Review: Supergirl: Woman of Tomorrow #5

by Matthew Lloyd
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Review: Supergirl: Woman of Tomorrow #5
[Editor’s Note: This review may contain spoilers]

Writer: Tom King
Art: Bilquis Evely
Colors: Matheus Lopes
Letters: Clayton Cowles

Reviewed by: Matthew B. Lloyd

Summary

Supergirl and Ruthye are trapped on a planet with a Kryptonite Sun and they must wait out the poisonous orb to set with only Ruthye to defend them from the dinosaurs.

Positives

If you’ve been reading this series, you know already that Bilquis Evely and Matheus Lopes are an amazing pairing on the art.  It’s truly breathtaking.  Let’s take a look at one of the early scenes from Supergirl: Woman of Tomorrow #5 to see exactly what’s going on with Evely’s approach.

After almost laying hands on Krem of the Yellow Hills, their quarry pulls out a Mordru Globe.  He transports them to this world that orbits a Kryptonite Sun- Barenton.  They end up almost crushed by a dinosaur.  The staging by Evely is marvelous and the slow reveal of the foot they are under is both intense and dramatic.  You can’t tell exactly what it is at first, but as the shot pulls back you get to see exactly what’s going on.  Then as the sun slowly comes up over the horizon, the green strains are just barely visible above the mountaintops, Supergirl starts to weaken, and Evely gives us everything visually we need to see what she’s going through.  She’s in pain, but not giving up.  You can tell she’s getting desperate as she explains her plan to Ruthye to get them out from under.

Again, Lopes treats us to his Van Gogh inspired colors.  Color is so important to this issue because we know the Green Kryptonite Sun is slowly poisoning Kara.  Lopes uses different greens throughout the issue to indicate how the light changes throughout the day.  Interestingly, he doesn’t wash the whole issue in a green, instead reserving it for the sky.  This is significant for two reasons.  Washing everything in green would make the whole issue monochromatic and less interesting and by keeping it more subtle it mirrors how the light itself is affecting Kara.  This isn’t an overbearing in-your-face threat, but rather a distant almost physically imperceptible threat.  It’s an excellent use of color to reflect what’s going on in the story.  We already know his colors are beautiful!

Positives Cont’d

There are a couple of details that King includes in the script that connect Supergirl: Woman of Tomorrow #5 and indeed the whole issue to DC Universe.  We know it’s set there, but these details give it a depth.  As Supergirl explains how she know of this world, Barenton.  As she explains her cousin Kal-El’s previous experience on the world she mentions both his near death experience at the hands of Doomsday as well as how the Justice League rescued him.  It doesn’t matter that  Barenton is King’s invention.  Maybe even more important, King’s other invention, the Mordru Globe connects the issue to not only the DC Universe but the future DC Universe and the Legion of Super-Heroes.  Mordru is one of the Legion’s greatest adversaries.  While little was done with the character in Brian Michael Bendis’s recent run on the Legion, there’s a lot of history with Mordru and the Legion.  Furthermore, as Kara is knowledgeable about the Globe it seems to connect Kara’s traditional membership with the Legion even if it isn’t something that’s been shown as canon in current continuity.

As Kara is “resting” for most of the issue, the story really centers on Ruthye.  While she does show her mettle as she defends the two from the dinosaurs that inhabit Bareton, the story gives some insight to how her friendship/relationship with Supergirl is developing.  Most importantly, as she comes to the realization that she’s willing to do what’s necessary to save Kara, King seems to be indicating that Ruthye is finding some meaning in life other than her quest for revenge in the killing of Krem of the Yellow Hills.

Negatives

Nope!

Verdict

While this issue seems to slow down, it provides some important character moments for Ruthye and indicating she may be on the verge of a sea change in her reason for living.  While Kara gets some character reinforcement it’s her connection to the greater DC Universe that is significant, and not just the contemporary DCU, but perhaps a more traditional DCU.  Could this story be part of any incarnation of Kara Zor-El?  And, of course it’s in a beautiful package as Evely and Lopes demonstrate again why they are one of the premiere art teams in comics.

 

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