Supergirl: Woman of Tomorrow #8 [of 8]
Scheduled to arrive in stores: February 15, 2022
Cover date: April 2022
“Chapter Eight: Ruthye, Supergirl, and Krem of the Yellow Hills”
Writer: Tom King
Artist: Bilquis Evely
Cover: Bilquis Evely and Matheus Lopes
Variant Cover: Janaina Medeiros
Reviewed by: Tony Parker
Ruthye tries to kill Krem, first as he is tied to a tree, then in a fair fight, but she cannot bring herself to do it. Comet sacrifices himself to save Kara, who flies back to stop Ruthye from killing Krem by doing it herself. Ruthye begs Kara not to do this, telling her she has learned the difference between right and wrong after all, and beseeching that Kara doesn’t lose her wonderful hope.
Many years later, Kara returns to an old Ruthye, the two free Krem from his Phantom Zone sentence of multiple centuries. Krem, having learned the error of his ways and having made genuine attempts at amends, begs for forgiveness. Ruthye kills him, and Supergirl walks off.
Story – 0: Tom King broke me.
Yes, I am well aware of how horribly clickbait that sounds. “Tom King broke me, says comic book nerd.”
But I am serious.
This is one of the worst comic book arcs and single issues I have read in my entire life. Right up there with “All-Star Batman and Robin” and “Superman at Earth’s End”.
The story is not just a difference in opinion, mind you. No, it’s a lie. A frustrating, infuriating, lazy, and kind of disgusting, lie.
Tom King spends this entire mini-series telling us over, and over, and over, and over again just how WONDERFUL and KIND and ANGELIC and PERFECT Supergirl is, isn’t she so amazing, isn’t she a goddess, while rarely showing it, and never without a hint of cynicism. Ruthye is nothing but a puppet of his to tell us whatever is on his damn mind, instead of anything actually important or character defining. For 7 issues of varying quality, of many downs and very few ups, Tom King wastes our time by showing us nothing new, and whenever it does feel new, it’s because our hero acted like a hero, instead of like a jerk who’s really SAD about how horrible everyone is.
You know. Supergirl.
Supergirl.
SUPERGIRL.
But then, this issue starts, and for a second, for a stupid, brief moment of foolishness, I thought that perhaps this story would end on a good note. Not a bang, perhaps, but a good note, one that wouldn’t fix the rest of the muck we had to trudge through, but would at least mean something.
After all, Ruthye learned that an eye for an eye is wrong. Supergirl didn’t lose her hope. I mean, pretending that she was showcasing it all the time is a bit of a lie, Mr. King, but all right, at least you did the right thing in a Supergirl story…
And then they just kill Krem.
They kill a man, a bad man, mind you, but a man who has served around 300 years in prison, who has clearly become remorseful, and who is begging on his knees for forgiveness.
Should Ruthye forgive him? Not if she doesn’t want to. No one owes anyone forgiveness.
But Ruthye has no right to be his executioner, and neither does Supergirl.
But it’s all right, because Tom King got to tell us all about his FASCINATING True Grit “adaptation” where he made Supergirl depressed and cynical, like, you know, every single character he writes.
Because…
You know, I don’t know why.
I don’t know why Tom King felt like this had to be seen.
Because this mini-series is a lie, and not even a beautiful one.
It is the most frustrating, pathetic edgelord drivel I’ve seen in a while, all in the service of a man who thinks he’s goddamn Shakespeare.
I recommend this to no one, and I am glad it’s over. Because I would rather live in a world of hope, Mr. King, then in your cesspool of cynicism.
That’s all, folks.
Art – 4: Decent as ever. Bilquis Evely, for all my hate for this torrid book, I commend your art. I hope you get more work soon.
Cover Art – 2: It barely even works with the story. Poor.
Variant Cover Art – 1: Just a boring, pointless anime-esque one.
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I don’t think Ruthye kills him. She just hits him, and with a cane, a pretty non-lethal cane. If you see in the third panel he takes his hand to his head. I thinks he just falls to the ground and stays, but I don’t think the intention was to imply that he is dead.
I think you’re completely right.
Now I’m going to have to read the entire series over again. I think supertorresmo is right. Ruthye doesn’t kill Krem, just wacks him upside the head hard enough to draw blood, but not even hard enough to render him unconscious. It certainly ended much differently than I expected. I was totally expecting Supergirl to kill Krem and thus doom Krypto to death. Glad I was wrong. I do agree that if they had killed Krem in the end, it would all have been horribly pointless. But they didn’t.
It seems I may have been wrong about that, which I do apologize for. I still maintain I detested this run, but thanks for telling me!
“The story is not just a difference in opinion, mind you.” Actually, it IS, You just never got it, because you were expecting SuperMAN in a skirt. You were always wrong about that. Tom King spends this entire mini-series telling us over, and over, and over, and over again just how WONDERFUL and KIND and ANGELIC and PERFECT Supergirl is.. Nope that’s just you fawning over your misplaced nostalgia over past iterations of the character. SG’s characterization throughout the whole series was always a shifting perspective on what is morality within different cultures, and reflective of the naivete of her… Read more »
Look, we obviously disagree, but if I may, I do not dislike this story because I have some rose tinted look at the character. Even if we ignore the ending I was apparently wrong about, this story contains many of the flaws King’s other stories share, and it was a droning, filler ensuing story in which really, not much happened. I realize you see a morality play at play here, but what I see is a story where Supergirl is mostly not serving the supposed role you say she is, until King decides she is. I don’t think there is… Read more »