the permalink. 2 Comments.

  1. Thomas Hayes (@confusiongrows) | August 22, 2013 at 10:08 pm

    I’m pretty confident she isn’t gonna be gone for long, but let’s be honest. Does anyone who reads a book with Supergirl’s name on the cover want to see her disintegrated in it? Because I sure don’t. This could well be the start of something interesting, but it could have been something so much less weird.

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  2. Celine | August 24, 2013 at 6:17 pm

    The problem with Supergirl #23 isn’t that she dies. If she had succumbed to the poison (whether that was after heroically defeating Cyborg Superman or not) then that wouldn’t have been so big a problem, it would have been perfectly in-keeping with her image as a superheroine and a fitting “end” for her, leading to a happy recovery in the next month or two.

    The problem is two things: 1) she was completely disintegrated; and 2) it was in a very graphic, horrifying manner almost worthy of a disturbing snuff story.

    While the villains casually watched and commented, Kara was shown to have totally “failed” as a heroine – she couldn’t think up an escape fast enough, was powerless to stop her death, broken to the point of crying, sobbing and begging to not die alone, and killed in an incredibly mean-spirited way that made you wonder if the writer had just had a really bad day at the office.

    Even in comics with their wacky physics and cheap death, being completely disintegrated is a big deal. Even if Cyborg Superman “rebuilds” her from the ash/molecules exactly as she was before she died, you can’t help but feel (especially if, like me, you think Star Trek transporters are killing machines) that the lonely and hopeless Supergirl of issue 23, who has spent that past two years being generally disorientated and hurt/battered at every turn (with lots of near-miss deaths already) will still have actually, positively died.

    We’ll get a “copy” of Kara, but it won’t be the same Kara. She’ll be identical, but the one who died so pathetically in issue 23 is still just as dead.

    That’s what’s making me angry and upset with this issue. Unless the writer is very clever and calls on the supernatural, time travel or the “it was all just a dream” plot devices to bring Kara back, it simply won’t be the same Kara, no matter what DC tell us to believe.

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