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Supergirl: 19 Things You Might Have Missed In “Last Children of Krypton”

Superman’s trip to National City is over — and so is Cat Grant’s stay, at least for the moment. […]

Superman’s trip to National City is over — and so is Cat Grant’s stay, at least for the moment. Both of them promised to come back and, in their wakes, both left a big impression on Supergirl as she moves forward into the show’s second season.

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And, just like last week, Superman’s appearance dialed up the Easter egg count way beyond the usual. It’s been fun hunting for them — and it will probably be at least one more week before they’re all gone, considering that Lynda Carter is returning to the DC Universe to play the President of the United States in next week’s episode.

…But we have to get through this week’s, first. And there’s a bunch.

So…what did we see? What did we miss?

Read on, and comment below.

“WHY THE PUNCHING?”

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(Photo: https://relatedhowagain.wordpress.com/2014/04/03/165-all-in-the-super-family/)

At one point early in the episode, Clark makes this joke about people trying to punch him after they empty their guns.

That’s likely a wink and a nod to The Adventures of Superman, the first TV iteration of the Kryptonian mythology, in which gunmen would famously throw their weapons at Superman after emptying them — and Superman would duck the gun. Because while the character was bulletproof, actor George Reeves wasn’t acutally invulnerable to flying metal.

KIGORI

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(Photo: DC Entertainment)

The (never seen) alien that Superman and Supergirl took out along the way? It’s an existing race from the DC Universe — and one that leaves us with a few questions:

Per Wikipedia, “The Kigori are a race of Martian Spider Men native to the DCU planet Mars. The Kigori have large black spider bodies with bald human faces, green skin, large fangs, and prehensile green skinned hands on their forelegs. Their relation to the Green Martians is unknown.”

So first of all, it’s a Martian Race — so there’s a potential tie to J’Onn, or to the White Martians (who appeared last year — and whose most memorable member (Miss Martian) is expected to show up on the show soon.

Also: SPIDERS! There’s a long history with Superman fighting giant spiders that goes back to the unproduced Superman Lives script. Check out An Evening With Kevin Smith for the full details.

Also: We cannot find a reliable image of a Kigori; even the DC Wiki doesn’t have an actual entry for them, as they’re just referenced on the “Alien races of the DC Universe” page on Wikipedia. So instead, included here is what’s ostensibly a Martian, insectoid creature, although that’s definitely not a human face. And it’s being ridden by Frankenstein, because of course it is.

METALLO

Metallo

It’s often common in this type of show to give most of the villains a common point of origin. In Arrow, most of the best ones have ties to Oliver’s parents and the Undertaking. On The Flash, it’s the particle accelerator explosion. On Smallville, there were quite a few Kryptonite-irradiated folks running around. 

Here, it was aliens last year. Now, maybe, they’re setting up the genetic tinkerers of Cadmus to be doing it.

Enter John Corbin, better known as the villain Metallo. Metallo is a cyborg with superhuman strength and a Kryptonite heart, which both gives him a relatively unlimited supply of power and makes him incredibly hard for Superman to stop, since in order to fight him, the Man of Steel has to get close to the Kryptonite heart.

He’s one of the most common Superman villains in other-media adaptations; he’s been rumored for a couple of the movies and has appeared in various forms on Smallville and Lois and Clark: The New Adventures of Superman, among others. So it’s arguably not surprising that when Superman made the pilgrimmage to National City, this is the baddie who followed him.

IT’S ALIVE!

Its-Alive
(Photo: The CW/Warner Bros. TV)

Again with the Frankenstein.

It’s hard to miss the fact that immediately following the introduction of Metallo, the music that opened the episode over the “Supergirl” title card had an ominous feel — almost like an old monster movie.

It very much felt like an “It’s alive!” moment from a Frankenstein movie — which is pretty apt for Metallo, at least in this incarnation.

VEEP

The fact that Superman, Supergirl, and Alex all like Veep is a kind of random bit of business added into this episode, but we’re counting it as a reference since, as mentioned, Lynda Carter will be playing the (female) President in the next episode of Supergirl

Veep is, of course, a show that centers on the first female Vice President of the United States and deals with her challenges in a comedic way.

SNAPPER CARR

A rumpled, disinterested, cranky man, Snapper is less-than-impressed with his new stringer, and seems to have some backstory with Cat Grant (hey — who doesn’t?).

