Editor’s note: This article contains spoilers for Craig Gillespie’s “Supergirl.”
Following the successful debut of James Gunn’s first installment to his new DC Universe, “Superman,” the second installment, “Supergirl,” released on June 26 with mixed reception. Directed by Craig Gillespie and screen-written by Ana Nogueira, the film follows the character Kara Zor-El, also known as Supergirl (Milly Alcock), as she reluctantly teams up with 14-year-old Ruthye Marye Knoll (Eve Ridley) to both save Kara’s dog Krypto and seek revenge for the murder of Ruthye’s family.
Gillespie’s “Supergirl” is largely based off of Tom King’s beloved eight issue comic book series “Supergirl: Woman of Tomorrow,” which the film “Supergirl” is often compared to in the surrounding discourse. The comic series is consistently praised for its vibrant artwork and narrative depth of Kara’s complex characterization. Since its release, the series has received multiple honors, including the 2022 TripWire Award for “Best Collection” and “Best New Series.”
Throughout the film, the audience sees flashbacks of Kara’s memories of Krypton — the home planet of both her and her cousin Kal-El, also known as Superman (David Corenswet). While Ka-El was sent to Earth in his infancy, Kara was instead sent to Earth during her adolescence, leading to a substantial amount of her childhood memories being formed on Kryton. These flashbacks of Kara’s memories set up the history of this universe’s Krypton, revealing that the message sent to Kal-El by his parents to rule over Earth and continue their bloodline did not reflect the consensus of many of those on Krypton.
Not all Kryptonians died in the destruction of Krypton; those who survived this initial destruction instead lived on a small preserved piece of the planet called Argo City. It was only when Kryptonite was discovered to have contaminated the city’s soil that Kara was sent to Earth, saving her from Kryptonite poisoning. Instead of the messaging that her male cousin Ka-El received to rule over earth, Kara is instilled with the fleeting final wishes of her mother to “be good.” When Kara leaves, she is left with blissful memories of her life on Krypton, while Ka-El only has the piece that his parents left him.
Kara and Ka-El have very different perspectives on the loss of Krypton, and “Supergirl” highlights that difference. Ka-El is largely unaffected by the loss of Krypton, growing up on Earth with adoptive human parents and believing his biological parents sent him off to do good and help people. Because of his sheltered view of Krypton’s loss, Ka-El grows up with the idea that others are trustworthy, intrinsically good and worthy of saving. Because of Kara’s experience with loss, such as watching her parents fall ill and leaving knowing that they would eventually die while she would live, Kara developed a more bleak perspective and jaded character arc.
Much of the film shows Kara’s internal struggle with remembering her home yet not being able to return to it, and not feeling at home on other planets like Earth. It is this background of loss that allows her to connect with Ruthye, who lost her family when Krem of the Yellow Hills (Matthias Schoenaerts) murders them, before going on to eventually poison Krypto.
The budding mentor-mentee relationship between Ruthye and Kara is the clear emotional focus of the film, with Kara initially rejecting Ruthye’s pleas to seek revenge on Krem. Kara serves as the voice of reason against Ruthye’s desires to kill Krem, attempting to maintain Ruthye’s pureness of heart so that she would not shoulder the weight of taking a life. While this messaging makes sense for Kara’s character, who believes she has already been tainted by her trauma and thus believes it’s her duty to kill Krem instead, it appears to be unclear to some viewers.
On the r/Supergirl subreddit, a user named Kids_Eat_Toast expressed confusion in a post titled “Could someone explain the reasoning behind the ending?”
“What was the reasoning behind making it so Kara kills Krem? Was it her interpretation of the ‘be good, not kind’ from her mother justifying her killing him?” the user questioned. “Was her earlier in the movie saying revenge isn’t the answer based on her trying to be too similar to Clark / focusing too much on the ‘be good’ rather than the ‘not kind’ aspect?”
However, the confusion around Kara’s motives is only part of the “Supergirl” film discourse.
The overall fan reception of the film was relatively mixed, with much of the negative reception concentrated on social media platforms like Reddit. One user by the name penandsorcery responded to a post titled “The Internet this week” and shared their thoughts on the film.
“It felt like an extremely generic superhero movie that followed all the same typical story beats. But that’s just my opinion,” the user wrote.
In another post on the subreddit titled “Genuinely feel bad for Milly Alcock in all this,” user Neat_Fan_8889 expressed sympathy for Kara’s actress.
“The way she played Kara had so much going on emotionally. Tough but not invincible, vulnerable but never weak and she made this version feel like its own person instead of just Superman’s cousin,” the user said. “I hope this doesn’t get buried under ‘the movie bombed’ takes, because honestly it feels like DC actually found their Kara and that’s kind of a big deal.”
One fan by the user BatBeast_29 was left puzzled by the film’s harsh reception in a post titled “I’m confused. Do y’all actually want the DCU to succeed or do you hope it fails?”
“I’m aware it wasn’t the best movie, it was at worst a 6.5 and at best a 7. I preferred the book, and I didn’t even like it that much,” the user said. “But all this hate for it, before it even came out makes me think [that] this want for 1) James Gunn to fail, and 2) for the DCU to fail, is definitely hurting the movie.”
With some fans detesting the movie, and others holding a more neutral ground, “Supergirl” appears to be a shaky follow-up to “Superman.” The next installment to the new DC Universe, “Clayface,” is set to release on Oct. 23 as a horror film, moving away from the PG-13 sanitation of “Superman” and “Supergirl.” While “Supergirl” did not seem to fully meet audience expectations, it is unknown as to whether or not ‘Clayface’ can change the tide for the DC Universe.
Juliana Maldonado is an Arts and Entertainment Staff Writer. She can be reached at jrmaldo1@uci.edu.
Edited by Geneses Navarro.
![Juliana Rosie Maldonado in black glasses, a black jacket,] and crossbody black bag.](https://newuniversity.org/wp-content/uploads/2026/07/5c0c11ac-56cf-4a34-ad63-1e0ff1460eff-Juliana-Rosie-Maldonado-150x150.jpg)
Juliana Maldonado is a third year Literary Journalism and Game Design & Interactive Media double major. Maldonado is a 3D Environmental Artist with a heavy interest in covering music, film, and just about everything game related, from student made indie games to Triple-A titles.