SPOILERS!
That was not only my first Supergirl episode, but my first episode of any of the superhero shows.
Obviously, it’s called “Supergirl” not “Martian Manhunter” or the “Legion and Supergirl.” and the show will revolve around her character. That’s going to mean that the roles and capabilities of others are going to be more limited. Like Superman turning up in the JLA.
There are also going to be plenty of changes made by the writers as they try to fit existing concepts and characters into this format. No doubt there’s lots of reasons, from trying to attract certain demographics, through personal choices, to trying to do something to pretend that other people didn’t create all of these characters
So with that said:
Keeping the Legionnaires to an initial three was not only a nod to the Adventure days, but a realisation that many more would clog up the show. There’s quite a few other cast members here for the writers to keep up with too. The Legion has to add to a cast, rather than getting the whole show as a spotlight.
Brainy, Lar and Imra were excellent choices if you wanted to pick your first Legionnaires. They are arguably three of the four non-Krypton Legion cornerstones. I wonder if Cham will appear as the Manhunter seems to already fill that role in the show. Ayla got a mention! And they fell into the comic cliché trap of wiping out a world. At least they didn’t say it was blown up, so there’s hope. I don’t think the different look for all three had any adverse impact on the characters and their Legion ties.
Imra is telekinetic. It’s more visual, although there are ways to tweak telepathy to have effects too. The number of other characters and it being Supergirl meant that she wasn’t going to show lots of her strengths. Although she didn’t get to do lots, it’s a promising start. In the comics, Imra’s mom was telekinetic and Levitz had her use some TK (although that was debatably in error) in v7.
I’ve not seen any of the previous Mon-El appearances, but it looks as though he’s been there long enough to have had a failed relationship with Supergirl. The episode did a good job of giving details, without getting bogged down to the point the other Legionnaires got limited time. Looking back at Mon-El’s first comics appearance, it could easily have been tweaked for a more romantic tone. I guess it’s because the show is Supergirl’s that we don’t see Mon (or Manhunter) as physically stronger.
After the first second getting over the appearance, I quite liked Brainy. He’s not genius Brainy who’s a jerk; he’s genius Brainy who’s looking out for his friends.
The moment where he revealed he’d doctored his virtual appearance to impress Kara was nicely done. He’s no less awkward than the original Brainy appearance where he bluntly asks Kara to stay in the future to be his girl. I got the feeling the writers are going to have fun with their relationship. More so, if there’s been a Mon-El romance too.
Having him firing from a spaceship seemed a bit odd, when I’m so used to seeing him with a forcefield. No reason why the forcefield tech couldn’t have been altered to reach out and thump someone. It did keep the ship, and its cargo (3 more Legionnaires at least!) firmly in scope though.
The Blight seem to be the reason for the Legion being there. There must still be folks at DC wondering just why that DnA run didn’t have more of an impact. The Legion’s situation reminded of the Mordru story where they fled into time, as well has having a Legion Lost feel to it. The first one, not the pants second one.
Hopefully, their genetic solution will seem more plausible as it goes on, but at least the writers addressed the “can’t get involved” for a definite reason that wasn’t just altering the timestream. The amount of information the future knows is also addressed head on. The show gets points for getting that out of the way too.
I didn’t intend to even mention the Legion comic in the above. It’s only fair that the TV format gets a clean slate, and I was happy to judge it on that. But they’ve obviously done a lot of background work on the Legion, so it would have been a shame not to mention it. Massive, massive points for having a Streaky cameo! It looks as though Streaky isn’t getting superpowers, so they provided a layer of depth to Kara through their relationship. Nicely done.
(Since the Legion are mucking around with genetics and can time travel, there’s no reason why Brainy’s parting gift to Kara can’t be Whizzy!
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I can’t say I’ve suddenly turned into a fan of Superhero shows/films off the back of this. There’s a bigger “budget” in the first few pages of most comics than a TV show is ever going to have. There’s nothing wrong with the action sequences chosen, but I just found it too stagey.
The dialogue came across as overly trimmed to the point of clunky at times, which is the polish you get in a format where every moment counts.
The main, non-Legion cast came across as very samey. Perhaps they all get bigger roles normally, and had to step back because the Legion are now there. It tough to juggle that cast and keep everyone happy.
I think they did really well with the budget. Having a familiar interior, and subplot in Kara’s mind, while also having additional cast and action, created a nice balance in the story and probably to the balance sheet too.
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I do like this more mature Mon better, though.
