Comics of June 12, 2019

This week, I picked up two comics, and these two comics mostly tell the same story. Superman 12 and Supergirl 31. In fact, the first two thirds of each issue tell the exact same story, just from different angles. As such, I might as well look at them together. Here are my first impressions.

Of the two comics, Supergirl 31 is easily the better one. The narration in Superman 12 often feels scattered and rushed. Superman’s narration keeps getting interrupted. If that happens once, that’s fine, but three times in four pages is too much. The exposition during the issue’s later downtime doesn’t quite match the revelations we’ve seen in Supergirl’s series either. While both issues are action heavy in the first half, the action itself feels more coherent in Supergirl 12. Supergirl’s issue takes a bit more time to reunite everyone and explain what’s going on with Jon Kent. It adds in a nice little moment where Krypto needs to sniff Jon’s hand before he trusts him again. Long story short, Jon is 17 now, when he was around 10 or 12 last I saw him. With all that said, there are some revelations later in Superman 12 that aren’t in Supergirl 31 that could make the next issue interesting. Also, the two stories split by the end, implying that this crossover could actually be worth picking up every issue later on. But as of right now, if you’re interested in this crossover, it’s better to buy Supergirl 31 and just read through Superman 12 once just to get the missing pieces.