Superman/Supergirl: Maelstrom

Supergirl (2005) (Old Editions) #5.5

by Jimmy Palmiotti, Justin Grey, Phil Noto (Illustrator)

A vicious Apokolptian villain known as Malestrom has arrived on Earth to kill Superman so that she might become The Bride of Darkseid! Superman and Supergirl join forces to battle the villain but at what cost to Metropolis? From Earth to Apokolips and beyond, Superman and Supergirl face unexpected challenges in this action-packed tale examining what it means to be a hero.

Genres: Comics, Graphic Novels, Dc Comics, Superheroes, Superman, Graphic Novels Comics, Science Fiction

128 pages, Paperback

First published December 1, 2009

About the author

James "Jimmy" Palmiotti is an American writer and inker of comic books, who also does writing for games, television and film.

Photo by Luigi Novi.

Reviews

[Iain · Rating 3 out of 5]

The artwork is fine, but unfortunately the story is pretty thin, with Superman's questionable and vague teaching methods and Supergirl's sudden transformation.

[Anne · Rating 3 out of 5]

The story wasn't awful, but it was pretty forgettable. I really disliked the art, though. It looked like everyone in the story was recovering from a bad case of the flu.

[Mohan Vemulapalli · Rating 3 out of 5]

"Superman & Supergirl Maelstrom" is a fun adventure tale featuring Clark and Kara (AKA Superman and Supergirl) that presents a run-of-the-mill story and interesting artwork. After experiencing defeat at the hand's of Maelstrom, Darkseid's number one creepy fan-girl, Kara suffers a serious crisis of self doubt. Clark's response is to whisk her off to a hostile planet for a power-free Outward Bounds style confidence building excursion. Needless to say things do not go quite as expected.

Expect air-squid, stilted Apokaliptian dialogue, Supergirl with a pony-tail, some really inept big-brothering on Clark's part, and the invocation of some really lame catch-phrases.

Three and a half stars rounded to three.

[Gustavo · Rating 3 out of 5]

Estoy un poco conflictuado con esta historia, hubieron muchas cosas que me gustaron, pero es super cursi y el personaje que le da título a la historia no es más que una excusa para dar una lección a Supergirl. Más allá de eso hay algunos diálogos muy divertidos y el dibujo tiene mucho estilo y está bastante bien. Es una historia simple, chiquita y entretenida, casi como una película de domingo a la tarde en la que un niño caprichoso de ciudad aprende a apreciar a su padrastro, solo que en esta hay monstruos y mujeres asesinas del espacio.

[John Yelverton · Rating 2 out of 5]

I love Supergirl and I idolize Superman, but this book was complete garbage.

[Gavin · Rating 4 out of 5]

I was surprised by how much I loved this. A few distracting lettering mistakes, but a wonderfully contained and complete story.

[Karen · Rating 3 out of 5]

Well...it was pretty. So pretty. Two stars worth of pretty. That third star is because I liked the first quarter.

...so pretty.

[Zachary King · Rating 5 out of 5]

I really loved this one! I got it for the Phil Noto art (lush and gorgeous as ever) and the appearance of the Fourth World characters (including Darkseid, the Female Furies, and a new character named Maelstrom, who is seeking the love of the dread lord of Apokolips). I was pleasantly surprised, though, at how touching the story was and how the Superman/Supergirl relationship developed. It was nice to see Superman acting like a proper father figure, with Supergirl like a modern millennium bristling under his counsel. A surprise five stars, as I expected it to be forgettable, but I'm sure I'll revisit it some day.

[Rory C · Rating 4 out of 5]

And so we reach our conclusion.

Superman and Supergirl race back to Metropolis to confront Maelstrom and the Female Furies. This as a somewhat Superman II movie vibe to it, but that's not a bad thing. Afterwards there is an epilogue that more poignant than I was expecting from a comic book like this.

Overall, I did enjoy this series. I appreciate the financial reasons for releasing it over five issues, but it did stretch out the story paper thin at times, when this may have made more sense as an Annual, a one and done story, for the Supergirl series. that way it would have been more to the point, but still served as a leaping off point for more storylines in the future.

[Carrie · Rating 3 out of 5]

2.5. I wished I'd liked this more. I appreciate the concept. I didn't love how Kara, Kal, and their relationship were written. Kara's pretty whiny, and Kal comes off as sanctimonious.


It's also very aughts-coded and not in a fun way. For example: Supergirl insults one of the female furies with, "Have you ever thought about getting a hobby? Maybe roller derby... You know, to go with that ridiculously butch costume?"

And in today's edition of "How to tell a female character is written by a man," Supergirl, while complaining about starving on an alien planet, swears she "went down a cup size in the last three days," lol

[Christopher · Rating 2 out of 5]

The story was only ok and the art was little better. well, to be fair the art on the alien planet was actually pretty good but when they got back to Earth it suffered greatly and looked very plain. weird that.

[Emily Beck · Rating 3 out of 5]

Beautiful art by Phil Noto (one of my top 3 Supergirl artists), but the story was seriously lacking.

[deb · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.5/5

[Andy Dainty · Rating 2 out of 5]

Yawn. Nothing new to see here.

