Next week the CW kicks off the new seasons of Supergirl, The Flash, Legends of the DCU, and ARROW.

First up, is Supergirl season 3 on Monday @ 8pm.

I really enjoyed the second season of the CW Supergirl series. After the first season, which aired on CBS, the show found a better fit with other DC CW properties. The first season, which was more Kara’s origin and finding out who she was and could be, season 2 helped define strengthen her as a well-rounded character.

Returning Characters

Supergirl (Melissa Benoist)

Martian Manhunter (David Harewood)

Alex Danvers(Chyler Leigh)

James Olsen (Mehcad Brooks)

Winn Schott (Jeremy Jordan)

New Characters

Mon-El (Chris Wood)

Maggie Sawyer (Floriana Lima)

Snapper Carr (Ian Gomez)

Lena Luthor (Katie McGrath)

Lillian Luthor (Brenda Strong)

M’gann M’orzz/Miss Martian (Sharon Leal)

John Corben/Metallo (Frederick Schmidt)

Music Meister (Darren Criss)

Mxyzptlk (Peter Gadiot)

Cyborg-Superman (David Harewood)

Cameos

Superman (Tyler Hoechlin)

Jeremiah Danvers (Dean Cain)

Eliza Danvers (Helen Slater)

Lar Gand (Kevin Sorbo)

Rhea (Teri Hatcher)

President Olivia Marsden (Lynda Carter)



Season 2 Summary

Supergirl’s sophomore season picks up moments after where the season finale left off. Supergirl and Martian Manhunter are examining the mysterious space pod that crashed outside National City which turns out to contain the Daxamite Mon-El. At first, he tells them he was the prince’s bodyguard but it turns out that he is the prince of Daxamite, Krypton’s, xenophobic and hedonistic sister planet. Things between Mon-El and Kara start off rocky, as the Kryptonian/Daxamite relation prior to the destruction of the sister planets was hostile at best (Krypton exploding causes Daxamite to get showered with falling planet parts and making the planet uninhabitable). Supergirl agrees to teach Mon-El how to use his powers and fit into human society, and eventually becomes the new love interest for Kara, in favor of the Kara/Jimmy Olsen relationship that was played with during the first season.

Lex’s sister Lena Luthor, looking to atone and redeem the Luthor name after Lex has been put in prison, joins the show. The unseen reveal being that Lena and Kara form a close friendship over the course of the season. This turn made Lena a more interesting character and highlighted the question of whether Lena is a truly selfless and noble person as she claims or if a turn towards Ultra-Woman (Superwoman Rebirth series) is perhaps in the cards for later.

The main villain for most of the season is Lillian Luthor and the members of Cadmus, who seeks to take advantage of that human/alien tension for personal gain. Part of Lillian’s Cadmus group include “Cyborg-Superman,” the original Hank Henshaw assumed dead, Metallo, and Kara and Alex’s father, Jerimiah Danvers, who was also assumed to be dead.

The last three episodes switch gears when the Daxamites, lead by Mon-El’s mother and Queen of the Daxamites, Rhea (played by Teri Hatcher), try to take over the Earth so that the Daxamites will have a new home. At first Mon-El’s parents just wanted him to come with them as they seek a new home, but after he refuses to leave Earth, Rhea kills Mon-El’s father Lar Gand (played by Kevin Sorbo) and sets her eyes on colonizing Earth. The Daxamites are defeated when Mon-El releases the Cadmus weapon that disperses lead into the air, making Earth uninhabitable for the Daxamites. This means that Mon-El must also leave Earth in order to stay alive.

The show finally brought Kara’s lesser-known cousin, Superman (Hoechlin) into the CW Universe. Played by Tyler Hoechlin, Superman brought the character’s warmth and charisma back, which has been absent in DC’s Cinematic Superman since the beginning of the Zack Snyder-verse.

Jimmy Olsen becomes the head of CatCo after Cat Grant (Calista Flockhart) departs the show as a series regular. James’ romance with Kara, which was cut short as soon as it began in the Season 1 finale, finds Jimmy adrift and in search of a new purpose. He finds this new purpose does by becoming a superhero, The Guardian, who is aided by Winn Schott who now works with the DEO. This puts the two of them at odds with Kara for most of the season. Snapper Carr (mascot of the original Justice League) appears as Kara’s new editor at her CatCo job and takes over from Cat Grant’s tough love mentoring role.

The second season also sees Supergirl working with the DEO has set up a new headquarters in National City and run by J’onn J’onzz. The focus of the agency shifts focuses towards the growing tension between Earth’s human citizens and the growing number of alien immigrants.

J’onn J’onzz meets M’gann M’orzz/Miss Martian, (originally from the Teen Titans universe), and forms a relationship with her after needing a blood transfusion from her which causes him to discover she is a White Martian, but one who is against the White Martians war on the Green Martians.

This season also introduced the classic Superman pest, Mxyzptlk and the Music Meister, from the cartoon All-New Batman: The Brave and the Bold.

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Supergirl made measured improvements in the second season, mainly in part due to moving to The CW. The show bolstered its already solid cast with classic characters with modern interpretations. This season blended superhuman conflicts with situations that mirrored today’s society and political hot-button issues, marked by plenty of anti-alien sentiment in National City, without being heavy-handed, preachy or the loss authentic character drama. While not every character benefited from the shake-ups this season, and not every lingering Season 1 problem was addressed, the season as a whole had more good elements than bad.

