Supergirl: Woman of Tomorrow

Supergirl: Woman of Tomorrow isn’t just a comic—it’s a literary odyssey that redefines Kara Zor-El with a depth and complexity rarely afforded to legacy characters. Written by Tom King (the only bad thing..jk! maybe..) and illustrated by Bilquis Evely, this 8-issue series is a bold departure from traditional superhero fare. It’s poetic, brutal, and deeply human. At its core, this is a story about grief, justice, and identity. Kara, often portrayed as Superman’s cheerful cousin, is thrust into a morally gray universe where her powers mean little and her choices mean everything. Accompanied by Ruthye, a determined alien girl seeking vengeance for her father’s murder, Kara embarks on a journey across hostile planets and broken civilizations. What unfolds is part space western, part philosophical road trip, and part emotional reckoning. It’s a bold, poetic reinvention that echoes the emotional depth of Journey to the West, while carving its own path through the stars. King’s writing is lyrical and layered. He doesn’t just tell a story—he builds a myth. Kara is no longer the sidekick or the symbol of hope; she’s a warrior, a mentor, and a woman wrestling with her own pain and purpose. Evely’s art elevates every page. Her intricate linework and sweeping landscapes give the story a timeless, almost mythological feel. Every panel feels like a painting, and every expression carries weight. This isn’t a book for readers seeking fast-paced action or traditional heroics. It’s for those who want to sit with a character, feel her struggle, and witness her transformation. Kara’s journey is messy, raw, and ultimately redemptive. She’s not perfect—and that’s what makes her powerful. From a collector’s standpoint, this paperback is already gaining traction. With James Gunn confirming it as the foundation for the upcoming DCU film, its cultural and market value is poised to rise. The price of each of the individual issues have already gone up in price, and difficult to find. (I'm still looking for issue #3 to complete the 8-issue run!) But beyond speculation, this book deserves a place on your shelf because it’s art. It’s literature. It’s the kind of story that stays with you long after the final page. Whether you’re a lifelong DC fan or someone looking for a fresh, emotionally resonant narrative, Supergirl: Woman of Tomorrow delivers. It’s not just a reinvention—it’s a revelation.

i’m just getting into comics. was told to start with a favorite character and read their books. this book is amazing. the artwork is absolutely incredible, i sent pictures of my favorite pages to all my friends. it is just gorgeous. not only does it have cool art, it has a good, heartfelt story. i relate to supergirl a lot. i cannot wait to see the movie june 2026! go supergirl!

This story felt like a fitting companion piece to Tom King's other limited series, Superman: Up In the Sky. Like that book, there is an overarching story that takes Supergirl through the cosmos, but each issue is almost like a standalone vignette about a particular challenge and an attribute about Supergirl that helps her overcome that challenge. Pros: 1. The art is incredible. I was not familiar with Bilquis Evely, but her art really blew me away. The colorists also did an awesome job of creating these bright otherworldly settings and characters. Honestly, the art alone probably makes this worth checking out. 2. One issue in particular that explores the burden and grief Kara bears as a survivor who fully knew the world she lost (as opposed to her cousin, Superman, who was a baby at the time he lost his home planet), was particularly poignant and an interesting way of delving into her psyche. Cons: 1. There is a narrative/framing device used throughout, where everything is explained and analyzed by Supergirl's companion who has written a book about their adventures--a girl from an alien world who speaks like a medieval peasant. The girl herself is an interesting character and has a compelling story but OH MAN, the narration can get irritating. This is totally subjective, but I kept finding myself wanting the narration bubbles to be quiet and go away so that more could happen in the "present" of the story. If you even get mildly annoyed by the "voice" of the girl, you will haaaaate it by the end. There's a lot of it. 2. With the exception of the story about Kara's grief mentioned above, I felt a lot of the "attributes" of Kara that get explored feel like a....defensive rebuttal. I don't know a better way to put it. It's like, "You thought she was nice and a pushover? Guess what she KICKS ASS." "You think she's a goody two-shoes? She DRINKS." "Think she would never murder a dude? MAYBE SHE WILL, MAYBE SHE WON'T BETTER STICK AROUND AND FIND OUT!" So much is couched in assumed reader expectation, and even within the story, how people in her world conceive of her in contrast to her famous cousin, Superman. And it almost felt kind of insulting, to both Kara and the reader? I don't know how else to describe it. It seemed less like a story about who Kara is as a person (though those moments do shine through), and more about, "nuh-uh, she's not what you think." Overall, I still think this was definitely worth it, especially for the art. But the narration and the defensive framing really made it tough to enjoy the story (for me at least).

