Remember in my review of The Flash were I praised it for being willing to be a comic book series? That goes double for CBS’s Supergirl and I had more fun watching it. Maybe because I’m more interested in Superman lore than Flash lore, or maybe because it’s not as dark as the CW’s take on the DC Universe. It has a lighter quality that I like in my superhero shows. Also, I really like Supergirl in general, or at least the pre-Crisis version that wasn’t a shapeshifting clay thing that was forced to merge with a ritual suicidal girl and somehow gained angel wings. VERY long story! I like your work, Peter David, and I liked meeting and interviewing you at ComiCONN that one time but…seriously with this?

Anyway, I’ve seen reviews that were either down on this show or questioned the future of it. I will tell you right now that I am not one of those people although I do have some negatives of my own. All of them fanboyish in nature, mind you, but I do love this show.

WARNING: SPOILERS TO FOLLOW!!!!

In this version, Kara Zor-El was sent to Earth along with baby Kal-El but for whatever reason in a separate rocket. Her job would be to care for the baby. However, a shockwave from Krypton’s explosion sends Kara, in stasis, to the Phantom Zone (which is now accessible through a black hole because plot device) and when her ship floats out she’s still a teen but Kal-El is now a grown-up Superman. In this version he takes her right to the Danvers family, who are scientists that helped him master his powers. No orphanage for Kara. Also, no “Linda” as a first name but under the circumstances I can overlook that. Poor girl’s suffered the death of her planet, being stuck in the Phantom Zone, and waking up to see her baby cousin is now older than her. Would you tell her she had to change her first name for no good reason?

Now an adult and working for Cat Grant’s television network, Kara tried to live a normal life until her adopted sister is in a crashing plane and Kara save it, revealing her existence to the world. To the show’s credit she doesn’t hop right into the superhero business but struggles between being safe and following her heart as she now wants to do more. However, this also alerts the DEO, run by the xenophobic Hank Henshaw (whom Kara’s sister works for) and a group of Phantom Zone criminals who follower her ship out and now wants to take over the planet and get revenge on Allura through her daughter Kara.

Her only confidants are Win, a co-worker at the station, her sister, and Jimmy…sorry, “James” Olsen, sent by Superman to keep an eye on his cousin to see if she chooses the superhero life on her own. You know me, I like seeing superheroes have non-super allies and these three plus even Henshaw make for a good support team for Kara as she follows her cousin.

Okay, let’s deal with the elephant in the room, as I’m sure it already exists: Jimmy/James Olsen. Yes, he’s played by a bald black man, and when did hair go out of style for black people in action shows? That’s not my problem with James although we’ve had the discussion in the past that wanting the actor to look like the character he’s portraying isn’t a racial issue but a “get the adaptation right” issue. Even the rebooted Star Trek movies worked hard to find actors who looked like and could invoke the spirit of the original performers, and they blew up Vulcan just because Abrams could. However, his backstory is still closer than Henshaw’s, also a race change but for some reason seems closer to General Hardcastle. In fact, if he HAD been Hardcastle I would have accepted him despite the race change because the actor did a great job imitating him.

The TV costume is growing on me but I still don’t like the darker colors.

No live-action Jimmy Olsen, even the white ones, have resembled the Jimmy Olsen from the comics, while every animated version got him spot-on in both looks and personality. And that’s my problem; Win ACTS more like Jimmy than James does. Laurence Fishburne in Man Of Steel at least tried to look like Perry White but still failed in the personality, which is why I didn’t accept him. James doesn’t have the right look OR personality. And why did Superman expose her identity to James? I know he wanted someone to look after her but she’s an adult. She can take care of herself and when she decided to be open about her powers she found a confidant that she thought would be on her side.

That brings us to Winn. I like him. Yes, he’s the unrequited love interest and it’s not like he’s necessarily closed about that. He admits openly that he likes her but she doesn’t seem to care. I saw one early review that called Winn a “nice guy stalker” because he thought Kara was going to tell him she was a lesbian. Yeah, that eases his ego when she won’t go out with him but doesn’t necessarily shoot him down either. In fact, Winn is the one she goes to when she wants to pursue world-saving as a lifestyle. However he didn’t come off as creepy to me. I think the reviewer is shipping Kara/James, though, because of course the pretty people have to get together. We don’t know anything about Winn right now so it’s too early to tell if he’s a bad character but he works on helping design Kara’s hero costume and he honestly wants to help her. I don’t think we’ve reached “love triangle” yet and I don’t want to see it. That was one of my problems with The Flash as you recall.

Calista Flockhart does a perfect Cat Grant. There’s not much else to say, but I do like her defense of the “girl” in Supergirl, whether it’s PC or not. The sister I don’t want to get into because I’m avoiding the big spoilers, including the big bads for the seasons, although I do wonder if they’ll all have Superman/Supergirl’s powers or if a reason will show up to give them all unique ones. Speaking of powers, this show should get an Emmy for the special effects. The plane rescue looks better than what I’ve seen of Superman Returns and I love the flying effects. It’s so believable that Kara is flying. Beyond that, I love this show and am looking forward to seeing more episodes.