By Chris Snellgrove | Published
After last year’s success Supermanhopes were high Supergirl. In fact, they were up, up, and away! This movie would surpass the DCU while adding a strong, independent female character to this cinematic world. Had the film been a success, it would have been hailed as proof that the general film-going public was ready for a new kind of hero and a new kind of cinematic universe. Unfortunately, the film was dead on arrival, leaving fans and critics alike to ask the same question: “what’s going on here?” Some think they have the answer: man, it happened, alas!
Specifically, there is a growing narrative in between Supergirl fans that the movie is good and its bad reputation is caused by misogynists. This is a comforting narrative, of course, that allows someone to believe that anyone who hates their favorite media must 1) Have bad taste, and 2) Be a bad person. However, you don’t need to see an X-ray to see how weak and dangerous this matter is. Why is it dangerous? It’s simple: if creators like DC Studios CEO James Gunn start blaming all their failures on invisible enemies, then these superhero movies will never get better.
General Narrative
One of the hottest fan stories around Supergirl it shouldn’t surprise you, especially if you’ve been paying attention for the last decade or so (more on this soon). A lot of fans really love the movie, and they don’t understand how it ended up “rotten” on Rotten Tomatoes and made so little money in its opening weekend. Some of those big fans decided that the only logical conclusion was to disrespect women. That is, they believe that men who usually watch superhero movies stay at home and that male influencers killed the opportunity for bad word of mouth by complaining about the movie online.
This narrative makes no sense once you’ve checked it out, of course. First, if the incompetence of women is killed Supergirlit would show up in the census, leaving more women to see it than men. That didn’t happen, however: 59 percent of the audience was male and only 41 percent was female, indicating that ladies didn’t show up in the same numbers as they did, say, Captain Marvel again Wonder Woman. Men didn’t show up in the same numbers, either, revealing a hard truth: Supergirl wasn’t very popular. There was no misogynist plot to keep the masses from seeing it. Instead, the film’s marketing department did that themselves.
Who’s to Blame?
Now, the idea of misogynists screwing up Supergirl didn’t come out of nowhere. You can throw a rock and hit some weird right-wing activist who gives a damn why the movie failed. For example, Critical Drinker declared that many female-led superhero films would be poor box office. Megyn Kelly called Supergirl star Milly Alcock is “strangely young” and “disgusting.” Jesse Waters and Greg Gutfeld clutch their pearls about Supergirl being both “woke” and “bisexual.” Matt Walsh lamented that “our misogynistic society” has produced a “ridiculous stereotype” of the “105-pound girboss action hero.”
I Supergirl fans who suspect the immorality of the film look at stories like this and believe that this poison explains everything. But they don’t think it’s easy to cheat: these guys were like that always you will make these exact same complaints. The outstanding guards were never I’m going to give a fun review of a movie about an illegal immigrant who is stronger than any other man in the universe. Such critics make similar criticisms of Captain Marvelwhich grossed over a billion dollars. For those haters whose misogynistic reviews were probably written long before the first game, Supergirl the bombing was just icing on the cake.
In short, Supergirl fans who blame the film’s failure on immorality because of these comments are putting the cart before the horse. These reviews did not stop people from seeing the movie. By the time it went live, many fans had decided to drop a small fortune to see it on opening weekend. Supergirl it was abandoned long before these sequels spoke, and ironically, trying to blame them for the film’s failure could destroy the franchise.
Apathy Is The Real Enemy
What do I do? Ghostbusters: Answer the Call, Star Trek: Discoveryagain Supergirl are they all the same? Simple: they all had big mistakes and fans who thought you weren’t allowed to notice mistakes. If you hate it The Ghostbusters with its poor script and poor development, fans would argue that he simply hates women. If you hate it Adoption due to Michael Burnham’s emotional overreaction, fans may argue that he simply hates women. Now, if you hate it Supergirl with its terrible script and terrible direction, fans will argue (you guessed it!) that it simply hates women. It’s a narrative encouraged by the producers because it takes the blame away from the creators of the many nameless incels.
However, buying into this narrative is actually it hurts franchises in a tangible way. Once fans start blaming invisible targets (“those hats weren’t ready for the big girboss!!1!!”), they let the real offenders (like bad writers and directors) get away with it. Like, if you want future DCU movies to be better, it’s important to figure out why audiences were so “meh” on Supergirl in the first place. But when fans blame other fans, the studios just keep releasing the same movies full of the same preventable mistakes. Time to break the cycle, tell the truth about Supergirlmistakes, and encourage DC Studios to make better movies.
If that doesn’t work, there’s always Plan B: pretend the only reason fans complain about superhero slop is because we hate women!
