Supergirl S01E07 Review: Manhunter

Supergirl, Season 1, Episode 7: Human For A Day

(I know, I know, I missed out several of the weekly manga. Real life got in the way. They'll show up tomorrow or the day after. It's just that the longer manga reviews like Tokyo Ghoul and Akame Ga Kill, well, take longer to write.)

Well, I think this is the first Supergirl episode I can call solid. Mind you, it’s still got a fair bit to go before it is good, but the only really bad thing that irked me in this episode was the crappy love triangle, but this time it’s at least executed somewhat well with misunderstandings and whatnot. And knowing that Winslow Schott’s asshole lines at Kara is definitely working him to be a version of Toyman certainly makes his character and his asshole “if I can’t have you no one can” lines.

But other than that? It’s a solid episode. Yes, it’s still pretty on-the-nose and it is borderline moronic for Maxwell Lord and Cat Grant to take potshots at each other just because one wants to bring down Supergirl and the other wants to paint her as a symbol of truth, but it could be a lot cheesier. And I watched Supergirl episodes one through six, I know this.

We’ve got two big plots running throughout the episode, and I do like how the DEO plot can’t possibly have gone along if Supergirl hadn’t lost her powers. The Supergirl side of things, well, as the title implies, has her lose her powers after using the Solar Flare attack last episode (which is a thing New 52 Superman does) and is left powerless right at the same time when a mysterious earthquake causes a gigantic disaster in National City. In the DEO side of things, tensions come to a head when Alex and Henshaw has to deal with the breakout of a telepathic alien, Jemm, and it leads to revelation that Hank Henshaw is, in fact, J’onn J’onzz, the Martian Manhunter.

I have been spoiled about Henshaw’s true identity before watching the show, and it is honestly one of the things that actually motivated me to start watching this trainwreck. So it’s rather appropriate that the first episode that features J’onn is the first episode that was actually good – and it’s not just J’onn appearing in the end in a costume that almost makes me forgive bad-cosplay Tornado last episode. Almost. The episode was, again, pretty decent.

Yes, some of the lines and acting are overblown and don’t really make sense given the situation – Maxwell Lord and Cat Grant’s speeches definitely take the cake on this, and Alex has some points where I really want to whack her in the head and tell her to do all this daddy drama after they catch the evil telepathic alien monster. But hey.

Let’s talk about the Supergirl side of things. There is always a time in nearly every single show about people with superpowers or whatever when the hero loses their powers – or, if not applicable, when they are thrust into a situation where they are rendered powerless either by situation or simply being fired from whatever organization that’s hiring them. It’s pretty great, and Kara gets some character development that actually makes sense instead of being the product of some convoluted speech that Cat gives to Kara that somehow applies to Supergirl’s big problem. Having her run around, mortal for a day, really brings her down to human level in how helpless she is, how vulnerable she is… and how her status as National City’s symbol of hope ends up getting destroyed when a big earthquake happens and she’s nowhere to be found.

Except the focus of the plot isn’t on Supergirl’s public image like fucking High School Musical or something – Cat and Maxwell Lord have a bit of a spat on that, and Kara and James confront Maxwell Lord on that, sure, but the focus of Kara’s development isn’t on her public image and I can definitely appreciate that. Kara’s big character moment in this story is how they find a dude tying of tension pneumothorax and there’s absolutely nothing she can do about it – not fly her to safety, not even use her X-Ray vision to find the bleeding vein. And she can’t save him! That’s the real kicker, and it’s a wonderful scene. She just feels so helpless and raw and it visibly hurt her so much, and I do like the development there.

And the little gambit where she, sans powers, walks into that armed robbery in costume and just poker-faces her way through it, earning James a photograph of a robber surrendering the gun to Supergirl? That was an actually pretty great scene. Yes, juxtaposing it against Cat Grant’s inspirational speech was, again, too on-the-nose, but I don’t mind this particular instance.

