Supergirl: Woman of Tomorrow

I get most of my comics news from Twitter these days and it has been obvious for sometime that Tom King is a very popular writer with critical acclaim and two  Eisner Awards for best writer to prove it. That tempted me to try volume 1 of his Batman ran and also Mr Miracle and while I enjoyed both I had plenty of other things to read and I left my exploration of his works.

Then a mate in the pub recommended The Sheriff of Baghdad set during the allied occupation of Iran, which Tom King was a part of. That was excellent. It mixed geopolitics, action and characterisation neatly and, being based on a real-world situation, was unlike most things I read. I was ready to explore more Tom King.

My next adventure was Strange Adventures Volume 5, a title dating back to 1950 and a home for Adam Strange a space adventurer who first appeared in 1958). That shared some of the themes of The Sheriff of Baghdad, this time the sheriff was Mr Terrific who is hyper intelligent and knows everything, and was also excellent.

That led me inexorably to Supergirl: Woman of Tomorrow which has also been highly praised.

Yes, it is a Supergirl story but it is not about superheroes and is not set on Earth. It's a Space Fantasy story that happens to have Supergirl in it.

At it's core, the story is about revenge with a young woman Ruthye chasing the killer of her father across galaxies and enlisting Supergirl's help to do so. A lot of the interest in the story comes from Ruthye's character, the interactions between the two women, alien civilisations and the banalities of the chase, such as the sleeping passenger on a spaceship. 

The story is good and well told but what makes the book really really special is the art work by Bilquis Evely.

I had not come across her work before and that is a mistake that I will be trying to make up for. Her style is very suited to Space Fantasy, it is both technical and fantastical and also very detailed, but you can see that.

I could have picked any number of examples that show just how talented she is and in the end I had to settle for the cover above and the single panel below.

 

This is ridiculously good for a single panel and the level of detail and styling reminds me a little of Philippe Druillet, which is most definitely a compliment.

I bought Supergirl: Woman of Tomorrow for Tom King and I loved it for Bilquis Evely. When words and pictures combine like this the result is astonishing.