Spoilers ahead for tonight’s episode of Krypton, titled “Savage Night.”
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Tonight’s Krypton ended with an explosion, from which Adam Strange protected his Kryptonian allies by using his Zeta Beam device in a new and creative way.
The blast and the beam combined to shunt Strange to…somewhere. It is not yet clear whether he was thrown through space, time, or both. All we really saw was a woman, with clothing so dark on most of her body that it was difficult to discern whether it was Kryptonian fashion, Earth fashion, or something else entirely.
She did look humanoid — with short, blonde hair — and she seemed frozen in place, except her eyes, which darted back and forth between Adam and something apparently in front of and above her.
The character was unnamed — and even in the credits just referred to as “woman,” which certainly raises some questions.
That is, literally, all we know so far about this mystery woman…so it seems like a fun time to make some educated guesses about who she might turn out to be.
Let’s take some ideas out for a spin…!
Alanna
While Alanna was Adam Strange’s wife in the comics, her brief, voice-only cameo in tonight’s episode seems to indicate that she does not have much respect for him in the Krypton timeline — at least not yet.
Rann, the planet on which she is royalty, features humanoid characters and a lot of Earth-like customs and fashions, meaning that this is not a bad start when you are trying to guess who Adam might have found himself face to face with.
It might also explain his mournful expression, which he gets for a moment after the two have eye contact.
In the comics, Alanna is the daughter of the Rann’s greatest scientist, Sardath. Sardath, who invented the Zeta Beam, also had a brief cameo in tonight’s episode.
Alanna has been educated by her father so she is adept at the planet’s advanced Rannian technology, and has gone on adventures with Adam numerous times.
Arisia
The white, skintight clothing and the short, blonde hair immediately made us think “Arisia.”
A longtime member of the Green Lantern Corps, Arisia Rrab is a member of a humanoid race from Graxos IV, a planet in space sector 2815 (next to ours and two away from Krypton).
She and Hal Jordan had a brief romance after she used her power ring to artificially mature herself from a teenage state, and then broke up when she was discovered. She briefly left the Corps, but came back after it was reinstated following the events of Green Lantern: Rebirth.
The Green Lantern Corps is one of DC’s cosmic groups, which showrunners have suggested might appear on the series.
One of the Omega Men
The Omega Men, like the Nova Corps at Marvel or the Green Lantern Corps, tend to have a fluctuating memebrship and sometimes will get human-like beings who can serve as a kind of point-of-view character who leads the audience through a world of monstrous heroes.
Last week, franchise star Cameron Cuffe name-dropped the team on Twitter.
Cuffe, responding to stories about the Justice League and Green Lantern Corps being name-dropped on last week’s episode of Krypton, tweeted back that “Our show takes place in a fully realised DC Universe. The Justice League, The Omega Men, The Green Lantern Corps… these things are all very real in the world of our story.”
In the episode in question, Adam Strange (Shaun Sipos) found himself spending most of the episode in the company of Val-El (Ian McElhinney), the Fortress hologram based on the personality profile of Seg-El’s grandfather in the hopes of repairing the Zeta Beam device that brought Adam to Krypton in the first place, so that he can return to Earth.
Along the way, Adam explains that he can’t fly, doesn’t have super-strength, and doesn’t have a power ring — an overt reference to the Green Lantern Corps — by way of explaining why he doesn’t feel qualified to carry out the job. When Val asked why he came to Krypton if he wasn’t really a hero but a B-list wannabe as he claims, he says that he had hoped that by saving Superman, the Justice League might notice him.
In other words, not only does the Justice League exist in this universe…but it’s actually been referenced by name, which is something that almost never happens in DC’s live-action TV shows. The Green Lanterns were not named specifically, although producers have said in the past not to rule out the possibility of Lanterns or other DC space heroes appearing.
“That’s something that would be a natural fit for us,” Welsh said of the Lanterns back in March.
DC Entertainment VP Dan Evans at the time hinted that the Omega Men would likely appear before the Green Lanterns, assuring fans that this show would be massive, and that there were plenty of different characters at their disposal.
“DC isn’t just Earth, it isn’t just Metropolis or Gotham. The DC universe is huge, it’s multiple universes,” he said.
The Omega Men, first created in 1981 by Marv Wolfman and Joe Staton, have been rarely seen in recent DC history. Former Kyle Rayner joined the team and headlined a maxi-series in 2015, the critical acclaim for which was instrumental in helping make writer Tom King one of DC’s biggest names.
