Adventures of Supergirl #5 tied up the Vril Dox story, though it left the door open to more with that character.
Adventures of Supergirl #5 features yet another new artist, Pop Mhan, while writer Sterling Gates and colorist John Rauch remain the same. The issue picks up where Adventures of Supergirl #4 left off, with Supergirl rescuing Winn after he was framed as a terrorist by an alien hacker.
We open with Winn bringing Supergirl to meet an online friend who he believes will best be able to help his situation. Amusingly, we also learn that Winn’s screenname is Supergirl_In_Action252. This friend is a woman of color wearing a hijab named Rabiah — which is a nice sight as the Supergirl television series, for all its feminist messages, does not have any starring women of color.
Rabiah agrees to help Winn and Kara, but as they get back into Winn’s system, they find a message Vril Dox left behind implying that James is in trouble. Kara flies back to CatCo and finds James with cords stuck in his skin, immobilizing him. He looks terrified. Kara can’t just disconnect James from the cords because it might mess with his mind, and Vril Dox reveals that his target all along has been Supergirl.
Before Vril can do any more damage, though, Kara uploads a virus from Rabiah and Winn that backtracks Vril’s system and destroys it. This ejects the cords from James, who regains consciousness and seems okay. We get a mention of James once being turned into a giant turtle — a nod to comic book issue Countdown to Final Crisis #3.
Rabiah and Winn then pinpoint Vril’s physical location and Kara heads there, all while Vril threatens to reveal Supergirl’s true identity to the media. Kara, though, has no patience for bullies and easily takes Vril down. In an interesting internal monologue, Kara compares people who use screennames online to be anonymous with people like her and Clark having secret identities. There is a potential for both to do good or ill with the power of anonymity, and she channels Spider-Man when she says with power should come responsibility.
The DEO helps clear Winn’s name and takes Vril Dox away, though there is a hint that Vril’s threat isn’t quite over yet. Might we see him on the television show? It would be interesting.
This issue appears to close the story of Vril Dox, though it feels a bit sudden — especially since the Rampage story was three issues long. While we get to spend a bit more time with Winn and discover some insight into his online activities, we don’t get the time at CatCo that the previous issue teased.
It was satisfying to see Kara take down an online bully, as it’s difficult to be a woman on the Internet. Women are constantly threatened and harassed online, so as a feminist hero with an awareness of the safety individuals like Vril Dox take away from people online, it’s appropriate for her to take him out and render him powerless.
We also get an indication that Vril Dox was hired by someone to target Supergirl, though he never reveals who that is. Will the next story answer that question? Might that someone be Maxwell Lord? It’s not clear when in season 1 these stories are taking place, so if this is before Max discovers Supergirl’s identity, I could see him fishing around for information on her. Or we could be introduced to a completely new villain. There’s so much room to play in these comics, which is a big advantage they have.
The new art by Mhan feels a bit more “grown up” than Bengal’s or Meyers’ in the sense that Kara looks a bit older than she does in the other issues. It feels sharper than Bengal’s but not quite as angular as Meyers’, giving it something of a happy medium feel between the two.
Adventures of Supergirl remains a worthwhile companion story to the television series that fans should be reading every other week.
Adventures of Supergirl #6 will be released on Monday, April 4.
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