Supergirl Annual (2009) #2

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For the annual, Gates sends Supergirl to the future. The whole new Legion of Super-Heroes continuity is incredibly difficult to understand. Every time they guest in a book, I get even more confused. But Gates does a good job doing a done-in-one adventure. The story moves, has a lot of scenes, and has Supergirl and Brainiac 5’s relationship develop a little.

What’s bad is Matt Camp’s art. He draws everyone like they’re twelve—making the Supergirl kisses Brainiac 5 scene a little confusing—and it draws attention to things one shouldn’t be minding.

There’s some fill-in work from Marco Rudy and Rudy looks a little like Chris Samnee (though nowhere near as good) and those pages work really well. He draws the cast like people, not these weirdos with too young heads and too mature bodies.

It’s nice Gates can competently do this continuity nonsense.

Supergirl (2005) #49

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Camp does a fine job, but I’m really missing Igle.

Gates does two things this issue. First, he resolves the Silver Banshee cliffhanger and does a great job with it. He’s able to do a relatively concise action sequence, get in some character development for the police inspector friend of Supergirl’s and introduce the possibility the Silver Banshee might be nice to people occasionally.

The rest of the issue is spent on Lana and there’s a giveaway this issue. A cockroach. Doesn’t Lana Lang become Insect Girl or something along those lines? Insect Lady? I sort of assumed it had already happened post-Crisis, but I guess not.

This issue ends with another cliffhanger–Camp really seems to have read the “Extremis” arc of Iron Man for how the bugs attack–after a padded sequence. Gates could have really used those pages better.

Still, it’s solid, with a great open.

Supergirl (2005) #47

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You know, I hate to rag on Jon Sibal’s inks when he’s not on an issue… but Matt Camp’s fill-in here looks a lot like Igle before the Sibal inks. It maintains some of the roundedness. It’s not all about having thin lines.

Also, this issue shows off what’s wrong with editors. Here, at the end of the New Krypton primary nonsense, Gates gets to define Supergirl’s mom. Her backstory–given earlier–would have made her a great, rich, conflicted villain. Instead, Gates gets to do it at the end when it doesn’t really matter anymore. I mean, it’s a really good issue–Supergirl’s barely in it, it’s the mom’s issue–and it’s really good.

Gates is also able to make New Krypton feel developed instead of silly, garbled and often goofy. He uses flashbacks to Krypton, showing how things worked there.

It’s a very good issue. Very good.