SUPERGIRL: WOMAN OF TOMORROW
By Tom King and Bilquis Evely
- Collects Issues #1 – 8
- Publisher : DC
- Release : 7/26/2022
- Softcover : 224 pages
- Dimensions : 6.6″ x 10.1″
- Reading Age : 13+ years
- MSRP : $19.99
"Soon to be a adapted into a major motion picture"
- 2022 Eisner Nomination for “Best Limited Series“
- 2022 TripWire Award Winner for “Best Collection” & “Best New Series”
- Selected one of the “Top Ten Best Comics of 2022” by ComicTropes
- Selected one of the “Best Comics of 2022” by Polygon
With the announcement by James Gunn on 2/1/2022, Supergirl: Woman of Tomorrow almost immediately sold out from most booksellers. The series started in June 2021 and wrapped up in Feb 2022. I picked up the #1 when it first came out and then waited a year for the trade to come out in July 2022. The series actually concluded with mixed acclaim. It only showed up on a couple “Best of” lists in 2021 or 2022. Likewise, the series was overlooked by most award bodies. The series garnered respectable reviews with the fans including a 4.7 on Amazon, 4.39 on Goodreads, and 7.8 on Comic Book Round Up.
I believe the year 2021 suffered somewhat from “King fatigue”. He had just recently come off stellar years winning “Best Writer” in 2018 and 2019. Since that time he has become somewhat of a controversial figure with fans. He had multiple projects in 2021 including his Batman/Catwoman series, Rorschach, Strange Adventures, and Supergirl: Woman of Tomorrow. Personally, I thoroughly enjoyed some of his recent DC “Black Label” imprint projects like Mister Miracle, Strange Adventures, and Human Target. DC’s “Black Label” imprint is used for projects generally outside continuity and for adult readers. I was surprised to discover that Supergirl: Woman of Tomorrow was not a “Black Label” imprint, and therefor, should be in mainstream continuity.
In Tom King’s substack, Everlasting Productions, he explained that DC editors Jamie Rich and Brittany Holzherr worked on the project and gave him the marching orders, “make Supergirl bad ass.” King actually pitched a story based around the 1968 classic western novel about vengeance/justice, True Grit by Charles Portis (adapted to the screen in 1969 with John Wayne and again in 2010 by the Cohen Brothers with Jeff Bridges). King’s original pitch was to pair Supergirl with Lobo (DC’s interstellar mercenary/bounty hunter), however, almost immediately it became clear that the story only worked with Supergirl as the capable and hardened mentor.
The story is told through the narration of Ruthye, a young teenage girl trying to avenge her father’s murder. She secures Supergirl’s help and they travel through many worlds witnessing death in destruction in pursuit of the murderer. Ruthye’s dialogue is meant to be heavy, eloquent, and a bit loquacious throughout the series. I plugged the dialogue from the climactic scene in issue #8 into a readability consensus calculator and confirmed the text was 12th grade+ in its complexity.
“Worlds will live and worlds will die and evil will carve its name into the innocent and good people will do good acts and suffer all the same. And everywhere girls will be born with their eyes open to the hate ahead of them, and they will wonder if their voice will be heard above the screams. And in that moment of doubt they will learn, as I have learned, of the Legend of Supergirl, who lost everything and kept on walking. Then they will settle themselves, content in their power, knowing someone out there has survived the storm. That tomorrow, when malice will make its attempt and help is begged from the heavens, there is a woman waiting.” – Ruthyie (Supergirl: Woman of Tomorrow)
Our Take: Supergirl: Woman of Tomorrow adds to the wealth of quality projects put out by Tom King that are worthy of a prominent place on your ever-limited shelf space. This story is an instant classic that helps Supergirl step out from the shadow of her famous cousin to reveal the depth and complexity of a truly ‘bad ass’ character capable of epitomizing truth, justice, and a better tomorrow. 9/10
