So, it seems that CBS’ Supergirl
has been a pretty major hit, scoring nearly 13 million viewers with its pilot
episode making it the most watched superhero premiere of the modern era. More than that the show has found a
major following, gaining almost universally positive reviews from critics and a
blossoming online fan base. None
of this is really shocking but it’s certainly a nice precedent to have and
flies in the face of all conventional wisdom surrounding the superhero genre,
the Superman franchise, and Supergirl in particular.
For years now we’ve heard from the executives at DC and
Marvel that people don’t want female superhero properties but now, we have Supergirl. WB/DC have been shaking in their boots over Superman being
too powerful or light to the point that they let Zack Snyder and Christopher
Nolan turn him into a drab and joyless husk to get beaten down by Batman in
between murdering his enemies, but now we have Supergirl, light, super powered, optimistic, massively
popular. For nearly 30 years the
very idea of Supergirl was considered
to be a tainted and irredeemable brand, now; bigger than ever. That last one though is a bit of an
earned concern because, now having watched 1984’s Supergirl, I can tell you that it’s the worst superhero film ever
made.
