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The DC universe (DCU) is entering a new era with James Gunn and Peter Safran taking over as co-chairmen. This reboot has paved the way for new origin stories of beloved comic-book characters. Additionally, it provides the DCU with an opportunity to intertwine its characters and films, creating an overarching narrative similar to Marvel Studios’ Infinity Saga.
Kicking off this new era of the DCU is none other than Superman himself, played by David Corenswet. The quintessential Superhero, Superman has been adapted into live action numerous times, but Corenswet’s rendition stands out as particularly charming. Superman (2025; James Gunn) was a refreshing twist for DC — a studio known for its more serious and dark superhero films — Superman is unabashed in its message of vibrant hope.
Following the overwhelmingly positive reception of Superman, fans were eager to see what would come next for the DCU. After a brief cameo in Superman, fans knew that a Supergirl film would be next in the lineup. A character who is vastly different in personality from Superman, Supergirl is messy and flawed. She is reckless and complex, having experienced immense loss in her life, and therefore her origin story should encapsulate that depth. But when comparing Superman to Supergirl (2026; Craig Gillespie), the emotional depth falls completely flat.
The difference in emotional depth between Superman and Supergirl is not just an issue in storytelling, but a broader one in the superhero film genre. Female-led superhero films have famously been handled badly: from actresses being harassed by “fans,” to being far outnumbered by their male counterparts, and their films being bombed by reviewers before they are even released.
There is a large disparity in the number of male-led vs female-led stories. More often than not, when female-led stories are told, they are not told well. This has been a persistent issue in the Sci-Fi/Superhero genre and can be seen in many of the ways that Supergirl was handled in contrast to Superman.
The Gender Gap In Super Spaces
The superhero film genre can be heavily attributed to the comic books from which they took inspiration. The Golden Age of comic books began in 1938, with the release of Superman in Action Comics #1,1 which was the start of the modern comic book as we know it today. While comic books have expanded to include a more diverse range of people in the modern age, there is still a severe outnumbering of male-centered superhero stories over female-centered narratives.
“Only 26.7 percent of all DC and Marvel characters are female, and only 12 percent of mainstream superhero comics have female protagonists.”2
The problem is not just the lack of female presence, but the way the women are portrayed when they are present. Oftentimes, women are hyper-sexualized, stereotyped, unnecessarily brutalized, or simply just used as the token female to check off a box. In terms of power sets, male superheroes have more physical powers, while female heroes tend to have more mental powers such as empathy, intellect, and telepathy.3
As men have primarily been the stars of superhero comics, their audiences have largely been men. Men generally make up 60-65% of the opening-weekend theater crowd for superhero films.4 The films being made are also almost always being directed by men, even for the few female-centered stories that have been made.
“A new study by the Women’s Media Center (WMC) in association with BBC America shows that 97 percent of science fiction and superhero films have been directed by men over the last 10 years.”5
With such a heavily skewed male audience comes the backlash that female actresses end up facing. When Milly Alcock, the actress for Supergirl, was announced, she was met with waves of toxic fans: people commenting on her appearance, calling her “ugly” and “not pretty enough” to play Supergirl. This kind of online harassment has happened numerous times before with female actresses who have stepped into comic book roles. It is a harmful cycle that needlessly attacks women for how they look, act, or any little thing they say.
In contrast, David Corenswet faced no backlash when he was cast as Superman. There were a few hesitant fans, mainly because of their dedication to Henry Cavill‘s previous portrayal of the role, but none of the online discourse was to the severity that Milly Alcock faced.
Making A Meaningful Relationship: The Power Of Quiet Moments
The actors who take on the role of a superhero have a hard job of bringing beloved comic book characters to life. All the little moments that build up to the big emotional climaxes make you care deeply for these heroes and their relationships. The quiet moments are often the most impactful in building meaningful relationships that audiences can believe in.
Krypto
One relationship that Superman and Supergirl share is with Krypto the dog. Viewers are introduced to Krypto as Superman’s badly behaved “foster” dog in Superman. In the opening scene of the film, Superman whistles for Krypto and Krypto comes running, dragging Superman to safety.
Superman whistling for Krypto is a recurring action throughout the film, and him appearing to help Superman in his times of need. However, when one whistle goes unanswered, Superman discovers that Krypto was stolen. We see Superman get angry and violent, traits that are uncommon to see from him. His actions show how much he cares deeply for this dog, even when he frequently acts annoyed by Krypto’s antics.
