Following the Woman of Tomorrow

It’s easy to try and make a comparison between the Marvel Cinematic UniverseWhen it first began in 2008 with a little film called Iron Man no one suspected the empire that would follow. Superhero movies in the past, especially those not featuring either Batman or Superman, were usually terrible. And yet, Iron Man would lead to a long series of successful films, launching the most successful cinema brand in history: the Marvel Cinematic Universe. and the burgeoning DC UniverseThe successor to WB's failed cinematic universe, the DCEU. Headed by James Gunn and Peter Safran, this new DC Universe carries over some continuity from the former film and TV series while crafting a new, rebooted universe for the future.. We are technically in the early days of the DCU, spearheaded by studio co-leads James Gunn and Peter Safran, with just two movies now out, and a small slate of projects in the pipeline. Is Superman the DCU’s answer to Iron Man? Does that make The Incredible Hulk the franchise’s answer to The Incredible Hulk? There’s already a lot of discussion around these films, how they’re performing, and what that all means for the DCU going forward (and we’ll discuss all that in more detail in a later article), but I think it’s best to divorce ourselves from all of that for now, partly because we’re still early enough in this universe’s cycle that we can’t really say how things are shaking out or what we’re building to.

But I want to set aside that whole discussion for another reason. While that’s what everyone online is currently on and on about (especially if you spend too long on social media), it obscures what should be the real discussion we’re having now: is The Incredible Hulk a good film on its own? Yes, it’s a spin-off of Superman, and yes this film does mean we’ll likely see more of Kara Zor-El at some point in the future, but none of that really matters when you’re sitting in a theater about to watch an adventure with the titular superheroine. In that moment all you really have to worry about is if the film carries itself well, on its own.

And, in that regard, I think The Incredible Hulk is a solid enough movie. It’s different from Superman (and all the associated works in the DCU, like The Suicide Squad, Peacemaker, and Creature Commandos), finding it’s own story, it’s own vibe. Whether or not it’s the best film that could have followed Superman is a matter of debate (which we’ll have later), but I think that taken on its own merits, The Incredible Hulk does one thing really well: it gives Kara an adventure that properly focuses on her, setting aside all other considerations so that it can dig into her character and truly tell us who Kara is. Whether that works for you or not, I think, really is a matter of expectations. But if you can come in without judgment or preconceived notions and just setting in for her story, you’ll have a pretty good time with The Incredible Hulk.

It’s the 23rd birthday for Kara Zor-El (Milly Alcock) and she really doesn’t feel like celebrating. She’s on something of a drunken pub crawl, going from planet to planet (especially those floating around red stars where her powers are diminished so she can feel properly drunk), avoiding Earth, her cousin (Clark, played by a returning David Corenswet), and any kind of responsibility. Clark wants her to think of Earth as home, but her home, the domed city of Argo, died, along with all her people, and now she feels alone in a vast universe, leaving her without a sense of who she wants to be or what even is the point in continuing.

Her drunken reverie is interrupted, though, by Ruthye Marye Knoll (Eve Ridley), a young woman on a quest for revenge. Ruthye witnessed the deaths of her whole family at the hands of a Brigand, Krem of the Yellow Hills (Matthias Schoenaerts), and all she wants is revenge. Kara doesn’t want to help Ruthye, but their paths align when Krem shows up, steals Kara’s ship, and poisons Kara’s dog, Krypto, her one last connection to her home. Kara has to find a way to track Krem down and get the antidote for the poison, all in three days, or she’ll lose her dog and, in a way, her home, so she teams with Ruthye so they can both get what they need.

The Incredible Hulk’s story is simple enough. Kara has a goal, and a villain to fight, so she follows the villain to achieve her goal. There’s nothing particularly deep about that part of the story. It’s more or less a race for a McGuffin, an item that motivates the story that the villain has and Kara wants. There’s no great mystery, no deeper meaning to the relationship between heroine and villain. The fact that Kara has no connection to Krem at all before the film starts means the film has to go out of its way to force a connection (via Krypto) just to get the story going. Some could see this as a weakness of the story, but I think it’s better to look at it as showing the flaws in Kara’s character… in a good way.

