The Secrets of Supergirl

Podcast: Download

SCR201: Supergirl kills a man in cold blood — right after spending the entire movie teaching a grieving girl not to. That contradiction sits at the center of the DCU’s second film, and it gives Rob Leonardi, Jeff Haecker, and Patrick Mason plenty to argue about.

The 2026 Supergirl follows Kara Zor-El on a galaxy-hopping revenge quest that starts as a birthday bender and turns into something darker. When the brigand Krem murders young Ruthye’s family, Kara reluctantly helps hunt him down — with Krypto the Superdog poisoned and the clock running. Along the way they cross paths with Lobo, the immortal bounty hunter played by Jason Momoa, whose chemistry with Kara the panel calls the best thing in the film.

Most of the conversation circles one question: is it ever right to become judge, jury, and executioner? Kara spends the movie stopping Ruthye from killing Krem, then does it herself. Patrick weighs that choice against Catholic teaching — Pope Francis’s argument that a society advanced enough to restrain a criminal shouldn’t kill him, set against a lawless world where no prison exists and lives can’t otherwise be protected. Rob connects Kara’s line “your life will be your revenge” to the Proverbs image of heaping burning coals on an enemy’s head: living well as the answer to vengeance.

They also take apart what the film gets wrong. Ruthye is a flat character carrying a single beat of growth. Krem and his brigands are generic villains — the panel wishes Lobo had been the antagonist, or that this had simply been a Kara-and-Lobo buddy movie. Krypto works as an emotional anchor but risks becoming a crutch if the next films keep putting him in danger.

Based on Tom King and Bilquis Evely’s comic Supergirl: Woman of Tomorrow, the movie makes one major change — the comic sends Krem to the Phantom Zone instead — and the crew debates whether the DCU’s slower, character-first approach is the right way to build a universe. Patrick’s audiophile breakdown closes it out: a full cinematic score studded with pop-punk needle-drops and a slowed-down Jimmy Eat World cover that tries a little too hard to be James Gunn.

Is Supergirl a worthy follow-up to Superman, or a decent movie standing in a great one’s shadow?

Get all new episodes automatically and for free:

Follow by Email | Listen to this episode and subscribe on YouTube.

Help us continue to offer Secrets of Movies. Won’t you make a pledge at SQPN.com/give today?

Links for this episode:

Want to Sponsor A Show?
Support StarQuest’s mission to explore the intersection of faith and pop culture by becoming a named sponsor of the show of your choice on the StarQuest network. Click to get started or find out more.

by
Secrets