Meet the 2015 Supergirl; A vulnerable female hero with superpower
Female-led superhero movies are rare US’ export commodity.
Since the booming of superhero movies in 2000, for instance, only Catwoman (2004) and Elektra (2005) featured female as the lead hero. Unfortunately, citing many reasons, the feline antihero and the female assassin successfully failed in the market.
The failure of female superhero movies re-affirmed the existing myth in Hollywood that female superhero movies are cursed (or, are allegedly set to fail according to this website). This is interesting because according to the statistics released by the Motion Picture Association of America, 52 percent of moviegoers are women.
Therefore, I was excited when I found out that a Supergirl series was being made. And, after watching the first episode of the series, I actually think that this time, female superhero characters will not fail.
Supergirl series first aired on Monday, October 26, 2015 at CBS. This is the latest installment of DC Comics character after Flash, Arrow and Gotham are being aired at CW.
The episode opens with a standard narrative of superhero origin. It tells the story of how Kara Zor-El (Melissa Benoist) came to earth. Kara is sent to earth from the dying Krypton after her baby cousin Kal El. She is sent with a mission to protect Kal-El. However, her escape pod was caught in Krypton’s explosion and was then rerouted the Phantom Zone. By the time she got to earth, Kal El has already become what earthlings call as Superman. Kal El then sent Kara to live with the Denvers, so that she could learn to adapt as a human. Half of the show then continues with the story of Kara being torn between living as a “normal” woman or using her Kryptonian power to save people.
Supergirl pilot episode offers an easy storyline to follow. It sets Supergirl’s history, mission and conflict. It also gives its audience a clear perspective of what the next episodes as Supergirl’s main enemy has apparently being introduced.
Supergirl’s easy storyline shies away from other narrative contemporary superhero series, like Arrow or Heroes Reborn. It took me seven episodes to understand Heroes Reborn, for instance. Arrow, meanwhile, offers a more complex storyline.
CBS’ Supergirl also distances herself from the dark and gloomy depiction of contemporary superhero characters. Particularly, Supergirl breaks away from the latest gloomy image of her cousing, Superman, in Zack Snyder’s Man of Steel (2013).
Zack Snyder was criticized by Superman fans and critiques for portraying a grim of the Man of Steel. Some fans were disappointed because the hero, whom they know as a beacon of hope, was turned into a dark and gloomy character. Probably, learning from Snyder, Supergirl, was not constructed to follow her cousin's dark portrayal.
In the series, she emerges as a gleeful young female character, true to her comic book portrayal. This is a good take, in my opinion, because public have been exhausted with dark superhero portrayals. I need more lighter superhero narratives, I can say that. Thus, I was glad when I found myself smiling alone at some moments when watching Supergirl's pilot episode. The other superhero series that made me smile is just the Flash, which has positive reviews so far.
Further, CBS also tries to pull Supergirl away from Superman by clearly narrating that this girl is the earth’s other superhero. CBS tries to emphasize that Supergirl is not just Superman’s cousin and sidekick. The pilot episode tries to instill the idea that Supergirl is a hero on earth that should be reckoned beside Superman. “Earth doesn’t have just one hero anymore. Now it has me. Now it has Supergirl,” says Kara at the end of the episode.
Besides attempting to set her image off Superman’s shadow, Supergirl also breaks away from the conventional narrative of superhero as indestructible characters. The pilot episode has already revealed that Supergirl, like Superman, is weak to Kryptonite. Not only that, it also tells the audience that Supergirl can actually be hurt even though she is bulletproof.
After watching the first half of the episode, I had drawn an image of CBS’s Supergirl as a strong superpower female hero but with flaws. True, she can fly and lift an airplane. It is also true that she can shoot heat rays from her eyes. But, at the same time, she still sustains injuries if she is not careful when fighting her enemies.
An destructible super powered girl is the image of Supergirl that CBS tries to introduce, at least in the first half of the pilot episode. This representation is advanced further by contextualizing her in a feminist discourse, a must-have discussion when talking about female heroes.
In one of the scenes, Kara furious asked her boss, Cat Grant, on how the later named the new hero in National City in the newspaper: why Supergirl and not Superwoman? To which, Cat calmly answered:
Had I not taken Amerian Women classes, I probably might not catch that Cat Grant’s response was based on the prevailing girl power movement, one of the agenda of the third wave feminism. Girl power movement advocated girl’s independence on herself to define her own identity. Cambridge explains that girl power is
However, Cat Grant wanted to take Kara to the third wave of feminism by initially liberating the hero from a trivial fuss about woman vs girl. In her response, Cat as if suggested that it did not matter whether the hero was named Supergirl or Superwoman, as long as she could define how she wanted the world to know her by herself.
The image of the revived Supergirl has thus been completed: a vulnerable girl with superpower who wants to protect people of earth. With her vulnerable and humane depiction, and also affiliation to the girl power movement which is prevalent in the western world nowadays, even though Supergirl soars high in the sky, people can still closely relate to her.