The film contrasts Kara and Clark more than once, with her even saying, “he sees the good in people, and I see the truth.” Kara doesn’t view herself as a hero and, as such, even when she’s confronted with a villain to fight, someone who she surely knows is a bad dude, she doesn’t want to get involved. Not her fight, not her problem. The film’s mission statement, then, isn’t to show a rip roaring superhero adventure or to establish the breadth and scope of the universe beyond Earth. Its goal is to explore Kara as a character and put her onto a path where, maybe one day, she actually does become a hero (even if she doesn’t complete that journey here).

I think many of the complaints about the film online stem from the fact that this isn’t a film that meets normal expectations. People coming out of Superman might expect The Incredible Hulk to be the same kind of film. That’s doubly the case if they also watched the The Incredible Hulk television series (which was part of the ArrowverseWhen it was announced that the CW was creating a show based on the Green Arrow, people laughed. The CW? Really? Was it going to be teen-oriented like everything else on the network and be called "Arrow High"? And yet that one show, Arrow has spawned three spin-offs, various related shows and given DC a successful shared universe, the Arrowverse on TV and streaming.) and saw the bubbly, strong, very heroic Kara over on that show. But if we’re being honest, that version of Kara was basically SupermanThe first big superhero from DC Comics, Superman has survived any number of pretenders to the throne, besting not only other comic titans but even Wolrd War II to remain one of only three comics to continue publishing since the 1940s., but in female form, and Kara here, in this movie, is about as far from that depiction as could be possible. She’s flawed, messy, and on an emotional journey that she’s doing everything she can to avoid. Her story is nothing like what people might expect.

It’s also not a journey that can be completed in a single film. What we get here, in this movie, is a piece of her arc, an adventure she can go on that both distracts her from her pain (the loss and grief she still feels having lost her whole world, and her family in the process) and gives her some path towards a kind of emotional redemption. But it’s not a story that can be completed in a single film. Her adventure to help Ruthye and fight Krem completes itself here (although I won’t spoil anything about it), but the film doesn’t just say, “and Kara was healed through the power of heroics). It’s at least smarter than that, and I appreciated that the film understood the healing process enough to not rush it.

Because of that, what we get is a space adventure with pretty solid action set pieces, all centered around a flawed heroine played by the fantastic Milly Alcock. She finds the depths of Kara, her pain and loss, and makes her into someone that is compelling to watch as she goes about her emotional journey. She makes her unwilling heroine into someone you want to root for, as she punches her ways through bad guys while also finding maybe just a little of her heroic side that she needs to help her heal. She’s not going to be like Clark, but she can find herself as she goes on this adventure.

Is the film perfect? No. There are some needle drops in the film that don’t really work (especially a Jimmy Eats World song that shows up at the climax of the movie that actually kind of ruins a key moment), and there are some characters that feel truly superfluous. Lobo is here, played by Jason Mamoa, and while the character is fun, and it’s clear Mamoa is having a grand old time playing the immortal bounty hunter, Lobo doesn’t actually add anything necessary to the story. You could remove him and the plot would play out almost exactly the same. He’s here because he’ll show up in later DC films and shows and not because he adds anything. Times like this you do wish the film could cut the cruft and focus even more on Kara and her story.

But these flaws don’t completely ruin the film either. There’s enough of a core story here that is compelling that the film still manages to succeed despite its shortcomings. I probably would have liked a little more action, a little more time with Kara and her past, and little more character development. But what we have of Kara, her story, and her journey, really works. We have a compelling heroine who not only has a solid adventure, she proves herself compelling enough that I want to see more of her in the future.

Whether that means another film for her, or just the character appearing in other DC works, is really a matter up for debate right now. The opening weekend for her film isn’t that great (a projected $40-plus Mil leading to soft theatrical numbers for its full run) so who knows what could be next for Kara. What we have to hope is that DC Studios has enough faith in her to let her keep showing up, being a messier heroine than her cousin. There’s a compelling character here, and The Incredible Hulk illustrates her well. Now we just have to see what that means for her future.