Supergirl S02E13 Review: Kltpzyxm-ing it Like the Golden Age

Supergirl, Season 2, Episode 13: Mr and Mrs Mxyzptlk

Where Flash fought Gorilla Grodd and King Solovar in Gorilla City this week, Supergirl and Mon-El had to deal with the most famous fifth-dimensional reality-warping imp, Mr. Mxyzptlk. See, whether you want to know if someone is a real DC fan or not, you tell them to spell Mxyzptlk. If, like me, they spend way too much time reading comics as a kid, Mxyzptlk comes off the tongue (or the fingers typing on the keyboard) smoothly. 

The sheer hilarity of what's going on, with Mxyzptlk reimagined as a tall, handsome charming man who just wants to straight-up marry Kara, leading to the most bizarre romantic comedy where Mxyzptlk and Mon-El fight over Kara's affections. It was pretty one-sided, of course, with Kara really liking Mon-El, Mxyzptlk literally being an irritating dude that shows up out of nowhere, and of course we get a random conflict about how Mon-El's aggressive jealous defense of Kara's honour causes Kara to be angry. 

Yes, it has all the bearings of a classic Mxyzptlk story from the more light hearted comics. Put him into an unwinnable situation, and have him spell out his name -- in this case, Kara makes use of a loophole Mxyzptlk notes briefly at the beginning of the episode (he can't make her kill herself) by engineering the Fortress of Solitude into exploding with her in it, and if Mxyzptlk wants to shut down the reactor, he has to spell a password... which, of course, is Kltpzyxm. It's a pretty simple solution, but it's still fun with Mxyzptlk's insane power set that gives us a lot of flair. From resurrecting Parasite so he can come on down with a fake Superman costume, to dropping Mon-El in his underwear in the DEO base, to challenging Mon-El to a duel with guns on a stage, to reanimating Jor-El's statue in the Fortress, to putting Kara in a wedding dress, Mxyzptlk is absolutely entertaining. 

I'm not quite sure where they're going with Kara and Mon-El, other than to give them some rom-com subplot. Again, something that's beating a dead horse at this point, only the charisma that Kara and Mon-El have together really allows this subplot to proceed on its course without being grating. I'm a bit confused why Kara would be so angry for Mon-El being a bit of a pushy boyfriend that speaks his mind when in this episode her advice to Alex is to, um, be a pushy girlfriend that speaks her mind. But circumstances differ, of course -- Mon-El wants to straight-up murder Mxyzptlk, and keeps getting into situations where only Mxyzptlk's playfulness prevents him from getting killed by the imp.

Alex and Maggie's subplot would be absolutely trite and irritating in a different episode, but here, with the romantic theme between Kara/Mon-El/Mxyzptlk nonsense, it actually sort of fits? I literally don't care about this, though. Like, you're a secret agent and a badass policeman, stop spending every fucking episode repeating the same old 'we disagree, then we make up' subplot. 

There's also another subplot featuring Winn banging a random lady alien, Lyra, who literally comes out of nowhere. That was totally weird and random. I don't think Lyra's based on any particular character in the comics, but Starhaven is definitely a setup for more Legion-inspired alien goodness. 

So yeah, it's a huge comedic episode filled with Valentine's day festivities, and it actually kind of worked, which surprised me. A good chunk of it is thanks to the Supergirl-Mxyzptlk-Mon-El three-way being so gosh-darned hilarious, of course, but the B-plots, despite being weak, doesn't break the episode either. 

DC Easter Eggs Corner:

• Mr Mxyzptlk is usually portrayed as a orange or purple-shirted little imp with a bowler hat, with or without a cigar depending on the media. He hails from the Fifth Dimension, and has reality warping powers far, far more powerful in the comics than the relatively simple magics he wields here. Sending him back also involves tricking him into saying "Kltpzysm", his name backwards, although the reverse-name spell only lasts for like forty-two days or something. He's a lot less romantic in the comics too.
• Parasite's return is actually a nice reference to how writers like to use Fifth-Dimensional Imps, especially Mr. Mxyzptlk, to bring back dead characters as part of their game, and when they return they forgot to 'undo' the resurrection. 
• Zook, briefly mentioned by J'onn as being a Fifth Dimensional Imp that wreaked havoc on Mars, is actually J'onn's sidekick in the Golden Age. While his status as a Fifth-Dimensional Imp as powerful as Mxyzptlk, Bat-Mite or Yz is disputed, he is still an extra-dimensional being with limited reality warping powers.
• Starhaven is home of the Legion of Super-Heroes characters Dawnstar and her ancestor Wildstar, and Starhaven's inhabited with humanoids with large angelic wings. Neither Dawnstar not Wildstar have a proper given name, so maybe "Lyra" is supposed to be one of them? 
• In the comics, genies are straight-up fifth-dimensional imps.
• We get a "It's a bird! It's a plane! It's Superman!" from the crowd when Mxyzptlk-man shows up to wonk the fake Parasite. 
• Mxy kind of mentions the X-Men movies, albeit not by name, when he uses his magics to pull a bunch of criminals' guns, lift it up over their heads and start doing the mid-air dramatic gun cock, a sequence of action that's the signature of Magneto ever since the first X-Men movie.