It's trying. Which is kind of obvious. And it's utterly foundationless, which is problematic. Again, the Stargirl's-braces gag simply doesn't work because this is the first time we've ever heard the first thing about her caring about them or anybody else even noticing she has them. In a Marvel Adventures book, Stargirl hating her braces would have been *established* first, either in a prior issue or in the beginning of this issue, and then referenced and paced until there's been proper build-up to the absurdity of everybody and their mother caring about it and piling into the dentist with her. As-is, Johns wants us to make the leap from "hypersexualized corrupted Black Mary tries to kill Stargirl before an ostensible good guy rips her power away and betrays two lost souls into a horrific imprisonment" to "LOL look at them all cluster in the dentist's office isn't this silly" completely cold. It just doesn't work.