You can check the clip out above.

Snapper-Carr
(Photo: The CW/Warner Bros. TV)

The change is coming, on a meta level, because when Supergirl made the move to The CW and to Vancouver, series regular Calista Flockhart, who plays Cat Grant on the series, was bumped down to a recurring guest star because she couldn’t leave Los Angeles due to other obligations.

Gomez, who joins as Kara’s new boss, is the second former Cougar Town cast member to join The CW’s DC Universe this season, following in the footsteps of Nick Zano on DC’s Legends of Tomorrow.

“Cat — both with Kara and I think with others — is actually devoted to mentoring people,” executive producer Andrew Kreisberg recently said. “She challenges them hard, but she does that with the idea that she’s forging them and they’re going to come out the other side as stronger, better people. Snapper Carr doesn’t give a crap. He believes in the written word, in facts and ‘Are you good at your job or are you not? If you’re not good at your job, I don’t have time for you.’”

In the comics, Snapper Carr was basically DC’s version of Rick Jones, a supporting charater from the Incredible Hulk. Lucas Carr got his nickname “Snapper” because of his propensity for snapping his fingers when he talks. For a while, he was the Justice League’s “mascot,” having inadvertently helped them stop Starro the Conqueror on their first mission. He would later resign in disgrace after being tricked into helping The Joker get one up on the League.

Snapper played a major role in the 1988 DC event series Invasion!, which is the basis for the four-show mega-crossover between SupergirlThe FlashArrow, and Legends of Tomorrow. After being kidnapped and experimented on by the Dominators, Snaper is one of a handful of people who survive and develop super powers. They formed a team called The Blasters, which disbanded shortly thereafter. Snapper’s power — teleportation, brought on by his finger snaps — eventually stopped working.

Years later, he would re-emerge as a kind of mentor figure for young heroes, first for the third Hourman (an android from the future who had immense power but a fairly childlike mentality) and later Young Justice.

Snapper Carr was created by Gardner Fox and Mike Sekowsky.

NO ALCOHOL

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(Photo: DC Entertainment)

Longtime fans might remember a minor controversy from a few years ago when, during Geoff Johns’s “Brainiac” storyline, a cover was produced that depicted Clark Kent and his father Jonathan having a beer together in the yard.

Somebody at DC or Warner Bros. didn’t like the optics of Superman having a beer, so they had Action Comics #869 recalled and the cover redrawn to make it root beer. That actually annoyed fans more than showing the “boyscout” drinking probably would have, since it seemed like such a big deal was made otu fo nothing. At that point in his existence, Superman had been married for years and was clearly of age.

So…the idea that Superman, even though he’s unable to get drunk, will not drink anyway isn’t without precedent.

More importantly — and something that really should have occurred to us, since there were so many Superman: The Movie references in the first half of this story…

Fun bit of side trivia: among the various characters and alien races who cannot get drunk, it’s been noted that The Flash’s metabolism doesn’t allow it (both in the comics and on the TV show). In the comics crossover The Final Night, Guy Gardner — then boasting an alien boost to his DNA — lamented that he couldn’t get drunk no matter how hard he tried with the end of the world looming.

THE ‘CRISIS’ POSE

SUPERGIRL CRISIS COVER
(Photo: The CW/Warner Bros. TV)

There’s a moment in the episode, in which Supergirl is injured and Superman has to pick her up and rescue her. It was quickly picked out by comic book fans as a nod to that issue — in which Supergirl died while battling the Anti-Monitor.

The image is one of the most iconic covers in DC Comics history — so much so that artist George Perez is often approached to cosplay it. Last year, they had a similar promotional image for the big The Flash/Supergirl crossover, when they reproduced an old Superman cover depicting the two characters racing (except with Supergirl standing in for the Man of Steel).

PEOPLE OF EARTH

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(Photo: DC Entertainment)

Cadmus’s broadcast — taking over every screen in the world with a “people of Earth!” message — is hardly unique to comics and related media. It’s kind of a go-to move for high tech badguys.

That said, it’s worth noting that the staticky, lo-res quality of the thing certainly gives off a similar feel to the “surrender Kal-El to me” video that General Zod released in Man of Steel.

SHARKS AND SWIMMING

Welcome to The CW, Supergirl — now let’s talk about Arrow!

