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By Chris Snellgrove
| Published
For a long time, fans of comic book movies dreaded one thing: the origin story. Whenever we got a new movie featuring characters like Batman and Spider-Man, we had to spend way too long watching an origin for a character we are very familiar with. Like, how many times can we watch Peter Parker’s Uncle or Bruce Wayne’s parents get brutally murdered before we just mentally tune everything out? Eventually, superhero directors came to the same conclusion. That’s why the MCU ditched showing the origin story for Spider-Man and, more recently, the DCU ditched showing the origin story for Superman.
This is a philosophy that has mostly been embraced by Supergirlthe latest superhero film to fly into theaters. I say “mostly” because we do get some flashbacks that explain the title character’s backstory in dribs and drabs, but they are interspersed throughout the movie. Unfortunately, since audiences are far less familiar with this character, Supergirl is one film that really would benefit from more of an upfront origin story. Additionally, making her origin story front and center would help give this new tights-and-flights film the proper emotional arc that it so desperately needs.
Dazed And Confusing
Fair warning: this article is going to touch on some mild spoilers for Supergirl that mostly pertain to the character’s origin. With that out of the way, let’s begin! The movie begins with our heroine going on a multi-day, multi-planet bender to celebrate her 23rd birthday. While she loves to party, she’s not really a people person: she’s terse with everyone she encounters, including the future kid sidekick whose circumstances set the whole plot in motion. Heck, she’s even snippy towards Superman, the sugary sweet superhero who wants nothing more than for his cousin to come home. Considering she’s young, beautiful, and has godlike powers, you might start asking, “What’s your problem, lady?”
The answer, of course, is trauma! Supergirl didn’t ditch Krypton right before it exploded as Superman did. Rather, her father activated a force shield meant to protect his city and its people. At first, it worked: Krypton exploded, but Argo City floated through space safe and secure, an island among the stars. However, its residents discovered years later that their escape had unearthed Krpytonite that had poisoned the soil. This killed many, including Supergirl’s mother, and she was sent to Earth to save her from a similarly slow and debilitating death.
The Key To A More Sympathetic Superhero
Pretty gloomy, huh? At first glance, you can imagine why DC didn’t want this at the beginning of a film they marketed as the lighthearted love child of Guardians of the Galaxy and Mad Max. Why do I think Supergirl should have started with this, or at least moved it far closer to the start of the film? For one thing, it instantly explains our heroine’s snarky ennui. A good chunk of the early movie is spent showing Supergirl as someone who’d rather drink and party than help anyone, even a teen whose family just got murdered. Honestly, it makes her seem more than a bit selfish.
With the origin moved up front, though, Supergirl would be instantly more sympathetic. We’d understand that she had to say goodbye to an entire world in a way that Superman never did, and, as a result, she is afraid to make meaningful connections with others. Seeing the Krypton scenes in later flashbacks provides belated context, but by then, it’s too little and too late. Not only have audiences largely made their minds up about the character by then, but putting those flashbacks later in the film also caused pacing problems that practically ground Supergirl to a halt when the film should have been moving, well, faster than a speeding bullet.
Obviously, simply moving the origin story to the beginning of the film would not have been enough to keep Supergirl from being relatively mediocre. But it would have made for a better introduction to the title character, one that makes her sympathetic even as it clarifies her character arc. Plus, while your mileage may vary, I thought Krypton was the coolest alien planet in the film; if we couldn’t see more of it, it would be good to at least see it sooner. At this rate, though, fans will have to do what they once did with the DCEU: wait for a fan editor to splice together something truly great.
