When you first meet Kara Zor-El aka Supergirl in DC’s latest blockbuster, Supergirl, she’s drunk. She’s a mess of a woman — dishevelled, dissociating from her trauma, and self-medicating with alcohol, isolation, and her dog, Krypto. Milly Alcock’s stumbling, reckless, and sloppy Supergirl is a fascinating character and the edgiest female superhero I have ever seen onscreen. Alcock is exceptional in the role. It’s too bad the movie, in theaters Friday, never quite meets her magic. Kara is a character who lost her family way too young, was sent to a planet with her overachieving cousin, and whose only friend is a dog with superpowers. Her empathy is heroic and of course, when she’s not fleeing to planets without yellow suns so she can get wasted, she’s got all the strength of a superhero too.
