Review: Supergirl Woman Of Tomorrow #4

Supergirl Woman of Tomorrow #4 came out this week and was the best issue of the series and also the worst issue of the series. 

I have talked in the past about my issues with this series. The overly dramatic prose of the narrator. Ruthye as the point of view character in a book which is supposed to star Supergirl. The overly dark and depressed Supergirl, cursing and drinking her way through the book en route to a destiny where she apparently kills someone. 

Writer Tom King likes nothing more than emotionally broken, despondent characters and his Kara fits that same demographic as Mister Miracle, The Vision, and Adam Strange. Heck, even his Wally West was a traumatized murderer until wiser minds retconned things. 

The crazy thing about this issue is that the first half reads much more like the classic Supergirl that I am looking for. You know the Supergirl who wants to help people as much as she can so that they don't suffer as much as she has. Yes, there is trauma in her past but she has moved through it. She isn't wallowing in it. She fiercely wants to stop it from happening again. And for a while, King gives us that Kara.

But about halfway through the issue we take a hard turn into that darker material, And this back half I see a Supergirl I simply don't recognize. And I have been reading her for more than 40 years. I have been a fan of hers for that long. And I have celebrated her her for 13 years. I don't know who this Supergirl is. That saddens me. Because as this is a Tom King book, the (as he put it) 'the little trade that shows you how great she is', I don't know if we will move away from this. I mean when will we see Scott Free Mister Miracle again?

One thing I have never complained about is  the art. Artist Bilquis Evely has serenely powerful strokes,  a sort of  ornate penciling that just sings. Her Kara is angelic. The expressive work is powerful. The alien worlds are unique and odd and well, alien. Add to that Matheus Lopes wonderful color palate, a mix of peaceful oil paintings when needed and garish neon when necessary, makes this book one of the more beautiful books on the racks.

If only I could get behind this story. But I simply can't. 

Remember, we start the issue with that Supergirl who is helping and heroic.

She and Ruthye are planet hopping, always one step behind Krem and Barbond's Brigands. Always arriving after that group has wreaked havoc on the landscapes and populace. And there is Supergirl trying to help whoever is left. 

Here on planet Parnatt, Ruthye tells us that she never felt motherly or nurturing on her world like other kinswomen. So when the book opens with a crying baby sitting in a field of corpses, Ruthye doesn't know what to do.

But there is Kara, consoling the baby and saying everything will be okay. 

As this is all being told in a flashback from Ruthye, we also learn that these two will walk together for 'months'. As Krypto was near dead supposedly weeks ago, I worry.

On Escalm, we see Supergirl volunteering in a hospital, feeding a victim of Krem. It is clear Krem is a vicious and sadistic killer, slashing and stabbing his way through innocents with glee. 

This man was severely injured by Krem. The devastation by the Brigands is so profound that the facility is overcrowded. This man probably wouldn't be fed for hours if Supergirl wasn't there. 

We learn a lot of backstory about this man and his friend who was killed. We learn a lot about Krem. But Supergirl is silent, spooning in the meal. At the very least, this is a Supergirl who is kind and helpful. 

Then they are off to planet Tilluis where they encounter a man trying to dig individual graves for those mowed down by the Brigands. He seems old, his back aching. The leaders have said if the dead aren't buried in individual graves by sundown they will be moved into a mass grave. And somewhere in the pile is this man's daughter.

Again we see that helpful Kara, sympathizing and helping. She asks if she can help, saying as a neighbor she has to do what she can to help others. 

In a blink, she digs all the graves, even locating the man's child. 

Evely does such wonderful work here, showing the earnestness in Kara's face throughout the scene, a faint smile on her face when the man accepts her help.

But then we turn a little bit ...

Then to Urrralann, a land of Kirby-esque giant warriors, dripping in Krackle and colored in neons. 

We veer a little into Heroes in Crisis territory here. We meet a warrior named Irasaan who was offworld when the Brigands and Krem wiped everyone out. To help her with this trauma, Kara curses at the giant telling Irasaan to @#$%-ing hit her. After smashing on Kara for a bit, the Urrralann warrior breaks down and cries. 

