An Introduction to Supergirl: Woman of Tomorrow

Supergirl: Woman of Tomorrow is a 2021 miniseries for DC Comics, written by Tom King and pencilled by Bilquis Evely. The series was nominated for a 2021 Eisner Award and is now the subject of a 2026 DCU film. #supergirl 1/7

The series is notable for its humanistic portrayal of Kara Zor-El as a depressed and rudderless youth striving to find meaning within the noble purpose created by her status and powers as a superhero within a violent and sometimes meaningless universe. 2/7

The series is notable for providing something that had sometimes been quite evasive for the needs of a classic intellectual property like Supergirl: a good, accessible story that establishes for Kara a unique and defensible position within the broader DC universe and the Superman line specifically. 3/7

Enabling this is simply the quality of the execution – the series features elite creators operating at the top of their game at, seemingly every level. This is something that early reviews of the series made particular note of. 4/7

Tyson Yurai of Comic Watch writes in 2021 that “With fun, excellent writing, fantastic art, color and lettering, Tom King, Bilquis Evely, Matheus Lopes and Clayton Cowles have taken the first step to making Kara Zor-El the Superwoman of Tomorrow (Get it, cause Future State?)” 5/7

King’s original vision for the series drew inspiration from the movie True Grit, and while aspects of that vision didn’t make it to the page (most notably the inclusion of DC’s Lobo character) the spirit of True Grit as a subversive portrayal of popular fiction very much did. 6/7

It is interesting then that a story operating outside of established genre, setting, character, and tone should go on to become, potentially, the definitive story of an iconic character, but this might be what we’re dealing with in Woman of Tomorrow, a thereby portentous title worthy of exploration. 7/7