The Adventures of Supergirl: Season 2 Premiere Review

I'll be honest: I wasn't super impressed with the Berlantiverse season premieres so far. Last week we only had The Flash and Arrow to look at. And where Arrow played it totally safe in an effort to return to its Season One roots (fairly successfully, but just really lacking that WOW factor), The Flash felt rushed in its hurry to cram the quintissential "Flashpoint" story into 45 minutes. I was also rather displeased with the characterization of its women. 

With the move from CBS to the CW, I wasn't sure what to expect with Supergirl. It has always been a very positive show, the shining star in the otherwise rather fairly drab world that Arrow started five years ago. Flash managed to take on the sillier, softer side of the Arrowverse for a while, but not like Supergirl. Plus my girl Kara wasn't the only kickass gal in town; she was surrounded by complex women. 

Still, I didn't want to get my hopes up too high after my excitement for The Flash was not repaid in kind.

So! All that said, let's talk about last night's premiere, the first episode of Supergirl on its new home, the CW. Beware, there be spoilers ahead!


"The Adventures of Supergirl" picks up right where we left Kara and the gang; popping a champagne bottle to celebrate their victory in saving the world from Non. That victory lap is interrupted by the arrival of a new Kryptonian pod, which Kara and J'onn investigate and end up pulling out an unconscious young dude who may or may not be Kryptonian. Our new mystery guy is taken back to the shiny new city offices of the DEO, since the old secret cave got trashed last season.

Last season, Kara got a new office and the offer from Cat Grant to take on any job she wanted at CatCo, and Kara was also going to get the chance to date her long-time crush James. We pick up right there: Kara still hasn't decided what she wants to do at CatCo, and Cat gives her 48 hours to figure it out. Meanwhile, Kara and James have their first date interrupted when a fancy new spaceship launch goes wrong and it comes crashing back down to earth. The crashing spaceship apparently gives Kara the exit she needs, because things seem a little awkward with James.

Much to Kara's surprise, her cousin Clark happens to be in town, and he joins her in rescuing the ship. For the first time in Supergirl history, we actually have Superman joining forces with her! I was both excited and dreading having Clark in the story. This is Kara's story, and it would be easy to allow Clark to take over as the main attraction, especially the adork-able Tyler Hoechlin nailing the role as both Clark and Superman so perfectly from the get-go. And there's still a chance he might steal the show at some point, because apparently he's hanging around for a while. More on that later in my review!

Utterly Adorkable... and just perfect!

As the mystery of the exploding ship deepens, we get some background on Clark: he put his nemesis Lex Luthor in jail and Lex's sister is now running the company. And Clark also has history with Hank/J'onn, but they don't see eye to eye because Hank is choosing to keep kryptonite at the DEO "just in case" not all Kryptonians are chill. Clark wants him to get rid of it, because it might be used against him and/or Kara (not that he's like, overshadowing or anything!).

To you, sir, I say, "Grrr..."

Turns out Lex's sister Lena was supposed to be on that ship, but she wasn't, so Clark immediately suspects she was behind the explosion. Except that Winn, who now works for the DEO, discovers that the bomb was placed under Lena's seat, so it appears she was actually the target.

There's a bad guy who steals some high-tech drones, and he ends up using them to try to kill Lena, who is attempting to relaunch Luthor Corp under a new name to erase the shame on her family name. Supergirl and Superman have to work together to protect both her, and the citizenry, against the drone attacks.

So Clark is going to stick around for a while. Kara figures out that what she really wants to do at CatCo is be a reporter, and during that scene, we get the setup for Cat Grant's exit off the show, because it appears Cat herself has come to an epiphany that she is ripe for a change. It will be a shame if this actually happens, but not really surprising since Calista Flockhart doesn't want to commute to Vancouver, so her role was reduced in this season already. Lena Luthor remains a mystery, and one of the baddies, at least, will be Metallo, a classic Superman villain. And Kara has decided that she's still trying to figure out who she is, so she feels that a relationship with James is too much and they would remain best as friends.

Okay let's talk business. My #1 concern was that Superman would overshadow Supergirl in her own show. But in this episode, at least, Clark always deferred to her, both in character and by design. Supergirl still appears to be the primary focus for the in-universe news cameras, for example. She's the one who protects Lena while Supes runs around taking out drones, so she sees more action with the assassin. And when L Corp's building starts to fall down, Clark just holds it in place, but Kara is the one that figures out (with Winn's help) how to keep it upright. Tyler Hoechlin was fabulous, no doubt, but he didn't steal the show. And that made me incredibly happy! This is, as I stated before, Kara's story. If he's going to keep being cute and helpful but let her lead, I'm totally down!

While I'm sad at the prospect of less Cat Grant, I never thought Kara's job as her assistant made much sense in terms of allowing her to be a superhero. Like, how the hell did she keep her job while being absent so much? My theory has always been that Cat knows she's Supergirl, and that's why she wasn't fired. But while Kara's new role as a reporter makes more sense in terms of the freedom out of the office she will get, I also cringe a little at the idea that she has to follow in Clark's footsteps to be a superhero. There are any number of jobs that give you freedom to be out of the office. I kind of wish she had picked something else.

The Queen of Media, moving on to something else? Say it ain't so!
This episode didn't give us any clue on how Supergirl will be joining up with the Arrowverse just yet, as everything seems to be exactly as we left it back on CBS last season, so we won't even bother with CW Time Travel Science yet. I'm happy to say that while the show has moved to a new network and a new filming location, everything feels just the same. Supergirl is as sunny and polished as ever, and of the three premieres so far, this has been the strongest.

What did you think of Supergirl's premiere? Was it everything you hoped it would be? Let us know below!

Ivonne Martin is a writer, gamer, and avid consumer of all things geek—and is probably entirely too verbose for her own good.