‘Supergirl’: Who Is Manchester Black?

After being mentioned in the season premiere, Manchester Black made his first appearance on tonight’s episode of Supergirl, “Ahimsa.”

Spoilers for tonight’s’ episode of Supergirl, “Ahimsa”, below.

In tonight’s episode, Manchester Black shows up at J’onn’s apartment looking for him in connection with Fiona’s disappearance. As it would happen, J’onn’s friend Fiona was engaged to Black and he is concerned that she’s apparently vanished. What neither man knows is that she was stabbed by Agent Liberty (Sam Witwer), but J’onn shares with Black the badge number he found putting them on the trail of a police officer who might be involved with her disappearance.

Played by actor David Ajala on The CW series, in comics Black is a dangerous and manipulative psychic and telekinetic. As the head of a team of self-styled superheroes known as The Elite, he sought to upstage Superman and the Justice League in “What’s So Funny ‘Bout Truth, Justice, and the American Way?”, his first comic appearance and a story that is widely considered one of the best Superman comics in the last quarter century.

Created by Joe Kelly and Doug Mahnke, Black was so popular that he kept popping back up in the DC Universe though his opinions about how things should work put him at odds with the heroes. Black believes that the Justice League should be more brutal, and he has a particular dislike for Superman as he thinks that no one can be as genuinely good as he appears to be.

It’s a characterization that appears to be translating fairly well to Supergirl. While Black did team up with J’onn to try to find Fiona, her death was devastating for him. The last we see of Black in the episode, he’s buying a large cache of weapons and is likely set on avenging Fiona’s death. Time will tell just how Black will fit into the season and just how much trouble he will cause for the show’s heroine.

Supergirl airs Sundays at 8 p.m. ET on The CW.