Publicly Reading

Oh. My. August 28 is Read Comics in Public Day. Who knew? I certainly didn't. I have enough trouble keeping track of Talk Like a Pirate Day, which is September 19, if you've forgotten, don't know, and even if you don't care.

Of course, I already engage in once a week public comics reading, on the subway on the way home on Wednesdays when I read the comics I can't wait until I get home to read. But this sounds like a "bring comics to work and read in the park on my lunch hour if it's not raining" day, because as luck would have it, I'm scheduled to work that day.

Meanwhile, I read 2 comics on the way home this past Wednesday: Supergirl 55, which I liked a lot, and Power Girl 15, which I liked not as much.

I could've called this post "A Tale of Two Karas." I find it interesting how both Kara books so often come out the same week. Bizarro SG is the more fun Bizarro, and her solidify vision still makes little sense, but it was better than it appeared last issue. A fun read.

Then there's Power Girl. In his first issues, Winick was doing a decent job, and while I didn't like Kara losing her company, it worked in well with the previous arc, so I was okay with it. But this issue, I think Judd lost his grip of the plot. Or his sanity. We suddenly find out one of her staff is a hacker with a history that includes snitching after he was busted for identity theft, which doesn't upset or contradict the previous years' worth of story, but still, seemed to come out of left field. But I was okay with it. Until the end where Nick tells Karen that he's figured out she's Power Girl. Not that that would've been hard to do, given how inane her alibis and excuses have been, especially with "Karen" calling him to help PG. If this was supposed to be a plot twist, it fell flat for me, because I considered Nick a pretty smart guy, so if he hadn't figured it out by the last page, that would've been the plot twist, making him the stupidest hacker of all. Because, really, if you can't see what's so obvious. Which I also didn't like, because this Kara is a very smart woman and she really isn't so stupid as to think he wouldn't or couldn't figure it out. But maybe the surprise was that he bothered to confront her.

The writing on the book is okay, but not as good as the previous writers. Which means, for me, that the art needs to pick up the writing to keep me reading and well... Basri is a nice artist. Kara looks pretty good, she doesn't seem overly sexualized, the action is done well, and yet, coming after Amanda Connor's work, there doesn't seem to be much emotion here. A lack of soul, for want of a better word. The lack of detailed backgrounds, and in some panels, no backgrounds, helps the art look flat in many panels. Coupled with a story I don't much are about, this is not a book I'm loving right now. I'll let this arc play out, and then I'll decide if I'll keep reading.