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“Supergirl,” the second film in James Gunn’s developing DCU and one of the biggest box office bombs of an otherwise strong year for movie theaters, isn’t the worse movie I watched in 2026. But it’s probably the most disappointing. An adaptation of an acclaimed standalone series called “Woman of Tomorrow,” “Supergirl” has a great lead in Milly Alcock and nothing else worth remembering. Whereas the comic it is based on is stunningly bright and beautiful to look at, “Supergirl” is a murky, brown-tinted eyesore. Its generic plot strands the character in a sci-fi universe that feels microscopically small, populated by third-rate archetypes the “Guardians of the Galaxy” movies would barely have time for. There are interesting threads to unravel regarding Kara’s grief and anger, but the story she’s stranded in doesn’t have time to do that in any meaningful way.   

Even more galling: as “Supergirl” was tarnishing the character’s reputation in movie theaters, a great adaptation of the character was airing on Adult Swim. “My Adventures With Superman,” an animated series reimagining the early career of the most famous superhero on the planet. Ostensibly, Clark Kent is the main character, but Season 2 introduced Kara (voiced in the show by Kiana Madeira), and the currently airing Season 3 — which airs its season finale this Sunday — sees her take center stage. And she rules: reimagined as a former brainwashed intergalactic conquerer attempting to atone for her misdeeds, the show’s Kara is charming, funny, badass, with a meaty arc about atoning for her misdeeds and a super cute romance with Jimmy Olsen (Ishmel Sahid) that slots right in with the show’s bright, optimistic tone and focus on these character’s day-to-day struggles contrasted with the sci-fi operatics. If “Supergirl” the movie only scratched the surface of the character’s potential, “My Adventures With Superman” takes the time to really examine what makes her tick. 

“My Adventures With Superman” is one of three animated shows adapting popular comic book superheroes that ran over the course of this summer, along with “X-Men ’97” on Disney+, which concluded its second season earlier this week, and “Batman: Caped Crusader” on Amazon Prime, which premiered its second season in late July. Pitched to a slightly older audience than usual for an animated comic book series, teenage up as opposed to for children, these shows aren’t flawless. But as comic book film studios continues to struggle to adjust to a world where they are no longer the center of the entertainment landscape (give or take “Spider-Man”), these shows demonstrate that these characters are better suited for serialized storytelling in the first place. 

One of the major criticisms of superhero cinema for the past decade has been its resolute sameness: while certain MCU movies may have loose genre window-dressing, they’re fundamentally tonally similar in their quippy characters and excess spectacle. But all three of these series have strong art direction and visions for these characters that feels spiritually true to the source material but also provides something fresh and new that fans haven’t seen before, and are all radically different from one another. 

Heavily inspired by early 2000s anime, “My Adventures With Superman” is the bright, zippy, lighthearted offering. The show takes the characters and their battles seriously, but it provides a wonderfully comforting take on Superman that also heavily foregrounds the love story between Clark and Lois; it’s a rom-com as much as it is a series about fighting invading aliens. It works because of how well-drawn these versions of the characters are, and because his relationship with Lois was always what made the seemingly invulnerable Clark feel most human. If the 2025 James Gunn “Superman” film sometimes strained to reinvent the character’s optimism for modern audiences, “My Adventures With Superman” makes that challenge look effortless.

“Batman: Caped Crusader” is also about its lead character’s early years, but otherwise takes a radically different approach inspired by the earliest Batman stories of the 1940s. The series was developed by Bruce Timm, the man behind the celebrated and definitive “Batman: the Animated Series” from the ’90s, and plays like a spiritual successor of that classic pitched to older audiences, setting Bruce Wayne’s adventures as Batman in a period version of Gotham. Whereas other superhero shows go for a bright palette, “Caped Crusader” evokes classic film noir with its dark-hued animation and 1940s fashion, as well as its focus on the character unraveling mysteries with detective stories that proves considerably more fruitful than the recent “The Batman” and its attempt to do the same.

