Kara is turning 21 years of age. She wants to go and have a drink alone, but she’s bringing her dog along with her. She’s been under a lot of pressure, so she’s decided to get really, really drunk. On another planet. Because she’s not human. And this is the first issue of Supergirl: Woman of Tomorrow. Writer Tom King opens a fun eight-part adventure with Kara that effortlessly slides into emotionally engaging complexity by issue’s end. Artist Bilquis Evely conjures the visuals of a new world for Supergirl to explore. Color is brought to the new world by Metheus Lopes. What starts as a simple sword-and-sorcery pop fantasy story becomes something much deeper in the first chapter of a promising, new Supergirl mini-series.

Ruthye’s father had been swiftly murdered by a man he had taken in. His name was Krem. He was a kingsagent. She’s looking for revenge on Krem, but she is unlikely to be able to find revenge on her own, so she seeks a champion. As luck would have it, there IS a bounty hunter to be found in a local tavern. Unfortunately, he’s not very polite. He’s about to learn something about manners from a young, drunken Kryptonian woman who is there celebrating her 21st birthday. Once sobriety returns to the young woman, Ruthye may have found her champion after all. 

King takes his time in establishing the plight of Ruthye. The reader is introduced to her in a very eloquent, almost poetic narrative that is cleverly formulated to suggest that she’s MUCH older and more sophisticated than a normal girl her age. Kara’s in a bad way, but only because she’s celebrating. King launches her into a story that she’s quick to avoid with a deft narrative that sneakily engages emotion in sharp and sudden movements. It takes a bit of time for everything to get moving, but by the time the issue’s last panel asserts itself, the next issue couldn’t come soon enough.

Evely’s art feels like a pleasant mix of the fairy fantasy of Charles Vess and the wild otherworldliness of Moebius. Ruthye’s determination feels positively heroic in Evely’s hands. She tends to talk to people while they’re sitting down throughout much of the issue, making for kind of a dramatic reveal when a fully sobered-up Kara crouches to try to explain to her that revenge is not justice and killing is wrong. The emotional weight of the issue hits like a hammer in a scene that’s a LOT more intense than any of the well-executed violence that precedes it. 

Ruthye is a compelling character, but King knows full well that the central appeal of the story is the title character. His characterization of her is a great deal of fun. Any series that opens with a drunken Kryptonian on her 21st birthday is going in the right direction right away. When the emotional hammer hits at chapter's end, it’s all too apparent the King knows exactly what he’s doing with this one.

Grade: A