Maybe this time, Supergirl can even lift the curse placed on female-led superhero movies. Maybe.
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| CBS Supergil Poster |
Since the booming of superhero movies in 2000, for instance, only Catwoman (2004) and Elektra (2005) featured female as the lead hero. Unfortunately, citing many reasons, the feline antihero and the female assassin successfully failed in the market.
The failure of female superhero movies re-affirmed the existing myth in Hollywood that female superhero movies are cursed (or, are allegedly set to fail according to this website). This is interesting because according to the statistics released by the Motion Picture Association of America, 52 percent of moviegoers are women.
Therefore, I was excited when I found out that a Supergirl series was being made. And, after watching the first episode of the series, I actually think that this time, female superhero characters will not fail.
Supergirl series first aired on Monday, October 26, 2015 at CBS. This is the latest installment of DC Comics character after Flash, Arrow and Gotham are being aired at CW.
The episode opens with a standard narrative of superhero origin. It tells the story of how Kara Zor-El (Melissa Benoist) came to earth. Kara is sent to earth from the dying Krypton after her baby cousin Kal El. She is sent with a mission to protect Kal-El. However, her escape pod was caught in Krypton’s explosion and was then rerouted the Phantom Zone. By the time she got to earth, Kal El has already become what earthlings call as Superman. Kal El then sent Kara to live with the Denvers, so that she could learn to adapt as a human. Half of the show then continues with the story of Kara being torn between living as a “normal” woman or using her Kryptonian power to save people.
Supergirl pilot episode offers an easy storyline to follow. It sets Supergirl’s history, mission and conflict. It also gives its audience a clear perspective of what the next episodes as Supergirl’s main enemy has apparently being introduced.
Supergirl’s easy storyline shies away from other narrative contemporary superhero series, like Arrow or Heroes Reborn. It took me seven episodes to understand Heroes Reborn, for instance. Arrow, meanwhile, offers a more complex storyline.
CBS’ Supergirl also distances herself from the dark and gloomy depiction of contemporary superhero characters. Particularly, Supergirl breaks away from the latest gloomy image of her cousing, Superman, in Zack Snyder’s Man of Steel (2013).
 |
| Henry Cavill as Supernan in 2013 |
In the series, she emerges as a gleeful young female character, true to her comic book portrayal. This is a good take, in my opinion, because public have been exhausted with dark superhero portrayals. I need more lighter superhero narratives, I can say that. Thus, I was glad when I found myself smiling alone at some moments when watching Supergirl's pilot episode. The other superhero series that made me smile is just the Flash, which has positive reviews so far.
Further, CBS also tries to pull Supergirl away from Superman by clearly narrating that this girl is the earth’s other superhero. CBS tries to emphasize that Supergirl is not just Superman’s cousin and sidekick. The pilot episode tries to instill the idea that Supergirl is a hero on earth that should be reckoned beside Superman. “Earth doesn’t have just one hero anymore. Now it has me. Now it has Supergirl,” says Kara at the end of the episode.
 |
| She was cut by a weapon from her alien enemy |
Besides attempting to set her image off Superman’s shadow, Supergirl also breaks away from the conventional narrative of superhero as indestructible characters. The pilot episode has already revealed that Supergirl, like Superman, is weak to Kryptonite. Not only that, it also tells the audience that Supergirl can actually be hurt even though she is bulletproof.
 |
| “Kara: I never have felt pain like that before […] I never felt pain” “Alex: You are not indestructible Kara” |
An destructible super powered girl is the image of Supergirl that CBS tries to introduce, at least in the first half of the pilot episode. This representation is advanced further by contextualizing her in a feminist discourse, a must-have discussion when talking about female heroes.
In one of the scenes, Kara furious asked her boss, Cat Grant, on how the later named the new hero in National City in the newspaper: why Supergirl and not Superwoman? To which, Cat calmly answered:
 |
| “What do you think is so bad about girl? I’m a girl, and rich, and hot and smart. So if you perceive Supergirl is less than excellent […] Isn’t the problem is you?" says Cat Grant |
the idea that women and girls should be confident, make decisions, and achieve things independently of men, or the social and political movement that is based on this ideaNot once have I read elsewhere that Kara Zor El was upset that her codename was Supergirl. But CBS’ Kara apparently took a Feminist class that she thought Supergirl is not equal with Superman. Such thoughts, if I believed correctly, stemmed from a Second Wave Feminism.
However, Cat Grant wanted to take Kara to the third wave of feminism by initially liberating the hero from a trivial fuss about woman vs girl. In her response, Cat as if suggested that it did not matter whether the hero was named Supergirl or Superwoman, as long as she could define how she wanted the world to know her by herself.
The image of the revived Supergirl has thus been completed: a vulnerable girl with superpower who wants to protect people of earth. With her vulnerable and humane depiction, and also affiliation to the girl power movement which is prevalent in the western world nowadays, even though Supergirl soars high in the sky, people can still closely relate to her.
Maybe this time, Supergirl can even lift the curse placed on female-led superhero movies. Maybe.
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