A Supergirl with attitude takes on the grunge universe
When drunk, grungy Kara Zor-El, Superman’s cousin from Krypton, first crashed her way into the Fortress of Solitude at the tail end of 2025’s Superman, it brought a little messy life to the party.
Now, with Craig Gillespie’s franchise entry Supergirl, it’s hard to imagine a more different look from James Gunn’s squeaky-clean, scrubbed-up look and hero in last year’s hit. Set in far-off, dingy galaxies, Australian Milly Alcock plays her in snarled hair, sunglasses, and an ever-present Blondie T-shirt. That’s the aesthetic, with added snatches of Mad Max: Fury Road and Mos Eisley.
Here, Supergirl gets her own adventure. It’s a messy girl tale, for sure, and Alcock (who played young Rhaenyra Targaryen in House of the Dragon) is up for it. See her sling back drinks in dank off-galaxy bars with her sunglasses on; see her play fetch with Krypto, her charming super-mutt, in deep space. See her casually destroy a bar full of baddies with nary a drop of sweat spilled. (But she is very good at releasing a single teardrop when thinking about her destroyed planet Krypton, and those she has lost.)
Alcock is a Supergirl with flaws and issues. After all, she saw her parents perish slowly on Krypton (a sad, emotional sequence here) as their planet was torn apart by Brainiac, who unleashed lethal Kryptonite from the planet’s core. While Kal-El was shot off as a babe to Kansas to become adopted by the Kents, Kara stuck around for the final tragic act.
Now, she’s on a nonstop pub crawl across the galaxies, ping-ponging between “red sun” galaxies, where alcohol works on her (yippee!); then whisking off with her buddy Krypto to “yellow sun” galaxies when she feels the need to dry out and regain her superpowers.
Kal-El/Superman (David Corenswet) wants her to come crib with him in Metropolis, get to know the people. But Kara doesn’t want to hang out on Earth with her cousin. She drifts through the galaxies in her hyper-powered spaceship, romping with Krypto and getting into minor scrapes. In one such place, she encounters Ruthye Knoll (Eve Ridley), a young girl whose family has been brutally murdered by a group of space pirates and human traffickers called the Brigands, headed by Krem of the Yellow Hills (a nasty Matthias Schoenaerts). Like Inoga Montoya in The Princess Bride, Ruthye tirelessly recites her mission to exact murderous revenge on Krem and his ilk. Naturally, she and Kara meet up, and Supergirl quickly realizes they have a common foe, after Krem poisons her dog.
That’s the setup. Kara needs to track Krem, find the antidote, and get on with her galaxy-hopping ways, tippling in random bars. Ruthye needs to plant a handcrafted sword blade in Krem’s annoying, life-diminishing heart. Simple.
It’s worth noting that metahuman Kara is not much like her dimpled cousin, Kal-El, who sees only good in people and would never lift a finger to harm anybody. This girl likes to party, and she loves to kick ass. Many scenes of mayhem follow, set in bars, on transit ships, and on faraway planets—all set to fast-paced grrrrl-rock filmed in slo-mo, the better to capture the meticulous release of rage. She uses her X-ray peepers for targeted red laser blasts quite effectively.
Unlike cousin Clark back on Earth, Kara shows little hesitation in roasting and slaying her enemies. It’s a bit refreshing to see a main DC character willing to stray outside the lines and inflict righteous punishment.
Whether this is DC canon or not, I’m not sure. But in James Gunn’s rebooted Superman franchise, fun is on the menu. Finally.
With a tone way more comic than Superman, director Gillespie (I, Tonya, Cruella and other female-driven projects) mines bits of the Mad Max universe for grunge and grit (those white-robed “brides,” for instance), and the script by Ana Noguiera taps into topical matters of sexual exploitation and trafficking. What emerges is a far less earthbound project than Gunn’s Superman, free to roam around the universe with humor and offbeat characters. The mission might be a little thin, but on the plus side, that keeps Supergirl rolling along at under two hours, so we won’t complain.
Kara has beef with a universe where she has no real “home.” But after all, isn’t it the friends you make along the way? Not only the feisty girl warrior Ruthye, but Lobo (perfectly cast Jason Momoa, looking like a biker roadie for Kiss), an alien mercenary from Czarina with semi-immortal powers. He, too, quickly finds a reason to put Krem on his kill list.
Mostly, this is Alcock’s star moment, and she delivers. She is, as Gunn describes her, an antihero, “pixie-ish, but with a very attitudinal character.” She’s got all of that, and we’re along with her for the space-hopping ride. More importantly, this comical entry stands up well enough on its own next to Superman. This girl—the character and the actress—clearly has a future in the DC Cinematic Universe (or whatever they’re calling it these days).
