False Grit, or, One Thing I Like About Supergirl

When I went to see Supergirl, they gave everybody a movie-branded copy of the first issue of Supergirl: Woman of Tomorrow. That’s a pretty bold strategy! Most of the people who wanted exactly what this movie delivers — basically, a less funny Guardians of the Galaxy movie — are probably not going to think Woman of Tomorrow is that special. And those of us who loved the comic are just going to focus on how much the movie comes up short. It’s not bad. The performances are all good, Milly Alcock in particular; it’s suitably weird and a significant change of scenery from Superman; and there is plenty here that feels like has the sense of people genuinely wanting to do justice to source material they love, instead of just crassly building a movie franchise. But it also doesn’t do anything exceptionally well, so it ends up feeling like a mid-grade entry to the MCU. Which is unfortunate, because it needed to do something exceptional to be able to stand out. It’s coming at a time of peak…