Supergirl as Emotional Trainwreck

In a charming introductory scene, Woman of Tomorrow takes Supergirl from her usual position of pristine virtue to a far messier place (physically and emotionally). In doing so, it sets the stage for what might be the most poignant exploration of Kara’s character in the history of comics. #supergirl 1/12

The scene starts with a girl in a bar attempting to hire an assassin to kill her father’s murderer in exchange for a valuable sword. When her agent of vengeance attempts to steal the sword instead, Supergirl intervenes with an entrance that is atypical of her character to say the least. 2/12

“What? No….just stop for a second. Look, I’m going to take the sword and give it back to…this…her…and you just…go away, okay, and we won’t fight because it’s my birthday….Don’t be mad. I’m 21 now. Official. Which means it’s okay. That the truth and the justice and the American way.” 3/12

What the story depicts here is a heroic intervention in the sloppiest way possible. Supergirl steps in, advocates for the meek in an open challenge to right-of-might and even declares her commitment to a longstanding ideological creed. She’s just a mess as she does so. 4/12

This juxtaposition of traditional/messy very much sets the tone for both the series as a whole and for the nuanced exploration of Kara. The scene exposes the thin veneer that righteousness is for Kara at this point in her life through the layers of irony being engaged and through simple relatability. 5/12

King himself states “So, I wanted to start out with a very human moment of a person turning 21 and getting drunk. And a person who is getting drunk because they want to be alone, and they just want to forget about the shit that’s happened in their past. That’s such a human moment.” 6/12

As King’s vision implies, the depicted event is melancholy in nature. Kara isn’t celebrating her birthday with friends and (super)family; she’s getting drunk by herself in a sketchy bar on an even sketchier planet. 7/12

What this establishes then is a superhero being subjected to the call to action in a deeply familiar (almost cliché) manner. She answers that call, but half-heartedly and without conviction. Kara is depressed here – fulfilling a purpose through the power of inertia rather than altruism. 8/12

Supergirl has, historically, been a symbol of idealism, a feminized reiteration of Superman with faith in her mission of heroism. Richard Reynolds attributes her creation (in 1959) to the idea that “the climate had changed” in the wake of the comics code, demanding more innocent superheroes. 9/12

Thus, the introduction scene provides us with a Supergirl who is clinging to her mission and identity, but just barely. This, of course, sets the stage for the main theme of the series: a complex, inward-looking exploration of the value of heroism; a rudderless hero whose mask of virtue is starting to slip. 10/12

As the series unfolds, King and team go on to present a really complex interrogation of this concept against the backdrop of a callous and violent world that seems to offer little space for heroics, but it’s this initial premise that establishes that trajectory. 11/12

More importantly, this scene establishes a whole new take on Kara, one that positions her as the superheroine of tomorrow, of a world without the idealism of DC’s Silver Age, and one that informs DC’s current approach to the next tentpole in their Superhero cinema franchise. 12/12