“X-Men ’97” is another successor of a ’90s kids’ cartoon, albeit a direct sequel. The 1992 “X-Men” animated series that aired on Fox during the decade was a foundational series for fans of the Marvel superhero team, providing definitive versions of the mutant protectors in all their messy, soapy excess. “’97” picks up where the series left off, but again ages up the content for adults who grew up with the series for a much darker tone. The animation emphasizes fidelity to the original show and the time period’s garish aesthetic in general, for a show that, more than almost any film, truly feels like picking up and reading five random issues of a comic run from 30 years ago. 

Not all of these series are of equal quality. “My Adventures with Superman” has been the most consistent of the three, a nice good time throughout all three seasons without ever being exceptional. “Caped Crusader” Season 1 was a promising start, but Season 2 ramped up the stakes and serialized storytelling for a much improved follow-up. “X-Men ’97,” meanwhile, had a near flawless debut season, but a divisive Season 2 that struggled with unfocused storytelling and weaker stakes, albeit with a standout fourth episode that ranks among the best of the series (the show’s production was likely marred by the firing of head writer Beau DeMayo during work on Season 2 for allegations of sexual harrasment).

Still, all the shows highlight how much better suited these characters, and the episodic comic storytelling that made them famous, are to animation and TV than films, with time to flesh out supporting cast members who are mostly bit parts in big screen adaptations. For all of the faults of “X-Men ’97” Season 2, it still has space to highlight a giant ensemble, whereas the movies mostly focused purely on Wolverine and left the rest of the team to the wayside; in particular, it can’t be underestimated how much PR the show has done for Cyclops’ reputation after the movies relegated him to a boring stick-in-the-mud.

As I’m writing this, Marvel is (allegedly) prepping to debut its new team of MCU X-Men at the D23 convention. I’m interested to see where the adaptation is headed. But I also know that, if it’s bad, I can just stick with the cartoons. 

“My Adventures With Superman” is currently streaming on HBO Max. “Batman: Caped Crusader” is currently streaming on Amazon Prime. “X-Men ’97” is currently streaming on Disney+.

A month ago, I wrote an editorial about how criticisms of “historical accuracy” in popular culture are often weaponized to enforce and legitimize bigoted concepts about the past. I was defending Christopher Nolan’s “The Odyssey” but libraries are littered with stories that use historical revisionism to make an important point about the present, offer valuable context about the past or even just have a good time. Literature like, I dunno, let’s pick a random example out of a hat … Homer’s “The Odyssey.”

I should have also pointed in the direction of “Six,” a blockbuster London West End stage musical about Henry VIII’s six infamously ill-fated wives. That’s two divorces, two beheadings, one death from natural causes and one who stuck it out, but whether that counts as a “win” depends on how fun you think it’d be to stay married to a two-time wife-killer.

These queens have been scrutinized, analyzed and immortalized many times over, but until “Six” came along, they’d never been reimagined as a pop act with wicked pipes and sick, sick beats. It’s ahistorical, but only a-holes would complain, because the alternative to accepting this fascinating, energetic concept is to wag your fingers and say it isn’t patriarchal or sexist enough. And if you think there hasn’t been enough patriarchy or sexism, I don’t think you’ve learned anything about history at all.

“Six” was written by Toby Marlow and Lucy Moss, and since its debut in 2017, it’s won two Tony Awards, four Drama Desk Awards and the hearts and minds of audiences all over the world. Now, like recent celebrated productions of “Merrily We Roll Along” and “Hadestown,” it’s an official pro-shot motion picture, filmed live onstage with the original West End cast. If you couldn’t make it to the theater before, now you can make it to another kind of theater and see what all the fuss is about. Good news: The fuss is about a fabulous, electrifying (albeit short) pop phenomenon.

“Six: The Musical Live!” opens with the wives of Henry VIII taking the stage, decked out in sparkly, sexy, color-coded medieval costumes. They’re here to put on a show and, in a riff on reality singing competitions, battle it out for a coveted prize. After six radio-friendly numbers, each detailing a different tragic marriage, a lead singer will be crowned based on which queen got royally screwed over the most. If you’re wondering how these other queens think they can compete with Anne Boleyn and Katherine Howard, who were literally decapitated, well, so are Anne and Katherine — and Anne is particularly salty about it.

