Joe Casey's Adventures of Superman Supplement: Supergirls

Hungry Ghost: "Blood, Broads and Bushido" / "Blood Sisters" / "Blood Demands..."

Action Comics vol. 1 #806-08 (Oct.-Dec. 2003)

Writer: Joe Kelly
Penciller: Pascual Ferry
Inker: Cam Smith
Guest Art: Karl Kerschl
Colors: Guy Major
Associate Editor: Tom Palmer jr
Editor: Eddie Berganza 

This is my last side-step from Joe Casey's Adventures of Superman comics, and my second-last set of comics in the whole sequence. As with Lost Hearts and The Harvest, I picked it up because it co-features Traci Thirteen and I liked the covers.

Joe Kelly's story (called "Supergirls" on the covers but "Hungry Ghost" inside) features three female characters prominent in the era's Superman comics: Traci Thirteen, Natasha Irons (niece of John Henry Irons, one-time Superman himself), and Cir-El (the Supergirl I know the least about). Additionally, like the Kelly-co-written Lost Hearts, it features a prominent role for Lana Lang, one-time Superboy's girlfriend, now Second Lady of the United States of America. (Are you really Second Lady if there's no First Lady?)

from Action Comics vol. 1 #807
(art by Pascual Ferry & Cam Smith)

A weird ghost lady (she's a poorly explain pre-established character) stabs Superman, and Traci Thirteen tries to keep him alive. Of course, Natasha misunderstands and there's a brief fight, but soon all four women are working together to revive Superman and defeat the ghost lady.

To be honest, like a lot of Joe Kelly Superman comics, I'm coming to realize, it sounds better than it is. There's a lot of fight scenes, but a story like this really depends on the conflict and combination of character voices to be interesting... and I felt like this never really got anywhere. The covers have those cool quotes on them (Action #807's is my favorite, from Natasha: "I march. I protest. And I have a giant robot with a killer body. It's very complicated."), but that sense of voice is missing from the actual comics. There's too much space taken up by the generic fights and boring ghost backstory for these seemingly badass women to get to demonstrate their badassery. Kelly might have co-created Traci Thirteen, but (as is often the case with franchise comics), it was other creators who would go on to make her interesting and vital.

from Action Comics vol. 1 #806
(art by Pascual Ferry & Cam Smith)

Also Pascual Ferry just cannot draw women's foreheads for some reason.

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