Review: Supergirl Vol. 2- Escape from the Phantom Zone

Quick Summary

Pros: Supergirl is mostly written well and her interactions with other characters are well done. The final story arc has some solid moments within it.

Cons: The opening stories are not that exciting. The final story arc has some lackluster moments and general inconsistencies. The volume’s artwork is a step down from its predecessor and looks below average in a number of places.

Overall: The second volume in the Supergirl Rebirth series does little to advance the quality of this comic. The main draw here comes from a few fun team-ups between Supergirl and other characters, which all give Supergirl a few nice moments. However, the majority of the stories are not that exciting, the majority of the volume’s artwork is lackluster, and a number of small problems undercut most arcs. In the end, this volume is mostly just for readers who already love Supergirl and want to see her interact with other heroes.

Story

After an opening volume that was just alright, the Supergirl Rebirth series could have really used a highly entertaining second volume to put the comic on the right track going forward. Unfortunately, the narrative in Supergirl Vol. 2: Escape from the Phantom Zone, by Steve Orlando, is pretty mediocre. This volume tells a couple of stories that each offer some small positives but are also undercut by some small negatives. None of the stories within this collection manage to rise above mediocrity and a few of them are generally boring. The biggest draw in this volume is that Supergirl is written well and her interactions with other heroes, including Batgirl and Superman, are solid. Outside of this though, there is not a lot to love within this comic.

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Escape from the Phantom Zone starts out with team-ups between Supergirl and Batgirl and then Supergirl and Superman. Both of these team-ups offer a few fun or heartfelt moments between the heroes. I ended up truly enjoying Supergirl and Superman’s conversation, as it helped showcase Supergirl’s current thoughts on the world and her opinions on her cousin.

However, outside the interactions between heroes, these chapters aren’t that interesting. The threats they deal with are pretty lackluster and never feel intimidating or relevant enough to inspire excitement. Even the Emerald Empress, a powerful character forming part of a larger story arc, ends up being a slight inconvenience rather than a true threat.

The rest of Escape from the Phantom Zone focuses on the titular escape from the phantom zone. This adventure is far more fun and exciting than the rest of the volume. Supergirl’s fights against villains, one of which ends with a simple, yet awesome, snap of the fingers, are all engaging in their own way. Plus, the storyline, as a whole, emphasizes Supergirl’s commitment to protecting the weak and vulnerable in society, something that helps further develop her character.

However, there are also plenty of unappealing pieces of this titular story arc. The power of the villains seems to fluctuate randomly, as they are able to easily overpower the heroes in some places yet are defeated without much of a problem later on. In addition, Ben is somewhat poorly written; his biggest moment happens when he simply closes his eyes and marvels at his own ability. These problems cut at the appeal of this story and bring it down from being good to being just average.

In addition to all of this, I ended up having a decent problem with the dialogue coming from Supergirl. I realize that her dialogue doesn’t contain contractions to emphasize her disconnect from the English language but it generally comes off a little awkward and even has places where it is inconsistent. There are also times when the dialogue indicates she is speaking one language when she is clearly speaking another. It just makes the work feel worse and slightly hurts the reading process.

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Art

The quality of the visuals in Escape from the Phantom Zone drops significantly from where they were at in the previous collection. The volume opens with a chapter where the visuals are just alright, not necessarily bad but not that good either. Then, the following two chapters really emphasize the drop in quality. The visuals in these chapters generally lack a level of detail and polish that one would expect from a mainstream comic book like this one.

Later on, Brian Ching takes over on visuals, once again, and things start to improve. Ching’s style looks as good as it did in the previous volume and makes the characters here look nice. However, Ching’s bright and optimistic tone does not match this story nearly as well as it did in the previous volume. In addition, there are a few poorly laid out pages. Though there are some highpoints here and there, Escape from the Phantom Zone is disappointing from a visual standpoint.

Continuity

Supergirl Vol. 2: Escape from the Phantom Zone continues the story from Supergirl Vol. 1: Reign of the Cyborg Supermen (Review).

The story here continues in Supergirl Vol. 3: Girl of No Tomorrow (Review).

This volume also references other comic books, detailed below:

• Supergirl #8 deals with some of the aftermath from the Superman: Reborn (Review) (Reading Order) event.
• Emerald Empress was set free during the Justice League vs. Suicide Squad (Review) (Reading Order) event.
• Magog’s family was killed during Darkseid’s invasion during Justice League: Origin (Review). This is explained in Superman/Wonder Woman #15, collected in Superman/Wonder Woman Vol. 3: Casualties of War (Review).