Review: Superwoman #10

Kyle King Kyle King
Contributor
May 13th, 2017

T. Kyle King is a lawyer, a former sports blogger, a panelist on the "Twin Peaks"-centric "Wrapped in Podcast", and a Superman guy.

Review: Superwoman #10
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Review of: Superwoman #10
Price:
Improved

Reviewed by:
Rating:
4
On May 13, 2017
Last modified:May 13, 2017

Summary:

After a rocky debut, the new creative team stepped up its game across the board for this much better follow-up feature.

Review of: Superwoman #10
Price:
Improved

Reviewed by:
Rating:

4
On May 13, 2017
Last modified:May 13, 2017

Summary:

After a rocky debut, the new creative team stepped up its game across the board for this much better follow-up feature.

Superwoman #10 began taking Lana Lang in a new direction. With both the ghostly Lois Lane and the heroine’s metahuman powers gone, the Smallville scientist must chart a new course in Rediscovery — Part One. ComiConverse’s Kryptonian correspondent, T. Kyle King, offers his thoughts on the most recent issue.

Superwoman #10 Review:

Writer K. Perkins, penciller Stephen Segovia, and inker Art Thibert team up to take Lana on a trip down memory lane. Aided by John Henry and Natasha Irons, Lang is looking for a way forward… but is she ready to face the demons from the past, both figurative and literal?

Superwoman #10 Synopsis:

In the midst of a crisis, Lana reflects back on the path that led her to the present, beginning months before with Natasha recounting an experience from her youth when John Henry rescued her from her father’s unreliability. A painful past becomes a point of connection for Lang and the younger Irons, motivating the former Superwoman to investigate the lingering aftereffects from the loss of her powers.

Garbed in the Insect Queen armor, Lana enters Steelworks’ sensory deprivation chamber. Natasha and John Henry explain that they still are getting unexplained power readings from her, which they will be able to monitor and localize with the psychological prompting provided by the interactive chamber. Lana’s subconscious conjures up genuinely daunting threats, inspiring her afterward to track down a supervillain who stole something specific from the people she loves.

Superwoman #10 Analysis:

Following an initial installment in which the series’ new creative team struggled mightily out of the gate, Rediscovery — Part One represented a substantially better effort. Perkins delivered a significantly more subtle script featuring a far more sympathetic central character in this issue. The story is cleverly structured as a series of vignettes tied together by the emotional resonance of the events within Lang’s pattern-seeking brain. Space constraints make certain portions of Superwoman #10 a bit overly on the nose, yet this considerably more nuanced tale avoids being exceedingly in your face.

Perkins took over scripting Supergirl right after the series’ tie-in to Superman: Doomed, the event that featured the first stirrings of romantic involvement between John Henry and Lana. The writer wisely puts their relationship — one of the handful of salutary holdovers from the New 52 — to good use in Rediscovery — Part One. For a while now, Lang has lashed out at Irons, who has moped mutely, trying to help while suffering in silence. The recent portrayal of the previously happy couple has made him an object of pity and turned her into a focal point for resentment, giving neither character a worthy treatment. Perkins inverts this flawed formula in Superwoman #10, producing a dynamic that may not be great, but that at least is no longer grating.

The principal actors in this particular drama all are scientists, so the author ingeniously incorporates the methodical approach of the laboratory into what becomes a pulse-pounding action sequence. While the interactive functionality of the deprivation chamber is mildly contrived, the implausibility of the premise is within tolerable limits, enabling the events of Rediscovery — Part One to unfold with a fairly naturalistic flow. Lana confronts her loss directly in Superwoman #10, facing her fears for others’ benefit in fulfilling a plotline built on solid real-world research regarding resilience born of shared suffering. The actual science underlying this superhero story gives it an uncommon degree of credibility, which is part of why this issue works as well as it does.

Although Segovia’s artwork contains a couple of awkward moments of Ed Benes-esque excess, the graphics of Rediscovery — Part One are mostly stellar. Adept uses of perspective and finely detailed splash pages bring the visuals vividly to life. Thibert’s bold lines sharply define the imagery with striking precision, and the pictures sizzle with kinetic energy thanks to the truly outstanding work of the always reliable colorist Hi-Fi. This series has been a wordy one since its inception, so letterer Josh Reed’s commendable clarity contributes mightily to the overall effort, as well. Superwoman #10, in sum, represents a huge leap forward in every area for this tumultuous title, which — after initially stumbling and falling — finally may be finding its footing.

Did Lana Lang’s Rediscovery leave you convinced that this series is ready to join the other Superbooks in the sun?

Don the Insect Queen armor and ComiConverse with us in the comments about Superwoman #10!

T. Kyle King is an Expert Contributor to ComiConverse. Follow him on Twitter: @TKyleKing.

Superwoman #10

  • 4

Improved

After a rocky debut, the new creative team stepped up its game across the board for this much better follow-up feature.

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