DC Comics 2021
Written by Tom King
Illustrated by Bilquis Evely
Coloured by Matheus Lopes
Lettered by Clayton Cowles
Supergirl steps into an ancient trap, stranding her and Ruthye on a planet of nearly perpetual night. Now, the woman of steel must call on every remaining ounce of strength to combat the monsters left on this world to kill any super unlucky enough to end up on its surface.
I’m absolutely loving this series. Tom’s story here of Kara and Ruthye has so many different meanings and the lessons both girls are learning from this are fantastically portrayed. Also I have to say that we’ve all known Supergirl is stronger than Superman, her reaction to his 45 minutes was priceless. It's just a fact, smarter too considering she was older when she left Argo City and knows more than enough Kryptonian science. Alright so Tom does a great job in engaging the reader throughout the story as I was constantly taken off page, into my own mind and what I knew of the Super family. I’m really impressed with the way that Ruthye comes across this issue and how much she’s grown since the first issue. The two might make for some odd travelling companions but in reality each one needs the other for different reasons.
I am loving the way that this is being told. The story & plot development that we see through how the sequence of events unfold as well as how the reader learns information is presented exceptionally well. The character development that we see through the narration, the dialogue, the character interaction as well as how we see them act and react to the situations and circumstances which they encounter does a magnificent job in how we see their personalities as they grow and evolve.
I’m really impressed with the way that we see this being structured and how the layers within the story continue to emerge, grow, evolve and strengthen. I’m also liking the way that these layers open up new avenues to be explored. Whether or not these avenues get explored or not they all add this great depth, dimension and complexity to the story. I am very appreciative of the planet they are on and how this ties into the DCU and ties Kara and Clark that much closer. How we see everything working together to create the story’s ebb & flow as well as how it moves the story forward is impeccably handled.
These interiors are utterly gorgeous. The linework is exquisite and how we see the varying weights and techniques being utilised to create the detail within the work is magnificently rendered. I love that the linework we see seems delicate but has this quiet strength to it that is gorgeous to see. How we see backgrounds being utilised to enhance and expand the moments as well as how they work within the composition of the panels to bring out the depth perception, sense of scale and the overall sense of size and scope to the story is magnificent to see. The utilisation of the page layouts and how we see the angles and perspective in the panels show a masterful eye for storytelling. The creativity and imagination that we see within the pages is absolutely bloody brilliant and these creatures come to life extraordinarily well. The various hues and tones within the colours being utilised to create the shading, highlights and shadow work shows a spectacular understanding how colour works.
This is the kind of book in general I want to be reading and more importantly see an ongoing Supergirl monthly of. Forget her being on Earth let’s see her traverse the universe like this and instead of fighting one supervillain after another. Complicated, diverse and complex story arcs that explore her as a person and how we see her grow, change and evolve thanks to them is something we don’t see enough of. The writing here is extraordinary and the characterisation is utterly phenomenal while the interiors here are just bloody brilliant and all combined this, this is the king of book I read regularly.