Supergirl -The Adventures of Supergirl & The Last Children of Krypton - Review:'What makes it so Super ? '

Supergirl 201 and 202

The Adventures of Supergirl
Story by Andrew Kreisberg and Greg Berlanti
Teleplay by Andrew Kreisberg and Jessica Queller
Directed by Glen Winter

The Last Children of Krypton
Written by Robert Rovner & Caitlin Parrish
Directed by Glen Winter

Last year the talk was it had been 40 years since a female superhero had been on our TV screens. With a lot riding on Supergirl's shoulders most wondered if Greg Berlanti and his crew could deliver(having had success with Arrow and The Flash). Once again he seemed to look in the direction of former Glee cast members and Melissa Benoist was cast in the lead role. It was a great fit and she embraced the role bringing not only Supergirl but Kara Danvers to life. The show was witty, fun, lighthearted ,entertaining and had a heart to the show that stemmed mainly from the female relationships , the sister's Kara and Alex and boss/mentor to both Supergirl and Kara, Cat Grant. Supergirl soon gained a firm fan following, at last, we had a female superhero girls could look up to and women could relate to.
Supergirl surprised most with going to CBS rather than the CW with the others and despite its success it’s future was uncertain at the end of the first season due to high production costs.
To fans relief, it was announced she was moving to join her fellow hero’s on the CW which also meant a move in production from LA to Vancouver.With these changes would it would stay the show we knew. Soon new cast members were announced and the fact Superman would be joining his cousin in the first two episodes.
The move, however, left an unclear future for the queen of all Media ‘s character Cat Grant played by Calista Flockhart who is based in L.A. While she will not be in the series as much as last year (which is explained) it appears she will be in some episodes this season.
Two episodes aired ,it looks sharper with more in-depth storylines and with fight scene's fitting of a superhero. Season two looks very promising and while we have yet to meet all the new recurring characters the ones already introduced have certainly spiced things up a bit.

So let’s take a look at the stories and see why it has the ratings soaring for the CW.

Previous on Supergirl our super friends and Kara were celebrating their success over myriad and James and Kara had shared a kiss. A bang is heard and it looks like a craft of some sort is about to crash.

The universe didn’t want to let our heroes have their down time and soon, J'onn and Kara are racing after a pod like Kara’s stopping any mishaps before it crashes . Kara opens it to find what appears to be a comatose young man.

We see J'onn and Kara flying not to the DEO out in the desert but to Kara's surprise, the DEO has moved, well from what Alex says it has always had a base there, but it’s our first time seeing it in a high-rise glass building and we learn near Alex’s apartment. This is where our mystery man is now, he is proving hard to test as it appears like Kara he seems impervious to most things. Another new addition to DEO is Winn, he is asked to help but seeing his skills he is hired by the DEO.

At Cat Co , as you may recall Cat gave Kara an office ( which we don't see ??) and choice of career. Cat wants to know what Kara’s decision is regarding her career. Kara hasn’t decided yet but did an online quiz which suggested marketing, you can see her answer goes down as well as Cat’s salad. I loved it when Cat shouted her new assistant “Miss Teschmacher” .

Kara has revealed to Alex earlier she was nervous about her first date with James so that evening we see her at super speed trying on outfits. A gift I am sure most of us ladies would love to have. It seems a bit strained between them, they put the space shuttle launch on TV as James knows Kara really wants to watch it. The Venture as it is called has high-class passengers on board (sounds like something Richard Branson is doing).

While this is going on we see a guy on the phone talking to Perry White, yes it's Clark Kent/Superman and in those first few minutes, I was very impressed. In fact, throughout the episodes, he has been played brilliantly by Tyler Hoechlin who takes this character back to the more playful version of the man of steel rather than recent dark incarnations.

The Venture is launched but as we could have all predicted gets in trouble which is caused by an explosion. Soon both our heroes are rushing to save the day.

I like how Superman asked Supergirl if he could help when he arrives and doesn’t overshadow her throughout the episode. They both save the Venture and Kara brings her cousin ,Superman back to the DEO were everyone is in awe except J'onn . There is quite a chill between these two. Alex soon discovers why . Of course, we can guess it has to do with Kryptonite and Superman is not happy Jonn keeps something that could Kill him and Kara.
Kara show’s Kal the new arrival and Winn has the answers to where he could have been since Krypton exploded. Although we don’t know he is from there yet expect his pod is like Kara’s.

