Supergirl #23

New "Supergirl" scribe, Kelley Puckett, comes on board and spins a stunning tale establishing Supergirl as a powerhouse character in the DC Universe...is what I would have liked to said during this review. I had high hopes for Puckett's tenure here but this first chapter has left me cold. Entitled "Tesseract" we start with Supergirl getting a package from Batman ( a grizzled unshaven version of him) and then being thrown into some war with Superman and the Green Lantern Corps on one side and who knows on the other. Now a tesseract is a four dimensional analog of a cube where motion along the fourth dimension is often represented as the cube moving through time. Is the box that Batman left the cube? Is Supergirl moving through time? Am I reading too much into the title? I read this issue in about five minutes and basically got nothing out of it.

Drew Johnson's penciling is good for the most part, but the story relies so much on the visuals I don't know if I should blame Johnson for the confusing issue or Puckett. On a positive note, Puckett does establish that Supergirl is now 18 in this issue. In Superman/Batman when she was discovered she was 16 and in this issue she tells Batman she has been on Earth for two years. Now, why Batman after two years is still screwing with Supergirl is a whole other question.

I'm a Supergirl fan from way back and I'm hoping DC and Puckett can put this character back on track. However, this first issue does not bode well.