Review: Supergirl: Woman of Tomorrow

I’m not really much of a comic reader. I like comics, in general, but my standards are very high, especially for graphic novels. Although I had read Phantom, Captain America, and a few other comics before, my first graphic novel was Watchmen. When you start with the best, it’s hard not to feel that everything else is a let down. So it was unsurprising to me that I found Supergirl: Woman of Tomorrow lacking. What was surprising was just how lacking it was.

The story is simple. It’s a linear quest. So linear you could use it as a plumb-line. Our narrator, Ruthye, finds her father murdered and desires revenge. She tracks the killer, Krem, which leads her to meet Supergirl. The two women ultimately team up (because reasons) to hunt Krem as he reeks havoc across several galaxies. That’s it!

There’s no twists. We’re told that they succeed in their quest in the very first chapter. The story unfolds in a rather banal fashion. I found myself with no motivation to find out what happens. There’s also little to no character development. The characters end the same way they started (it is a superhero comic, after all). Effectively, you could read the first chapter, and the last chapter, and save yourself a lot of time. Time you could spend reading another book, watching a movie, or staring at paint drying.

This is the second Tom King comic I’ve read and unfortunately I’ve noticed a trend. He has a touch of JJ Abrams about him. He grabs you with an intriguing beginning, only to allow it to wither away into mediocrity because he doesn’t know how to end it, or middle it (in this case).

The comic tries to end with a hand-wavy, but…but…the subtext, as if the entire story is a morality play. However, it falls flat and comes from nowhere. If I was going to make a sub-textual reading, I would say it’s about an impoverished girl being lectured by a nepobaby. Don’t do the things I just spend the entire comic doing. It’s bad.

I can’t recommend this book. It’s truly awful. BTW, there’s a movie scheduled for release in 2026. Ughh!