Review: Future State: Kara Zor-El, Superwoman #2

Review: Future State: Kara Zor-El, Superwoman #2

[Editor’s Note: This review may contain spoilers]

Writer:  Marguerite Bennett

Artist: Marguerite Sauvage

Letters: Wes Abbott  

Reviewed by: Carl Bryan

Summary

“But if you want a villain to loathe, a tyrant queen,,,then here I am.” – Superwoman

Future State: Kara Zor-El, Superwoman #2 – The moon colony built around Superwoman’s Fortress of Solitude is under siege!

 

Shape-shifting aliens have come to this place of peace in search of Lynari, a refugee from their homeworld. It’s a bad move on the part of these intergalactic bad guys: if Kara Zor-El offers you sanctuary, there’s no way she’s going to let anyone get their monstrous hands on you.

 

Let’s just hope this gamble is worth it, because Lynari’s secret-the one that got her in trouble in the first place-could mean bad news for everybody!

Positives

Marguerite Bennett provides the conclusion of Kara Zor-El, Superwoman in this second issue.  What starts to be a story of conflict reveals itself to be a self-sacrificial story of love.

Bennett allows Kara a different path in that we see that Kara is bent on defending her world from Lynari’s Aunt Kimari.  Kimari who is out for vengeance on Lynari for supposedly taking her brother from her in an act of self-sacrifice for his daughter Lynari.

It is not super-powers that win the day so much as it is Kara’s life lessons she has poured into Lynari who uses that along with Kara’s stolen powers to eradicate the hatred from Kimari.

As Bennett reinforces in the script…”It was the doing of the thing, and not the reward, that brought (Kara) peace.”

“If people were kinder, and finally realized how good, how amazing, how splendid, and how super (Kara) was, and had been for so long…well,no one is born wise, but if we’re very, very lucky…in time. We get there!” 

Bennett paints a utopia for Kara and the inhabitants of the Moon for generations upon generations.  The final frame is worth the price as we see a grave site dedicated to the memory of both Kara and Krypto.  The colors that adorn Marguerite Sauvage‘s work are as great as any pet’s rainbow bridge dedication.

Negatives

What an ending.  While I knew this was a limited Future State series, a two-issue submission for Kara was too short.  However, the message is one that was needed.  While the quotes chosen in the review may be in conflict with villainy and love, I appreciate how Bennett does provide a future with no wars, flowers, and peace.  What a goal!

Verdict

Kara’s tale is brief in this Future State Multiverse.  It is almost that of a glimpse into a legend.  It was time for her to not be the second chair or even the third…but a time to have her featured solo for what she brings to the DC Universe!  Well done!