Tom King, Bilquis Evely, and Mat Lopes's "Supergirl: Woman of Tomorrow" (2021-22) just is one of my favorite books of all time. these three artists work in such synergy to tell an incredible story of the burdens that we carry and those that we help others bear. Supergirl has just turned 21 and she and her dog Krypto finds themselves on a remote planet with a off-color son, where she will be able to get wasted and really feel it. it is here she encounters Ruthye, a young girl whose father has been murdered by Krem, a ruthless government official. Ruthye has sworn to avenge her father's senseless death and is looking for a champion to help her find him. Supergirl does not necessarily hold truck with vengeance, but when her dog is assaulted by this same thug, she begrudgingly agrees to take Ruthye along. Their quest takes them to many worlds, were they experience and bear witness to depravity, cruelty, and evil, as well as persistence, resilience, and compassion. Stauch individualists though they are, they learn to count on and depend on and rely on each other through many months of weary and exhausting travel and relentless hardship. This is a miraculous book. it can be read in a day, but its lessons will remain with you everyday afterwards. they certainly have with me. I read this book almost 3 years ago for the first time, and revisited it for the second time this week. There has not been an instance of either Tom King or Bilquis Evely posting an image or a panel from this to their social accounts in the intervening period that has not moved me to tears at recollecting that first experience of the book. Getting to reread it, I was hit with exactly why that was. There is so much sadness and sorrow and grief in the things that they, Supergirl and Ruthye, carry inside themselves. Both in the things that they see and the things that they say to each other, as well as what they do not see and do not say, just so much grief. It is so enormous as to be inexpressible. As they say in the book, "it is so big, and we are so small." They really have to learn to listen to each other and to themselves. There lessons here that they only learn by doing and experiencing and sharing with each other. I love this book, but it is so difficult to read. King's script feel so supported and so held and so deeply understood by Evely's pencils, which are themselves so beautifully filled out by Lopes's color work, and it's all given an almost mythic weight by Clayton Cowles's lettering. It's a 21st century classic from tip to tail. An achievement as a work of fiction and literature, to say nothing of it's stature as one of the premier graphic novels.

Our plot: It's Supergirl's 21st birthday, and she's decided to get drunk to celebrate! But it's really hard to get Kryptonians drunk, so she takes her super-dog Krypto and travels to a far distant planet under a red sun so she can lose most of her powers. And once Kara's gotten there and gotten thoroughly sloshed, she gets roped into helping out a young alien teenager named Ruthye Marye Knoll. Ruthye's father was murdered by a creep called Krem of the Yellow Hills, and she wants revenge more than anything in the galaxy. But a teenaged girl can't kill a killer without help, and she wants the Maid of Might's aid in her quest. Well, that's nice, kid, but Supergirl isn't really for hire, and she doesn't kill. So she's gonna hop into her spaceship and fly back to somewhere with a yellow sun and -- and that's when Krem of the Yellow Hills shows up and shoots Supergirl with a few arrows. Luckily, even mostly unpowered Kryptonians are tough enough to survive arrows -- but Krypto isn't so tough against Krem's poisoned arrows -- and even worse, Krem steals Supergirl's spaceship, too! Well, Kara still isn't willing to kill Krem, but she does need to find out what poison he used so someone can brew up an antidote for Krypto, so she decides to accompany Ruthye to help apprehend the killer. What follows is a lengthy mission across space as Supergirl and Ruthye pursue Krem. That includes traveling coach on a space freighter filled with sometimes hostile aliens. That includes visiting a small town of little blue aliens who like to appear friendly and are very definitely not friendly. That includes learning of the monstrous depravity and cruelty visited upon dozens of innocent worlds by Krem's new allies in Barbond's Brigands. That includes getting stranded on a planet orbiting a deadly green Kryptonite sun. It includes outrunning certain death. It includes battling an alien armada. It includes watching a friend die. It includes making the ultimate decision: life or death. Tom King's comics tend to focus on the dark inner psyches of his characters, usually B-level or lower superheroes, like the Vision, Mister Miracle, and the Omega Men. We get less of that here, partly because angsty Supergirl has been done plenty of times and it's no longer interesting, and partly because Ruthye is actually the lead character of the book. Ruthye narrates the tale, Ruthye is in the story from the beginning to the end, Ruthye is the one who learns and grows as a character. Not that Supergirl is a bit player in the tale. She does a lot to smooth the path they take -- Kryptonian strength, flight, speed, and other powers help a lot, of course. She also has a nose for justice that leads her to work to punish wrongdoers, as well as a compassionate heart that helps her to comfort those who are suffering. She has her moments of darkness, too, particularly when she remembers the slow, painful death of Argo City, the final remnant of Krypton, the few survivors dying of Kryptonite radiation, no matter what is done to help. King also admits that the plot is a loose homage to Charles Portis' Western novel "True Grit," which may give you a hint of some -- but definitely not all -- of the story beats. Bilquis Evely's art is worth admiring, too. It's very much unlike anything we've seen in comics in ages. The art style has its roots in the late 19th century and early 20th, particularly in Art Nouveau, and character design pulls its influences from the past, too. Though Supergirl's costume is the classic and traditional superhero outfit, most of the rest of the characters draw inspiration from the art of Charles Dana Gibson, particularly his glamorous Gibson Girls. That means everyone is beautiful (okay, everyone except the alien monsters), the eyes are riveting, and the hair is flowing and luxurious. That turn-of-the-century design aesthetic dominates the rest of the book, too. Many costumes are ornate and old-fashioned, like they came out of illustrations for an old planetary romance. Some of the spaceships have sails. The alien town of Maypole looks like one of the American small towns in Ray Bradbury stories. Evely's gorgeous artwork probably gets more attention than King's storytelling -- but that's okay, because her art is genuinely amazing, and probably did more to sell the book to many readers than anything else. Should you read it? Heck, yeah, kids, get yourself a copy and get busy reading.

Such a great book so far. I love the portrayal of Kara in this and I love seeing the scenery of the various planets the pair visited. Highly reccomend, it's a masterpiece.

I had a lot of fun reading this, excellent writing and storytelling. If your not familiar with Supergirl this is a great way to get to know her.

Great book