There are 5 things I want from Season 5 of Supergirl.
Yes, 1 for every season, 5 things I want from Season 5 of Supergirl.
But first things first, Supergirl isn’t my favorite series in the Arrowverse.
It and Arrow were the two shows I would eventually watch just to keep up with the collective story. After I enjoyed the Legends of Tomorrow and The Flash, of course. And while I was playing whatever game I had just downloaded onto my iPhone that hour.
It had a great first few seasons, but after Cat Grant left I skipped a huge chunk of one season, the one where the former Lois Lane from Lois and Clark slash Desperate Housewife was invading from Krypton or something. The show was a victim of the malady known as “Superhero Television Burnout”.
And then, Season 4 came onto Netflix.
The writers and the cast took the current sociopolitical climate, wrapped it up in some good old fashioned comic book metaphors, and gave us 20+ episodes with intricately woven plot lines, dramatic plot twists and character development that tugged at the heartstrings. I actually put my phone down during the last half of the season to focus on the storylines.
It brought me back to reading the Chris Claremont run of the Uncanny X-Men, a decade long four-color saga that preached the evils of racism and all other forms of prejudice while providing a super-powered soap opera full of strong and fully realized characters of both genders and all races.
Season 4 got a lot of things right, and I am actually looking forward to that momentum carrying over to Season 5. With that encouraging thought in mind, here are 5 things I want from season 5 of Supergirl.
Keep Brainiac, Don’t Bring Winn Back
I’ve never liked Winn Schott’s character.
He’s always felt a little too on the nose cast as an annoying geek who never got the girl but did whatever she wanted in an awkward fashion. We’ve seen this character played better a million times, ironically one of them was the iconic “Ducky,” played by Jon Cryer who would play Lex Luthor in the same series.
It just felt like he was thrown in to be the “Felicity” or “Cisco” for this show, though never being as interesting as those two characters are in their own right. Not every series benefits from having an “Oracle” style character and making him the son of Winslow Schott aka the Toyman was interesting but still didn’t make his existence in the series important.
He lacks the naturally awkward dialogue of a Felicity or the effortless nerd cool of Cisco, and his absence during this season made it so much more obvious to me. I loved every minute that he was replaced by Jesse Rath’s Brainiac-5 character.
Brainy’s superior intellect yet woefully inadequate knowledge of social graces made for great television. His character stole every scene where he misread the situation for big laughs or struggled to understand the wicked nature of man for emotionally compelling drama. He slowly evolved over the season and I loved every minute of it.
He serves all the functions that Winn did in previous seasons while being better at the job and much more interesting to watch. I’ve read that he’s coming back so I know this is pointless but I don’t care, I’ll type it loud and proud: BRAINIAC OVER WINN!!!
A New Side Story For J’onn
What’s even going on right now with the Martian Manhunter?
J’onn J’onzz has always been one of DC Comics’ most underutilized characters. In recent years, they partially made up for it during modern comic book crossovers and constantly casting him in Supergirl. Making J’onn a Hank Henshaw impersonator was a brilliant touch, as it referenced the Dan Jurgens era of Superman comic books and provided an excellent twist for fanboys like me who expected something else.
David Harewood has done an excellent job grounding the last Martian alive and making him the powerful yet wise conscience of the DC Universe. He and his father were wonderfully cast and always bring a sense of gravitas to whatever scene they are a part of, all while eating Chocos.
And that is all well and good.
However.
This story is not one of the 5 things I want from Season 5 of Supergirl.
I have lost all interest in the current side story J’onn is going through. His Manchester Black scenes were very compelling, but once he started seeing his dad and talking about old relics of the past and blah blah blah, I lost interest. I don’t even know if it was resolved by the end of Season 4, I was just focused on Jon Cryer singing Frank Sinatra and going out like a BOSS.
I need this thread to be wrapped up, and J’onn needs to go through a “Trial By Fire,” the classic Joe Kelly JLA saga that reveals a big secret from J’onn’s past. It also features a romance between him and a newly reformed villain named Scorch. “Trial By Fire” sees J’onn working on overcoming his weakness for, well, fire.
I won’t spoil any more details, but if Supergirl introduces Scorch early on in Season 5 as a villain, then she tries to reform after the CRISIS of Infinite Earths crossover, then she can help J’onn and fall in love with him. It would also be a great twist if Scorch almost killed him with fire during the crossover which leads him to get over his weakness.
It’s definitely one of my favorite ideas of the 5 things I want from Season 5 of Supergirl.
