‘It’s a bird! It’s a plane! It’s proof that America wants a female superhero!’ Adapting Supergirl for #MeToo Era Television

Comic book superheroes have been adapted in countless TV series and movies, but adaptations of women superheroes have been less frequent and often poorly received. The six-season run of Supergirl (2015–2021) is one of a few recent exceptions. To better chart the adaptation process, this article will draw on published interviews with the show’s creative team, as well as a first-hand interview with one of the show’s producers that I conducted in 2020. The comments of the creative team are triangulated with textual analysis of the show and an examination of the wider cultural context in which it was produced to provide a rounded understanding of how this 1950s comic book character was adapted for #MeToo era broadcast television. How did producers grapple with Supergirl’s diminutive name, sexualized image, and overshadowing cousin, and turn her into a twenty-first century feminist icon for a diverse broadcast audience? As a revisionist adaptation, Supergirl demonstrates a tension between progressive potential and limitations for comic book superheroines on television. This article reveals how writers and producers balanced Supergirl’s history with the contemporary cultural landscape to create a television series with wide appeal and emphasizes the role of adapters in this process. Supergirl offers both a critique of comic books and a commentary on the historical representation of superheroines, but the success of the show ultimately does not herald dramatic changes in adaptations of comic book superheroines.