11 Criminally Underrated Superheroes Hollywood Totally Ruined
5. Supergirl
Warner Bros. Pictures
Despite being unceremoniously axed in 1985's 'Crisis on Infinite Earths', Kara Zor-El has always been a bit of a fan favourite character. Indeed, Superman's cousin has enjoyed long stints on the page as well as off it, finding a high in 2004's Justice League: Unlimited and, as you've now likely guessed, a low in 1984's Supergirl.
Jeannot Szwarc's first foray into Superhero stardom has since gone down as an ill-fated attempt to continue and expand the Richard Donner Superman universe, a failure that was compounded further by the release of 1987's 'The Quest for Peace'. In the film, we get to see Supergirl fight a witch (played to full comic effect by the legendary Faye Dunaway) in a remarkably uninspiring fashion, and there's even a moment where Kara gets trapped in the Phantom Zone, which is kind of cool if tacky special effects are your thing.
Despite Supergirl's fan favourite status, it's her cousin who continues to receive the breadth of attention in live action. And while fans do have the current Melissa Benoist show to enjoy (which also happens to be the best CW show out there, just saying), it would be nice to see Kara back on the big screen sometime soon, especially it can follow in the footsteps of Patty Jenkins' Wonder Woman.
WhatCulture's very own resident movie guy, Ewan has been working in the content creation biz for over 10 years now, having started as a freelance contributor to WhatCulture Gaming all the way back in 2015. After graduating with a First-Class Honours in History from Northumbria University in 2017 (where he won a prize for a totally killer dissertation on the Watergate years), Ewan took on the role of Comics Editor at WhatCulture and quickly developed WhatCulture Comics into one of the biggest superhero-focused channels on YouTube. He followed this with a brief hiatus at Screen Rant in 2021, where he worked across the Gaming and Film sections as a writer and editor, before returning to WhatCulture as a Senior Content Producer / Presenter in 2023. He started his own podcast, We Love Dad Movies, in 2022, and has contributed several written pieces to the Eisner-nominated comics website Shelfdust as well.
In his current role, Ewan incorporates his love of cinema, comic books, and history into written pieces and video essays for WhatCulture's Film & TV channel, as well as WhatCulture Gaming and WhatCulture Horror, with a particular focus on nineties-era Dad Movies, old school Westerns, and Golden Age Hollywood Noir. John Carpenter is his fave, and he thinks Batman Beyond should never have been cancelled. If that's your vibe, you'll probably like his stuff.
