Warner Bros. made waves last year when the company announced that James Gunn and Peter Safran would take charge of the DC Universe in television and film. Fans have been wondering what that would mean until this week when they announced their plans, complete with an accompanying video from Gunn.
Eagle-eyed viewers noted that Gunn did not discuss many of the actual comics that might serve as source material for the upcoming projects, with a couple of notable exceptions. The first, The Brave and the Bold, is based on Grant Morrison’s Batman comics, which likely set a lot of heads bobbing in approval, as it’s one of the most acclaimed runs on the character. The other, though, may have sent quite a few doing some online searches, and that is Supergirl: Woman of Tomorrow, based on Tom King and Bilquis Evely’s comic of the same name, which only just debuted in 2021 and wrapped up in 2022.
“One of my favorite comic book series from last year was Tom King’s run on Supergirl: Woman of Tomorrow,” Gunn said. “And so, we’re going to turn that into a big science-fiction epic film. Now, Superman is a guy who was sent to Earth and raised by loving parents whereas Supergirl, in this story, she is a character who is raised on a chunk of Krypton. She watched everyone around her perish in some terrible way, so she’s a much more jaded character.”
With an intro like that, we’re diving into Woman of Tomorrow to try to figure out which elements mind find their way into the film. Read on (and note, of course, that eventually some of these events may occur in the movie, if you’re especially spoiler-wary!).
The Supergirl Basics
Before jumping into the details of Woman of Tomorrow, let’s do a little refresh on Supergirl’s history. Kara Zor-El was a teenager when Krypton exploded. While her baby cousin Kal-El was rocketed off to Earth to become Superman, she was saved by the efforts of her scientist father Zor-El who created a protective bubble around Argo City.
Kara’s dad soon discovered that their people were dying from radiation poisoning. Even with her tireless efforts,13,000 citizens of Argo City died — including her mother — leaving only about 5,000 behind. More perished after an asteroid shower destroyed the protective dome. Realizing their doomed fate, Zor-El utilized Jor-El’s designs and built a spaceship that would take Kara to the same planet as Kal. However, her ship was held up, so she didn’t actually arrive until Kal had established himself as Superman. Since then, she has done her best to keep innocents safe while containing her incredible power as Supergirl.
Happy Birthday To Me
Gunn was not kidding when he mentioned the more jaded side of Supergirl. In Woman of Tomorrow, our notably profanity-preferring heroine has traveled to an unnamed planet with a red sun to get drunk on her 21st birthday. Kryptonians like Supergirl and Superman gain their awesome powers from yellow suns, like the one in Earth’s solar system. When in the presence of a red sun, their powers slowly fade and they become relatively human.
While in the bar, Kara saw a young woman by the name of Ruthye Marye Knoll being hassled by a man she intended to hire as a guard on her mission of vengeance against Krem, the man who killed her father. Though Supergirl initially refused to help Ruthye in her mission of murder, they were soon set upon by Krem who shot both Supergirl and her dog Krypto (more on him below) with poison arrows. During the ensuing battle, the Kryptonian showed her fighting skills even when de-powered, but Krem ran into her ship and flew off, stranding the injured combatants.
This would be an excellent way to start a Supergirl film because you can still have an experienced hero, but also see how she handles herself when she’s not at full power. Plus, the setting with its spacey Conan the Barbarian vibe would be one that would set this project apart from other Super appearances on film.
A Cosmic Odyssey
From Ruthye’s homeworld, she and Supergirl have to catch a series of shuttle ships that eventually lead them to Krem. Along the way, Ruthye comes to appreciate not just Kara’s confidence and fighting skills, but also the compassion she shows to those around her. We also get to see her deal with her cousin’s reputation in various galaxies, which can be a burden at times, though one Supergirl shoulders well.
As Woman of Tomorrow progresses, the heroes visit a number of different planets, though most are only only glimpsed briefly. Those adapting the comic could easily transfer those places from page to screen, but they also might want to drop a few easter eggs for longtime DC fans by utilizing more well-known places like Oa, Thanagar, Rann or any number of other planets visited by the denizens of that universe. This could be a great way to populate the far reaches of space, some of which just might be protected by Green Lanterns — who are getting their own upcoming DCU series — or other characters we’ll meet down the line.
