Pointless Beauty
Written by: Tom King
Art by: Bilquis Evely, Matheus Lopes, and Clayton Cowles
Cover price: $3.99
Release date: December 21, 2021
Supergirl: Woman of Tomorrow #6 recounts Kara's memory of her last days on Krypton while she outruns a magical trap. That's it. That's the story.
Was It Good?
Tom King can often be something of an enigma. So it's perplexing how King can put together a comic with such extreme highs and lows all at once in a single issue.
"What are the highs?" you ask. Well, we get a very grimdark narration of Supergirl's last days on Krypton. It's replete with tragedy, misery, hopelessness, pain, and death. This is a King comic, after all. While the pure torture of it all may not be to everyone's tastes, the poignant imagery in the narration hits like a ton of bricks. This version isn't the quick death of Krypton portrayed in multiple media over the last decades. Instead, it's rough, gut-wrenching stuff, and King pulls it off with a deft eloquence.
The other high point is Evely's art... with a minor exception. Generally, Evely is creating gorgeous art that paints the worlds (multiple) with a patina of alien whimsy that practically grabs your eye for attention.
The minor exception is the odd anatomy of Supergirl in the flashback. According to the narration, she's about fourteen during the end times, and yet, she's drawn close to the mature woman depicted in this series with slightly different hair. If that's fourteen-year-old Supergirl, my name is Johnny Sunshine (spoiler: my name isn't Johnny Sunshine).
You can dismiss the minor misstep by Evely without too much trouble, but the major down points, again, go back to King on two points. First, for all the poignancy of the description of Krypton's end. It's still mostly narration. You're told rather than shown, and it lessens the impact of those last days. Comics is a visual medium, after all, so it's a more significant misstep to try and replace visuals with prose.
Second, this is a filler issue. It's a filler issue and a filler issue that effectively is version 2.0 of the last issue. Rather than getting tricked into the Mordru Globe, the visuals focus on Supergirl's attempt to outrun the same attack. In terms of story progression, there are only two or three pages worth of story. When you consider this series is a limited run, and this isn't the only story focused on flashbacks, it becomes obvious King has more issues (pun intended) than an actual story.
While this issue puts us on the eve of resolution for the central conflict, you can't help but wonder why it took six issues to tell a story that quickly could have arrived at the same spot in two or three.
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Bits and Pieces
Supergirl: Woman of Tomorrow #6 is expertly structured and beautifully drawn, but it suffers from too much tell and not enough show for the emotional moments. While the recount of Krypton's demise is engaging, this is effectively a filler issue that gives readers roughly three pages worth of progress. In short, it's a beautiful waste.
6.5/10
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