Shoulder pads make a last-ditch attempt to survive the 90s.
Superman Adventures #39
DC Comics (January, 2000)
“Reunion”
WRITERS: Evan Dorkin & Sarah Dyer
PENCILER: Bret Blevins
INKER: Terry Austin
COLORIST: Lee Loughridge
LETTERER: Phil Felix
EDITOR: Mike McAvennie
A few months prior Superman and Supergirl were clearing out some of her mother’s old equipment after giving Kara’s family a proper burial. But a voice warned her about impending danger. Now it’s Mother’s Day back on Earth and Kara is still thinking about her while celebrating with the Kents. The festivities are interrupted when the heroes are called to STAR Labs after an explosion. They find a female version of Brainiac, a portion of his programming snuck onto Kara’s mom’s computer to observe the planet’s final days. However she gained too much of Kara’s mother and when she learns what Brainiac does after acquiring data ends up sacrificing herself to stop him, leaving behind an orb of Argo’s history.
What they got right: I really like the idea of Brainiac messing with Argo like it did Krypton for the story it offers. (Obviously it’s terrible in-universe.) She also sees the illogical nature of Brainiac’s plans. Plus we get more into the DCAU Supergirl and we get a version of Rao that is still the Kryptonian god rather than whatever they came up with in the regular DC Universe recently..
What they got wrong: I think this might have worked, with a bit of fleshing out, as an episode of the cartoon and it’s too bad it wasn’t an episode since the comics are not canon. In hindsight it does mean Cadmus doesn’t potentially get its hand on Argoan technology later on when the DCAU Dr. Hamilton joins their side. The evil Supergirl clone was bad enough.
Recommendation: A good story worth checking out.
