Hiya!

So, I did watch the new Supergirl movie over the weekend and I ultimately have to agree with my partner on this website: it was fine. It wasn’t a great movie. It wasn’t a terrible movie. It was just okay. It’s a shame, really, as I was really excited to see it. Maybe I got a little too hyped for it because, when the movie’s plot was revealed all those months ago, I decided to read the comic it was based on: Supergirl: Woman of Tomorrow. After reading it, I actually became more excited for the movie because Woman of Tomorrow is an excellent story.

Fast forward to last weekend and I went to the cinema giddy with excitement. I intentionally avoided all early reviews of Supergirl, even the spoiler free ones. I wanted to see how well or how badly they adapted that genius comic book to the big screen. Well, after watching it, I can say they DC and Warner Bros. took some liberties with the original story. However, the thing is, in retrospect, maybe trying to adapt Woman of Tomorrow into a movie might not have been a good idea after all.

By the way, I do have to mention how this entire post will be full of SPOILERS, both for the Supergirl movie as well as the Woman of Tomorrow comic. I have to do this to explain why adapting the comic might have been a mistake. You have been warned!

I will admit, I’m not a comic book reader but I do have some friends who are huge fans of the medium. So, one day, we were all hanging out and talking about this and that. The topic of movies came about and, eventually, the Supergirl movie. If I remembered correctly, I mentioned how I enjoyed her cameo at the end of 2025’s Superman but confused why she didn’t seem heroic like her cousin. This is when my comic book addicted obsessed loving friend mentioned that’s how she is in Woman of Tomorrow. So, I did something I normally don’t do: I asked if I could read it. Like I said, I don’t really read comics but that’s how much I was interested in the character and the then upcoming Supergirl movie. The next day, he lent me his copy of the Supergirl: Woman of Tomorrow omnibus. He had the individual comics but he didn’t want to lend it because it might get messed up. Comic book fans, am I right?

Anyway, I did read it and finish the entire thing that night. There was a lot to like about Supergirl: Woman of Tomorrow. I like the bright and somewhat ethereal art. I loved how they introduced the central plot by focusing it from the point-of-view of Ruthye, the girl who tries to hire Supergirl. I was intrigued by the lack of explanation as to why Kren of the Yellow Hills would kill Ruthye’s father. I was obsessed with the thought of Krypto actually dying! This was all in the first few pages! Some excellent writing here.

I cannot say the same for the movie.

Yes, most of the beats are there. We have Ruthye’s father dying at the hands of Krem but this time, Krem of the Yellow Hills is less of a mysterious figure and just a generic biker gang leader. We do have Ruthye trying to hire Supergirl but, instead of having the story start with her, we start with Supergirl partying, making her debut not as awesome as how she shows up in the comic. We also see what happened to Krypto and… okay. I liked how we know the goodest puppy was just poisoned rather than the thought of him dying. That’s a change I liked because I couldn’t bear the thought of Krypto dying.

These may be small changes to some people but they are significant changes to how the story is told. The comic does a better job of introducing Ruthye as she’s the first person you meet and the story is generally told from her point-of-view, not Supergirl. Ruthye is telling the story while accompanying Supergirl on her quest, much like how Watson would narrate Sherlock Holmes’ adventures. This way, we get to know more about Ruthye and her personality and, more importantly, get to know her as a character.

There’s also the changes they did to Krem of the Yellow Hills. In the comic, Krem is more mysterious. He’s definitely evil but he’s more conniving. An example of this is in the 2nd issue where it’s explained how Krem explains to the citizens of the Blue town how to stop the Brigands, a race that kills for fun, from attacking them: point them in the direction of Purple town and have them slaughter them instead. In each issue, you would see Krem’s actions get more brutal and definitely more depraved. Finally, in the last issue, you find out why Krem killed Ruthye’s father and, even though this is a SPOILER FILLED post, I’m not going to reveal it because it was shocking to me. So, by the end, you really do want to see the villain get what’s coming to him.

In the movie, Krem is just the leader of the Brigands right from the start and… he’s a bad guy. He’s already feared but you’re only told he’s a bad guy who does bad things. You never really see the horrors and atrocities he’s inflicted so you don’t feel the same anger towards him as you do in the comics. In fact, the Krem from the movie was one of the lamest villains I’ve seen in a superhero movie. At least Ronan the Accuser from the first Guardians of the Galaxy film had a cool ship!

