Review – Supergirl, Woman of Tomorrow #6: The Heart of Argo

Supergirl, Woman of Tomorrow #6 – Tom King, Writer; Bilquis Evely, Artist; Matheus Lopes, Colorist

Ray – 10/10

Ray: Every issue of this title is its own journey, but as we move forward, Tom King’s Supergirl epic starts to take shape in some fascinating ways. This issue doesn’t actually push the story forward much, as very little of it is actually dedicated to the present day. Kara and Ruthye have finally encountered Krem and his bandits, in the middle of another act of depravity, but the villain is armed. He aims another Mordu globe at Kara, aiming to send her across the universe like he did in last month’s harrowing issue. But Kara has her own secret weapon—the super-horse Comet, who can move even faster than a Kryptonian and might be the only thing in the universe that can outrun magic itself. So we have a race against time in one of the best action scenes of the series—but it’s little more than a staging ground for King to reinvent Supergirl’s origin as only he can, in a fascinating flashback to the last days of Krypton—and beyond.

Because this issue took me by surprise as it went on, as we saw Comet and later as we saw Argo City. It all came together with this issue, along with other details like Kara’s hair. I don’t think this is the Supergirl we know from the current DCU. I think this is a reinvention of the pre-Crisis Supergirl, who survived on Argo City long after Krypton exploded. Back when that story was written, it was all glossed over quickly and her trauma was never truly explored in depth. Here, we see the desperate last days of Argo, as their few defenses fail and Kara goes from an innocent child to a hardened trauma survivor. The descriptions of Krypton and Argo in their last days are harrowing, and the kind of story we can never really see from Superman. Supergirl might seem like an odd character for this type of story from King, but in many ways it feels like she’s always been waiting for this story—to let her voice be truly heard.

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GeekDad received this comic for review purposes.