Aleea Strange
The background was blurry — intentionally, obviously — in the shot, and given the fact that Adam traveled back in time centuries to carry out his mission and then Alanna made an appearance(ish) for the first time tonight, we have to wonder: when he was knocked to wherever he went, could he have gone all the way to the future?
If this girl could be Aleea Strange, Adam and Alanna’s daughter, it might explain his “what the f–?” excalmation at seeing not just her odd behavior, but the world around her, too.
In the comics, Aleea was born to a respected family on a world where almost everyone is fertile, so she is seen as a hope for the future. That could tie into the episode’s title next week being “Hope” and provide a meaningful parallel to Superman, who was born through intercourse on a world where those things no longer happen.
Power Girl
Following the events of Crisis on Infinite Earths, DC’s multiverse was not only reduced down to one world, which created all kinds of headaches for writers and editors who wanted to decide what stories did and did not “count” from the past.
The Superman line was the most impacted, with Superman transformed into the literal last son of Krypton, with other Kryptonian characters written out of continuity entirely.
Power Girl was the post-Crisis Band-Aid for continuity headaches created by the sudden non-existence of the pre-Crisis on Infinite Earths Supergirl, in much the same way Mon-El served that purpose for Superboy in Legion of Super-Heroes stories.
Why her?
Well, again: it’s mostly just about white, tight wardrobe and short, blonde hair…but we could totally see them bringing in a Kryptonian or quasi-Kryptonian Earth superhero…but one they might be able to use, unlike Superman or Supergirl.
Hawkwoman
Could she be one of the reincarnations of Hawkwoman?
At Comic Con last summer, DC chief creative officer Geoff Johns told an audience that other DC Comics characters will appear in the show, including Strange and Hawkwoman.
Geoff Johns confirmed the classic characters’ presence in the new show during the Krypton panel at San Diego Comic-Con.
Hawkwoman has had many different iterations over the years, including Shayera Hol and Sharon Parker. Shayera Hol was a Thanagarian warrior reincarnated throughout the ages alongside her Hawkman counterpart Katar Hol.
Given that Strange is a representative of Rann while Hawkwoman hails from Thanagar, Krypton could reference the Rann-Thanagar War, which was part of the Infinite Crisis event but in general Thanagar and Rann are planets in conflict pretty frequently.
Dr. Evelyn Fox
Introduced in Adam Strange: A Man of Two Worlds, Dr. Fox was a medical doctor who treated Adam Strange’s dying father and later entered into a romantic relationship with Adam.
After Strange was taken to Rann by the Zeta Beam, she and her friend Suze tried to find out what happened. Ultimately, she ended up finding the site where the Zeta Beam took him and being taken to Rann as well — where she delivered Aleea Strange, the child of Adam and Alanna.
Certainly, using a familiar name and basically nothing else would be in keeping with the approach that many of the DC TV shows take.
Bonnie Baxter
Time-traveling women in the DC Universe, particularly ones without powers, are fairly rare. So…maybe Time Masters member Bonnie Baxter could come into play here?
A member of Rip Hunter’s original team of Time Masters, Bonnie Baxter is an expert in the field of temporal mechanics, quantum theory and the relationship between energy and matter as it pertains to the Space/Time continuum.
She is also a valuable part of the combat squad for the Time Masters as a sharpshooter.
Liri Lee
A more modern take on the Bonnie Baxter model, Liri Lee was the female member of the Linear Men, a team of time travelers who worked under an older, more grizzled Rip Hunter and the super-powered time traveler Waverider.
Liri was part of a small unit who protected the timeline from a location called Vanishing Point, and neither she nor the name “Linear Men” have appeared on Legends of Tomorrow yet — making her a rarity among time-travlers.
Nobody
Arguably the most obvious choice: this is nobody in particular, just an average Kryptonian, human, or Rannian woman whom Adam finds himself in proximity to after Brainiac suffers his big setback tonight, and whose future is changed by the results.
Could all that red glow be an indicator of a red sun — possibly even one over Earth as someone tries to defeat a potential Kryptonian empire by stripping Earth-bound Kryptonians of their powers, indicating that Zod’s “let’s all become Superman” plan is something that someone tried.
The “possessed” affect, though, likely indicates the presence of Brainiac or some other psychic threat.
Hopefully, even though Adam is not prominently featured in the teaser for next week, fans will get their answers then…!
Krypton airs on Wednesday nights at 10 p.m. ET/PT on SYFY.
