Supergirl S02E02 Review: Outnumbering the Enemy

Supergirl, Season 2, Episode 2: The Last Children of Krypton

Can I just say that I really, really enjoy Supergirl and Superman's team-ups in this episode? Especially the first few scenes, where they just zoom in, save a burning building, and then stop a bunch of robbers by having one of them stand in front of the car, then the other swooping in behind the car (with Superman adorably apologizing for the dented fenders!), basically just standing as bullets are unleashed, and Superman asking the eternal question: why try a punch when bullets clearly just failed?

Of course, it's not all fun and games, as Superman's charisma doesn't stick with J'onn and Alex, despite the latter adorably crushing on Superman a couple of points earlier in this episode. The two characters have different kinds of beef, with J'onn's beef not being personal and only out of pragmatism, whereas Alex's problem is far, far more personal and a very emotional one. 

J'onn and Superman continue their little antagonism from last episode, but the episode also makes a pretty cool point of showing that J'onn still respects Superman, like learning Kryptonian and chronicling what little he knows of Superman's deceased homeworld. But Superman makes it clear that he considers J'onn keeping Kryptonite as a breach of trust, asking J'onn why they can't just trust each other and work together (and maybe found a League of Justice, recruit a bunch of superheroes from the sister shows?). J'onn does raise a good point about how there are threats that even Superman can't handle, like Non during the climax of the first season, but their little team-up this episode (more on that later) ended up causing J'onn to trust Superman and give all the Kryptonite to him. It's a variation of the Batman/Superman conflict from the movie with the same name, but on the other hand, with J'onn and Supergirl around, it's obvious that Superman isn't quite the same god-versus-man like he was in the movie world, meaning the lack of Kryptonite at J'onn's disposal is more of an inconvenience more than crippling them should Superman get mind-controlled or something. 

Alex starts to feel overshadowed by Superman as the main sibling-figure, especially at one point when Supergirl considers moving away to Metropolis with Superman, causing her to pull the 'I sacrificed so much for you!' It's a bit odd for Alex to go from fanboying Superman to throwing an angry fit (which, to be fair, was actually well-acted as far as these things go) but her disdain at being replaced after all she has done is believable. Alex later gets a short, personal scene with Winn, who, as a foster child himself, tells Alex that family isn't about keeping score about who sacrificed the most -- something that all families can relate to -- and how "look at what we did for you" is kind of entitled for people to say. It's a strangely well-written scene for something that really should've been sappy and would be absolutely irritating if it were written by the season one team. Of course, there's still a bit of a wonky moment when they move from fangirl!Alex to jealous!Alex to robotsuit!Alex, but hey.

Alex herself gets to be relevant to the plot as she goes off on her own and discovers the whole Cadmus plot, and it's all but spelled out that her father has joined up with Cadmus willingly. She does get a bit of a badass "what, kill aliens? I killed Astra of krypton, what do you people got?".

Superman is fun, but he makes it clear in this episode that he's leaving -- both as Superman and as Clark. After all, he can't stay forever, not unless the show gets a rebrand into Super-Cousins. Which, by the way, I would totally prefer. Superman is awesome!

We get a two-way team-up as Superman teams up with Supergirl to fight... Metallo! Complete with half-cyborg body and a kryptonite heart that shoots beams. It's a very cool fight scene that makes the best use of its lower budget... and honestly looks a lot better than the nonsense kryptonian fighting of season 1. The climax has two Metallos in play, one fighting Supergirl and Alex, and the other fighting J'onn and Superman. It's just very awesome, even if the second Metallo's existence and inclusion took me by absolute surprise. The Metallos are mostly just imposing physical threats that justify the two Supers needing backup (and how cool is it to see Superman and Martian Manhunter on-screen?). Cadmus might be a generic alien-hating organization with too much power than they should have, but they are already miles and miles better than Astra, Non and Maxwell. Not quite super-awesome yet, but still, not a bad effort.

Also cool is Superman's Fortress of Solitude, with the large ice sculpture of Jor-El and Lara, and Martian Manhunter just visiting the place. It's a shame that Superman leaves the show so soon after his introduction, but I guess the sight of his precious Metropolis being assaulted by the second Metallo and his monument being kind of fucked up sobered him to having to work in his old stomping grounds again.

The CatCo scenes are still, as ever, the weakest part of the show. I have no actual problems with Cat Grant as a character other than sometimes her dialogue tends to be way too preachy. And we get a long, long, long set of scenes devoted to how she's leaving the show. Er, company. Kara's "OMG ARE YOU DYING" expression is hilarious as all hell, and I guess the two separate farewells from Kara and Supergirl are okay... but it kind of ran for too long, I think, with the sole saving grace is that it's a character actually being written out. We also get introduced to Kara's reporter boss, which is Snapper Carr, a very, very unexpected arrival to the show. He's nothing much but a hardass dick-boss, though, and the struggles of seeing Kara trying to deal with an asshole boss? Not really interesting in the slightest. 

James Olsen takes over Cat's actual job, and I totally forgot he existed. The Cat Co scenes already don't interest me at all, especially in all the far more interesting arcs surrounding Supergirl, Superman, J'onn, Alex, Cadmus, two Metallos and the mysterious Kryptonian boy that suddenly woke up. Overall, it's a pretty strong and enjoyable episode, and while Cadmus and the entirety of the CatCo nonsense are both still unimpressive, the superhero fighting scenes more than make up for it. 

DC Easter Eggs Corner:

• Readers who follow my Justice League reviews are undoubtedly familiar with Snapper Carr, a recurring reporter character in that cartoon. In the comics, Snapper is a supporting character in the earliest Justice League of America comics, just this little kid who hangs out and snaps his fingers a lot, before he was retooled into a traitor, and later a reporter.
• I mentioned Cadmus a bit last episode, and it's a military-science organization dedicated to creating superhumans for the American government to combat extraterrestrial threats, and has featured in many DC cartoons like Justice League Unlimited and Young Justice, though it originally began as a Superman antagonist. Despite their very villainous portrayal here, in the source material they were a slightly less moral version of the DEO.
• Superman cradling Supergirl, of course, is an image familiar to comic book fans, the iconic death of the first Supergirl during Crisis of Infinite Earths.