Supergirl Vol. 5: Red Daughter of Krypton

by Michael Alan Nelson

Genres: Dc Comics

Unknown Binding

Published January 1, 1800

About the author

Michael Alan Nelson grew up in a small Indiana farming community before moving to Los Angeles in 2002. He is the winner of the 2004 New Times 55 Fiction contest for his short-short "The Conspirators" and was awarded the 2011 Glyph Comics Award for Best Female Character for the character Selena from his series "28 Days Later." Michael is the author of the critically acclaimed comic series "Hexed," "Dingo," and "Fall of Cthulhu." His current ongoing titles include "Day Men" and the relaunch of the fan-favorite series "Hexed." His first prose novel, "Hexed: the Sisters of Witchdown" arrives May 5th, 2015. He lives in Los Angeles.

Reviews

[Batgirl_ALT_21 · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was both my favorite vol & least favorite of the series for surprisingly the same reason 😂👍❤️.

The main plot begins with Lobo, who is on the hunt for one of his older backstabbing employers who screwed him out of some deal (the details are brief and fuzzy at best). As a result, Lobo finishes a task with his current Alien employer and backs out of their contract to find whoever he's searching for by invading Dr. Veritas.

While all of this occurs, Supergirl pays a visit to Dr. Veritas and subjects herself to testing for Kryptonite poisoning. To Veritas's surprise, Kara is completely healed and appears to be very emotionally distraught after all that she has endured. Dr. Veritas offers some comforting words and then suggests Kara reconnect with her friends when it's revealed that Siobhan has found another roommate, causing Kara to believe she's been replaced and convinced she doesn't belong anywhere on Earth or the galaxy. Dr. Veritas gets a mysterious sudden phone call from the Alien employer of Lobo warning her of the Rouge renegade. All of a sudden, Lobo invades, demanding to speak with Dr. Veritas when Kara attempts to play diplomate. This goes wrong and ends with an overpowered, emotionally distraught, and aggregated Supergirl that just so happens to kill Lobo, who managed to threaten Dr. Veritas's life.

So, after a brief autopsy of the last Czarnian and the death of a few clones of Veritas, Lobo is revealed to be alive and freed. This terrifies Dr. Veritas, who calls upon the help of a space demon, kept in the basement of the base. The space demon also happens to he relased 🙄.

Meanwhile, Supergirl is pissed off to the max and ready to take Lobo down, who fleed with his spacecraft to New York for the fight. Siobhan, who happens to be nearby, changes into the Silver Banshee and has both a metaphorical/metaphysical fight with her self-conscious while simultaneously fighting Kara. Supergirl's emotional state overcame her while fighting Lobo, and she is now dubbed a Red Lantern with a dormant Red Lantern ring drawn to her across the galaxy. The Silver Banshee directs Supergirl away from destroying the city by claiming that whatever killed Krypton is out there and none of earth's doing.

Supergirl then rages on into space when she comes across 2 Green Lanterns, and yet another fight ensues. Hal Jordon & John Steward get word of this as they desperately try to create new recruits for the GL corps (the details are again kinda hazy if you don't follow the Green Lantern New 52 run). Supergirl is subdued thanks to the whole team of recruits when Hal notices the crest as Superman's and believes that they may have a Kryptonian on their hands as a Red Lantern, which is a dangerous combination. As a result Hal seaks out the last survivors of the Blue Lanterns, which can neutralize the Red Lantern's rage/ring thereby freeing the called Lantern but he refuses to help because of limited hope from all that's transpired.

Hal then looks to the head of the remaining Red Lanterns for guidance with removing the ring from Kara. Turns out the Red Lantern team is missing and focused on planet Earth because they've now taken over to help Earth's sector gifted by Hal. The team takes down some vampire magic creatures and then returns to base where they meet the GL inturtures. Kara escapes, and the team submerged her into a lake of blood that will calm her rage and restore her clarity while Hal & Guy wait they share a nice moment and past GL bond.

When Kara is restored, she comes to the top and then promptly meets the team, taking on the full responsibilities and learning the ropes of being a Red Lantern. A Suenami occurs on earth, and Superman leaps in to help, as does Guy Gardner (the leader of the Red Lanterns) and the rest of the group. Superman & Kara argue for a bit as he tries to discuss his cousin's future with Guy when Kara's rage explodes once more due to feeling degenerated as a kid/teen. Superman submits to Kara's insistent request and leaves, letting Guy know that if Kara gets out of hand that he will shut it down. The team returns to base where they find 1 dead and 1 greatly injured teammate that claim the carnage was caused by Atrocious.

The remainder of the story then focuses on a world killer who was actually one of the last remaining Kryptonians who managed to escape Krypton. He goes by General How and Destroys the home planets of other species in order to provide an environment for survivors to thrive and rise from the ashes. Supergirl and the Red Lanterns perform a tactical attack to take down General How's men who are in the middle of an active genocide. The team forces the troops back then regroup before going after Atrocious. We'll the team never finds Atrocious because he fled in the wreak of havoc, but Kara does manage to come face to face with General How who explains that he was a Kryptonian world killer and wants to use Supergirl's new found Red Lantern rage powers to chart his cause. Kara refuses, so he begins shape-shifting and draining the energy of innocent people, forcing Kara to submit to his request. Once, General How attempts to takes over Kara's body, she bolts off into the atmosphere of infectious Kryptonite to weaken How then travels to the sun, where she manages to burn the worldkiller away and her Red Lantern ring freeing her as Supergirl.

This was a very intense Vol overall and had a great mix of action and personal reflective storytelling. However, Kara's unhinged emotional state was a bit much at times, making her sound like a bratty teenage girl 🙄. It was enjoyable overall but also had some confusing points throughout the main story. I am looking forward to reading the last installment of Vol 6 of the Supergirl New 52 series 😏👍🌟. 6.5/10 🌟.