New ‘Supergirl’ Trailer Wears Its Comic Book Influences on Its Sleeves

My comic book reading has lapsed over the last several years, but I’ll still try to pick up things that I hear good things about and read them when I’m not exhausted and/or staring at the wall. One such comic book that I read somewhat recently was Supergirl: Woman of Tomorrow, and y’all, it was absolutely incredible. The book, created by Tom King and Bilquis Evely, is a spectacular story about grief, revenge, and holding yourself to a pretty high standard because of the symbol on your chest.

We meet a Supergirl who is very similar to the one that appeared in James Gunn’s Superman, and, by that, I mean that she’s drunk. She’s getting drunk because, unlike her cousin, she was a teenager when Krypton exploded, so she had friends and loved ones and a place where she grew up that were all erased in an instant. She has memories of a homeworld that she will never see again. So, she travels to a part of the universe with a red sun and drinks to forget it all.

The story is filled with a lot of nuance, as Supergirl is then enlisted by a young girl to track down a man who killed her father. While Supergirl is hesitant at first, she eventually joins the young girl after her dog, Krypto, is hurt, and they learn a lot about each other and the cruelty of the universe. I was pretty excited to see that Gunn was touting the book as inspiration for the new movie, but after I read it, I was a little nervous because I don’t know if the movie will live up to the book.

Kevin Feige is not good at crediting the writers and artists whose work he constantly uses, but he’s smart when it comes to using titles of comic book stories. The movie and the book that it’s based on will often have little more in common than they’re name. Captain America: Civil War is much worse than the comic book, but it also has a very different story, so you don’t end up comparing them unless you’re a big ole nerd like me. Gunn not only credits King and Evely for inspiring the movie, but it’s also clear that the story is very similar to the book.

We see that even more with the trailer that dropped today. There are some notable differences (Lobo is not in the comic), but, for the most part, it looks like they will be following things pretty closely. That could be great, as the material it’s based on is fantastic, but it could also lead to unfavorable comparisons to the source material. Regardless, it looks like it captures the big, intergalactic feel of the story, and I’m excited to see that added to Gunn’s DCU, and welcome any other big ole cameos (we have to see a Green Lantern, right?).