Review by Frank Plowright

It’s quite the surprise to see the opening story of this fourth collection of Peter David’s Supergirl drawn by Sean Phillips. It’s early in his US career, and he’s not using the detailed naturalism that would become his signature, but a midway step toward cartooning, which is also effective on a story with a point to make. It’s clever in showing how the best of intentions can be perverted.

It also exemplifies a collection that meanders without sparking into life as often as Book Three because there’s forever another guest artist or guest appearance to shoehorn in. The best of the early chapters are two parts mainly set in Paris, which combine someone very interested in Supergirl learning about her background and that of her friends, as the Parasite is on the loose in the French capital.

After that regular artist Leonard Kirk settles in for the remaining two-thirds of the collection. He supplies clean, clear and polished superhero art, showing Supergirl off well without objectifying her and filling her world with surroundings and people whose personalities transmit.

David keeps up to date with all the supporting characters, and he’s at his best during those moments. Some are funny, and others are harrowing, but few turns are predictable, and there’s a reconfiguration of one semi-regular cast member in a new sinister form that’s surprising, and another shock about someone dropped before the end. Also appealing is that you never know what’s coming in a selection that starts with child exploitation and finishes with a demon.

David continues to drip feed information about Supergirl’s current identity as an Earth Angel. It’s meant as intriguing as Supergirl consults yet another occult practitioner or we listen in on others pontificating about her, yet equally there may be some frustration about how long this plot is being dragged on. By the end of this collection there’s been little progress despite all the foreboding hints dropped from assorted mystical or demonic beings who arrive in Leesburg for a challenge. Had there been a Book Five, it would have included a form of resolution, but as this was issued in 2018 and no further volumes have appeared, the chances are now slim.