Valor #2

Valor #2 (December 1992)
title: "Boy Meets Supergirl"
writer: Robert Loren Fleming
penciller: MD (Mark) Bright
inker: Al Gordon
letterer: Bob Pinaha
colorist: Eric Kachelhofer
associate editor: Eddie Berganza
editor: Michael Eury and KC Carlson
cover: MD Bright & Al Gordon (signed)

reviewers: Russell "Bilingual Boy" Burbage and Jason "Anachronistic Kid" Knol

Guest-Star(s):
Lex Luthor, Supergirl
Opponent(s):
Lex Luthor, Supergirl (?)

Summary:
Valor is minding his own business in South America when Supergirl shows up to "fetch" him back to Luthor. She doesn't have it easy.

Lar Gand is in South America somewhere converting Eclipso's former head-quarters into a memorial to his father, who died during the Invasion (mini-series). He is welding/carving/shaping the buildings Eclipso abandoned into a large piece from the Daxamite game Paragon and making it into an eternal flame as a type of cenotaph for his father, who he has come to understand, love, and miss.

As he finishes his work, Supergirl arrives on an "errand" from Lex Luthor to bring Lar back to him. Lex has been monitoring Valor and does not want him to upset his plans, so he wants him back at LexCorp so he can keep a closer watch on him. Supergirl tries to make small talk with Lar but he is overwhelmed by her, and she is not interested in being friendly. They do a quick flying competition, then Supergirl tells Lar that she is there to bring him back to Lex. When Lar puts up a small bit of resistance, Supergirl blasts him with psycho-kinetic energy.

She follows after him, afraid that she actually hurt him. He pretends to be hurt then grabs her. He laughs at her, so she blasts him again "full-force."

As he comes back down to Earth (literally) she then slams him with a huge dead tree. She bats him into his father's memorial, and as she tries to help him back up to his feet the whole thing collapses and bursts into flame.

Thoroughly angry now, Valor chases after Supergirl, and their chase causes sonic boom-like damage to the nearby city. He eventually catches up to her but loses control of his momentum and they slam into the side of a mountain.

Supergirl then morphs into a copy of Lex Luthor, who orders him to take him back to LexCorp. Confused, Valor submits.

Supergirl as Lex brings Lar back to LexCorp, who is then even more confused when he is met by the real Lex, who has no idea what Lar is talking about. Instead Lex shows Lar a space-ship that he wants Lar to work on for him, and Lar forgets about everything else in his sudden enthusiasm for the project.

Lastly, Supergirl returns to South America with a load of steel girders to rebuild Lar's memorial to his father.

Russell's comments: 

I think the theme for this issue is "distance." There are quite a few full-page spreads that are supposed to represent distance (I guess), there is emotional distance between Valor and Supergirl, and there is cognitive distance between the people who put together this comic-book and the people who are reading it (at least, this guy (or two) reading it some 20+ years after the fact.)  This comic is just BAD. 

Let's start with the cover. If I had seen this cover on the stands in 1992, I think I would have passed it by. Who is that on there.....I can't be sure, but it looks like it might be Supergirl? Oh, and is that Valor? Methinks the scene would have been better served by an extreme close-up of an angry Supergirl about to slam a rock/tree/mountain into Valor, not this very unattractive representation. 

Why this point of view? Why the distance? It's not eye-catching (the opposite, in fact). And it doesn't "sell" the character as being a strong protagonist. You would never see Batman in this position (that's what Robin or Batgirl were for!). 

As we mentioned last issue, Jason and I had no real knowledge of where Valor was coming from before we picked up #1. So it doesn't make any sense to throw us into the second issue and assume that we know a. who Supergirl is at this given time; b. what her relationship is to Lex Luthor; and c. why she and Valor are totally incompetent at not only using their powers, but also at social skills. 

Take a quick read of this interaction between our two "heroes." Lar seems to be trying to open up to Supergirl; partly from his embarrassment on meeting such a sexy woman, I guess, and partly because men don't like to talk about their feelings. So we're on the right track here, until....panels three and four. Supergirl totally rolls her eyes, then brushes Valor off by saying, "Whatever." 

If the point of this whole sequence and the forth-coming battle is that Valor and Supergirl and immature and don't know how to interact with others.....that is not at all clear! It only occurred to me on the third reading that writer Robert Loren Fleming might have meant to make these characters into jerks. But....but....yeah, it's stupid. 

The idea for drama seems to be full-page illustrations again (overused last issue, too) as we get at least three pages of....well, I'm going to sound harsh here, but....of nothing. Valor welding a pipe. Valor getting hit by Supergirl. Valor's memorial about to collapse. Nothing that had to be a full-page illustration; in fact, things that in my opinion should NOT have been full-page illustrations.  Exhibit A is probably page 1, but since that's a "splash page" I guess we can give it a pass. Here's Exhibit B, a totally wasted panel, and, dare I say it, not very well illustrated. Valor's face is way out of proportion. 