There's also the nice, short scene where Kara tries to seek help from the A.I. hologram Space Mom, who gives some inspirational speeches but is ultimately useless. But no doubt seeing her mother speak to her does wonders for Kara's mental state. I do like how Alex and Henshaw actually consulted with A.I. Alura as well, only finding her answers useless and boiling down to 'get my daughter to handle this'.

James is okay in this episode. He’s mostly consistent in just being a good friend, and his little backstory about why he became a photographer – and ending up capturing That One Picture™ is decent. The lift action scene is a nice little bonus for him, and he’s consistently good in this episode. since the other second-stringers end up a mixed bag of good and bad.

Maxwell Lord gets a nice speech about how people need to believe in themselves and not rely wholly on a superhero, which is an actually pretty valid point to make, but his cartoonish and petty jabs at Supergirl just makes it hard to take his valid points seriously. Cat’s basically devolved down to this super-nice authority figure (“if you need to go home to be with your families, go”) that says the odd bitch thing every now and then (“you have a cold GTFO my building”), and that seems to be the mould the show is settling her in. okay then. It just feels oxymoronic is all. Winn gets his time to shine creating a life feed for Cat Grant’s little sub-plot of media war against Maxwell Lord, but are bogged down by the nonsensical ‘you are not allowed happiness’ bullshit speech. I don’t care enough of their stupid love triangle to write a paragraph on it – and besides, it’s Supergirl’s first real decent episode! Let’s not have entire sections ranting about its shoddy writing.

The DEO scene is a more conventional action sequence against Jemm, Son of Saturn, who, appropriately enough is an occasional J’onn J’onzz antagonist... except, well, Jemm is nominally a hero and only used as a villain when mind-controlled. The character was originally designed as a blatant Expy of J'onn J'onzz himself (and ended up being an actual plot point later on) way back during the Silver Age when J'onn hasn't appeared in comics for a couple of years. Another strike, though not quite as bad as Red Dead Tornado (I hate this incarnation of Red Tornado so much that I refuse to call him that) last episode. The treatment of Jemm here actually resembles that of DC villain Despero, actually, with the pink skin and mental powers and third eye on the forehead and his big hammy conqueror of worlds line... though I guess Despero is big enough of a name (y'know, relatively) for them not to waste on a shitty one-shot villain. This version of Jemm is a generic telepathic monster here who controls mind and is an extremely generic and forgettable monster of the week.

While Alex’s decisions here is a bit questionable it’s still decent character work as her suspicions in J’onn get the better of her and the two end up confronting each other. Of course, the distrust in J’onn is unfounded as she reveals his true identity. It’s a great scene, and a nice little backstory for J’onn where Jeremiah Danvers sacrificed himself to stop the xenophobic REAL Hank Henshaw from killing J’onn. A reverse of CW Reverse-Flash’s backstory? Probably. Less epic? Definitely. But fuck you, we’ve got a J’onn J’onzz!

The DEO scenes are pretty decent enough if you assume J’onn/Henshaw is an alien monster himself, and honestly who saw that J’onn J’onzz twist coming without being spoiled about it? Even with awkwardly-written teases like "I WILL EXPOSE YOU TRUE IDENTITY as a coward" it's still a pretty decent episode that seemed set to showcase Hank Henshaw as Cyborg Superman. Granted it makes J'onn look a bit like a dick in hindsight that he disappeared (presumably phased through the walls) when DEO Mook #1 and DEO Mook #2 were killed, and why didn't he just barge in in full Martian Manhunter getup and bring Jemm down in one go? Or stuff like lying about the neural thingies. It's questionable, certainly, and no wonder Alex distrusts him. A bit harsh in hindsight, perhaps, but I dunno. Maybe it'll play into J'onn's character somehow?

Oh, and boring auntie Astra returns to do a mid-season finale plot or whatever. Maybe she's the one that caused the oh-so-conveniently-timed earthquake? Bah.

Overall, though, it’s the first episode of Supergirl that I can say is actually decent and well-written. And it only took seven episodes!