Supergirl Woman of Tomorrow #2

Supergirl Woman of Tomorrow #2

DC Comics 2021

Written by Tom King

Illustrated by Bilquis Evely

Coloured by Matheus Lopes

Lettered by Clayton Cowles

After the shocking conclusion of last issue, Supergirl and her new friend Ruthye find themselves stranded with no way to pursue Krem, the murderous kingsagent. Each moment this fugitive roams free, the more beings become dangerously close to dying by his hand. There is no time to lose, so our heroes must now travel across the universe the old-fashioned way…by cosmic bus!

Little do they know, their journey will be a dark one filled with terrors that not even the Maid of Might is prepared to face! Can Kara Zor-El lie low long enough to ensure their safe passage?

Tom King is a modern legend when it comes to writing and storytelling. I mean this whole issue had me so completely enthralled by the sheer amount of writing and I never wanted it to end. The complexity, the depth and dimension of the storytelling through the writing and characterisation is so bloody well brilliantly rendered. Supergirl has always been a favourite character of mine, well pre crisis anyway, and this story comes out of nowhere and suddenly we see this side of her that is incredibly revealing and completely unexpected that you can’t help falling in love with her all over again in every panel of every page.

I am completely and utterly in love with the way that this is being told. The story & plot development that we see through how the sequence of events unfold as well as how the reader learns information is exquisitely laid down. The character development that we see through the dialogue, the character interaction and how they act and react to the situations and circumstances which they encounter continues to shape and mould how we see them. The pacing is superb and as it takes us through the pages revealing more and more of the story I find myself wanting to take the intergalactic bus myself.

I am a huge fan of the way that we see this being structured as well as how th layers within the story continue to grow, evolve and strengthen as well as newly emerge. The avenues we’ve seen open up and the ones we see opening have this amazing characterisation and plot developments which add that aforementioned depth, complexity and dimension to the story. How everything works together to create the story’s ebb & flow as well as how it moves the story forward is achieved exceptionally well.

The interiors here are truly mindbogglingly beautiful. I mean the imagery stays with you long after you’ve put the book down and it is something you look forward to seeing or revisiting because of the way it simply makes you feel. Plus the creativity and imagination that we see is mind numbing in how these species are brought to life. The way that we see the composition within the panels and how they bring out the depth perception, sense of scale and the overall sense of size and scope to the story is beautifully rendered. The utilisation of the page layouts and how we see the angles and perspective in the panels show a masterful eye for storytelling. The colour work is equally as brilliant to see. The various hues and tones within the colours being utilised to create the shading, highlights and shadow work can create softness or hardness as the situation calls for and it has this way of making something seem ethereal and plain lovely.

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When we don’t have to worry about huge company crossovers or staying within certain company mandated lines we get stories like this brought to us. This is without a doubt one of the best Supergirl tales that I think I’ve ever read and I’ve darn well read them all. The writing is stunning and the characterisation is strong and interesting while the interior artwork is the stuff that legends are made of. It’s what makes this book standout from the crowd in such a purely understated way.