SUPERGIRL.
Don't be fooled by the noise; this is a very good film.
I watched Supergirl over the weekend. It’s the best superhero film with a female lead I’ve ever seen, and it clears what some may think is a low bar by a country mile. There’s your opening statement.
The opening two chapters of James Gunn’s new DC Universe establish a remarkably coherent moral framework. Their stories are separated by tone, scale, and protagonists, yet they converge upon a single ethical conviction: immense power exists to protect the vulnerable from those who exploit them.
Superman (2025) presents an alien who intervenes to stop an authoritarian billionaire determined to engineer genocide against the predominantly brown and Black inhabitants of a desert nation.
Supergirl follows another Kryptonian whose personal search for identity leads her into a battle against a child sex trafficking network, ending with traffickers and pedophiles brought to justice while an innocent child is rescued and her loyal, albeit unruly, companion is brought home safely.
These premises reveal something significant about the direction of the franchise. Heroism is defined through moral intervention. These films locate greatness in the willingness to protect vulnerable people even when doing so carries immense personal cost. The strongest individuals in these stories choose to stand between the innocent and organized evil.
That principle has always been the beating heart of Superman.
COMPASSION AND POLITICAL PANIC
Predictably, portions of the political right have condemned these films as woke. The accusation has become so broad that it frequently functions less as criticism than as a signal of ideological discomfort. The label often appears whenever a story centers marginalized people, condemns exploitation, or portrays powerful institutions committing injustice.
Comic books have spent nearly a century depicting wealthy industrialists abusing power, corrupt governments pursuing conquest, organized crime trafficking vulnerable people, fascist movements threatening democracy, and ordinary citizens requiring extraordinary defenders. None of these themes arrived in superhero fiction during the twenty-first century. They are woven into its foundation.
When audiences react negatively because Superman prevents ethnic cleansing or because Supergirl dismantles a child sex trafficking enterprise, they unintentionally reveal the moral assumptions they bring into the theater.
The stories themselves establish clear villains through their actions. The discomfort emerges because the audience recognizes contemporary political echoes within those fictional conflicts.
Every generation reads Superman through the lens of its own historical moment.
SUPERMAN HAS ALWAYS BEEN POLITICAL
Attempts to portray Superman as politically neutral misunderstand both the character and his history.
Jerry Siegel and Joe Shuster created Superman during the Great Depression, an era shaped by economic collapse, fascist movements, and growing social inequality. Their immigrant background profoundly influenced the character’s identity.
Kal-El arrives on Earth as a refugee. He is adopted by working-class parents. He hides among ordinary people while dedicating his extraordinary gifts to their protection.
Early Superman stories confronted slumlords, corrupt businessmen, abusive employers, domestic violence, political corruption, and fascist sympathizers long before superheroes became billion-dollar cinematic franchises.
The famous slogan Truth, Justice, and the American Way has never been a celebration of American perfection. Superman repeatedly opposes governments, corporations, military officials, and political leaders whenever they betray justice itself. His loyalty belongs to moral truth before national identity.
That distinction explains why the character has endured for nearly ninety years.
THE BILLIONAIRE AS VILLAIN
Modern superhero fiction frequently places billionaires at the center of its conflicts. This narrative choice often generates criticism, yet its logic is straightforward.
Extraordinary concentrations of wealth frequently produce extraordinary concentrations of influence. Wealth can shape media narratives, political institutions, military technology, private security, and public perception. Fiction magnifies these realities into larger-than-life antagonists because comic books traditionally externalize real social anxieties.
The billionaire in Superman embodies narcissism without restraint, wealth without accountability, and technological power divorced from moral responsibility. His desire to eliminate an entire population transforms private ambition into genocidal ideology.
Superman answers this threat with a radically different understanding of power. Power exists for service. Power exists for protection. Power exists to preserve life.
SELF-RECONSTRUCTION
If Superman establishes the moral foundation of the new DC Universe, Supergirl expands it by asking a different question. Clark Kent knows precisely who he is. Kara Zor-El must discover who she will become after unimaginable loss.
That distinction gives Supergirl its emotional power. Clark arrives on Earth as an infant, raised in the security and love of Smallville by Jonathan and Martha Kent. Kara remembers Krypton.
She remembers her family, her civilization, and the destruction of the only world she had ever known. Every step she takes is shaped by grief that Clark never experienced firsthand.
Her heroism therefore develops through reconstruction. She is building a life after catastrophe while refusing to surrender her capacity for compassion. Her journey demonstrates that profound suffering can produce empathy, resilience, and an unwavering commitment to protecting others from experiencing similar pain.
JUSTICE FOR THE VOICELESS
The central conflict of Supergirl places children at the center of the moral narrative. Child trafficking remains one of the gravest crimes imaginable because it systematically destroys innocence, dignity, security, and hope.
Kara’s decision to dismantle a trafficking enterprise reflects the highest purpose of superhero fiction. Extraordinary power exists to defend those who possess the least power.
Her confrontation with traffickers and pedophiles is presented without moral ambiguity. The film identifies exploitation for what it is: organized evil. Kara’s intervention affirms that children deserve protection simply because they are human beings. Their worth does not depend upon wealth, nationality, political influence, or social status.
Even Krypto’s role contributes to the film’s broader moral vision. Amid violence and loss, Kara’s determination to rescue her unruly companion reminds audiences that compassion extends beyond humanity itself. Heroism remains rooted in loyalty, care, and the refusal to abandon those entrusted to us.
And I can’t stand that bloody mutt, either. Go figure.
WOMEN AT THE CENTER OF HEROISM
The decision to follow Superman with Supergirl reveals a deliberate creative philosophy at DC Studios. Kara is never presented as a derivative version of Clark Kent.
