How Red Suns Strip Away Supergirl's Powers (And Why She Goes There Anyway)

In the upcoming DCU film, there's a fascinating detail that reveals something crucial about Kryptonians: they can actually get drunk, but only on planets orbiting red suns. Superman mentions this to a robot named Gary, explaining that Supergirl likes to party on these distant worlds because their unique stellar conditions override Kryptonian metabolism.

This concept comes straight from Tom King's 2021 comic series Supergirl: Woman of Tomorrow, which serves as the foundation for the new movie. But what makes red suns so significant to Kara's story?

Yellow Sun Power, Red Sun Weakness

Here's the thing about Kryptonian powers: they're entirely dependent on solar radiation. Yellow suns like Earth's provide the specific type of energy that gives Kryptonians their incredible abilities. Their cells absorb this radiation and convert it into strength, flight, invulnerability, and yes, even immunity to getting drunk.

Red suns, however, are a different story. Krypton itself orbited a red star, which means Kryptonians were just ordinary people back home, no stronger than any human. The classic comics established this back in Action Comics #262 to explain why not all surviving Kryptonians automatically became superpowered. Only exposure to yellow sunlight triggers their extraordinary abilities.

 

The contrast between sun types has been explored extensively in the comics. Characters like Lex Luthor and Batman have weaponized red sunlight against Superman and his allies. In one storyline, Luthor even managed to temporarily transform Earth's sun into a red star, causing Superman and Supergirl to immediately lose their powers while in space. Without their flight ability, they began suffocating in the vacuum until rescue arrived.

Unlike kryptonite, which causes physical pain and can be lethal, red sunlight simply neutralizes Kryptonian powers. It reduces them to baseline human capabilities without causing harm. If you're not in immediate danger when it happens, it's basically harmless.

Kara's Secret Advantage

This actually highlights something interesting about Supergirl compared to her cousin. While debates rage about who's more powerful between the two, Kara has one clear edge: she doesn't rely solely on her superpowers.

In the Woman of Tomorrow comics, there's a scene where Kara intervenes in a bar fight on a red sun planet. Despite being both drunk and depowered, she handles a bounty hunter with relative ease. She does get cut by broken glass, admitting she forgot about "the stupid red sun," but she wins the fight through skill rather than raw power.

Superman, for all his nobility, typically struggles more without his abilities because he's so accustomed to overwhelming threats with sheer strength. The teaser footage for the new film shows Kara wielding weapons, suggesting the movie will showcase her combat training and tactical abilities.

Why Kara Keeps Coming Back

The DCU version makes a subtle but meaningful change to Kara's character. In the original comics, visiting a red sun planet was a one-time celebration when she reached drinking age. But in the film, Superman recognizes it as regular behavior, implying she makes these trips frequently. Since she's 23 in the teaser, she's apparently done this multiple times.

What might seem like party behavior is actually something darker: a coping mechanism. Unlike Clark, who was a baby when Krypton exploded, Kara was old enough to remember everything. In the teaser, she tells a young girl named Ruthye that "Krypton didn't die in a day. The gods are not that kind." There's even footage of her screaming in space, likely witnessing her world's destruction.

By traveling to red sun planets, Kara can drink away the pain and escape her memories. But she's also making herself vulnerable, willingly stripping away the powers that keep her safe. It's self-destructive behavior born from trauma.

If the film follows the comic storyline, this vulnerability will have serious consequences. The bounty hunter she fought returns for revenge, leaving both her and Krypto wounded and stranded. Sometimes forgetting you're not invincible comes at a steep price.

Beyond Red and Yellow

While red and yellow stars get most of the attention in Kryptonian lore, the comics have explored other stellar types too. Blue and white stars actually enhance Kryptonian abilities beyond what yellow suns provide, even granting new powers. Under a blue sun, Superman discovered he could temporarily share his abilities with others. An artificial white sun gave him teleportation.

But for Kara's story, it's the red suns that matter most the places where she can be vulnerable, where she can forget, even if just for a night, that she's the last daughter of a dead world.