When the first few posters for Supergirl (2026) dropped, some fans were quick to point out that Milly Alcock’s Kara Zor-El was wearing earrings, which, according to a few, didn’t make sense since the character is meant to be invincible. Well, James Gunn has heard your cries and took time out of his busy schedule shooting Man of Tomorrow to answer one person on Threads.
This week, someone zeroed in on what they considered a glaring issue: “Wait… if Supergirl’s skin is bulletproof, how does she have ear piercings?”
James Gunn, who is the author of all things DCU, responded: “As explained in Superman, the same way she gets drunk — she goes to a planet with a red sun. Not to mention she was raised on a chunk of Krypton, so didn’t even experience super powers until her teens.”
And suddenly the comments section was filled with superhero fanboys yelling, “I told you so” out loud.
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But, to be fair, Gunn’s answer is solid and comic book accurate. Also, Superman established that yellow sun radiation is what gives Kryptonians their abilities on Earth. Remove that sun, take them somewhere with a red sun, and Kara or Kal-El is essentially just a normal person who can get hurt and… get drunk. That means she can get a piercing done, have a few drinks, and live a relatively normal biological existence. That ending scene in Superman, where she’s totally wasted, wasn’t just a fun character beat. It was Gunn actually laying the groundwork for questions like this one.
For comic readers, this, of course, isn’t news. But the online reaction was another reminder that plenty of fans consuming these films aren’t reading the source material. Which is totally fine. That’s what blockbusters are for, right? To introduce the characters and their lore to audiences.
But not everyone in the comments was as patient as Gunn. One person pointed out: “She can fly and shoot lasers, but the impossible thing is that she has piercings?” The suspension of disbelief required to accept a woman flying at supersonic speeds through low Earth orbit is significantly larger than the suspension required to accept her having had her ears pierced on on a red sun planet.
“Like 95% of online film ‘plothole’ complaints are people just not paying attention to dialogue,” another person said angrily.
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The red sun rule has been part of Superman mythology since the Silver Age comics, and it got a clear screen explanation. But therer are other possibilities too. Kara could have had her ears pierced before her powers fully activated, since she spent her formative years on a chunk of Krypton called Argo City without exposure to a yellow sun. Powers arrive at adolescence in this telling, not at birth. A piercing done at age twelve on Argo is simply a healed piercing by the time she lands on Earth.
But it could also be clip-on earrings, ear cuffs, and magnetic studs.
This isn’t the first time the “indestructible skin” question has come up either. When 2013’s Man of Steel showed Clark Kent with a beard, Warner Bros. partnered with shaving companies to explain how the Kryptonian managed to shave. Clark uses a piece of the Kryptonian spaceship as a makeshift mirror to redirect his own heat vision and shave his face. It was creative, sure. But it made sense.
For what it’s worth, Gunn seems entirely unbothered by these sorts of questions.
Supergirl is scheduled for release on June 26, 2026. There will presumably be a lot more opportunities to ask about her piercings after.
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