[This post contains SPOILERS for the endings of Supergirl: Woman of Tomorrow, the Supergirl movie, and also one chapter of The Ballad of Halo Jones.]
So one of my favorite incomplete works from Alan Moore is the science fiction strip The Ballad of Halo Jones, drawn by Ian Gibson, in which we follow the life and times of the titular character. Alas, a disagreement between Moore and the publisher truncated the comics’ run, and all we got is what we got.
I bring it up here because I wanted to point out this sequence (scanned from Quality Comics’ 1988 reprint of the story, in which the art was “stretched” to fit a standard comic book page). In this sequence, Halo Jones is a member of the military, and while on patrol on this planet, they shoot and kill an enemy sniper, to which the team has this response:
The obvious point here is that they can’t believe they just shot a child, and attempt to justify the incident by talking themselves into the idea that this wasn’t just a little girl, but an of-age adult. And as things progress, they talk themselves into thinking she’s progressively older and older until, as the caption says, “she’d practically died of old age.”
Now, it’s clear what’s going on here. The girl isn’t literally aging, it’s a psychological response by the squad to having killed a child and trying to rationalize it. The art shows what happened, the dialogue and captions tell a different story.
In a 1987 issue of The Comics Journal, in a review of an earlier reprint of Halo Jones from Titan Books, the otherwise insightful and informative article has this to say about that same sequence:
I mean, the person who wrote this article is a smart person, so I’m just chalking this up to a brain fart. “Whomst amongst us…” and all that. Who knows how he missed this? Was he reading just too many comics he had to write about, rushing through the volume and not allowing the implication to sink in? I don’t know. Regardless, what was written in that review is not what was happening in the comic.
Again, it happens. Look, even Roger Ebert didn’t quite get the “multiple choice origins” for the Joker in The Dark Knight, so none of us are infallible before God.
Which brings me to Supergirl: Woman of Tomorrow by Tom King and Bilquis Evely.
This 2021 comic book series was the primary inspiration for the new Supergirl movie, which heavily borrowed characters and plot elements from it, but not every detail. And the movie also included folks who did not appear in the comic, like, oh, say, Lobo. One of the frequent complaints I’ve seen about the translation of the comic to film is that the book’s ending had been altered, or drastically misinterpreted.
I hadn’t read the comic before I watched the movie, as I noted in my look at the film. However, I’ve since perused the source material, as well as did some searching online for more reactions.
And what I found was interesting: there is a portion of the comics’ readers who are confused by its ending. Which…I find puzzling.
Here is the last page of the book, more or less (I cropped the panels for increased legibility, where I could). At this point, the bad guy, Krem, has been released from the Phantom Zone, aged and repentant, begging Ruthye for forgiveness for what he’s done. Ruthye had been talked out of killing Krem as vengeance for her father’s death, and Supergirl stands by her here.
In panel one, we see Ruthye smack the kneeling Krem with her walking stick:
In panel two, we see Krem on the ground with his hands apparenly flailing in the air, as Ruthye walks away.
Then we see Supergirl and Krypto walk away in the opposite direction, as Krem reaches for his head.
And here, is Krem, alone, just remaining on the ground.
What Ruthye does to Krem here is slightly open to interpretation. Does she kill Krem, despite the point of entire book being about eschewing vengeance, giving the story a darkly ironic ending? Or does she simply bop him on the head, indicating that despite whatever personal growth he underwent while imprisoned, she still hates his guts?
Well, it’s the latter, Tom King his own self said so. Krem is still alive, just with a likely bleeding and sore crack on his noggin.
While there is admittedly some ambiguity there, there is no ambiguity about what’s going on in the captions. An additional note about what’s going on here: it’s been 300 years since the events earlier in the book. Ruthye is elderly. Supergirl and Krypto are, it seems, immortal. In that time that’s passed, Ruthye wrote a book about the events in this story, about which she’s said
Ruthye straight up tells Supergirl, and the reader, what she wrote is a whole lotta bullshit. As such, those excerpts, describing Supergirl’s dispatching of Krem with a sword, is a fictional rewriting of the actual end of the adventure. That book had been written as some point in the past, and since Krem is still alive now under the captions presenting those excerpts, clearly Supergirl ain’t killed nobody with no sword. (Apparently it was a ruse by Ruthye to keep Krem’s comrades from seeking their own vengeance on her.)
That all seeems pretty clear. And yet, when researching responses online, I found people confused by the ending. Okay, yes, I’ll give a pass to those who thought Old Ruthye killed Krem at the end. It’s contrary to the spirit of the book, and shouldn’t be interpreted as such, and c’mon Supergirl was standing right there, but you can’t put it past that wily Tom King to give such a dark punchline to a story that tried so hard to avoid it.
But there were folks confused by those captions. They were saying one thing, we were seeing something else in the artwork. Even though it should be understood that Supergirl hasn’t killed anyone, some readers were apparently still confused by what they were being told. It’s not what’s shown, the timing doesn’t work out (the book relating a death that happened in the past, though the person killed is still alive in the present), but the old Unreliable Narrator trick can still muddy the waters, it seems.