Lena Luthor and Red Daughter Vs. Supergirl
Season 5 of Supergirl ended with Lena shooting Lex and finally finding out that Kara Danvers is Supergirl. It was a fitting last gift from Lex that would later be repeated similarly in Spider-Man Far From Home during one of the post-credit scenes.
Lena had to be the last person to find out. Now that she knows, my vote is for Lena finally giving in to the Luthor side of her nature and wage war on the House of El. I want a slow build this Season, reminiscent of the fallout between Clark and Lex in Smallville. With Lex (possibly) out of the picture, Lena needs to step up and fully realize her genius and supervillain potential.
Points if she talks to a skull that she imagines being Lex, monologuing that she has to prove herself Psycho style during one episode. That might be a bit much, but I’d enjoy it. But that’s not all that I want to see happen in Lena’s world.
I want Red Daughter to come back and team up with Lena the way the “Matrix” version of Supergirl allied herself with Lex Luthor Jr. in the nineties. For those of you who don’t remember, Lex Jr. was a clone of the original Lex pretending to be his son for reasons you should dig up the original comics and read about.
An alternate universe Lex Luthor shaped a lifeform into the image of an alternate universe Lana Lange called “Matrix”. She had all the powers of the original Supergirl but could also shapeshift, cloak herself and move things with her mind. She ended up replacing the original Supergirl in a post CRISIS universe and Lex Jr. recruited her to join him at LexCorp.
They also dated.
Gross.
Either way, I would love to see Lena bring back Red Daughter, who sacrificed herself to protect Kara from a kryptonite blast at the end of Season 4. Lena has proven that she is brilliant enough to rewrite the laws of nature and I could see her wanting to have her version of Supergirl that doesn’t lie to her and obeys her every whim.
It would be a great Lex Jr./Matrix throwback that would probably end with Lena and Kara patching up their differences and killing the now out of control Red Daughter trying to save the world by enslaving it, but what a way to go.
The Lena/Kara dynamic should be the main focus of Season 5. That would definitely be one of the 5 things I want from Season 5 of Supergirl.
Bloodsport’s Small Screen Debut
Bloodsport is one of my favorite lesser-known DC villains, a richly complex nineties character with a short legacy of multiple identities and moral lessons to be had by all. His slogan “BLOODSPORT – HE PLAYS FOR KEEPS” is the ultimate representation of the glorious end of the 20th-century extreme excess.
Bloodsport’s first rendition was a war veteran’s brother who snapped and killed citizens out of guilt for dodging the draft many years ago. The one trait he shared with the other Bloodsports was the ability to teleport any weapon into his hands, even one with kryptonite bullets that would give Supes a run for his money.
It portrayed a horrific story of gratuitous violence mixed with the postwar consequences that many soldiers deal with. The first Bloodsport was arrested after one issue but left a lasting mark on readers that led to imitators.
The next Bloodsport has a white supremacist who brutally slaughters people that he feels are different from him. This version of the character would be perfect for Season 5 of Supergirl. Season 4 thrived on using the fictitious struggles of aliens from other planets coming to Earth as an analogy for the current real-life struggles of immigrants from Mexico coming to America.
Though at times cheesy and ham-fisted, the analogy worked. It provided emotionally stirring episodes that reflected on current events and provided me hope for a brighter future.
Supergirl’s courage in its storytelling and refusal to back away from controversy paid off big time, and I think the series needs to continue the tradition in Season 5.
We need Supergirl to shine a light on prejudice once again. Though I’m sure the material will have to be toned down in light of recent tragic events, this is no time to start backing down from the issues, we need to speak up and stand against evil, and art is at its best when it is used to reflect the times we live in and help us see our way through the darkness.
Bloodsport would be a great vehicle for Supergirl to explore the current state of affairs. That is why it is one of the 5 things I want from Season 5 of Supergirl.
Jimmy Olsen as Turtle Boy
What, you think I’m joking?
This is legitimately one of the 5 things I want from Season 5 of Supergirl.
The Arrowverse thrives on digging up obscure references from the comic book lore. Even if it’s just a name for a background character with three lines who disappears forever afterward.
Jimmy Olsen has already been this universe’s version of the nineties staple Guardian, and he’s already had superpowers, so why not give the character another dose of meta absurdity for a bit with the television premiere of “Turtle Boy”?
I don’t even care if it’s a throwaway gag, tell me that you wouldn’t laugh at seeing Mehcad Brooks dressed like a generic Ninja Turtle from the era of movies before CGI.
Last season, he dealt with the trauma of missing his dad’s funeral. Now, he gets to “come out of his shell” and –
Yeah, I know it’s not gonna happen.
A fanboy can dream, right?
