Hot Take: Hollywood Hates Female Superheroes
If you’re irked by the title, this one’s for you!
Growing up reading Marvel comics, I rarely dabbled in enemy territory. Nevertheless, witnessing DC’s steady comeback in the mainstream has been nothing short of riveting. Ever since Matt Reeve’s grimy take on The Batman (2022), my Mickey-Mouse Cinematic Universe (MCU) fatigue has been fiercely overshadowed by a series of bolder, more innovative narratives for characters that were once butchered in the 2010s.
Supergirl is the latest superhero adaptation to hit the big screen, and it's safe to say that the actual merit of the film has been viciously drowned out by the noise of polarizing reviews. “James Gunn’s DC Universe continues,” a review reads, “but after the fantastic Superman, this new Supergirl installment feels like a huge misstep by feeling low quality on a technical and narrative level.” Another critic paints the film as “far too tame to really muster any juice.... Supergirl trades on unearned sentiment, recycled narrative beats, and non-subversions. The result is a super disappointment.”
Image from The Free Press article entitled, “Hating 'Supergirl' Doesn't Make You a Misogynist”
After scrolling through these reviews and watching the movie to form my own judgments, I was left perplexed exiting the theater. My brows furrowed at the thought that I consumed the same piece of media my fellow critics had just brutally torn to shreds. As a fan of James Gunn’s Superman, I found the sister film to be cohesive and extremely synonymous to what made its former such a deviation from the original DC formula. The more I researched where these highly critical reviews stemmed from, the more it became clear that the central issue lay in an element of the story that nobody, not even the director, could fix: the protagonist’s gender.
I believe there is a certain threshold that audiences are willing to consume; that is, one that refuses to accept female superheroes as equivalents to their male counterparts. Milly Alcock delivers a cheeky, entertaining performance (especially considering this is her first acting gig), working off of writing that was nuanced, well-paced, and true to the source material. In spite of this, critics commented on the actress’s looks, deeming her not ‘visually appealing enough’ to portray the canonically sexualized adaptation of the character. These comments are not only deplorable, but they represent the antithesis of the storyline these journalists barely cared to watch.
We must recall the foundation that DC is building off of– clunky, incohesive pieces of slop-fiction that made a complete mockery of manga and comic book art. The franchise has flown a far journey away from this reputation and ventured towards more honest films that inspire hope and optimism, core values that DC built its entire brand on in the mid 20th century. Supergirl is a tremendous feat that is setting the stage for a record-breaking run by our fellow heroes at the Justice League. As our next friendly, neighborhood arachnid swings into theaters in a few days, I’ll definitely sit impatiently waiting to see if a brand new day can live up to the many, many new days of excellence DC has garnered in its record books.