Supergirl Surprise 2: Supergirl Vol. 5 #27

Back again for my monthly look at a random issue of Supergirl from my collection. For the month of May we’re looking at issue 27 of Supergirl volume 5 written by Kelley Puckett with art by Rick Leonardi, Dan Green, Drew Johnson, and Ray Snyder. This book was released on March 5th 2008. This issue is part of the arc where Supergirl promises to save a boy. At the time she just thinks she’ll save him like she would anyone else, but the boy has cancer and thinks she means that he will beat cancer with her help. The arc as a whole deals with Supergirl coming to terms with the idea of having so many powers but still being unable to save everyone. This is a common trope in Superman mythos most often show by Jonathan (Pa) Kent who dies in a way that Clark is unable to save him. The way this storyline flips the narrative is by having Kara refuse this idea and promising once again, after learning of the boy’s condition, that she would save him.

Now that we’ve addressed the overall narrative, we can now look at the plot of issue 27 specifically. The story opens with Supergirl promising the boy that she will not let him die. Quickly she notices time has come to a standstill and she notices someone new in the room with her, the only other moving thing in the room is a man in some sort of protective suit pointing a gun at her. He fires off the gun and Supergirl handily catches the bullet not realizing it was kryptonite. Weakened now, she is unprepared for the second bullet but is saved by Superman slowly catching up to what’s going on. Superman, presumably at superspeed, sees into the stopped time and shoots off his heat vision at the attacker rupturing his protective suit. Unknowingly to Superman and Supergirl this activates some sort of teleportation bringing Supergirl and the attacker back to where the attacker was from.

Now in an unknown environment with more people pointing guns at her and Kara having more questions than answers, she takes her initial attacker away and flies far from where they came from in an attempt to get some answers. Supergirl, now seeing more of her new surroundings, realizes this new place that looks so alien, also still feels like earth. After talking, she finds out that she is 400 years in the future and this man is part of a group that was trying to go back in time to stop Supergirl before she could drastically change the future by saving the boy with cancer. She is told that by doing this action she changes the course of history and in her attempt to make humanity better, she has made mankind feel like they aren’t human anymore.

It is at this time that she also finds out that the only way back to her time is through the Time Machine that was destroyed upon her arrival and the only person who can fix it has just taken a suicide pill. Rushing him back to try to fix the machine in time they are met with the machine already put back in order. Apparently, while they were out, a group called The Batmen had come in and fixed the Time Machine. These Batmen seem to be descendants or clones of Bruce Wayne and help Kara return home and give her the advice to “do what you think is right”. And this is where the issue ends.

I’m a huge sucker for alternate universes and possible futures so I’m quite fond of this issue that briefly looks into a future that might be. The story also addresses right and wrong and what makes people people. The narrative is left fairly open and doesn’t tell the reader how to think and more so just asks some questions of the reader and allows the reader to make their own decisions and think about what they think the right thing to do is.

I really enjoy a lot of the art in this issue, especially the sequence where Kara catches the kryptonite bullet and a lot of the full page images. I do feel that some of the panels, especially the faces and the figure work, seem a bit inconsistent throughout the book and I assume some of the inconsistencies are because of the large amount of artist credits. This is by no means a deal breaker and they seem to consistently get Supergirl right and show her in some great dynamic poses. This story is also from a time in comics where they seemed to have less dialogue and larger panels as compared to comics that came out in the 70s and 80s. This isn’t a good or bad thing but I will say this issue is a fairly quick read with intricate artwork depicting epic scenery. I also think the lighter dialogue helps give the reader time to sit and think about the subjects mentioned before in regards to how Supergirl should approach her current challenge.

This issue has been reprinted twice, first in the Supergirl: Beyond Good and Evil trade paperback released soon after the storyline finished, and again in 2018 in Supergirl Volume 3: Ghosts of Krypton. It’s been a while since I read this storyline in its entirety but I remember enjoying it and I still feel like it’s a great way to approach the theme of not being able to save everyone.

Come back on Monday for my next installment of Supergirl in the Multiverse, and next Friday for a brand new blog post about something entirely different. Supergirl Surprise will return again the second Friday of June. For any comments, questions, corrections, or thoughts feel free to leave a comment below or send an email to daringnewblog@gmail.com. Thanks so much for reading!