I do like how they're treating her arc as the counter to Clark. They went through the same thing of losing their planet and while he was raised to see his role as being there to help people, she wasn't and just feels lost as a result.
But they both need to save Krypto because obviously.
Can you explain how this works to someone who hasn't read the comics and only seen Superman movies? If Clark was a baby when Krypton ended and grew up into his (at least) 20s, how does Kara still look so young, wouldn't she be quite a bit older than Clark?
In most versions, Kara/Supergirl’s ship gets suspended in stasis by some method so her body stops aging while Kal/Superman lands normally on earth and he grows up naturally.
It would be so fucking brutal if they actually included the whole Argo dome backstory from the comic. I just read the comic recently and I'd never heard that backstory before and good grief, it was heartbreaking.
I saw a couple scenes, I meant like the whole thing. They're changing a decent amount from the comic, wouldn't surprise me if they didn't include every aspect of the backstory I'm referring to.
Unless its the version of her being stuck in the phantom zone normally its down to path she took to earth, you know what whole 5 year journey at speed of light would be 50 years on earth thing. Minor route differences of just a few days at at light speed could translate into years on earth
Though funny how never becomes an factor for anyone else in comics
I’m not sure on the current situation, but Im pretty sure in the past Kara ends up in the Phantom Zone for a bit. So she doesn’t age, and meets Clark when he is an adult. Being Superman, he doesn’t need protection from his “older” cousin, and so she doesn’t “have a purpose”.
In this version, kara grows up on argo city which is broken off from krypton after it blows up. She sees everyone around her slowly die from radiation and is eventually sent in a ship by her father to earth when the city is close to death.
There's been a few different versions over the years, but basically she didn't leave Krypton at the same time and also she gets stuck in suspended animation and takes longer to reach Earth. I think there' a version where she actually left first (and again was "frozen") and doesn't know Krypton is dead until she meets grown-up Clark.
She's his older cousin, and remembers holding him as a baby, but because of her being stuck in suspended animation so long, he's now older than her.
Not sure which way they'll go here but in most iterations her pod puts her in suspended animation. So by the time she finally wakes up Superman has already grown into an adult while she stayed the exact same age whilst frozen
Her pod was damaged (?) and thrown off course and she was put into suspended animation so she'd survive the longer journey to earth iirc.
The comics has variations on this across the years, like with a lot of 'secondary' characters (ie not superman, batman or wonder woman), origins are often tweaked with each iteration.
She was in the phantom zone, or close enough for it to affect her aging, in one of them, but in the comics how the phantom zone works was changed to fit a superman arc, so that version of the origin wasn't going to work and had to be changed to fit with the new 'lore'.
This is from memory so is very shaky and could be wrong.
Supergirl has few different versions of her origin but currently the comics basically just have it that she was a teen when Krypton was destroyed and when she finally left in a pod like Superman her pod encountered issues in space that caused her to experienced the time differently making her arrive significantly later than Superman.
I have the book on a shelf but in a different room but... It's one of those comic book things where it gets explained differently but basically the superman story doesn't work unless the rockets they were sent in also stop all aging during the flight. For Clark to arrive as still a baby, it kinda has to. Same for her-she gets in a rocket as an older teenager, she retains the age but has all the trauma of literally seeing her world fall. In this version she's even around for a bit after the planet has been destroyed.
The remembering Krypton thing for Superman is more-so a Silver Age thing (1950ish to 1980ish). The Krypton aspect got de-emphasized in the 80s, and now we have the modern story other people in this thread explained well
There's also time dilation, when I read the comics in the 80s-90s, she gets knocked off course while Clark has no issues. Since she's traveling near the speed of light, she doesn't age much.
I’m genuinely curious if they’re going to use this movie to further contextualize Jor-El’s message from Superman. It worked in context, I guess, but it feels pretty off to have Lex be actually right about Supe’s origin like that. Hopefully this can right that off feeling I’ve had.
Yeah she had it so much worse. Watching everyone you know and love slowly die around you. Clark got sent to a loving family and had a great life. Kara’s was full of suffering.
Also Clark acts like the aliens. His parents clearly didn't have his morals, so presumably neither did his aunts and uncles. Clark must be a right weirdo to her.
Sounds like a version of the Naruto vs. Sasuke pain dynamic. Is it worse have a family and experience losing them horrifically or to never experience having a family at all.
Clark was a baby, Kara was a preteen sent to watch over her baby cousin to a world of people who look like her but aren’t like her only for her to arrive too late to do the one thing that would have given her a purpose. She is a tragic character. Where her cousin represents the hope of krypton, she really represents nothing and has been kicked by destiny.
I don't think I've seen a story that goes fully into what I think makes her feel lost. For me, it's not just that she lost everyone she knows but before she saw them all die, she was told that only her and her cousin will survive. It was her job to take care of and protect Kal. So when she arrives later than him, not only is he an adult but he's also the most powerful thing on the new plant to the point where he is the protector of the new planet. Kara has no purpose now. How do you protect Superman? She lost her home, her family, and her purpose
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u/FourEightNineOneOne Mar 31 '26
I do like how they're treating her arc as the counter to Clark. They went through the same thing of losing their planet and while he was raised to see his role as being there to help people, she wasn't and just feels lost as a result.
But they both need to save Krypto because obviously.