Adventures of Supergirl #10 and 11 revealed Facet’s backstory and put her endgame into motion.

Adventures of Supergirl #10 featured artist Cat Staggs and colorist John Rauch. We got a change in artist and colorist for #11 with Emma Vieceli and Sandra Molina, respectively. Writer Sterling Gates continues on as writer in both issues.

In Adventures of Supergirl #10, Kara and Alex confront the Alura AI in the DEO to find out about Facet. The Alura AI reveals that Facet formed, as a living diamond, on the planet Barrio Prime nearly 1,000 years ago. She was a guard in the first Kryptonian prison, Magin. And on the day of the Magin Uprising, the worst prison break in Kryptonian history and the reason prisoners are kept off-planet, Facet was the only guard to survive and was the reason the prison was retaken by the Kryptonian forces.

Facet was given high honors after this and was placed in charge of the reformed Magin, which she ran for hundreds of years. She changed positions, however, when Alura appointed Facet the head of Fort Rozz. (This also ties in to the Master Jailer we meet in the television series, as Facet would have been that character’s superior.) She was the reason Fort Rozz was such an effective prison that other systems were sending their criminals there.

The Alura AI does not have any information (or claims not to, anyway) about Facet being charged with looking over Kara on Earth, however. Kara is left upset and shaken by the encounter, as she realizes so many of the issues she’s faced since becoming Supergirl have been related to her mother’s actions on Krypton.

While this issue is a bit slower because it is mostly an information dump, what I like so much about it is all the details of Kryptonian culture, such as a history of Kryptonian prisons and an explanation for why Fort Rozz was off planet. That it comes from the AI that looks like Alura is a nice touch, as so much of Supergirl‘s first season was about Kara facing up to her family’s choices and actions, particularly those of her mother and aunt.

The comic continues this theme, as Facet is another character connected to Alura, which understandably frustrates Kara. She left her mother at an age when most girls still idealize their mothers, putting them on pedestals, and Kara has been forced to see her mother as a flawed person from a huge distance — both time and place — and that cannot be easy for her. Instead, Kara is forced to protect the found family she’s come to love in National City from the fallout of things her blood family has done.

The art in this issue takes on almost a watercolor quality to show the light from the AI reflecting off Kara and Alex, and there is a clear attempt by Staggs to have the characters look like their television counterparts, which is something some artists in the run have tried to do more than others.

In Adventures of Supergirl #11, Facet’s plan is set into motion. Everything Kara has been dealing with becomes too much, as Facet’s followers held captive in the DEO, Rampage and Vril Dox, get loose. Facet appears on the DEO’s monitors while Kara is disabled by a frequency only animals, Kryptonians, and Rampage can hear. Rampage, in her berserk mode, breaks free and targets Alex.

As Kara loses consciousness, she sees Alex standing up in front of Rampage while Facet arrives at the Danvers house to pay a visit to Eliza Danvers. She says that Kara is not done growing, and Eliza is going to help.

There is quite a bit of action in this issue, as all hell breaks loose in the DEO, but what sticks out most to me is the continued focus on family — of Kara’s found family being threatened by the choices of her blood family. Alex, Winn and James have all been placed in danger at various points during this run, and now Eliza Danvers is pulled into Facet’s crosshairs.

The art in this issue is a departure from the previous one, which tried to look more like the actors on the television series, and the colors are a bit brighter. This ends up working well for the action sequences in the issue, such as Rampage breaking loose and Facet attacking Eliza Danvers.

With two issues left in this digital-first run, I’m looking forward to seeing exactly what Facet’s endgame is and how Kara will end up defeating her. We know she has to since this comic slots into the television series, where Kara faces the Kryptonians from Fort Rozz, but seeing the emotional stakes being explored in this run is where my true interest lay — and it has yet to disappoint.

Adventures of Supergirl #12 will be released on Monday, June 27.