Review by Ian Keogh

A millennium into the future the Emerald Empress is part of a group of villains called the Fatal Five, and she’s learned of a vision that Supergirl will eventually destroy her. Her response is to travel back through time, acquire a variant Fatal Five and deal with Supergirl. An incredibly powerful villain under Steve Orlando’s writing doesn’t have the common sense to consider the whispered prophecy she’s heard could just as easily apply via provoking her in the past.

As Orlando’s work on the series to date hasn’t been sparkling, it’s all too easy to jump to the quick conclusion that the logical lapse indicates more story flaws, but Girl of No Tomorrow betters the previous Escape from the Phantom Zone. There’s already been one skirmish between the Emerald Empress and Supergirl, but Orlando’s second confrontation adds the very contemporary element of media manipulation. Supergirl is only attacked directly to discredit her, and that’s not the sole form of manipulation in play.

A very welcome change is to restore the art style used on Supergirl to a more traditional look. Robson Rocha (sample page), José Luís and Steve Pugh all have a clear, less stylised approach to the storytelling, and it works far better for what’s intended as straightforward superhero drama.

It made sense to have this incarnation of Supergirl as similar as possible to the Supergirl TV show, but pleasingly, that’s not exclusively the case, and there is room for guest stars and villains that would break the TV show budget. Orlando’s four part title story to some extent deconstructs the easy ride Supergirl’s been having with the public, and the consequences of that play out in the following Plain Sight, but before then there’s a team-up with the new Super-Man to finish here, and that’s interesting as well. Key to almost everything in this book is Supergirl’s powers actually being increased, which poses a greater problem than anticipated, so is a form of spiritual teaching going to prove more effective than science?

After two lacklustre offerings, maybe Supergirl’s quality curve is heading upward.