Learning Lessons Along The Way
One of the major questions at the center of Woman of Tomorrow is “Can one person really make a difference in the universe?” At various times, Ruthye and even Supergirl wonder if they’re just too small to deal with the problems at hand, which seem huge and overwhelming. We won’t spoil how that shakes out, but it is a nice idea for the filmmakers to play with if they so choose in an effort to make this insanely powerful person feel more human.
The comic also examines the costs and benefits of revenge. The whole reason that Ruthye goes on this epic journey is to kill Krem with the sword used to murder her father. Supergirl makes it very clear from the beginning, though, that she will not kill anyone, being more interested in justice than vengeance. By the end you see whether her bloodlust wins out over the philosophies espoused by Supergirl, making it a bit more layered than the standard revenge plot seen so often in action movies.
The Super Pets
When Supergirl originally debuted in 1958 and carried on through what is known as the Silver Age of comics, she had a variety of wild adventures and met many an interesting being. In those days, it became clear that Superman may have been the last son of Krypton, but other survivors included not only his cousin, but also Krypto, Streaky the Super-Cat and even Beppo the Super-Monkey.
Though some eras have done away with the Super Pets, some of them do make appearances in Woman of Tomorrow. Krypto is with Kara when she lands on Ruthye’s planet. While defending his master, he took an arrow in the neck from Krem, which is just the first of many signs that he’s all caps EVIL. Later on, when Supergirl needs to outrun a magical spell, she enlists the help of Comet, a super fast, flying horse. However, this is not simply a Krpytonian equine. Instead, Comet is a being who was cursed to live as a horse. There have been a variety of takes on the details over the decades — and this series doesn’t really get into them — but you can still see a glimpse at the deep bond shared between him and Kara.
Some fans will be clamoring for more comic-accurate representations of these powerful animals, especially after seeing Legion of Super-Pets, while others might think a man who turns into a horse who also has super powers would be a bridge too far. We shall see how deep the makers of this film want to go with that kind of thing, but with Gunn backing them, it’s highly likely there will be a willingness to integrate the more bananas moments from the comics with with genuine pathos and drama, given his own embrace of more outlandish comics characters in films like Guardians of the Galaxy and The Suicide Squad.
A Pocketful of Kryptonite
As most people know, Kryptonite is bad for superfolks. The most well known version of the rock comes in green and can be deadly to Kryptonians. At first, they become weak and feel sick, but prolonged exposure to the piece of their former world can eventually cause death. In Woman of Tomorrow, Kara deals not only with a bullet made of Green Kryptonite, but also a sun powered by the stuff on a planet designed to trap and kill her cousin. The Man of Steel lasted less than an hour there before he was saved by the Justice League, but Ruthye had to defend her friend from monsters until sundown, when they could escape.
The zaniness of the Silver Age also led to a crayon factory’s worth of other Kryptonites. While Woman of Tomorrow doesn’t get into the Golds and Blues of it all, it does introduce Red Kryptonite. This form has a totally random, often surreal effect when taken by Krpytonians, but it has also been turned into a drug that makes non-Kryptonians hallucinate. Before regaining her full strength on their journey, Kara popped a pill — known as a red — and became a kind of fire angel to defeat a space dragon. It will be interesting to see how far down the rabbit hole they go with the film as far as Kryptonite goes because those elements can tip into silly territory if not handled well.
The Big Showdown
Not content to just steal a ship and escape, Krem managed to keep showing exactly how awful he is at nearly every stop along the way. He even teamed up with the Blue people of Maypole who hired Barbond’s Brigands to kill all of the Purples in town just for being different. He tricked the blues into freeing him, claiming he could help them when the Brigands demanded payment and wound up joining the genocidal maniacs himself!
With each stop, Ruthye and Kara witnessed the devastation brought about by the marauders who seem to absolutely revel in bloodshed and spreading misery. This, of course, played into the moral question Ruthye must deal with in regards to her own vengeance, but it also led to an extraordinary fight between Suprgirl and the Brigands aboard their space-pirate ship the Bonnie Prince Charlie. These days, movie goers have seen their fair share of space battles, but the idea of witnessing Kara battling such awful villains aboard a pirate ship-shaped spaceship might just add that wow factor that people are looking for!
Given the questing Ruthye, the tough-but-heroic Supergirl, a band of murderous space pirates and a story about the difference a few good people can make in the face of staggering evil, it’s no surprise that Woman of Tomorrow appeals to the guy who used many of the same elements in the Guardians of the Galaxy films. We can’t wait to see what they do to translate this story to the big screen!