Now you can say that this is Kara again helping someone. But this struck me like some of the odd therapies being done in Sanctuary. Remember when Lagoon Boy kept shooting himself with lasers to feel pain as part of his 'healing'? Is Kara screaming at this warrior that if she was actually a fierce giant she would have saved her family helping? What type of therapy is that?

Then off to Tyrrcoomn, another planet overrun by the Brigands. But these aliens keep detailed media records of all that happened. Supergirl will not allow Ruthye to watch the carnage. 

Now this panel is a great Supergirl panel. She won't let Ruthye be exposed to those images. That is heroic enough. And yes she says she wants to save her dog. But she also says she is trying to save 'someone'. I think that 'someone' is Ruthye. Kara is trying to teach this young girl that vengeance isn't the only path. Maybe that killing is wrong.

Of course, it could be that 'someone' is Krypto.

She emerges from the newsroom changed. She took it all in. The coloring here is wonderful, subtle shade around the eyes showing Kara has been crying.

The art here is just gorgeous. The door leading into the record room an overly ornate  entryway which seems to scream mausoleum. 

Evely needs to win something for her art here.

You know at this point I was thinking 'maybe King gets it'.

But then that sharp turn.

On the planet Yahllahh, Kara stands by while an angry mob stones a captured Brigand to death.

Someone wearing an S-shield sat there and watched this painful execution. Of course, King's script calls for a page with 4 panels showing the stones hitting the Brigand surrounded by 'crack' sound effects. Even Ruthye is surprised Kara didn't step in.

Please just dwell on this. Supergirl bore witness to this.

That is horrifying. 

That is not what someone from the super-family should do.

But more importantly, that is not something this Supergirl would do. 

And most importantly, it is not the things I want to read Supergirl doing.

Then off to Ecvick, a planet of peace. 

When Supergirl sees the abattoir left by the Brigands in a monastery, she finally breaks.

Perhaps overcome by her own PTSD, perhaps finally sick of seeing all the horrors she has borne witness to, she says she needs to scream. But a super-scream here will destroy everything.

She flies into the nearby sun to scream.

King lays out his philosophy about Supergirl over these pages. She is constantly having to rein in her abilities. 

This effort made her live 'a life in pain'. She 'moved through strife and sorrow'. And yet, despite that, she would always ask someone if they needed help.

That's right, King believes Supergirl lived a life in pain. 

Not bright and optimistic. Not fierce and determined. A life of strife and sorrow and pain. 

Someone so traumatized that she fled her adopted world and family to drink alone on her birthday. So traumatized that she needs to collapse into a fetal position in the sun and cry.

No joy. No hope. No love.

Strife and sorrow and pain. 

Is that really Supergirl? Not for me.

Finally on Nycilan they see things so terrible that Ruthye doesn't even describe it.

Supergirl realizes they are close to finally catching up with Krem. There is no need to Ruthye to continue. Kara will come back and get her.

Of course, Ruthye objects. She can handle it. After all, when did Supergirl first see terror.

Head bowed, Supergirl says it was when she was a girl. You can see the weight of it on her face, so well done by Evely. And that is when you know she wants to spare Ruthye from that sort of trauma.

But then Supergirl acquiesces and takes Ruthye along.

So this is exactly what I expected we would get in a Tom King Supergirl book. She is  shredded emotionally from trauma. She sat back and watched someone be stoned to death. She is suffering, in pain, walking the line between sadness and strife. There is no happiness, no growth, no joy, no love. That doesn't jibe with the last couple of years of Supergirl in Bendis' super-books. That doesn't work with the Steve Orlando Rebirth take. And frankly, it doesn't work with the 60+ years the character has been around.

The art and the colors are so fantastic. It is a shame that they are giving us this.

Perhaps the worst thing about this is that I feel a bit complicit. I was there cheering with King's Mister Miracle, never thinking about what long term fans of that character thought of the suicidal rendition there. And now I am reaping what I sowed, a Tom King Supergirl.

Overall grade: C (raised a full grade because the art is so unbelievably good)