A half-dozen women debating who had the worst marriage doesn’t sound particularly feminist but, of course, “Six” eventually flips its script and world history upside down. Liz Clare directs the film and sticks to familiar, effective stage-show cinematic lingo until a late-stage twisteroo that changes the visual language. Briefly. Just enough to make an impact, because we have to get back to the (admittedly satisfying) basics. It’s not on Clare to completely reinvent how live musicals are filmed for the big screen, so we can complement the filmmaker on a wholly professional, absorbing experience with one memorable gimmick.

Every performer who returns for “Six: The Musical Live!” gives a stunning performance, modeled after an iconic pop music stage persona. Catherine of Aragon (Jarneia Richard-Noel) brings the Beyoncé, Anne Boleyn (Millie O’Connell) is a lively Lily Allen, Jane Seymour (Natalie Paris) belts à la Adele, Anna of Cleves (Alexia McIntosh) is a Nicki Minaj homage, Katherine Howard (Aimie Atkinson) channels Ariana Grande, and Catherine Parr (Maiya Quansah-Breed) is on par with Alicia Keys.

They’re evenly matched but not evenly festooned. This problem may be unique to the film version, but Anne Boleyn’s sharp-angled costume is so shiny and such a bright, effervescent green that she pulls focus whenever she’s on camera, even when she’s in the background and in shadow. The other costumes are balanced between one Crayola color and muted black; Boleyn’s ratio is a wild contrast, which befits her characterization but distracts the camera. Millie O’Connell is a standout performer, easily the cattiest queen in “Six,” so it doesn’t hurt her in the slightest. It’s just that sometimes we’re trying to watch Jane Seymour belt an emotional number, and Jane should be our point of interest.

Of course, a filmed version of a stage play isn’t the same as watching it live. There’s probably an adaptation worth producing down the line that shoots “Six” like a reality television competition instead of a live cabaret experience, but that’s not this version. This is the closest most of us will get to seeing this show unless we move to a major metropolitan area or at least get a meaningful pay raise. (In this economy? Now that’s implausible.)

“Six: The Musical Live!” is a fabulous document of a fabulous stage show. The only real complaint is that it’s such an efficient production that it’s over too quickly. A great performer always leaves us wanting more — and six great performers leave us wanting six hundred percent more.

EXCLUSIVE: Scrubs is staffing up for Season 2. Keyla Monterroso Mejia (The Studio, Abbott Elementary) is joining the ABC comedy series as a recurring guest star.

She will play Mimi, Turk’s (Donald Faison) new surgical nurse. A bit quirky with some sass, she is a high-energy and loyal assisting hand for the surgeons.

Mimi is joining Sacred Heart amid some turnover, which includes the departure of charge nurse Raymond, played by X Mayo.

The Scrubs reboot had been set up in a way that all cast except returning stars Zach Braff (John “J.D.” Dorian), Faison (Christopher “Turk” Turk) and Sarah Chalke (Elliot Reid) had been recurring. That is changing in Season 2 when Ava Bunn, who plays one of the new interns, Sam Tosh, is being promoted to series regular alongside Braff, Faison and Chalke.

In Season 2, J.D., Turk and Elliot have leveled up from interns to icons at Sacred Heart. Now, the respected doctors inspire the next generation while balancing the ups and downs of working in a hospital. Together with characters new and old, they are navigating this next chapter with laughter, heart and some surprises along the way.

The original series’ creator Bill Lawrence serves as executive producer on the revival via his Doozer Productions alongside the company’s Jeff Ingold and Liza Katzer as well as showrunner Aseem Batra and stars Braff, Faison and Chalke. Scrubs is produced by 20th Television, a part of Disney Television Studios. The series will return to ABC on Wednesdays Sept. 30 and stream next day on Hulu.

Mejia, known for her arc as Maria Sofia Estrada on Larry David’s HBO series Curb Your Enthusiasm, has been keeping busy recurring on several high-profile comedies, including as Seth Rogen’s harried assistant, Petra, on Apple TV’s Emmy-winning The Studio and as chaotic teacher’s aide Ashley on ABC’s Abbott Elementary.

She will next be seen recurring on the upcoming second season of Apple TV’s Bad Monkey opposite Vince Vaughn and the third season of of Netflix’s Nobody Wants This. The casting on Bad Monkey may have paved the way to her joining Scrubs as both series come from creator Bill Lawrence.

Mejia is repped by UTA, Artists First and Jackoway Austen Tyerman.