Tomorrow Woman
Tomorrow Woman is a fictional character, an artificial lifeform and superhero from DC Comics. She debuted in JLA #5 (May 1997), and was created by Grant Morrison and Howard Porter.[1]
| Tomorrow Woman | |
|---|---|
| Publication information | |
| Publisher | DC Comics |
| First appearance | JLA #5 (May 1997) |
| Created by | Grant Morrison (writer) Howard Porter (artist) |
| In-story information | |
| Alter ego | Clara Kendall |
| Team affiliations | Justice League |
| Abilities | Telepathy Telekinesis |
Fictional character biography
The Justice League
She was created jointly by Professor Ivo and Professor T. O. Morrow to destroy the newly formed JLA. She became a member based on her telekinetic abilities which she claimed were the result of a "mutant 4 lobed brain." Actually, she was a living bomb designed to go off at a specified moment and kill the entire JLA. Eventually though, she denied her purpose, discovering the concept of freedom that her creators had deliberately left out of her programming. She sacrificed herself in order to stop a futuristic war machine by triggering an EMP bomb located in her body, which was originally intended to wipe the brains of the League. It was revealed that Morrow had seen this coming and was thrilled by it. He and Ivo had frequently argued about who had done the better work on her. Ivo thought that the body he had made, which was realistic enough to fool even Superman's heightened senses and x-ray vision, was the true work of genius. Morrow proved him wrong however, as the brain he himself had created was sophisticated and "human" enough to discover free will, even though the concept had not been included in her original programming, in contrast with Ivo's work (such as Amazo), which had never overstepped the bounds of its own programming.
With Hourman
Tomorrow Woman proved to be a popular character, and as such, made one more appearance in the Hourman series. The third Hourman revived her in hopes of quelling moral dilemmas he had pertaining to his android status, and for the last fifty minutes of his Hour of Power, she continued that existence, cementing her status as a hero as she saved lives and lived her life to the fullest. She taught Hourman what consequences his actions can have. In that short time, the two formed a connection that ultimately, when Tomorrow Woman disappeared at the end of the hour, left Hourman with a hole in his non-existent heart.
In Trinity
Trinity #22–24 shows Tomorrow Woman acting as the "Superman" of a new Trinity consisting of herself, Black Adam and Green Arrow, possibly due to the main Trinity being affected by a timeline alteration. She is a member of an alternate reality version of the Justice Society called the JSI, and goes by the nickname Tommie. As a member of the JSI she wears a black-and-silver version of her original costume. However, when she sees a TV broadcast of what appears to be the original timeline's Tomorrow Woman fighting robots in Metropolis, she immediately vanishes in a puff of smoke. In Trinity #23, it is revealed that Tomorrow Woman is really a GBS TV news reporter named Clara Kendall. However, the Dreambound member Trans-Volitional Man uses his reality-warping skills on her, cleanly segmenting her body and revealing to her stunned JSI teammates she is partly robotic in nature. However, she does not remain dead; through sheer force of will, she reassembles herself. She is shocked to discover her true nature; this is made worse by discovering she is partially responsible for the violent shifts threatening Earth. However, she manages to put others before her, and successfully saves Metropolis, though this act has the unforeseen consequence of opening violent warps through Earth. She, along with Flash and Green Arrow, are able to shut down and drain the energy of one such warp in Brazil. She keeps fighting the Dark Arcana's plans, and shares with Triumph a moment, in which both are revealed to know they shall fade upon the restructuring of reality. Triumph dies in her arms in the Final Battle for the Arcana, and she survives the warp. However, after saving Lois Lane and taking her to Paris, she starts fading from the Timestream, and it takes the power of the divinely-empowered Trinity to stabilize her and save her from oblivion. In a true heroic fashion, she refuses to give up against overwhelming odds and even attempts to tackle the problem of all Californian faults triggering in a single stroke singlehandedly as the planet starts tearing itself apart. With the rest of humanity, she is revived and restored at the cost of the Trinity's divinity. Afterwards, it is revealed she is no longer unstable and is no longer even an android, but a true human, Clara Kendall, at last.
Powers and abilities
Tomorrow Woman is an artificial life-form with a four-lobed brain, which gives her amazing telepathic and telekinetic powers.
Her telepathy allows her to read minds and project her thoughts into the minds of others. She can free people from psionic possession, and in the JLA: Tomorrow Woman one-shot she displayed the ability to telepathically purify corrupted minds when a virus caused children around the world to become homicidal. She also has some form of limited precognition, as shown when she foresaw her own death.
Her telekinetic power level is high enough to psionically lift objects as large and heavy as automobiles into the air with minimal effort. She can fire bolts of telekinetic energy that at their lowest level can stun a person, and at their highest can shatter steel. She can fly by telekinetically lifting herself into the air. She can also generate electromagnetic pulses by mentally manipulating the Earth's geomagnetic field.
It is unknown what powers Tomorrow Woman possesses after the finale of Trinity, however it can be assumed she retains at the very least some of her power as she was seen flying over Los Angeles.
References
- Cowsill, Alan; Irvine, Alex; Korte, Steve; Manning, Matt; Wiacek, Win; Wilson, Sven (2016). The DC Comics Encyclopedia: The Definitive Guide to the Characters of the DC Universe. DK Publishing. p. 356. ISBN 978-1-4654-5357-0.