Supergirl #17 - A Review

The focal point of Supergirl #17 is a battle between Supergirl and Wonder Woman.  Settle down, folks - this ain't no cat fight!  This is the real thing.  Mike Johnson makes this moment every bit as epic as last month's battle between Supergirl and The Flash.  Though one can guess the outcome of this battle a little more easily, the battle is still a gripping one with a few surprises.

 
Sadly, the larger plot of H'el On Earth finally catches up with the characters in this issue.  As I feared, there's no way for Mike Johnson to mitigate the damage of Scott Lobdell's larger storyline which requires Kara to be a trusting bimbo except for when she's being suspicious of all of her cousin's friends.  While Johnson did a good job in the previous issues of presenting the story from Kara's point of view and making H'el's plan seem reasonable, the final moments of this issue serve to make Kara look like an idiot for not having asked the details of just how H'el's plan to go back in time would work. 


Mahmud Asrar's usually excellent artwork seems sloppy and rushed this month.  I can't account for why this is so but there's many panels where characters in the middle distance are oddly proportioned.  Just look at Wonder Woman in the first panel on the page above and Supergirl in the last panel.  Odd, no?

Thankfully, this is the last I'll have to worry about H'El On Earth and the Superman family dragging this book down for a while.  Another few issues like this and I'd seriously consider dropping this title.  Hopefully next month will bring back the quality we've come to expect from this book.