DC's latest TV show is the best Superman Family adaptation since 1978.
I want to get this out of the way up front so that the comments dont have to devolve into some kind of shitshow as they often do when Man of Steel comes up: I think Zack Snyder is a very good filmmaker - one of the best visual storytellers working today - and I think that on its own Man of Steel is a good movie. Its just a really shitty Superman movie, a movie that seems to either misunderstand or despise what it is that makes Superman a unique and special character.
What makes Superman a unique and special character? Watch Supergirl, the new DC TV show on CBS, and youll totally get it. Supergirl captures so much of the spirit of what made Superman an enduring figure while also adding a very modern, very female, very Millennial twist to the whole thing. Not since the Superman: The Movie have I seen a Superman universe adaptation that gets so much so so right.
Theres one thing that Supergirl gets right that Man of Steel completely whiffed, and while its a small thing it is, in a very real sense, the only thing that matters. In Supergirl Kara Zor-El wants to be a hero.
Thats it. She wants to be a hero. Thats what divides Supergirl from Man of Steel (well, that and millions of dollars, an extra hour and a half run time and state of the art VFX), and its the one element that you need in any Superman story. Superman wants to be a hero. Thats just who he is. And that's just who his cousin is.
"Man of Steel spends a lot of time with Clark Kent agonizing over his position in the world and about whether or not he wants to be a hero. That, to me, isnt Clark Kent. Clark never questions this - he may question his own ability or second guess his choices or the world around him, but Clark Kent, as a character, is driven by the need to do the right thing. He works for justice not just as Superman but also as Clark Kent, reporter at the Daily Planet. There is no version of Clark Kent - no real version, anyway - who hides from responsibility, who uses his abilities for his own good. Lets put it this way - Clark isnt working as a gossip columnist, hes working as a beat reporter who is out there trying to uncover the truth for the people of Metropolis.
On CBS Supergirl Kara Zor-El has the exact same motivation as her cousin. All that she wants to do - the only goal she has - is to make the world a better place. Her home planet is gone and she is dedicated to making sure that her adopted world is safe, secure and improving. That's why she's working at CatCo, because she thinks this media empire can give her the platform to change the world. She is counseled by her adoptive sister to hide her Kryptonian light under a bushel, but it doesnt come naturally for Kara, and as soon as theres an opportunity for her to go out and make a difference - as a plane threatens to crash into National City - she immediately runs off and helps. There are no second thoughts, no considerations of a secret identity, only the immediate, instant and innate need to help people.
Supergirl and Superman (and Superboy and Krypto and Streaky and Beppo the Supermonkey) all share this trait, and always have - until Man of Steel. What happens in Man of Steel is that Supermans natural tendency to heroism is perverted and muffled by filmmakers who misunderstand the character on a profound, fundamental level.
Superman was created by a pair of Jewish kids in Cleveland during the Great Depression. He was completely a power fantasy for these kids - hes a handsome, powerful man who has extraordinary powers. More than that, though, hes an outsider, just as Jews were in America in the early 20th century. Jerry Siegel and Joe Shuster, the kids who invented the Man of Tomorrow, were the children of immigrants, and they built that into their power fantasy. Here was a character who came from elsewhere and who was unique and strange but was beloved, and a symbol of the greatness of America. The power fantasy at the heart of Superman wasnt just about being strong, it was about being accepted"
"...Thats something Ali Adler, one of the creators of the show and the writer of the pilot episode, understands fully. Supergirl externalizes that aspiration - Kara literally is inspired by her cousin, as we are - but it also internalizes it. In Man of Steel General Zod calls Superman out, threatening the Earth. Clark has a long dark night of the soul, wondering if he should go to the Kryptonians. He talks to his mom, he consults a priest. In Supergirl an evil alien named Vartox calls Kara out, threatening National City. Theres no hesitation - she immediately flies off to confront the baddie.
Many people have pointed out that Man of Steel is about Supermans first day on the job, but so is Supergirl, very explicitly so. As such Supergirl screws up, but her mistakes all come from enthusiasm, from her desire to do the right thing. Superman doesnt have that enthusiasm, and he definitely doesnt have the proactive nature Supergirl shows in the pilot. And frankly a Superman without that proactive nature isnt Superman.
I dont know much about Ali Adler, but I suspect that her approach to the power fantasy of a Kryptonian on Earth is quite similar to Siegel and Shuster. As a woman working in an industry that is cataclysmically male-dominated, she knows what it is to be the outsider. And like Siegel and Shuster she sees a position of power as an opportunity to lift others up - characters in Supergirl comment on what a female superhero means to their daughters. Unlike the post-deconstructivist Snyder and Goyer Adler never questions why Supergirl wants to help people - she understands the instinctive need and desire to leave the world a better place than you found it.
Theres other stuff - tonal things, an embrace of a larger and more colorful mythology - that sets Supergirl above Man of Steel, but for me the truly important difference is that Supergirl is about a superhero who wants to be a superhero, about a woman embracing her ability to effect change. Future episodes may see Kara Zor-El questioning this - you have to find drama somewhere, and a hero dissatisfied is good drama - but the show made a point to begin with a hero who wants to be a hero. Its a very Golden Age, very pre-Marvel view of superheroes, the idea that the acquisition of super powers carries with it the immediate desire to do good. Supergirl doesnt need to be motivated by vengeance or self-preservation or to be glum about helping people. She loves doing it, and she gets actual joy from being a hero.
When Siegel and Shuster invented Superman they brought him into a world that was in an apocalyptic financial crisis and that was headed towards an unprecedented charnel house of a world war. They didnt create Superman in simpler times, or more naive times. They understood that dark times call for bright heroes, and so they created a light to shine through the encroaching storm clouds. Ali Adler and the team at Supergirl have done the same, creating a Supergirl who is, on the one hand, relatable in a day to day way but whose central heroism beckons to us in a difficult world, reminding us that sometimes you do the right thing because its the right thing to do.
