Supergirl: Easter Eggs and Other Things You Might Have Missed In "The Darkest Place"

There weren't a ton of Easter eggs, DC Comics references, and other little winks and nods in [...]

By Russ Burlingame - November 21, 2016 09:34 pm EST

Supergirl-Barrage — (Photo: DC Entertainment)

There weren't a ton of Easter eggs, DC Comics references, and other little winks and nods in Supergirl this week -- but the ones that were there? Pretty significant.

A wink and a nod to Batman, a reference to The Guardian's Golden Age history, and yet another non-Super, non-Bat Justice League member getting a little love are just the beginning. Plus a few familiar faces turning up in unexpected ways.

So...what did we see? What did we miss?

Read on, and comment below.

A reminder that next week, Supergirl will kick off the four-show crossover event, so if you're a Supergirl fan you might want to get caught up on the other CW/DC super-shows so you can properly enjoy all four nights of Kara Zor-El goodness.

Supergirl airs Mondays at 8 p.m. ET/PT; The Flash on Tuesdays at the same time; Arrow on Wednesdays and DC's Legends of Tomorrow on Thursdays. All four series air on The CW. The "Invasion!" crossover will air beginning November 28.

CYBORG SUPERMAN

The Hank Henshaw introduced in the pilot wasn't Hank Henshaw at all, but J'Onn J'Onzz, the Martian Manhunter. He's been living in secret as Henshaw for years, since both Henshaw and Jeremiah Danvers -- the father of Alex and adoptive father of Kara -- seemingly passed away.

It wasn't clear how Henshaw died, although J'Onn did suggest Jeremiah died due to Henshaw's actions...which raises the question of just how Henshaw died at the same time, and whether J'Onn had anything to do with it.

And of course, now we've seen him as the Cyborg Superman.

A quick history refresher:

In the original comics (pre-Flashpoint), Henshaw was the captain of an experimental spacecraft -- The Excalibur -- which crashed after being bombarded by cosmic radiation upon re-entry to Earth.

Henshaw's crew was composed of friends and his wife -- an obvious homage to Marvel's Fantastic Four -- and it shattered his wife when she turned out to be the only survivor of the accident that briefly gave them all fantastic powers, and then poisoned them with radiation. Superman arrived on the scene too late to save Henshaw or his two friends, but managed to save his wife, Terri.

Later, Henshaw sprang back to life -- as a loose conglomeration of artifacts from the ship. He had developed functional immortality via his ability to project his consciousness into any electronic device. When approaching his wife caused a nervous breakdown that would lead to her death, Henshaw blamed Superman for his death and bizarre rebirth. Projecting himself into the "birthing matrix" which carried Superman to Earth -- his rocket -- Henshaw left the planet, apparently forever.

But he returned later, following the death of Superman. He masqueraded as a revived Superman in a cyborg body, using Kryptonian technology and data on Superman's DNA made available to him by the birthing matrix. He would destroy Coast City, killing millions, before being defeated by a revived Superman.

Henshaw would return a handful more times, squaring off against Superman, Green Lantern and even the Silver Surfer and Thanos. Eventually he would come to realize that what he really longed for was to have his mortality back -- and it was granted to him during the Revolt of the Alpha Lanterns. He would return once more, this time during the "Reign of Doomsday" story which reunited most of the characters from the Death and Return of Superman saga, before the end of the pre-Flashpoint DC Universe and the rebirth of the multiverse with the New 52 publishing initiative.

In the current comics, the Cyborg Superman was recently reinvented as a foe to Supergirl -- but not as Henshaw. That would be Zor-El, Supergirl's father -- or a version of him, anyway. It seems she's got some serious family drama going on...!

Where does that leave Henshaw? Well, he left on a mission to Jupiter with the Excalibur for a decade, and has just recently returned -- finding himself face to face with the pre-Flashpoint Superman that the "other" Henshaw hated so much in the first issue of Dan Jurgens and Lee Weeks' series Superman: Lois and Clark.

THE SIDEKICK JOKE

Supergirl-208-medusa-a_0120b — (Photo: The CW/Warner Bros. TV)

"Well, I wouldn't call him a sidekick..."

When Alex starts to speculate that maybe the Guardian has a "man in the van," that man -- Winn -- immediately steps up to defend his honor, compromising his cover in the process.

This is remarkably similar to when Cat Grant suggested that The Flash could be a sidekick to Supergirl last season during their crossover, prompting Barry Allen to object to the term.

WORLD'S FINEST

After Guardian is introduced, Kara says that her cousin once worked with a masked vigilante who had "tons of gadgets, lots of demons."

Wow...that sure sounds like Superman worked with Batman once.

NEWSBOY WINE & LIQUOR

When Barrage makes his first appearance early in the episode, he kills a crook Guardian has left hanging up to wait for the police outside of Newsboy Wine & Liquor.

The Newsboy Legion, of course, were a big part of both Guardian's and Jimmy Olsen's backstory in the Silver and Bronze Age of the comics, and played a key role in the post-Crisis on Infinite Earths iteration of Cadmus.

A group of hooligans and street con artists brought in by Guardian back when he was a cop, the Newsboys later became his charges, and while he helped them to rehabilitate, they helped him get to know the underbelly of the neighborhood in ways that an upright citizen like James Harper couldn't. Eventually, they would grow up, go to college, and ultimately become the scientists who led the Cadmus Project.

THANAGAR

The bars on Supergirl's cell are made from Thanagarian metal -- probably Nth Metal?

In any event, Thanagar is a pretty well-traveled spot in recent years. It was referenced in the (Supergirl-starring) Man of Steel prequel comic drawn by Cat Grant co-creator Jerry Ordway, as well as being a key element of the bad guys' plot in season 1 of DC's Legends of Tomorrow.

Interestingly, in the comics, Thanagarians (the Hawkpeople) were a key part of the Dominators' attack strategy against Earth in the 1988 miniseries Invasion!, which is the basis for next week's four-show CW crossover.

BARRAGE

Usually you can tell the difference between the names that pop up om somebody's screen as filler and the ones you're supposed to recognize on shows like Supergirl.

If you thought you should recognize the name "Phillip Karnowsky," you're...well, half-right.

Yes, they were trying to attract your attention to the name so that you realized it was an Easter egg, but really: how many people know or care about Barrage, the D-list Superman villain who serves as Karnowsky's alter-ego?

In the comics, Karnowsky is an armored supervillain without all the emotional, Punisher-esque backstory. He's got a cannon for an arm on one side -- the original arm, he lost when he tried to kill Maggie Sawyer.

After getting his super-suit, he tried to take revenge on Maggie, but succeeded only in getting beaten down by Superman. He later joined a number of minor villains on the Superman Revenge Squad.

DEAN CAIN

Yeah, we're going to count this one.

Cain, who plays Jeremiah Danvers on Supergirl, has only popped up a few times in the series, but he's a pretty memorable face to longtime fans of the franchise.

Not least of all because of his career-defining turn as Clark Kent/Superman on Lois & Clark: The New Adventures of Superman in the '90s.