After its first season on CBS and less than stellar viewership for the major network superhero series ‘Supergirl’ was shifted to the CW, the home of other DC shows like ‘The Flash’, ‘Arrow’ and ‘Legends of Tomorrow’. ‘Supergirl’ did start off a bit slow but definitely picked up the pace to create a cool, fun series.
The second season premiered this week and, thanks to a guest starring role from the character’s more famous cousin Superman, it was absolutely fantastic. Now Supes had been teased a few times on the show before but “The Adventures of Supergirl” was the first time we saw him full in the flesh courtesy of ‘Teen Wolf’ actor Tyler Hoechlin. If you have not seen the episode yet then this big fat SPOILER ALERT is just for you.
Still here? Alright let’s do this thing. Here’s my review in four easy to chew slices:
#1 Here he comes to save the day!
Full disclosure – I was a tiny bit apprehensive about Hoechlin stepping into the iconic red and blue tights. He just looked a bit off in some of the photos. Fortunately my fears were unfounded and the actor absolutely nailed it. As Clark Kent he was awkward and sweet and as Superman he was strong, noble and light, giving civilians a smile and a wink after rescuing them. Now this is Superman, not that over serious, gloomy Gus that Zack Snyder and Henry Cavill created.
Hoechlin had superb chemistry with Kara, in and out of the suits, and I enjoyed every moment of them together. I also liked his tension with J’onn over the latter keeping a store of kryptonite. On the suit I generally liked it and appreciated the no “jockey shorts” look. I did not like that the cape came over so far onto the front though but it is a minor quibble.
#2 Things change, people change
With the aforementioned move from CBS to CW I fully expected there to be some changes, some story driven and some budget driven. The Department of Extra-Normal Operations (DEO) moves from their cave base to a building and Winn leaves CatCo to work with them full time. And it seems that the showrunners have been reading my posts and tweets because they did not proceed with the Kara/James (or Jara if you will) romance. Or at least for now. I’m sorry but these two had below zero chemistry.
With Kara pursuing her new job as a reporter I also have a feeling Jimmy might be heading back to Metropolis and there are hints that the wonderful Cat Grant may also be moving on with all that “take the plunge” talk. The latter leaving would be a pity as I love Cat’s razor ship wit and pop culture references as well as her mentoring role for Kara. We were also introduced to the new character Lena Luthor, who is from the comics, but I would need to see more of her before I make a judgment.
#3 Quite the dynamic duo
If there was a budget cut with the network move I did not notice it in the special effects department as the action scenes were some of the best we have seen on the show so far. The plane rescue and the drone battle/building save were both 12 flavours of awesome. And oh my goodness gracious me I had multiple nergasms watching Supergirl and Superman saving the day together. I would also give a shout out to Alex Danvers for kicking assassin John Corben’s backside. Alex kicking backside is always fun.
#4 Meet Metallo and season seeds
And speaking of Corben we see him at the end being fully transformed into the comic villain “Metallo” by the mysterious Cadmus, which last season was attempting to lock up J’onn because he was an undocumented alien. I did not actually see Corben get kryptonite in his chest so we will have to wait until next week to see how his powers work.
I will say that the reveal of the Kryptonian pod at the end was a bit anticlimatic. Kara went “oh my” to a guy she never met. Yeah big whoop. All we know about mystery guy is that he may or may not be from Krypton. Let us see how that goes. We also got quite a few Easter eggs and the two that stood out to me the most was the “Gotham” reference (who say Batman guest appearance?), the mention of the fictional DC country Corto Maltese which was featured in the 1989 Batman film.
Overall I was really impressed with this episode. I enjoyed Hoechlin as Superman, there was great action and I liked where they are taking Kara and the other characters. I am thoroughly pumped for next week and the rest of the season, especially the Flarrowverse crossovers.
Rating: “The Adventures of Supergirl” gets 4/4 red capes.
So what did you think of the new Superman? Is he a super hero or a super zero? Feel free to comment below and if you enjoyed this post you can share with your peeps. Sharing is caring.
For my ranking of the best modern Superman actors you can click here and for my Top 7 ‘Supergirl’ Supporting Characters you can click here. And for more superhero powered TV reviews you can follow me on Twitter @suprememango012 for updates.
Julien is gone faster than a speeding bulletin. l8rs