REVIEW: SUPERWOMAN #10

So now Lana Lang is… Iron Man?

Lana Lang found herself depowered as a result of putting on Kryptonian armor last issue. Surprise! On the first page of this issue, her power is back! The trick is, her super power was transferred to the armor which now can only be operated by Lana.

Usually, the point of having a super hero lose their power, is to show that the main character is heroic with or without heir powers. Kate Perkins (Supergirl, Superman) drains the story of its usual tensions by not only giving her powers back immediately, but having her start the issue by knowing the lesson that she is the hero and not her powers and then go back in time to show how she realized that.

I was actually looking forward to the idea of Lana Lang using the armor as Insect Queen. It would have been a cool call back to the silver age stories of Lana when she went by that nom de power. But it appears that she won’t be using that name at all. It is only what the armor is called. Instead of her having to learn how to use the armor and adapt, Perkins just moved all the Superwoman powers to the armor and Lana is back in business.

I get that this title is under a year old and it would be difficult to justify a completely depowered Lana for an extended period. But by depowering her, Perkins was signalling a new direction for this title.

Giving her the powers back again feels like a bit of a retreat. It feels like the lesson was learned so quickly, that maybe Lana doesn’t get it.

Moving the powers to the armor could be the start of Perkin’s new direction for Lana. However, considering that she she is with John who also owns super-powered armor, it does feel like a retread. I don’t need Lana to become DC’s answer to Riri Williams.

The highlight of this book is the art. Stephen Segovia does a great job showing the conflicting emotions that Lana and John are feeling in a number of scenes. There are a number of action pieces that Segovia (Dark Wolverine, Ninjak) handles well, but the art’s strengths are clearly the quieter more emotional beats.

Perkins has a lot of experience with the various Super- titles and this seems like a slight stumble after a strong outing last issue when she took over the title. Let’s be honest, this title has been a mess for a while and she has a big job on her hands turning this around. I really want to give her the benefit of a doubt and see if she can make this a consistently compelling title.

[yasr_overall_rating size=”large”]

Writer: K. Perkins
Pencils: Stephen Segovia
Inks: Art Thibert
Colors: Hi-Fi

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Andy Hall

Sent from the future by our Robot Ape overlords to preserve the timeline. Reading and writing about comics until the revolution comes. All hail the Orangutan Android Solar King!