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CW's Supergirl: Today, Tomorrow And Beyond

supergirlThis week I'm going to take a look at some of the comic related television series and go over where they are at, where they might be going the rest of the season and where I'd like to see them go next season.

Since the move from CBS to the CW, Supergirl has jettisoned a lot of the things I didn't like about the show. The whole office place romance / Devil Wears Prada thing wasn't working for me. I liked Cat Grant when she was inspirational to Kara, but the rest of the time she was kind of annoying. And the whole Winn / Kara / Jimmy love triangle thing just never really felt like it worked. It wasn't organic and didn't fit the characters. So moving Grant out, Olsen up and spending less time at CatCo was an improvement. Also, moving Winn over to the DOE not only keeps him in the thick of things, but lightens up that area in the same way that Felicity Smoak lightens up Team Arrow.

The good and the bad here have to do with Aliens. I think the Mon-El storyline has been better and lasted longer than I had expected. I figured he would end up following his comic version, getting lead poisoning and ending up in something like the Phantom Zone. That's not saying it won't happen still, but they're starting to expand on the character and making the relationship with Kara seem very natural. If they continue to play this out, have them fall in love and THEN put him off where they can't be together… that would be good drama. On the other hand, J'onn J'onzz seems to be getting shorted this season. Both the M'gann M'orzz story and J'onn turning into a White Martian happened in tiny bits and were resolved way too quickly. I thought we'd have weeks of J'onn struggling with the transformation and him eventually having to fight Supergirl… but instead it get cleaned up off camera during a commercial break. M'gann is still around though so we might get back to that.

Interestingly, the relationship between Alex Danvers and Maggie Sawyer is overshadowing the one between Kara and Mon-El. And the Jimmy Olsen / Winn Schott making the Guardian story is also doing well. The place we're not really seeing a whole lot of character growth is Supergirl. She got to spend two episodes hanging out with her cousin Clark Kent and in doing so the show had it's two best episodes yet… and we got to see a Superman that would thrive on television. Other than that, Kara keeps bumping around trying to fit into roles that don't suit her. She's not the big sister or the mentor. And her trying to be a reporter doesn't feel natural at all, add in her odd relationship with Lena Luthor and it feels like the producers aren't really sure what to do with Kara, so they're trying to make her Clark.

When the series returns on January 23rd, it starts with an episode called Supergirl Lives and it's directed by Kevin Smith. The trailer features the return of Roulette and a portal that appears to take Kara to another world. We also know that aliens are coming to look for Mon-El. Putting this information together I'm starting to think that we might be getting Warworld and Mongul. Also, I'm guessing that Mon-El's story about being a guard for a Daxamite Prince isn't quite true… I think Mon-El IS the Daxamite Prince. With the first season, there was the Kryptonians and the rest of the aliens to match Supergirl up against. This season it's been Metallo, Cyborg-Superman and Cadmus, but that wrapped that up already. So She needs someone to pit her might against and build towards the end of season 2, who better than Mongul?

The other thing they'll have to deal with is Guardian. He'll need to come clean to Kara at some point, because Greg Berlanti and crew hate secret identities. He'll also need someone to match up against, maybe someone he can take that Supergirl can't. Not sure who that will be, but I think that will be the only way she'll accept Jimmy as a hero. Either that or he'll save Alex while Kara is off planet or otherwise engaged.

And I'm sure we'll see M'gann M'orzz again this season. Maybe just for a few second before a commercial, but she'll come up again.

Now look at going forward into the third season, I think it needs to be a bit more Kara-centric and less Team Super. She takes a lot of things for granted for someone who lost her entire planet. She needs to be take on by a mastermind who takes he life apart piece by piece while throwing distractions at her. A mystery villain for fans to figure out and threats that are more than a villain of the week. Maybe bring in the mysterious Superwoman from 52 and make her part of a betrayal. Whatever they decide to do, the stakes need to be raised and the threats need to be more dangerous going forward.


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Dan WicklineAbout Dan Wickline

Has quietly been working at Bleeding Cool for over three years. He has written comics for Image, Top Cow, Shadowline, Avatar, IDW, Dynamite, Moonstone, Humanoids and Zenescope. He is the author of the Lucius Fogg series of novels and a published photographer.
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