Supergirl: 7 Things You Might Have Missed In “Falling”

Tonights’ episode of Supergirl was some pretty well-worn territory for long-time Super-fans, with episodes of Superboy and Smallville both tackling the idea of Red Kryptonite having a profound emotional impact on Clark — and often turning him “bad” in the process.

We got an unhinged Kara who, among other things, outed J’Onn J’Onzz, presumably setting up some kind of Season Two dynamic with a new head of the DEO, and nearly killed Cat Grant.

Along the way, there were quite a few little winks and nods to other media, the comics, and previous continuity.

So…what did we catch? What did we miss?

Read on, and comment below.

STORAGE CLOSET

That’s where Clark Kent used to hide out when he needed to change into his Superman costume at the Daily Planet.

As a child, I remember wondering why all the storage closets he ever ran into had a window he could leap into the sky from.

You can see an image from the cover of Action Comics #692 above, featuring a Superman who had just weeks before returned from the dead, returning to action as Clark Kent for the first time since the Doomsday battle…in a storage closet.

RED KRYPTONITE

Red Kryptonite has a long and varied history in Superman media.

In the pre-Crisis on Infinite Earths continuity, Red Kryptonite was just standard green Kryptonite, which had passed through a mysterious red cloud. It would affect Kryptonians in seemingly random ways, with no two chunks having the exact same effects or signature. After a period of 1-3 days, the effects of the Red K would wear off and that specific Kryptonian would be immune to that specific piece of Red K forevermore.

In the post-Crisis era, the first Red K was a lot simpler: It took away Superman’s powers. That one wasn’t actually radioactive, but had been created by Mr. Mxyzptlk.

Later, cosmic villain Dominus would create one that caused Superman’s head to grow, and later still, Ra’s al Ghul synthesized some that would make Superman’s skin translucent, increasing his power consumption and making his powers go out of control — which is similar to what they’d done on the Lois & Clark TV series. The Superboy and Smallville shows both gave us Red K that impacted young Clark emotionally in significant ways.

KHUND

While it’s K’Hund in the world of Supergirl, the Khunds are a DC Comics race of aliens with a bit of history.

The Khund were one of the races that teamed with the Dominators in the DC Comics event Invasion!, in which a group of alien races tried to take over Earth. Later, it was revealed that their militaristic history was shaped by an attack by Doomsday centuries in the past.

Years of battling between factions among themselves was brought to an end by Doomsday’s attack — which united their world against the beast. They repelled Doomsday, sending him on his way, and ultimately became a culture that battled only against other worlds.

There have been a variety of different looks for the Khund — but the one they use here feels most like the one we saw in Legion of Super-Heroes stories.

PERRY WHITE

When Siobhan tries her end-run around Cat and Kara, it’s Perry White to whom she tries to send the video of Supergirl letting the K’Hund go.

Of course, it’s not a very bright decision: besides having lots of experience with Super-stuff, Perry was also the one who first hired Cat and gaver her a shot, meaning that the long conversation Cat initiated with White when Kara blew Siobhan in, might very well have happened regardless.

SYNTHETIC KRYPTONITE

The idea of synthesizing Kryptonite, and not being able to do it exactly right, is something that’s not new to comics.

Usually, it’s Lex Luthor who’s facing that problem…but of course, we have Max Lord playing the Lex Luthor role in Supergirl, so it’s him who tries and fails it this time out.

In Superman III, there’s synthetic Kryptonite, which is what turns Superman evil for a while — something pretty clearly echoed here (more on that later). And in the post-Crisis, pre-Flashpoint publishing era, Red Kryptonite wasn’t actually Kryptonite, per se, but a synthetic Kryptonite created by Mr. Mxyzptlk.

COSTUME IN THE TRASH

Very Spider-Man.

I wasn’t quick enough on the draw to get a screen capture of the little girl throwing out her Supergirl costume, but I wasn’t the only one to spot the fact that it’s a fairly similar visual…

Spider-Man has repeated that visual so many times, not just in the movies, but in the comics too, that it’s pretty much impossible at this point to see a superhero costume in the trash and not think about it.

SUPERMAN III

When Supergirl heads to Noonan’s in this episode, she finds herself having a drink and flicking peanuts at bottles on the bar, shattering them and trashing the mirror behind.

Any ideas where that might have come from?

…Yeah. So that’s reference #1,000 to the ’70s/’80s Superman/Supergirl film franchise, for those keeping score at home.