Review: Supergirl - Woman of Tomorrow #1 (of 8)

Supergirl is the one character in the DC Universe that serves as something of a guilty pleasure. With every new series, I hope that this is the series that is going to be the break out home run. Having her last run being usurped by the Judge Death knock of The Batman Who Laughs, Kara Zor-El got a couple of issues to shine in the Future State event. A different style of Kara for sure, but the big “S” was still there for all to see. Now, she is back under the writings of Tom King.

Ruthye lives on a planet with a red sun, which looks and feels like a cross between a Hyborean world and Flash Gordon. Orphaned by the Krem she is determined to get revenge. Stumbling across a drunk Kara (red sun remember!) who is celebrating her 21st birthday Ruthye tries to convince her new friend to stay and help in her quest. The decision is taken out of Kara’s hands so to speak as her location comes back to bite her, and Krypto, in the ass!

Tom King has been much maligned at times, mainly for his pacing of his stories. His Batman arcs stretched out for far too long, Heroes in Crisis was a couple of issues too long and the current Batman Catwoman book is slowly eking toward it’s nearly midway point. Yet King has a swathe of fans for his work that may not feature the “big” characters; everyone loved his Vision and Mister Miracle runs. Without the pressure of high expectations that comes with the top tier, multi media characters, King seems to flourish. Supergirl is no exception to this idea. Here, King takes time, as you would expect, to introduce the reader to Ruthye and her world before injecting a sense of familiarity with the introduction of Supergirl and Krypto. The monologue from Ruthye serves a dual purpose and it s fun to see Kara out of her depth when trying to less than super.

One of the things that I am loving about DC at the moment is the fact that they are always looking to try different art styles. They might not all be my cup of tea, but I appreciate the effort. That is not the case here with Bilquis Evely who is fantastic in taking her The Dreaming style and transposing it on to a gorgeous alien world. Her characters are a tad elongated in the way Barry Windsor Smith’s used to be, which gives the book a faintly European look; this little juxtaposition helps sell the alienness of this red sun covered planet. The backgrounds are well detailed and all the characters expressions, even Krypto’s, works well. Helping breath life into this new world is colorist Matheus Lopes who uses a faintly tinged look over the more traditional elements of a Supergirl comic book. Finally, letterer Clayton Cowles produces a kind of handwritten approach to the monologue and has fun with drunk Kara.

With the aforementioned pacing issues of King’s writing, I am hoping that with a smaller issue run that King will be able to keep on track, moving forward from a pretty impressive first issue. Of course, if anything bad happens to Krypto, then all bets are off!

Writing – 5 Stars

Art – 5 Stars

Colors – 5 Stars

Overall – 5 Stars

Written by; Tom King
Art by; Bilquis Evely
Colors by; Matheus Lopes
Letters by; Clayton Cowles
Published by; DC Comics

Author Profile

Johnny "The Machine" Hughes

I am a long time comic book fan, being first introduced to Batman in the mid to late 70's. This led to a appreciation of classic artists like Neal Adams and Jim Aparo. Moving through the decades that followed, I have a working knowledge of a huge raft of characters with a fondness for old school characters like JSA and The Shadow

Currently reading a slew of Bat Books, enjoying a mini Marvel revival, and the host of The Definative Crusade and Outside the Panels whilst also appearing on No-Prize Podcast on the Undercover Capes Podcast Network