The rebooted DC universe, launched with last year’s wonderfully silly, absurdist and surprisingly moving Superman, has already hit its first roadblock. Superman’s cousin Supergirl is one hell of a character, played here by House of the Dragon’s Milly Alcock with the curlicue smile of a big heart muffled by layer upon layer of defensive punk-rock spite. But despite DC’s co-chair James Gunn – writer and director of Superman – handing the Supergirl reins to director Craig Gillespie and writer Ana Nogueira, the mandate here appears to be to keep things as distinctly Gunn-esque as possible. In return, Superman’s moodier, more cynical relative has been robbed of the chance to speak with her own voice. It’s the superhero equivalent of a Vegas impersonator.
Having rocked up in a cameo at the end of Superman to pick up her pet dog Krypto, Alcock’s Kara Zor-El has swiftly returned to her usual “intergalactic club girl” routine – it’s her way to avoid processing the loss of her parents, her people, and her home on the planet Krypton. Kal-El, aka Superman, was at least able to enjoy a blissful childhood on Earth, adopted by earnest farmers Jonathan and Martha Kent when Krypton was destroyed. He had a relatively normal adolescence before learning the hard truths about his origins. Kara, as she points out, wasn’t so lucky, forced by circumstance to see the gnarly truth in people versus Kal only being able to see the good.