Kara tries to apologize for missing the rest of the date to James but you can see these two just can’t seem to get in sync and it comes as no surprise later in the episode when Kara says they are better off friends.This has had a mixed reaction but as I mentioned when we did the roundtable review during the Flash crossover,despite the actor's best efforts the chemistry just wasn't there and I think this is the best move forward for them.

Kara/Supergirl and Clark/Superman are working well together as heroes and their alter ego’s and Clark wants to stay for awhile to learn more from his cousin. Clark seems to even have sway with Cat Grant .

In regard to the Venture, this story I found intriguing as it brings both Clark/Superman universe over into Kara/Supergirl.
One passenger failed to show it was none other than Lena Luthor and at first it appears that Lena may have planted the bomb it soon becomes clear she was, in fact, the target of her Brother Lex Luthor who is in prison thanks to Superman. She wants to start fresh making good the Luthor name and claims to be nothing like her brother. Her assassin was hired by Lex but Lena shoots him when he gets the better of Alex in a fight. From what we have seen she will be a welcome addition and in a surprise, conversation gives Kara a nudge towards her right career. Katie McGrath (known for Morgana in Merlin and Sapphic vampire in Dracula) clearly owns this role from the start and I can’t wait to see more of her onscreen. Could she be Kara’s new friend?

Cat can see Kara is hesitant about the next step and tells her to dive in, in fact, you can see Cat seems to be doing some thinking of her own. Kara has been trailing around with Clark on the Venture story and announces she wants to be a reporter a fact Cat knew from her first meeting with her.

The twist at the end is you can’t put a bad guy down and Corben the Assassin hired by Lex to take out his sister wakes up not in Hospital but in a place called Cadmus (We learned of this last year ) he agrees to be injected with something and its announced Corben is dead long live Metallo.


It was a fabulous premiere with the story that continued into this week’s episode . We finally got to meet Kara’s cousin, Superman /Kal-El/Clark Kent , are introduced to a Luthor and see the beginnings of the sinister goings on at Cadmus. It was a premiere that had me smiling all the way through with so many nods towards the 1978 Superman movie fans were left smiling as well.

In the premiere, not everyone was happy with Superman's arrival and tensions between J'onn J'onzz and Kal-El over keeping Kryptonite took some of the shine of the new DEO headquarters.
In The last Children of Krypton , we see the rift between the two men expanding after Cadmus has gotten their hands on some of the kryptonite providing a dangerous foe for the two superheroes. This gives us an iconic shot from the crisis comic’s front cover which once again left fans of the Super franchise more than happy. The second part also provides even more of an engaging storyline with emotional conflicts as well as the physical.

It kicks off with our two superheroes are having fun saving the day and stopping bad guys as this episode picks up after the former.

J'onn isn’t impressed with the showboating as he calls it and is quick to pull Kara up for failing to inform them when they had in fact completed a mission. #toomuchfun !. The DEO also has another problem the power keeps getting drained and it appears to be coming from the man who fell to earth. Though he hasn’t woken up yet. There is another frosty exchange between Superman and J'onn as he has the visitor dampened by kryptonite.
Alex is looking forward to sister night with Kara but isn’t pleased when she invites her cousin along as well, I feel this will be interrupted as Cadmus has woken up their metal man. Corben now Metallo seems to have kryptonite in his chest as well.

At Cat Co , Cat seems very interested in watching Clark which is too funny and I love Kara rolling her eyes. She does contain herself to introduce Kara to her new boss Snapper Carr played by Ian Gomez (Cougar Town). He seems as impressed as Cat was when she first arrived, looks like Kara has her work cut out for her there.

Clark announces to Kara it’s time for him to get back to Metropolis but when they see a jumper on a bridge they go for one last save together.

Things don’t turn out that way when it's soon revealed to be Metallo who blasts both of them and they barely escape with their lives. The image of Superman holding Supergirl is straight from the cover of the comic ‘Crisis on Infinite Earths' The CW even did its own poster

Superman carries Kara back to DEO where once again he and J'onn go at it and Winn who is the king of quips in this episode seems excited for them to fight. Kal is annoyed as he believed only the DEO had kryptonite but J'onn and Alex reveal months ago some went missing when it was being transferred. It looks close to some super punching when Cadmus announces their arrival and to purge the world of aliens. Alex is worried what they may have done to her father, you will remember she discovered Cadmus had him towards the end of last season. Superman says he is going to the Fortress to analyze the metal some of which transferred to his hand when he punched Corben. Maybe the cold will cool their tempers as J'onn goes with him. J'onn gives Winn or Agent Schott as he is now, the task of making something suitable from Non and Astra’s anti-Kryptonite tech for Supergirl and Superman.