Krypto is erratic, easily distracted, and focused on anything that looks like a ball in Superman. He messes with Mister Terrific’s T-Spheres, flying spheres that he uses as part of his powers. This is seen as a flaw of Krypto’s, but in the end it’s his flaw that ends up saving the day. Krypto goes after Lex Luthor’s ball-shaped cameras, cutting off the villain’s vision and helping Superman win.
Superman and Krypto work as a dynamic duo throughout the whole film. Krypto is not just an animal that shows up for the cuteness factor but an integral part of the story. At the end of Superman, we learn that Krypto is actually owned by Clark’s cousin, Kara, and is one of the only things from their lost planet Krypton.
In contrast, Kara and Krypto do not spend the majority of Supergirl working as a team. The inciting incident for Kara to embark on her journey is finding a cure for Krypto after he gets poisoned. But this happens very early on in the film, before the audience has had a chance to invest in the relationship between the two.
We do get flashbacks of Kara and Krypto when they were younger, which are heartwarming moments where Kara finds comfort as she prepares to leave her family for good. But the moments that we do see of the two of them are brief.
Krypto’s lack of presence within the film makes him feel like an unimportant character, when the driving force of the plot is supposed to be Kara’s connection to Krypto. The two don’t work together as a team in battle or have specific moments that show how bonded they are, such as Superman whistling for Krypto. Krypto ends up feeling much more like Clark’s dog than Kara’s.
Clark Kent & Lois Lane
While Clark Kent’s bond with Krypto is a big aspect of the film, his primary relationship is with Lois Lane. Clark and Lois, a fellow reporter at the Daily Planet, have been dating for a few months by the start of Superman. They have a steady banter, back-and-forth, and their chemistry is palpable in every interaction.
After a message from Clark’s biological parents is revealed to the whole world, saying that Superman was sent to conquer Earth, Lois is there for him. Clark’s world is turned upside down, his whole view of his parents shifting in an instant, and the world turning on him.
Lois makes Clark a mug of cocoa, as she reassures him that she didn’t believe any of it for a second. As they talk about their music tastes and how different they are from one another, a battle rages on in the background in flashes of color. But the two of them only focus on each other, Lois poking fun at Clark’s taste, calling him “not punk rock.”
It is through these quiet moments of shared trust and levity that we see how human Clark Kent is, even though he is an alien. Clark says that trusting everyone is the “real punk rock,” showing how his kindness toward others is his greatest strength.
Kara Zor-El & Ruthye
Ruthye is a young girl who witnessed her entire family get murdered by Krem, and now seeks help enacting vengeance on him. Kara and Ruthye meet for the first time at a bar, where Ruthye begs warriors to help her in her quest for revenge. After Krypto is shot with poison and Kara can only get the cure from Krem, the two team up to find him.
Supergirl does not spend time building up the relationship between Ruthye and Kara. The film zooms from one scene to the next, never giving breathing room for the two girls to form a bond. The comic issue that Supergirl takes inspiration from has those quiet moments between Kara and Ruthye, giving them a sisterly bond.
One such moment is when Kara teaches Ruthye to wash her hands. Ruthye comes from a farming planet where she had never learned about basic hygiene. Kara is kind to her, not judging the young girl as she teaches her to use soap and scrub it in. Supergirl uses this quiet moment of bonding to reflect on memories of her own mother making her wash her hands. The two girls can connect over the loss of their mothers and form a bond of their own through the simple action.
The choice to leave out these quiet moments between Kara and Ruthye made their connection feel entirely lacking in emotional depth. The two have a shared loss to bond over, and yet the two never stop to have a meaningful moment shared over cocoa or while washing hands. Furthermore, when the big emotional climax happens at the end, it feels flat.
Directors, Storytelling, And Comic Book Accuracy
Supergirl was directed by Craig Gillespie, an accomplished creative who directed I, Tonya and Cruella. However, female-led superhero films generally do better when they are led by a female director. Regarded as one of the most successful female-led superhero projects is Patty Jenkins’ Wonder Woman. A movie that stands at a 93% critics’ score on Rotten Tomatoes and is positively embraced by fans. Wonder Woman does not downplay Diana’s strengths, physically and mentally; she is shown as a strong character through Jenkins’ confident direction.
Gillespie stated that Supergirl would be an adaptation of the comic Supergirl: Woman of Tomorrow — a comic that has a large fan following more so than praise from critics — however, the film veered quite a bit from the original comic. Gillespie says, “I very deliberately didn’t look at Tom King’s book when I first got the script; I went off of Anna’s (the writers) script.”6 He focused on “crime” and “dust” for his visuals, instead of the bold, vibrant color and illustrations that Supergirl: Woman of Tomorrow is known for.