Which brings me round-about to the art. I LIKE Mark Bright. His ICON and his Green Lantern MOSAIC are great. Here, though....I just don't like it. His men's faces are all waaaay too long, and his women's faces are just oddly proportioned. Page 6 reprinted directly above is a great example. Supergirl in profile is beautiful, but facing front she and Lar just look odd. Maybe it's partly the inker, Al Gordon? I don't know, but this stuff is not attractive to me. 

So my last big criticism is how this story ends. Not content with making our protagonist into an idiot by literally not knowing how to use his powers responsibly, Fleming has Valor NOT realize that shape-shifting Supergirl is NOT pretending to be Luthor. Read this sequence below (keeping in mind "first" Luthor is really Supergirl/Matrix) and tell me that you can imagine ANY other mainstream super-hero not stopping the conversation immediately and crying foul? Of course you can't, because if you're talking to someone behind you who is suddenly in front of you, you are going to stop and find out what is going on. Unless you're Valor, and you're given the equivalent of a "Squirrel!" 

J's comments:

"This comic is just BAD" summed it up for me as well! Full disclosure, I didn't get into comics until my late teens / early twenties, and that's because this is the kind of book that was available in my youth.

If I recall, the bland, boring first issue was primarily dedicated to Lar's unresolved Daddy issues. And then this issue starts with him building a massive Paragon piece / eternal flame-- and has already built  "others"-- as a memorial to his father. If the emotional arc of the first issue felt forced and rushed, this feels like a manic bipolar episode.

Since the titular character is already on unstable ground, let's add perhaps the most confusing boy-meets-girl scene I've ever read in a comic book. I had no idea how I was supposed to interpret what the hell was going on. Supergirl meets Valor, is immediately friendly and complimentary, then (within the same page) utterly dismissive of him before presumptively assuming he'll immediately follow her as she commands. What?!

The awkward are-they-flirting-or-fighting scene felt like it carried most of the issue, and my confusion only mounted as I learned that Supergirl has psycho-kinetic blasts, invisibility, and shapeshifting powers. Seriously, what the hell's going on? And I thought the villain here was Lex Luthor, not Lex Luthor, Jr?

So eventually Supergirl accidentally wrecks Valor's memorial during the battle, and seems to feel sincere guilt and remorse about it. But that seems to go completely against how she's been portrayed as a character, except for the first 1.5 pages she was on? Then there's more pages wasted on chasing each other until Valor fearfully acquiesces to Luthor's "You're coming back with me, boy" order. I had to go back and re-read the first issue to confirm the fact that there's nothing to show or imply that Valor has met Lex Luthor (Jr?) before this panel. Luthor was only shown secretly watching Lar's therapy sessions. So why does Lar immediately obey him?

The issue wraps up with Lar excitedly agreeing to work on this giant secret spaceship with the ridiculous line "Somebody hand me a wrench!" Wouldn't his super strength and super speed make his hands more efficient than a wrench? And then Supergirl prepares to rebuild the destroyed memorial because "a promise is a promise." Because after the lies and betrayal and crazy, mountain-destroying fight Supergirl had with Valor, her promise to rebuild the memorial she carelessly destroyed is what really matters.

What the hell is this all about? This poor storytelling is to say nothing of the art, though my comments there could only echo Russell's. The page 6 example in particular, with Supergirl's beautiful profile panel followed by the confounding head-on shot where she looks like Valor with long blonde hair, amplifies my disappointment in the art by knowing how good it could be. But again, all the faces are bizarrely elongated and the action scenes are so full of massive structures that it removes the emphasis from what the panels and pages are supposed to be expressing. After two issues I'm even less interested in Valor, both the character and the book.

Daxamite Space Ranger Report:  
Michael Eury gives up the editorial job with this issue, handing over the series to KC Carlson.
According to an interview with him in Back Issue #121, Eury had a totally different direction he wanted to take the series in, with a different creative team.

There is no letters' page in this issue.

Valor is listed on the DC Comics Subscription ad in this issue. You could have 12 issues of this book for $15 if you ordered before January 31, 1993. Ironically, that is about how many issues this book had left to go.

There are two ads in this issue for books that might interest the casual comic-book historian. One is for the upcoming Robin mini-series (with Moving Covers!) and another is for The Spectre (with a Glow In The Dark cover!) Ah, the Nineties.

Status: 
This series has never been reprinted.

Milestone: 
This is the first post-Crisis meeting between Lar Gand and (this, then-current) Supergirl.