Interestingly, Ana Nogueira, the screenwriter for the Supergirl film, also didn’t quite grasp the book’s ending. She straight up says in this Variety article
“[Krem] essentially has changed, and she kills him anyway, because she still just has this anger, and you understand there’s this element of deserve, right?”
Now, again, I’m not going to fault someone entirely for not getting that, for all the reasons I stated previously, while also saying that same someone probably shouldn’t have thought that, also for previously-given reasons.
What that seemingly leads to, though, is that Krem’s death still has to happen in the film, and the responsibility is transferred to Supergirl.
“So, we wanted to craft a villain who would deserve this, but we also wanted Kara to really care about preserving Ruthye’s innocence, and to feel like she could take on [killing him], that she could be the one to bring justice to this man, and do it without burdening this child.”
This change to the story’s ending took on a more deliberate stategy, despite seemingly being based on a misunderstanding. In this article on Comic Book Resources, director Craig Gillespie related
“I met with James [Gunn, head of DC Studios], and we talked about it, and James was adamant about it. I think it’s an amazing thing. To lean into – knowing the kind of movie that we’re making, and where her character is heading, that she has to go through this emotional journey. There’s no other logical conclusion to what she would do.”
Realistically, I don’t know how this more brutal interpretation of Supergirl will play into future DC films, as frankly, how many more will feature the character? She’s on deck for the next Superman movie, but it certainly doesn’t seem likely we’re getting any more standalone Supergirl films. To whatever end this choice was made, to have Supergirl capable of taking a life, they probably just have the one shot for it to play out. Whatever arc they intended will likely never see a conclusion.
These are a couple of extreme examples of misinterpreting the text. One is a simple misunderstanding of a description of a mental state in an otherwise solid print article. The other dictated the course of a multi-million dollar franchise, for good or ill. (Possibly “ill,” given how the film’s doing.)
Does the change in the Supergirl ending ultimately matter? No, not really. Whatever story is there for the films to work out will either work out or it’ll just dry up into nothingness, awaiting the next attempt at getting DC superheroes onscreen. It’s probably disappointing to fans of the original comics, but hey, if they could fiddle with the ending of Watchmen, or even The Scarlet Letter, nothing is sacrosanct.
I still think Supergirl is a pretty good film. I also think Supergirl: Woman of Tomorrow is a pretty good comic. That one is different from the other is…nothing new, given the Hollywood of it all.
Of course, that hopefully still-upcoming Swamp Thing movie had better be 100% faithful to the comics or I’m writing letters. Letters, I tell you.
So, I have questions…
I have never read Halo Jones, but it sounds like it might be worth checking out. Has anyone ever wanted to option Halo Jones for a film or streaming series, considering that she’s an Alan Moore character?
Although I think that Bilquis Evely is a talented artist and I bought Dynamite Comics licensed Shaft comic series based on the strength of her art (and David Walker’s excellent writing), I fall into the camp which thinks that Tom King’s writing leaves a lot to be desired–so it is doubtful that I will ever read Supergirl: Woman of Tomorrow (which kinda seems like a dubious and patronizing title, unless the “Woman of Tomorrow” being referenced isn’t Supergirl herself (who, at least back in the Bronze Age/”Greatest Age” of Comics, was generally depicted as a young woman), but rather Ruthye?
Personally, I preferred it when young heroes were depicted more positively, as, back in the Bronze Age/”Greatest Age” of comics when the Teen Titans were referenced as being “Tomorrow’s Heroes Today!”
But anyway, even though I don’t like Tom King’s writing, I am curious to know how he feels about the film’s screenplay, allegedly, missing the point of (or drastically altering) what he wrote as regards the ending. Has he commented on it anywhere? Was he consulted? Or is he good with it?
Also, if Supergirl kills in this film (I haven’t seen the film yet), how is the Gunnverse really any different from the Snyderverse where Superman killed General Zod? And how will Superman react when he finds out what his cousin did? And why do we keep getting these cliched takes on superheroes as addicts, alcoholics, etc.?
It really seems that an Omega Men film would have been more appropriate for this, where Harpis or Demonia or Tigorr would have offed Krem. I guess Supergirl can never join the Legion now.
In closing, I will just say that for all of its flaws, I think the Supergirl TV show which became part of the Arrowverse, along with The Flash TV show, seemed to give fans better overall depictions of these characters–hewing more faithfully to at least some of the comics lore– than the recent films have been doing.
‘Halo Jones’ is absolutely worth reading, but squeezing its space-opera span into feature-film length would likely hobble it. (I can imagine the Wachowskis trying, though.) Similarly, the sheer cost would count against a longer TV adaptation.
Besides, do we really want to adapt another Alan Moore story, prompting yet again his self-righteous removal of any on-screen credit, refusal of royalties, etc?
Thanks for this post. I kept seeing articles about the film talking about the comic’s ending and was starting to doubt my memories.