The comic is from Ruthye’s perspective, reflecting on after her father was murdered and getting Kara to help her get revenge on Krem, the man who killed her father. At the end of the story, Kara nearly kills Krem, but Ruthye convinces her to spare him. Instead, Krem gets banished to the Phantom Zone for 300 years. After his sentence, he apologizes to Ruthye, who doesn’t forgive him, but can keep going on with her life.
The comic has a core message of restraint. It perpetuates the message that people can change, and shows a kinder retribution. A message that the film does not carry over. In Supergirl, Ruthye is going to kill Krem, but Kara stops her, instead killing him herself. Kara takes on the burden of killing him to protect Ruthye from a path of vengeance. This is a much darker message than that of the comic, and one that many people found an issue with, as the heart of the story was changed.
“Because the comic ends with Ruthye killing him, but in the far, far future. We knew we weren’t gonna be able to do that kind of time jump, and I find it’s quite a dark ending of the comic.”7
The writer and director of the film seemed to misunderstand the comics fundamentally. Ruthye does not actually kill Krem. She hits him on the head after he apologizes, but does not kill him. However, the writer, Ana Nogueira, fully misread the ending of the comic and its messaging.
Ultimately, one of the most detrimental aspects of Supergirl was its runtime. Supergirl had a runtime of 1 hour and 48 minutes, while Superman ran for 2 hours and 9 minutes. Kara’s story being condensed into a much shorter time frame made it so that the depth in her relationships was not able to come to fruition. So many aspects of the comics that people love were not included, which would have helped imbue the story with more emotion.
Superman ends up feeling much more fleshed out because it slows down to have those quiet moments between Clark and his loved ones. The film’s length makes it so that audiences can see more of Clark, Lois, and Krypto and believe in their bond through the meaningful moments they share.
The Future For Female-led Superhero Films
Superman is a touching story about what it means to be human. Although he is an alien, the film humanizes Clark Kent through the meaningful connections he shares with the humans he has come to know as his family.
“I’m as human as anyone. I love. I get scared. I wake up every morning, and despite not knowing what to do, I put one foot in front of the other and I try to make the best choices I can. I screw up all the time. But that is being human.”8
Supergirl has its moments of emotion, but none of the concepts quite feel fully fleshed out. The writing and directing feel disconnected from the source material they claimed to be adapting. And the overall runtime leaves no time for characters to build meaningful relationships, making it hard for audiences to care about what happens.
Supergirl is not a bad movie and has received much more backlash than it should have, but it had all the makings of being a much better movie. Because of the lack of female-led superhero movies, it is so important to have a team of people who truly care about the story they are telling. More female directors need to be included in the Sci-Fi and Superhero genres to close the wide gender gap that the genres have.
If this trend of female-centered superhero movies being made with less care continues, executives could begin to say they are not worth making at all. If studios are not making a profit because audiences are saying the film is not worth watching, then they could stop telling these stories altogether. Stories where girls and women are the hero deserve to be told, and they deserve to be told with the same respect and depth that male superheroes have had for almost a century.
Footnotes
- “Comic Book.” Wikipedia, 30 July 2026. ↩︎
- Shendruk, Amanda. “Analyzing the Gender Representation of 34,476 Comic Book Characters.” Pudding, July 2017. ↩︎
- Shendruk, Amanda. “Analyzing the Gender Representation of 34,476 Comic Book Characters.” Pudding, July 2017. ↩︎
- Pratt, Kambrea. “Star Wars and Marvel Have Predominantly Male Audiences Even If Some Don’t Like It.” Pirates and Princesses, 12 June 2024. ↩︎
- “Women’s Media Center Releases New Study on Women Representation in Sci-Fi and Superhero Films.” New York Women in Film & Television, 18 July 2019. ↩︎
- Everyman Cinemas. “Craig Gillespie on Directing Supergirl, Milly Alcock | Everyman Interview.” YouTube Video. YouTube, 25 June 2026. ↩︎
- Jackson, Angelique. “‘Supergirl’ Writer Ana Nogueira on the Movie’s Key Changes From the ‘Woman of Tomorrow’ Comic and the Status of ‘Wonder Woman’ and ‘Teen Titans.’” Variety, 27 June 2026. ↩︎
- Gunn, James. superman. DC Studios, 2025. ↩︎