Cures for Cancer - Supergirl vol 3 Ghosts of Krypton (2007)

  

Front cover of Supergirl (2005) volume 3: Ghosts of Krypton

This book collects the following comics: Supergirl (2005) #23-33, Action Comics #850

Score (out of 5 Capes)

3 out of 5 capes for a sometimes challenging tale of mighty heroes encountering the limits of their abilities.

 

My Review

In celebration of the upcoming Supergirl movie's release, we are reviewing a cross-era sampling of Supergirl graphic novels and trade paperbacks. This one comes from her 2005 ongoing series, collecting issues published in 2007-8.

Why do superheroes only battle the super-villains? With all their skills and powers, why not make a real difference in humanity's battle with hunger? or poverty?

Or cancer?

The creative team of writer Kelley Puckett and artists Drew Johnson and Ron Randall plant this dilemma deep in Supergirl's mind over the course of the chapters collected here.

It initially comes up, not through any innate philanthropy or desire to conquer a more significant challenge, but by simple misunderstanding. After she screwed up in a battle with Reactron, Superman tag-teams her out of the fight and assigns her to protecting the innocents in the building damaged by the battle. She rescues five-year-old Thomas, telling him "You're not going to die." 

But Thomas has cancer and he thinks she's saving him from the disease, not the building.

Superman spends a lot of time in these pages cleaning up after his still-learning cousin, and on hearing of the misunderstanding he brings her to Thomas's hospital bedside to explain what she really meant to him and his family.

Except she doubles down on her promise, kicking off a multi-chapter quest to find a way to cure at least one case of cancer. A soldier from 400 years in the future tries to stop her; Wonder Woman introduces her to Paradise Island's Purple Rays and their healing - but not curing - powers. Resurrection Man with his ever-changing powers, different every time he comes back to life. Doctor Luzano and his nano-technology. It is a wild ride.

Puckett gives us lots of intriguing, if less mainstream, ideas, perhaps reflecting the still-maturing mind and youthful impetuousness in our mid-teens young heroine. It's easy, in Puckett's hands, to forgive and forget about some of her more ridiculous inspirations. 

The collection is called "Ghosts of Krypton" and Kara's memories and longing for her destroyed home planet is a constant across all these collected issues. But with the exception of just one or two chapters, it is a motivational background theme. It puzzles me, therefore, that it gets the top-billing of the volume title.

Drew Johnson leads the art duties, with substantial assists from Ron Randall and a handful of others. They give us some intense action scenes although the strongest pages are the more reflective moments of self-analysis or teaching. Like Supergirl's meditation while sitting on an orbiting satellite or the moments of mentoring from Batman. For all his taciturn bluntness, I think he likes her and sees all her both raw potential and inherent risk.

In all, Puckett solidly handles the challenges of balancing a super-powered teenager's angst, loneliness and confusion over her lost family and gaps in her past, with an inspired if ill-advised obsession to cure a young cancer patient. It produces a melancholy overall tone, leavened with moments of light-hearted humour.

As great as it is to see a significant hero taking on a real-world humanity-killing villain like cancer, this collection gets side-tracked a few times and dilutes the impact of Supergirl's almost existential struggle, really only peaking in a couple pages. Her takeaway from the punch in the gut she experiences beside Thomas's corpse is "maybe time travel!" As much as this might have been a risky story arc, it could go so much further.

What I loved

Heroes meet the limits of their power with the death of 5-year-old Thomas

Little five-year-old Thomas is a key character crossing most of the chapters collected here. Unfortunately, Thomas has cancer and is dying, his remaining time measured in hours and days, not months and years.

When Supergirl promises to save him from a collapsing building, he takes her assurance that she won't let him die more broadly than just in the imminent threat of being crushed.

When Supergirl shows her youthful impetuousness by doubling down on her promise, extending it to his cancer too, it sets off a series of increasingly desperate attempts to intervene. Ultimately, they all fail and he dies. She and Superman must face his grieving family in the moments that followed.

I loved how the creative team handled Kara Zor-El coming to terms with mortality and the limits of her abilities. Her emotional swings, growing desperation. Even after the apparently crushing finality, she still has ideas. The idealism, hope and creativity are non-stop, and Puckett and Johnson take us through all the roller coaster ride.

What I didn't love

Little inconsistent details like skirt shape add up to visual annoyances

This collection's images often feel rushed, leading to moments of visual sloppiness and annoying hiccups in the little details.

The panel sequence above, for example, has Supergirl's iconic outfit switching skirt styles from moment to moment. Is it wavy? pleated? pencil-straight? It apparently depends on the mood and available time of the penciller.

In the case of the skirt, it's a key part of her iconic outfit. The 2005 ongoing series made some choices of how to tweak the outfit, none of them terribly complicated. So it is a recurring annoyance to see the lack of care delivering on those details. 

Related Reviews

Supergirl Silver Age volume 2, stories from 1962-63

Daring New Adventures of Supergirl (volume 1) from the early1980s

Supergirl by Peter David (Book 1) from the mid-990s

Quick Reference Details

Writers:  Kelley Puckett
Artists:  Drew Edward Johnson, Ron Randall
Published By:  DC Comics
Published When:  June 6, 2017
Parental Rating: Teen

Back cover of Supergirl (2005) volume 3: Ghosts of Krypton