Why Supergirl Matters

I was recently hanging out with my nephew, who is nearly 4. He has a sweet pair of sunglasses that have the Avengers on the arms of the glasses. A huge fan, he had recently seen the first Avengers movie and he says to me matter of factly, “These are The Avengers. Except for Black Widow.”

And he wasn’t wrong.

If you have been paying attention to nerd news at all, you learn that it isn’t just on sunglasses. Disney seems to have botched the Ultron marketing when it comes to the first woman superhero they had in the Black Widow. (Now, thankfully, my nephew knows Black Widow not just from the movie but also because she is one of the characters that he and his sisters play on the Disney Infinity game on their Xbox.)

There are better people to take up the fight for superheroes and women than me. But as a proud uncle of two nieces and as someone who works with young people, it is time for us to get our superheroine act together.

[divider]Why Supergirl Matters[/divider]

So imagine my surprise when at the upfront reveals for advertisers for their new shows, CBS released a 6 minute hype reel for Supergirl. And you know what? It was good. And it wasn’t just me that thought so. Most of the twitter verse really, really liked it.

Now, because there is nothing that we can’t immediately criticize, some people immediately wanted to make it a hacky romantic comedy show. And, to be fair, there are some moments like that. But…there is more too! Here are some of thoughts that I have had about the clip:

1. A hero born. So, Joseph Campbell would tell you that this is every story, but this one is particularly done well. We get the set-up of why she had to suddenly reveal herself and the pull of responsibility she feels with her powers.
2. It is Peter Parker. As a woman. Say what you want but the early career stuff works really well. How would you like to be someone’s gopher intern when you can save whole airplanes full of passengers? It is rife for potential. (See: scene about the naming of the her as #supergirl.)
3. It has a solid “Alien of the week” premise. How do you combat the invading hordes of aliens? With an alien. The cockiness of the guy who want turn her loose that turns into the pep talk of “Make sure you win.” is great.  (And my guess is that the sister works for the organization somehow. Maybe that is how her family raised the alien Kara?)
4. There are jokes. Not mildly amusing ones. Like full on laughs. What I said on twitter after first seeing this, I stand by today: no one told Zack Synder that this was being made.  It is too bright, airy and humorous.
5. There is going to be a wacky group of sidekicks! James (not Jimmy) Olson, her wardrobe consultant friend, the sister. They are skipping the brooding loner part and going straight to the squad pic, as the kids would say.

I really want this show to be good. Because my nephew has two older sisters. And when he blasts around and talks about being Iron Man or the Hulk or Spider-man or Thor, I want his sister to be able to blast around just as much with a hero that they can look up to as well!  So, please, please, don’t screw this up CBS!

To our female readers in particular, are you looking forward to Supergirl? Let us know in the comments below. And if you’ve enjoyed Nerds on Earth, please help us spread the word by sharing with your friends, using the social media buttons below. Thanks for reading.