DCAU #361: Reunion

IN THIS ONE... Brainiac's "Bride" rescues him after returning from Argo.

CREDITS: Written by Evan Dorkin and Sarah Dyer; art by Brett Blevins and Terry Austin.

REVIEW: Dorkin and Dyer return to Supergirl, which they helped breathe life into on the show, giving Kara some closure regarding her lost world and dead family. A tearless funeral - you just can't wipe your eyes when you wear a space helmet, well observed - is followed by the promise of recovering historical and cultural archives from her mother's computer, which is just an invitation for Brainiac to show up. Interestingly, his program was banned on Argo, but in Krypton's death throes, he sent a tiny part of himself into Argo's system, and it now manifests as a female "Bride of Brainiac" with the general appearance and voice of Kara's mother.

And of course, the woman's values. And so Brainiac's back-up plan (pun intended; also check out Luthor's several back-ups insuring Brainiac will return again and again) is undone as his own creation turns against his lapse in logic. You can just about hear the writers wonder out loud as to why Brainiac needs to destroy the worlds he "records", and it's true that it's just a mad stakes game to give him that modus operandi. In a way, Supergirl gets to say goodbye to her mother in that form, gets the Argo archive to help her remember her world, and still bonds further with the Kents who, sweetly, are in the middle of their wedding anniversary celebrations in Metropolis.

Blevins' art is sometimes cramped, I feel, his line almost too thick for the number of panels that have to be on each page given the story's density, but I do like the robot-zombie action the villains provide.
REREADABILITY: High - Another important chapter in the life of the DCAU's Supergirl.

Comments

Anj said…
Loved this issue.

Reviewed it over on my site.