Green Lantern Writer Blasts Jason Momoa's "Baffling" Supergirl Performance

Published Sep 21, 2026, 11:02 AM EDT

Ambrose Tardive is an editor on ScreenRant's Comics team. Over the past two years, he has developed into the internet's foremost authority on The Far Side. Outside of his work for ScreenRant, Ambrose works as an Adjunct English Instructor.

After James Gunn’s Superman relaunched the DCU on screen last year, setting the foundation for a promising new cinematic era, its follow-up Supergirl proved to be one of the biggest box office disappointments of 2026. Among fans and critics’ many complaints about the film was its underwhelming role for Jason Momoa as Lobo, one of DC’s weirdest and wildest characters.

Now, adding their voice to the chorus of criticism is legendary comic writer Grant Morrison, whose credits include transformative runs on X-Men for Marvel, and Batman and Green Lantern for DC, just to name a few titles.

Morrison is an expert storyteller, and a passionate advocate for superhero stories in all mediums. Which is why it stings, for DC, to have them call Momoa’s turn as Lobo in Supergirl “quite baffling,” and “one of the worst performances [they’ve] ever seen in a film.”

Morrison’s comments reiterate what a creative misfire Supergirl was. Even if opinions toward the movie soften in the years to come, which frequently happens with superhero films, it will still be looked at as the wrong move for James Gunn’s nascent DCU, and the wrong foot to introduce Lobo on.

Acclaimed Comic Writer Grant Morrison Sums Up The Criticism Of Jason Momoa's Lobo In Supergirl

Here is what Grant Morrison wrote in their latest Xanaduum newsletter:

I watched Supergirl, which wasn’t terrible but wasn’t especially great either. All the best and most moving scenes involved Millie Alcock, and I thought she did a credible job. Jason Momoa, who I was actually looking forward to, was very disappointing as Lobo. It was, in fact, one of the worst performances I’ve ever seen in a film and quite baffling, as I know Momoa’s not usually that bad and Lobo seems like a character made for him to play. Go figure. Then the whole plot fell apart in Act 2 - all Supergirl had to do was bring Krypto with her to that yellow sun world, and the sun’s rays would have made the dog invulnerable again, easily able to shake off any toxin. They needn’t have bothered chasing after the dull and low level Romanian gangster baddie, Krem of the Yellow Hills, to get the antidote after all!

It’s worth noting that Morrison outright says the movie “wasn’t terrible,” but instead specifically calls out two things. A major plot flaw, and the bungling of Lobo.

Morrison goes to great lengths in this mini-review to take the blame off Jason Momoa for the film’s Lobo failure, noting how well matched the actor and character seem. This more or less echoes the prevailing sentiment among reviewers: why’d they do Lobo like this? As Morrison essentially put it, this is a case of a good actor cast in the perfect role, giving a bad performance in a movie that is okay at best, and awful at worst.

How does something like this happen? There’s the “square peg, round hole” theory, which is that Lobo didn’t fit the vibe Supergirl’s makers were going for, but was forced into the movie anyway. Then there’s the harsher theory, which is that Jason Momoa felt so natural in the role that he was actually too natural. That instead of playing Lobo, he wound up cosplaying the character.

Grant Morrison Points Out Bigger Problems With Supergirl, Of Which Momoa's Lobo Might Just Be A Symptom

Most DC fans would agree that Supergirl was hopefully not the last of Lobo on screen in the DCU. A solo film or a TV series would be a major shot at redemption for Momoa and his vision of the character, one that would hopefully be a platform for him to deliver an unrestrained and truly memorable take on DC’s “Main Man.” For now, though, the consensus on his performance in Supergirl is effectively summed up by Grant Morrison in just two words: “quite baffling.”

There is, however, a spark of hope for Lobo’s future in the DCU contained within Morrison’s review, which is that they are more aggrieved by the laziness of Supergirl’s Krypto plotline, suggesting that systemic creative failures caused the letdown of Supergirl, a completely different issue from the ones the former Green Lantern has with HBO's Lanterns. Which says that with the right creative team, Jason Momoa’s Lobo can still be a force to be reckoned with on screen.