Kara has a run-in with her new boss and he doesn’t seem to recognize her as a new hire, in fact, he states he hires in his department. Kara who has had years dealing with Cat seems to get a little stumped by this and goes running to Cat for help. Cat reveals she needs to fight her own battles as she won’t always be around, poor Kara jumps to the conclusion that Cat is dying but Cat just feels stuck ‘Like a shark in a tank’ she needs to dive too. She announces a leave of absence from Cat Co. The tenderness between these two shows how far they have come from assistant and boss to in fact mentor to each other. Cat was hard on Kara to teach her life isn’t easy. Kara showed Cat she could let people in.

Cat knows Kara can handle Snapper Carr and after Cat Grant so do we. There is a similar scene later with Cat and Supergirl and I do still wonder if she does suspect who in fact she is. I really am going to miss Cat, her quips made for some of the best one-liners of the show. Let’s hope she doesn’t stay away too long.

Supergirl will have more than enough problems to deal with as Cadmus makes another Metallo though this participant isn’t as willing as Corben, Brenda Strong is deliciously evil as the Dr/ Mad scientist of Cadmus.

J'onn and Kal do talk at the Fortress of Solitude, J'onn has the Kryptonite out of fear because of what happened to his people Kal says he doesn’t hate him they need to trust each other . It’s a nice bit of man bonding and here’s hoping it will ease the tensions between them.

Kara doesn’t like the changes with Clark heading back to Metropolis she feels she should move there much to Alex’s displeasure. When Alex and Kara argue I feel this is an argument that has been brewing for awhile. Though Alex giving up a medical career might have been a nod to actress Chyler Leigh’s previous role on Grey’s anatomy as doesn’t tie with what we know from the first season. Alex is angry and feels Kara is abandoning her and is quick to point out Kal abandoned her with them when she was young. They are interrupted when the guys announce their return.

Superman and J'onn arrive back and learn that the metal is promethium which Winn can locate but Cadmus sets a trap fro the superheroes, while Corben is talking with them his counterpart has raised Krypton park in Metropolis to the ground. Both feeling guilty they weren't there.

Alex in the episode is a bad ass , I really can’t find a better word for it. When Winn gives Alex some friendly advice they also work out how to catch a leak in the DEO . This leads them to who stole the Kryptonite and Alex sets a trap. Cadmus turns up and our not so friendly Scientist teases Alex about her father and offers for Alex to join Cadmus which she refuses . Alex soon kick’s her way out but her escape doesn’t go as planned until Supergirl shows up and catches a bullet meant for Alex. They realize they are stronger together and that’s the key to beating Cadmus as they are convinced Supergirl and Superman work alone thinking of themselves as gods.

Sister tag team time anyone ! We have the Danvers sisters versus one Metallo and Martian Manhunter with Superman against the other . Yes, and what an epic battle, something I feel was lacking in the first season of this series the fight scene’s always seemed to be over as quickly as they had begun. The foursome takes on the two Metallo’s and defeats them with a little help from Winn's invention.

Kara delivers her story to Snapper Carr and while she hasn’t any Snappy comebacks for Snapper he agrees he can teach her a thing or two. James who has been absent for the episode moves into Cat Grant's office and will be running Cat Co. This scene is not as awkward and shows they work better as friends
Superman returns to Metropolis with a gift of Kryptonite to secure from J'onn . I wonder if Kara or Winn will miss him this most, I liked his addition to the series but it’s Supergirl's story and while I would not mind him guest starring again let’s see Supergirl continue to shine just as well as her alter ego Sunny Danvers .

Meanwhile, our mystery man is awake and does not seem too happy.


So what were your thoughts on the start of this season ?

Are you looking forward to seeing our'Wonder' president next week and new cast member Maggie Sawyer?

Please post comments below

About the Author - Zandarl

Zandarl a Writer and avid TV and film buff ,once described as a wilful hedonist, has travelled all over and lived in the states for a short time. Now based in the UK she attends cons when able and meets stars from her favourite shows .Her first start in fandom was Xena and since then has admired tv shows that portray strong women. Her current favorites being Rizzoli and Isles and Once Upon a Time as well as anything comic book related. A regular movie goer she watches most genres but never ask her to watch a horror movie.

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