Supergirl: Woman of Tomorrow (2/5)
...Okay, this comic kinda sucks.
That seems to be a pretty unpopular opinion. A lot of people seem to like, even love it. Certainly Warner Bros/James Gunn do, since it's set to be the basis of a film in the DCU (though I'll believe it when I see it). Still, never been one to shy away from being the odd one out in terms of opinions, so basically, yeah. This comic is pretty lacklustre.
I'm going to get something out of the way first - the science in this comic is insane. That may seem like a weird criticism for a Supergirl comic of all things (and as I'm watching season 3 of Supergirl right now, the science there is nearly as bonkers), but to borrow a phrase, "there's suspension of disbelief, and then there's get the fuck out." Over the course of their bounty, Kara and Ruthye (more on that later) travel through/over 300,000 galaxies. Supergirl moves so fast and far on a flying horse named Comet that she ends up outside the universe to evade some magic death ball. The astro-geography apparently works on the premise that in some corner of the universe, there's a lot of red suns, and in another corner, there's a lot of yellow suns, and to best knowledge, that's not how stellar formation actually works. Earlier in the universe, there'd be a lot more blue suns than red and yellow for instance, but that's a measure of time, not distance. And look, I get that this comic explicitly labels itself as science fantasy, but it's still science fantasy that hinges on the premise that this universe includes Earth, and presumably the laws of physics still apply, so when the worldbuilding is absolutely bonkers, even by the standards of DC, it hinders my investment.
Now, all of the above might not matter if the writing was actually good, but it isn't. It is, in a word, pseudo-intellectual. There's a lot of flower speech in dialogue and narrative that gives the illusion of depth, but in the end, there's not really anything profound that's actually going on, and what themes there are have already been done a thousand times. Basically, Ruthye (the co-progatonist, arguably THE protagonist) is a humanoid alien on an alien world whose father is killed by some asshole. The asshole steals Kara's ship and wounds Krypto, and she can't do much since the planet is in orbit of a red sun. Ruthye wants revengene, Kara needs to find the guy to find the antidote to save Krypto. Cue a space trip in pursuit, with Ruthye talking in Shakesperean-esque language, and Kara being a recovering alcoholic who swears in every other speech bubble.
Over the course of the story, stuff happens. Yes, I could cover that stuff, but it's not really interesting, nor is it relevant to the overall plot. The one real plot thread is that it turns out the guy they're chasing has fallen into the company of some Brigands (Brenner's Brigands or something) who go from planet to planet, devastating them, or taking tribute if it can be afforded. Giving credit where it's due, there is some gravitas to this as the pair stumble across one ruined world after another, finding what survivours they can either by chance or by circumstance (e.g. there's a species that sold out the destitute so that they might live, or something like that). Eventually, they find the guy, and shock of all shocks, Ruthye can't bring herself to kill him. Meanwhile, Kara fights the Brigands in space, whose ship is powerful enough to destroy an entire galaxy (yes, really), but Supergirl defeats them all the same (yes, really). I'll let you decide which of those facts is more asinine. It's a common problem with Supes (and by extension, Kryptonians) that they're basically operating on god mode, and ergo, tension that might otherwise exist isn't there. WoT attempts to solve this by assuring "nah, really, the Brigands ARE that powerful," but it doesn't really matter. Supergirl wins, because of course she does.
So, turns out that Kara was bluffing the whole time, that she wanted Ruthye to learn that "killing is bad, don'tchaknow?" Ergo, Ruthye keeps Krem alive, until decades later, when they're both much older, they reunite and, um, kill Krem. So I guess the moral of the story is that "killing for revenge is bad, unless you wait a few decades, after which it's a good thing." Um, okay, sure.
There's some nice moments in the series, but not enough to buoy it.