I also have to talk about how the movie doesn’t do justice to the look and feel of the comic. I mentioned how colorful and vibrant the art of Woman of Tomorrow is. Is the move like that? No. The movie instead goes for more “realistic” lighting effects and drab sets, totally not in step with the comic. Instead of seeing a variety of cityscapes and planetscapes, all we see are mostly desert planets. The only time they did show something interesting was the interplanetary rest stop. We needed more of those creative locations!

There’s also the issue of how the comic series and the movie depicts Supergirl as they’re actually very different. The Supergirl we see in the movie is broken character who gets inebriated in order to forget her tragic past. She also more brutal and willing to take lives as she has a hard time seeing the good in people. This isn’t actually how Supergirl is in Woman of Tomorrow. Oh, it seems like it is at the start as Ruthye first encounters Supergirl drunk out of her mind in a bar. However, this Supergirl still has hope for people as noted in the ending.

In the start of the comic, Ruthye states Supergirl will kill Krem at the end of the story. This isn’t true. It’s a lie Supergirl told Ruthye to say in order keep her safe so the brigands won’t go after her. In reality, Supergirl sent Krem into the Phantom Zone in the hopes of rehabilitating him. In fact, although Krypto was indeed shot by a poison arrow, the powered puppy recovers so there’s really no need for her to go after Krem. However, she decides to do so because she knows Ruthye will try to hunt down Krem no matter what. She’s actually going with Ruthye because either something bad will happen to her during her journey or she actually kills Krem. Supergirl actually values life so much she’s willing to try to protect someone like Krem. So, this is vastly different from how Supergirl is in the movies!

However, I haven’t mentioned the biggest problem of basing the latest Supergirl movie on Woman of Tomorrow. If it was faithfully adapted, I do believe hardcore comic book fans like my friend would cheer and sing its praises. When it comes to the more casual comic book fan, the ones like me who have some knowledge of superhero characters from virtual osmosis via friends, family and media, they wouldn’t really care. That’s because, as good as Woman of Tomorrow is, it isn’t a mainstream comic story!

In order to explain this, let’s go look at DC’s greatest competitor, Marvel. Marvel, when it was starting out, focused on their more popular superheroes and, more importantly, their more popular storylines. We had Demon in a Bottle for Iron Man. There was Civil War for Captain America. Of course, we can’t forget Infinity Gauntlet for the Avengers. While these weren’t 1-to-1 translations, they got the core beats and, as they were popular stories, it generated excitement from comic book fans and, when we all so the comic book fans get excited, even those who have no knowledge of these stories would get excited.

Marvel also made sure to use their legacy characters in their early films. These are the characters who might not necessarily be popular by even casual fans, they would, at the very least, be recurring characters. I mentioned Ronan the Accuser and what a bland villain he was, right? Well, that doesn’t change the fact hardcore fans know him because the comics will bring him in once in a while. He’s someone Marvel comic readers will recognize.

That is simply not the case with Ruthye and Krem. That’s because Woman of Tomorrow is a miniseries. It was released in 2021, around 5 years ago as of this writing. Since then, as far as I know, both Ruthye and Krem have yet to reappear in any DC comic. Technically, they can’t as we do see their fate in the end of Woman of Tomorrow. Once again, this may be a SPOILER FILLED post but I can’t reveal it because it’s such a good ending. My point being is it’s hard to get excited for a superhero movie when you have no knowledge about the other characters. This is actually why I think they decided to add Lobo into the movie. Lobo doesn’t appear in Woman of Tomorrow but they needed someone popular enough for fans to get hyped to finally see in live-action.

It’s not like I wouldn’t have wanted to see Woman of Tomorrow adapted in some way. I just don’t think a movie was the right choice and especially not in the way they actually did it. I honestly would think Woman of Tomorrow would work better as an animated miniseries akin to the way DC had the Creature Commandos series. That way, they can still use the colorful style from the comics and add all sort of crazy looking aliens. It would also make the violence more palatable if it were done in a cartoon style. However, we got what we got and I don’t think the movie was bad. It was fine. I just think Woman of Tomorrow deserved better.

Byee!

Have you read Supergirl: Woman of Tomorrow? Do you think the Supergirl movie did it justice? Let me know in the comments section below!