[Katie Brock · Rating 5 out of 5]

Characters were written perfectly ❤️ Some laugh out loud moments- ugh I love it

[Fugo Feedback · Rating 2 out of 5]

Ay. Veníamos bien, tan bien, que es una lástima que se me haya bajado en las últimas páginas. La premisa -y el desarrollo- me resultaron no muy originales pero sí entretenidos. Copipasteo la descripción del tomo para no parafrasear: "Maelstrom, una esclava de Apokolips obsesionada con reinar junto a Darkseid, decidirá que no hay mejor manera de demostrarle a su amo su valía que traerle la cabeza de Superman… pero será Supergirl quien le plante cara con catastrófico resultado. Tras su derrota, Kara se embarcará junto a Superman en un viaje de aprendizaje a un planeta lleno de peligros, bestias salvajes, bañado por un sol rojo que dejará a los dos héroes sin sus poderes. Pero ¿logrará Supergirl dejar de depender de ellos? ¿Aprenderá la valiosa lección que su primo pretende enseñarle? Y lo más importante: ¿logrará hacerlo a tiempo para detener el segundo y devastador ataque de Maelstrom?"
Con esta información, uno ya sabe más o menos con qué se va a encontrar: una historia de aprendizaje, con moralejas más o menos explícitas y una pelea final en la que los héroes triunfan y charlan sobre cómo no pueden poner siempre el peso del mundo sobre sus hombros. Lástima que con los informes de "problemas mundiales" que llegan a los superoídos de Supergirl en las últimas páginas, básicamente queda la idea de que si quisieran ella y su primo, podrían salvar al mundo de las amenazas de Rusia o de esos países tan rebeldes como Venezuela, pero eso es responsabilidad de las personas, no de las superpersonas.
Creo que habría preferido una moraleja cursi antes que esa apología tan gratuita al intervencionismo estadounidense.
Y eso que el dibujo está bastante lindo, eh.

[Stanley · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book collects the five part mini-series of the same name.

The book starts off pretty well showing how much room Supergirl has to grow and then she and Superman litterally embark on a journey to promote that growth.

The experiences along the way are ok. However, I had three pretty big issues.

1. The whiny brat crab early on got grating very quickly. She came around in the end, but that stuff was not good.

2. The story was bigger than the space. Due to the creaters only having five issues to tell the story, everything on the red sun planet felt super rushed. Things were done out of character and without explanation just to keep the story moving, which irked me a couple of times.

3. Final confrontation. Again, this felt super rushed and the decision they did go with was very unfulfilling after the build up.

I did like the big brother and little sister aspect they invoked here and some of their interactions with each other were ok.

The art was just ok as well. Nothing really stood out. I did think that it was interesting that they chose an older looking Superman for this.

However, in the end, it was only ok. I would say on the lower side of the three star rating.

[Sean · Rating 2 out of 5]

With a creative team this spectacular I had such high hopes before reading this. Sadly, the entire plot was too contrived, corny, and ridiculous to enjoy the book. Here Superman does so many critically stupid things that its hard too imagine that he is still alive to fight for freedom. Supergirl's character is fun but her dialogue is wasted on the oddball situation. And the title's namesake is one note and turns out to be typical DC power overload without substance. The art by Phil Noto is good but misplaced. Overall, disappointing.

[Dean · Rating 3 out of 5]

Although I really enjoyed this I'll be the first to admit the story is very slight. In fact, the story is mere window dressing to allow a nice observation of the Kal/ Kara dynamic, to see their personal relationship up close. This insight is fun, but anything Apokolips related is unnecessary and distracting. The art varies from looking fantastic to looking odd, with some strange figure work at times.
Worth a look.

[Dave · Rating 2 out of 5]

This is worth a read if you are a fan of the Super Family, but it's nothing remarkable. The pacing seemed rushed in the beginning and ending and the art sometimes seemed a bit stiff. Also, the villain was pretty shallow. On the positive side, I did like the exploration of the relationship between Superman and Supergirl, which is what the bulk of the story focused on.

[A J · Rating 3 out of 5]

A cute way to pass the time- I particularly enjoyed Clark and Kara's interactions on their interstellar camping trip that went wrong. (And the fact that Kara wore a jumpsuit for most of this mini, instead of her usual panty-flashing miniskirt).

[Michael · Rating 3 out of 5]

Tepid. But at least I didn't pay for it.
++++++
Going through old comics, seeing what to purge, and decided to reread this one. It's still tepid. Noto's art is stiff and the coloring dull. The story had good intention, although Clark comes off overly preachy, bordering on condescending.

[Simon · Rating 2 out of 5]

Mmm. I love the smell of clunky morality in the morning. It smells like...

... Superman.


One star added for Supergirl. Who is cute.

[Emmanuel Nevers · Rating 5 out of 5]

Still enjoyed this as much as I did the first time. Well done Superman/Supergirl bonding story A++

[Brandy Shark · Rating 3 out of 5]

A+ art, I really love Phil Noto's work, but overall the story was a little flat. I thought the Maelstorm storyline didn't mesh well with Clark and Kara's.

[Dony Grayman · Rating 3 out of 5]

Recopilatorio de la miniserie superprima de Palmiotti y Gray.

[Variaciones Enrojo]

Edición española, tomo único.

[Amulya Mishra · Rating 5 out of 5]

A funny and adventurous moment of the House of El
Enjoyed reading it.

[Adriano Barone]

Palmiotti e Gray sono sempre una garanzia. Non ricevono mai incarichi con personaggi di primo piano, ma quando gli capita sono sempre in grado di costruire storie gradevoli e caratteri e relazioni dei personaggi in modo credibile e interessante.
I disegni di noto sono sempre belli da guardare, ma con le scene d'azione non ce la fa, ma non è l'unico negli States.