As much as I wish otherwise, I kind of don’t care about Supergirl. I’ve always found her redundant with Superman around. She obviously adds the small wrinkle of being able to remember Krypton, but Kal was visiting the Krypton of the past all the time in the Silver Age. Otherwise, I don’t think she adds much to the mythos.
I know it sounds sexist. If it helps my case at all, I like She-Hulk way more than Bruce Banner Hulk. And I feel the same way about the multiple Superboys and -men flying around right now: slightly altered versions of the original that don’t resonate on their own.
My flimsy excuses aside, maybe other people feel the same way and that’s why the movie didn’t make a bigger splash? If anything, maybe the Supergirl movie should have come before the Superman movie. Then it would feel less like a side adventure and more like the premiere of some new ideas.
Thom: While I haven’t read any Super-person comics that focus on this, for immigrants and the children of immigrants the difference between “growing up in a country before leaving” and “visiting a country your parents/ancestors came from as an adult” are vastly different.
For me, a Supergirl who is an adult immigrant to another country/culture and struggles to adapt in large and small ways is one that has a lot of potential, but it seems unlikely we’ll ever see that version.
Thom H: what does it for me was Supergirl and Argo City in the comics. And I always thought her death in COIE should have been the end of that. For whatever reason, let another character at some point just take on the name of Supergirl.Kara Zor-El RIP 1985.
Mike: What bothers me is that many of the people who didn’t like the film didn’t read the series or, and this a good writer buddy of mine, went and glanced through the GN at a library after seeing the film knowing that the ending was changed. I honestly think there was a domino thing going on. My friend doesn’t know much about Supergirl, but enjoys films. I have to wait for streaming because I have no depth perception, so no theaters for me.
My friend’s reasoning, though he enjoyed the film, makes the most sense to me.”..but the ending was changed.” “The ending of what?” And so forth.
@Oliver
Thanks for the Halo Jones information. You are right that Alan Moore would not want to is name in any film adaptation based on the character.
@Thom H.
I definitely think that Power Girl is a much more interesting character than Supergirl. But I enjoyed some of the Daring New Adventures of Supergirl comics from the ’80s–especially when Paul Kupperberg brought the New Doom Patrol in. It would be interesting to hear Kupperberg’s reaction to the Supergirl movie.
Personally, I would love it if we get an Earth-2 with the JSA and Power Girl in the Gunnverse. Maybe Brandon Routh could even come back as Earth-2 Superman.
re: The confusion regarding the comic’s ending.
I’ve seen such comments in enough places that I think a part of it is a segment of the comic reader populace’s overwrought disdain for Tom King leading to them taking the interpretation that makes him look the worst. The guy wrote a bad crossover (Heroes in Crisis) and a long, mediocre Batman run and some people will hold that over his entire body of work. Supergirl standing by while Ruthye kills Krem reinforces the argument that Tom King writes people out of character, when generally what he does is write them with MORE character. They’ll argue Supergirl being drunk in the first issue is emblematic of King’s wrongheaded interpretation of the character, but leave out the next issue’s handwashing scene as an amazing example of her being compassionate.
The whole arc of the comic is about Kara troopering through while taking on the burdens of others, suffering great pain yet still arguing for compassion and mercy. That is EXACTLY how a three-dimensional hero should be portrayed.
I’m not really up on post-Crisis Supergirl–have any of the incarnations of the character killed anyone in the comics?
One of my favorite story beats of the post-Byrne Superman era was how they had Kal essentially have a nervous breakdown after killing the pre-Crisis Phantom Zone villains. I’ve always wondered if Byrne would have dealt with the consequences of that had he stayed on.
@ Daniel T
Was Kal rocking out to Black Flag …?
I think there’s an interesting wrinkle to people not understanding the ending of WoT. Because I am a lunatic, I decided to spend more time in Reddit this year. On comic subs, Supergirl is one of those comics that people are picking up for their very first comic. The reason that they don’t understand the ending is because they do t know how to read comics. They simply don’t understand the conventions behind the art form. They’re not reading a billion issues of Spidey or Avengers or Batman or Superman and then reading something that plays with the form, they’re diving straight into the deep end, and they’re not being served by it.
I remember the big kerfuffle around the Sopranos finale years ago. People couldn’t wrap their heads around the idea that the ending was intentionally ambiguous. I think audiences have a hard time when endings aren’t spelled out for them. To be honest, I had to read the ending of Woman of Tomorrow a couple times because the words said one thing and the pictures said another. I had to decide which ending was “real.” The pictures being silhouettes didn’t help either, especially since Krem appears to be lying still in the last panel. Ultimately, I went with “Ruthiye whacked Krem in the head, but didn’t kill him” as the “true” ending. I think maybe people didn’t “read” the art when they came to the final sequence.
“[This post contains SPOILERS for the endings of Supergirl: Woman of Tomorrow, the Supergirl movie, and also one chapter of The Ballad of Halo Jones.]”
And The Scarlet Letter