She possesses her own voice, her own emotional landscape, and her own moral challenges. Her experiences expand the mythology without diminishing Superman’s place within it.
Her characterization also broadens contemporary superhero storytelling. Kara displays extraordinary strength while remaining emotionally transparent.
Her grief, frustration, determination, and hope coexist naturally. Those qualities deepen her humanity because authentic courage often emerges through emotional struggle.
The result is a heroine whose complexity reflects the realities of surviving trauma while continuing to pursue justice.
HOPE HAS MORE THAN ONE FACE
Viewed together, Superman and Supergirl establish complementary expressions of hope.
Clark Kent represents hope formed through lifelong moral certainty. His confidence grows from decades of love, stability, and careful guidance. His instinct is always to preserve life because service has become the defining principle of his identity.
Kara Zor-El represents hope rebuilt after devastation. Every act of courage becomes another step toward reclaiming herself. Her victories rescue others while simultaneously restoring pieces of her own fractured world.
The House of El therefore becomes the moral center of the new DC Universe. One Kryptonian prevents genocide. Another dismantles a child trafficking enterprise.
Both choose to place extraordinary strength in service of ordinary people whose lives would otherwise be consumed by cruelty.
THE MESSIANIC PATTERN
Superman has always carried unmistakable messianic imagery.
He descends from the heavens. He is sent by a loving father. He lives among humanity while possessing abilities beyond human capacity. He serves. He willingly sacrifices himself. He repeatedly places himself between destruction and those unable to defend themselves.
These parallels do not make Superman a substitute for Messiah. They explain why generations instinctively recognize him as a symbol of hope. His stories echo moral archetypes deeply embedded within religious tradition.
For Ḥadashí Jews, Christians, and Muslims, this symbolism carries particular resonance because Messiah’s ministry consistently elevated the vulnerable, defended the oppressed, confronted hypocrisy, and challenged powerful institutions that abused authority.
Superman’s greatest victories emerge from the same moral orientation. Mercy accompanies strength. Justice accompanies compassion. Power accompanies responsibility.
Supergirl shares that same inheritance. Although her journey follows a different path, she ultimately embraces the same vocation of self-giving service.
The crest of the House of El therefore functions as more than a family emblem. It represents a covenant to place extraordinary strength in the service of those who cannot defend themselves.
JUSTICE: A MEASURE OF POWER
The justice embodied by Superman and Supergirl extends beyond punishment. It begins with protection. Their victories preserve life, interrupt violence, rescue the innocent, and prevent oppression before it becomes irreversible.
This vision stands apart from revenge fantasies that dominate much of modern popular culture. Clark and Kara consistently direct their immense abilities toward defending the vulnerable, restraining those who abuse power, and preserving the possibility of human flourishing. Their actions affirm that genuine strength is measured by the lives it safeguards.
That understanding of justice explains why these characters continue to resonate across generations, reminding audiences that moral courage requires intervention whenever cruelty threatens to become ordinary. The House of El exercises power with humility because justice is inseparable from compassion.
WHY THIS MATTERS
The criticism directed toward these films reveals as much about contemporary politics as it does about modern superhero cinema.
Superman presents a billionaire pursuing ethnic extermination against the predominantly brown and Black inhabitants of a desert nation. Supergirl presents organized criminals profiting from the abuse and exploitation of children. Sound familiar? Let’s continue.
Both stories demand that audiences identify with the vulnerable instead of the powerful. Both reject domination as a legitimate expression of strength. Both affirm that moral courage requires intervention when innocent lives are threatened.
Some commentators dismiss these themes as woke. The criticism overlooks the history of superhero fiction itself. Comic books have long confronted fascism, corruption, organized crime, authoritarianism, racism, exploitation, and abuses of power. These subjects are woven into the genre’s DNA because superheroes exist to confront injustice wherever it appears.
The new DC Universe embraces that legacy. Its opening chapters remind audiences that compassion carries political implications because injustice always affects real people.
Stories centered upon genocide, trafficking, refugees, exploitation, and the abuse of power inevitably resonate with contemporary society because those realities continue to exist.
THE HOUSE OF EL’S ENDURING LEGACY
Together, Superman and Supergirl articulate a coherent philosophy of heroism. Power achieves its highest purpose through service. Justice requires courage. Compassion requires action. Hope survives because ordinary people continue finding extraordinary reasons to defend one another.
This is why the symbol of Superman continues to endure across generations. It has never represented invincibility alone. It represents the moral obligation that accompanies strength.
Supergirl now carries that same emblem into a new generation. Her story demonstrates that hope can emerge from unimaginable loss, that justice can confront humanity’s darkest crimes, and that goodness remains a deliberate choice even after the world has fallen apart.
The first two films of the new DC Universe establish a shared ethical vision. One hero saves a people from genocide. Another rescues children from exploitation.
Both embody the conviction that civilization flourishes whenever the strong choose to protect the weak. Both remind audiences that compassion possesses extraordinary power whenever it is joined to courage.
This is why the House of El continues to matter. Its crest symbolizes more than Kryptonian heritage. It represents the enduring conviction that strength exists to serve, justice exists to protect, and hope remains humanity’s greatest act of defiance against cruelty.
In an age increasingly tempted by cynicism, fear, and the celebration of domination, Superman and Supergirl invite audiences to recover a more demanding ideal.
They ask us to believe that goodness is not naïve, that mercy is not weakness, that compassion is not surrender, and that the greatest measure of power will always be the lives it chooses to save.
Don’t be fooled by the numbers; this is a solid, worthy film of a cinematic universe still in its infancy, and the best is yet to come.
Congratulations, Milly, on a job well done.