Earlier than we proceed, please beware: this dialogue comprises some spoilers forward, so if you happen to haven’t seen Superman but, you would possibly need to skip this piece. If you happen to’ve seen the film, or just don’t care, you’re greater than welcome to hitch us as we discover why Supergirl must be utterly completely different from a Superman film.
The lately launched Superman (beforehand titled Superman: Legacy), by James Gunn, has taken the world by storm, because it continues its screenings worldwide. This new movie introduces the viewers to the brand-new period of the DC Universe, which intentionally reimagines Krypton’s legacy (therefore the unique title), and the heroes who survived its destruction. The brand new Superman, maybe the most comic-accurate of all of them, is every little thing we’ve come to anticipate from the Man of Metal. He’s type, compassionate, and was raised by Kents to have an unwavering ethical compass.
Nonetheless, we’re not right here to debate the hopeful tone of Superman’s story, however the placing cameo that takes place close to the top of the movie’s 130-minute runtime. Sure, we’re right here to debate the looks of Kara Zor-El, aka Supergirl, portrayed by Milly Alcock of Upright and Home of the Dragon. Her model of the character establishes Kara Zor-El as a really completely different form of Kryptonian, which is able to undoubtedly demand a completely completely different strategy to her personal story within the upcoming Supergirl, scheduled to launch in 2026.
Throughout her temporary look on the finish of Superman, Kara Zor-El mainly crash-lands into the Fortress of Solitude, visibly drunk. It’s clear, proper from the beginning, that this isn’t the harmless, candy, and infrequently well-behaved Kara that almost all of us know. As a substitute, she stumbles round, swears, and even calls Superman, her cousin, a bi*ch, whereas sarcastically thanking him for caring for her canine Krypto whereas she was out “adventuring”. This explains the foster state of affairs Superman alluded to earlier within the film.
Regardless of the case could also be, this clearly isn’t the polished hero we’ve come to anticipate from her earlier iterations, comparable to Melissa Benoist’s optimistic portrayal in CW’s Supergirl, or Helen Slater’s much less tremendous model. This appears to be an offended teenager with loads of emotional baggage that she’s making an attempt to drown in unhealthy habits. So, what offers, and the way did we find yourself with such a special model of a beloved character? Nicely, our first clue lies within the title of the upcoming Supergirl film.
Whereas Superman was initially purported to be Superman: Legacy, the unique title of the upcoming Supergirl movie was Supergirl: Lady of Tomorrow. Whereas this may occasionally not sound like a lot, comedian ebook followers can acknowledge the reference to the Lady of Tomorrow comedian, an eight-issue restricted sequence by Bilquis Everly and Tom King from 2021. This comedian ebook sequence is definitely being tailored into the upcoming 2026 movie.
Not like typical portrayals of Kara within the comics, which ranged from cheerful and optimistic to extra rebellious and headstrong, the Lady of Tomorrow model of the character is way extra hardened and emotionally scarred by her experiences. Specifically, the Lady of Tomorrow comedian ebook sequence portrays Kara as a wandering hero touring from one red-sunned planet to a different. The publicity to pink suns strips Kara of her superhuman powers, and permits her to inebriate herself to uninteresting her ache of seeing Krypton destroyed.
One of many key variations between Superman and Supergirl is that she remembers their house world, as a result of she was really born earlier than Kal-El, whom we additionally know as Clark Kent, or Superman. She was really a youngster when Krypton was destroyed. Whereas Kal was despatched away as a child, she survived the destruction of Krypton due to her father, who constructed a protecting protect round their hometown of Argo Metropolis. Sadly, that shielding was destroyed by a meteor swarm, which is why Kara’s mother and father, Zor-El and Allura, determined to ship their 15-year-old daughter to Earth.
Whatever the continuity, she arrives on Earth a lot later than Kal-El, and due to the facility of suspended animation, she’s nonetheless mainly a youngster when she arrives, regardless that her child cousin is now an grownup. So, not solely does Kara keep in mind Krypton’s destruction, she additionally needed to watch everybody round her wither and perish in some horrible means, which is the supply of her trauma, and Lady of Tomorrow is mainly about Supergirl coping with her trauma in a a lot completely different means than most superheroes.
So, whereas Clark arrived on Earth as a child and had by no means skilled Krypton’s downfall first hand, Kara’s expertise was fairly completely different. By the point she reaches Earth, she is now not a hopeful little one in want of steerage however a younger lady scarred by unimaginable loss. That is what shapes the character we witnessed on the finish of Superman. Because of this her solo film, the upcoming Supergirl, can’t depend on the identical method Gunn used for Superman’s story. And the backdrop we had been launched to permits the upcoming narrative to be completely different.
As a substitute of offering us with a gender-swapped model of Superman, Gunn now has the chance to discover themes that Superman not often does. These may embody the grey areas of justice, the damaging results of anger and blind fury, and the problem of retaining one’s type coronary heart after they’ve witnessed a lot struggling. And in an effort to inform that story proper, Supergirl must be basically completely different from the lately launched Superman.