The move to The CW did seem to work in the show’s favor for the most part. While it made crossovers with the Arrowverse shows much easier, it still felt like it was the new kid on the block. This was evident in the INVASION crossover between the four shows. ARROW, FLASH, and LEGENDS all got complete episodes of crossover events, whereas Supergirl’s show connected to the others because at the end of “MEDUSA”, Barry shows up and tells Kara he needs her help and off they went. The second crossover between Flash and Supergirl was the same, Supergirl is whammeied by the Music Meister, wakes up and is in the nightclub and the main part of the story takes place in The Flash. that shift helped Supergirl feel slightly more cohesive when held alongside its siblings. Stylistically and tonally, Supergirl felt very much like like a good-natured sister series to The Flash. Overall, Green Arrow, The Flash, and Supergirl are a better Trinity than the Batman, Wonder Woman, and Superman of the current cinematic universe.

Season 3

Supergirl premiere: “Girl of Steel.”

Kara deals with the loss of Mon-El by focusing all her energy on being Supergirl and the mysterious new threat against National City. Alex confesses a secret to Maggie about their impending nuptials. A citizen of National City has a mysterious connection to Kara, and Lena Luthor makes a bold move

The Villian for the season is Reign.

Reign first appeared in Supergirl #5 during the New52 series (2011 – 2015)

Reign is a Worldkiller, a biological weapon created on Krypton but eventually outlawed by the Kryptonian Science Council. Reign is on of the four Worldkillers created by Zor-El, Kara’s father. Zor-El later came to regret his part in the creation of those blood-thirsty, super-powerful monsters. Reign and her partners survived Krypton, but her origin remained a mystery even to her. All she knew about herself is her name and her being Worldkiller, and Krypton and Earth hold the answers to her origin. Reign tried to return to Krypton, finding out that it was destroyed. Reign finds Supergirl, and the two return to the remains of Argo City, hoping to find anything about the Worldkiller’s origin. When Kara could not provide any answers, Reign beat Supergirl down leaving her for dead and headed back to Earth to conquer the planet. Supergirl returns to Earth and stops Reign’s destruction. Reign thought Supergirl would join her when the young Kryptonian refuses the offer, Reign and three of her Worldkillers partners fought. Supergirl manages to hurt one of them, forcing an unwilling Reign to take the risk to lose one of her soldiers. Reign opts to retreat and leave Earth, vowing she would fight Supergirl again and warning that she and her three partners are not the only Worldkillers.

In the upcoming season, Executive producer Andrew Kreisberg told Entertainment Weekly. ” When we meet Reign, she’s just a woman. Her name is Samantha and she’s a single mom, and she has no idea that she is Reign; she has no idea that she was the baby in the pod at the end of last season, so the journey that she takes this season is watching her realize her heritage and see how it manifests.”

The other villain who makes an appearance in the upcoming season is Psi, (Gayle Marsh), a psychic who cruelly manipulates people’s minds.

Psi was created by Paul Kupperberg and Carmine Infantino, and first appeared in Supergirl (Volume 2) #1. Her real name is Gayle Marsh, who at the age of twelve, she developed psychic powers, primarily psychokinesis. After her parents died she was raised by the scientist David Pendergast who was preparing to fight a new menace called “the Decay.” In college, she took the alias of Psi and fought Supergirl several times, thinking that Supergirl was the Decay. The truth was that David Pendergast was an extension of her own fears. Realizing that the Decay was David and herself, she put a stop to Pendergast and herself.

Later she joined the Suicide Squad for a mission in Central America, but she was killed by the Rocket Red Brigade. Her allies, Mister 104, the Thinker and the Weasel do not survive the mission. Her first appearance as part of the current DC Universe is in Sterling Gates and Neil Edwards’ New 52 Forever Evil: A.R.G.U.S. series. Gayle Marsh accidentally lands on Prime Earth through a dimensional breach and Supergirl and Vibe manage to restrain her. Once she telepathically communicated with Supergirl, she agreed to stay in the A. R. G. U. S. headquarters, believing it to be a safe place. Psi is shown as a prisoner in A.R.G.U.S.’s Detroit station called “The Circus.” Steve Trevor and Killer Frost visit her cell to see if she can disrupt the Firestorm Matrix in order to free the imprisoned Justice Leagues. When Psi touches him however, Trevor is flooded with images, which he realizes connects everything he already knew, based on the clue Madame Xanadu told him, and tells him how to save the Justice League. One of the visions that Psi showed Steve Trevor was that Wonder Woman’s lasso is in the possession of Cheetah

She is transferred to a Project Cadmus Black Site, jailed and experimented on. Gayle was weakened and mind-broken when someone put in her head something called “the Key to the Phantom Zone”. The “Key” said Xa-Du could fix her mind if she went to the Phantom Zone, but she’d need Supergirl to get there. In the Batgirl Annual #1 (Rebirth Era) Gayle uses her telepathy to get Supergirl break her out, and then she used the Girl of Steel to teleport herself to the Phantom Zone. Her first appearance in the CW Supergirl Universe is “Adventures of Supergirl” series on January 24, 2016

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Other characters appearing this season:

Maggie Sawyer’s father:

Oscar Rodas is also a cop. It was revealed last season that Maggie grew up in a very conservative family that did not approve of her being a lesbian. After she was outed, Maggie and her parents got in a big fight, which resulted in the teen getting kicked out of the house by her dad.

A villainous real estate tycoon whose vision of National City’s future clashes with Lena Luthor and Supergirl’s ideology.

Martian Manhunter’s father, M’yrnn J’onzz, a young Supergirl super fan named Ruby.

and young Supergirl super fan named Ruby.

Supergirl is will also appear in the two-night CW Arrowverse crossover event in November.

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I am excited for this new season of the show and think that it can only get better now that it has found its feet.

For other posts on Supergirl checkout these posts:

Spotlight on DC Comics Supergirl

Spotlight on Supergirl: The Silver Age to Crisis on Infinite Earths

Spotlight on Supergirl: The Matrix /Earth-Born Angel years

Spotlight on Supergirl: Kara Returns to the Modern Age