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‘Supergirl’ Stinks. Why Does Hollywood Keep Failing Female Superheroes? (variety.com)
submitted 3 months ago by [M] to c/movies@piefed.social
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[–] -4 points 3 months ago (20 children)

The character itself is DOA. "It's Superman - but this time it's a girl!!" Um, ok. How's about a character who is their own thing, not just a female version of an originally male character

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  • [–] 18 points 3 months ago (11 children)

    Congratulations, you have openly admitted that you know nothing about the character.

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  • [–] 8 points 3 months ago (1 child)

    Is it clueless audience's fault that her superhero name sucks? Because I'm sure I'm not the only one that completely avoids female superhero movies/shows with stupid unoriginal names like "super girl" and "she hulk".

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  • [–] 3 points 3 months ago

    Not sure why you think "supergirl" is any more stupid than "Superman". Less original, sure, but nothing would indicate that a Superman movie would be inherently better/less stupid than a supergirl movie. The supergirl movie also made a point of showing how distinct it was from the Superman movie by not even taking place on the same planet. There was even a clip of her in the Superman movie showing her in direct contrast to him.

    It's fine to say the movie sucks, but if an audience is turned away by just her name, I do think there's an element of misogyny there. Makes me wonder if "superboy" would do better instead. The character was imagined at a time when things centered men and so her name is defined by that, but her actions are not just Superman redux. She has her own story, but it's possible her name keeps her in his shadow for general audiences.

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  • [–] 7 points 3 months ago* (1 child)

    The story that introduced the character was drawn by Al Plastino and written by Otto Binder. Years earlier, Binder had co-created Mary Marvel, the sister of Captain Marvel.[4] Like Supergirl, Mary Marvel was a teenage female version of an adult male superhero, wearing a costume that was identical to the older character's other than substituting a short skirt for tight trousers. (Binder also created Marvel Comics' Miss America, a superhero who shared little other than the name with her sometime co-star Captain America.)

    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Supergirl

    Its seems rather explicit - she was invented because the comic book creators wanted a femme superman - and so copy pasted the idea

    Im not saying its right, im actually thinking that it is sexist and a product and fad of its era - and to erase it with retconned lore glosses over the very real human issues we face as a society that dimmenishes femme content as simply masc-in-drag content - im sure the modern movie is more timely and modern in its perspective - but to ignore the origins and further to insult the correct assumption i think is invalid

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  • [–] 4 points 3 months ago

    Right? I saw the gladiator movie, and I saw the DaVinciCode movie. It's just people in fucking Rome, running and fighting. These people have names, and fucking hair, and ears too. They're the same movie. Such cheese.

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  • [–] -1 points 3 months ago (4 children)

    You don't get it. Their backstory and personality is way below who the character is at the top level. Their name is supergirl, a copy of superman. Their outfit is exactly the same as superman, but now with a skirt. They presumably have a similar origin story of getting their powers from being at least partially kryptonian, with nearly all the same range of powers and weaknesses.

    It's lame. Making a female variation of an existing male character is weak at a fundamental level that can't be overcome. A good character is original, not a variation copy

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  • [–] 0 points 3 months ago (3 children)

    And it’s a woman living in the shadow of a man, which seems completely counterintuitive to supporting women. Like I want it to exist because we absolutely need more feminine voices, faces, and ideas in the comic and movie spaces, but this comes off like opportunistic 1:1 copypasta written by a man and a focus group.

    I’ll also preface that I’m not familiar with the Supergirl comics but I’m sure they’re far better and more nuanced. Perhaps the whole point is that she’s taking back a normally masculine symbol and making it her own. But based on what I’ve seen of the film, it’s not doing a stellar job of conveying that.

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  • [–] 0 points 3 months ago* (2 children)

    Yup, supergirl may've been feminist for its time, but at this point in history it's anti-feminist. A woman character should be her own fully original being, not a female variation of an existing man.

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  • [–] 2 points 3 months ago (1 child)

    Wonder Woman was (is still) feminist for its time. They just had to make it that her only weakness was if she got bound or shackled by a man.

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  • [–] 5 points 3 months ago

    Hah i didn't know about that last part, but yeah exactly perfect example. Wonder Woman is her own original self. And there's plenty more fully originals, Black Widow, Phoenix, Invisible Woman, Storm, Jubilee, Emma Frost, Captain Marvel, Scarlett Witch, Rouge, and on and on.

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  • [–] 3 points 3 months ago (7 children)

    Did you watch the trailer? They did that. Granted Supergirl is traditionally just Superman-but-a-woman. This version though seems very much her own character. Nothing in common accept the powers.

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  • [–] 2 points 3 months ago (6 children)

    The name

    The costume

    The origin story

    The type of powers

    The type of weaknesses

    ... It's mostly Superman.

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  • [–] 5 points 3 months ago (5 children)

    So all the movies about ordinary humans are mostly the same?

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  • [–] -1 points 3 months ago (4 children)

    If a human character exists and then a sequel human character in the same universe has basically the same:

    Name

    Costume

    Origin story

    Powers

    Weaknesses

    ... then that second human character is just an unoriginal variation copy of the original character.

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  • [–] 4 points 3 months ago (3 children)

    Let me try again. All humans in any non-fantasy story, are born on the same planet, with the same origin. They have the same powers and weaknesses. All your left with to distinguish one human from another in your view, seems their names and clothing.

    Am I wrong?

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  • [–] -1 points 3 months ago* (last edited 3 months ago) (1 child)

    Yes, you're wrong. Basically none of those statements is accurate. When literally everyone is born on the same planet then it's not part of your backstory. And everyone has different powers and weaknesses

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