Of course, that’s becuase the whole “a shark that doesn’t keep swimming, drowns” metaphor Cat uses to explain her moving on to bigger and better things is the source of an “old Russian proverb” used in the season premiere of Arrow, another DC Comics show on The CW.

THE METAL HAND (AND THE GLOVE)

Metall-Hand
(Photo: The CW/Warner Bros. TV)

This all kind of feels like an homage to the Byrne era.

The “robotic skeleton” version of Metallo was so prominent during the John Byrne era (immediately following Crisis on Infinite Earths in the mid-to-late ’80s) that it was actually featured on the cover of Superman #1.

And then the fact that he covers his robot hand up with a black leather glove that gives him the affect of having one black glove and one bare hand feels decidedly like what Byrne did to Lex Luthor after giving him cancer from long-term exposure to Kryptonite radiation.

KELEX

Usually, we don’t do the same characters over and over again as they’ve appeared more than once or twice, unless there’s a big status quo change or they’re a major part of a new storyline.

For Kelex, we make an exception. Because we freaking love Kelex.

When Superman and Martian Manhunter headed to the Fortress of Solitude, we got another look at Kelex, who guards the Fortress of Solitude, in all his John Byrne-inspired glory.

And at one point, Supergirl says that his prime directive is to safeguard the Kryptonian way of life.

Preserving the Kryptonian way of life is the prime directive of another Kryptonian AI in the comics, too: The Eradicator. In the post-Crisis on Infinite Earths, pre-Flashpoint DCU, The Eradicator was a weapon, and later an AI, that was a foe and then a friend to Superman. Also: he’s the one who designed the Fortress and Kelex — or at least a version of them.

 

PROMETHIUM

The metal used in the creation of Metallo here is referred to as “Promethium.”

Anybody remember this one?

That’s the substance used in The New Teen Titans as kind of a wonder metal. Among the things that the ultra-hard metal was used to create are Cyborg’s metal parts and Deathstroke’s mesh armor.

“ABANDONED”

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(Photo: DC Entertainment)

The idea that Clark “abandoned” Kara with the Danvers felt like a little bit of a cheap shot when it came out of Alex’s mouth…but there’s some element of truth to it, at least historically.

One of the great examples of “Superdickery,” a popular internet notion that looks at some of the…questionable…behavior of the pre-Crisis-era Superman, is the idea that he just kind of left a young girl with powers who had just lost her home and everyone she loved at a boarding house and took off.

Ouch, Clark.

KRYPTON PARK

Krypton-Park
(Photo: The CW/Warner Bros. TV)

Krypton Park isn’t something that we can specifically remember existing in the comics — but it’s not far off from some of the gestures we’ve historically seen directed at the Man of Steel.

In Batman V Superman: Dawn of Justice, there was “Heroes Park,” which honored the dead of the Zod attack — including a giant statue of Superman, who was given a place of honor even though he survived (since he stopped Zod and all). Obviously, there were those who didn’t like the idea of an alien being honored among the dead there, and that was a plot thread in the movie.

Following the death of Superman in the comics, Metropolis’s Centennial Park became his resting place — for the short time he stayed dead — and his gravesite became a tourist attraction, remaining so even after he returned from the dead.

DEMONS AND ANGELS

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(Photo: Warner Bros. Pictures)

Wow, that whole “demons disguised as angels” bit sounds awfully familiar to anybody who watched Batman V Superman: Dawn of Justice and Lex Luthor’s rants, doesn’t it?

I guess this tells us a little bit about what kind of villains Cadmus might be.

LITTLE BIRD, LITTLE PLANE

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(Photo: The CW/Warner Bros. TV)

When Supergirl told Cat Grant that “a little bird told me” about her leaving National City, Cat responded with “a little plane,” a wink and a nod to the long-running “it’s a bird, it’s a plane, it’s Superman!” refrain.

TRUST & KRYPTONITE

Kryptonite-Ring
(Photo: DC Entertainment)

The idea that Martian Manhunter hands off the only Kryptonite on Earth to Superman because he trusts him to know what to do with it is a refreshing idea amid all the distrust and anger that we’ve seen directed against Kryptonians in pretty much all live-action media lately.

It’s also pretty justified if you look at the comics. When Superman finds a shard of Kryptonite which had been fitted into a ring by Lex Luthor — then, the only known fragment on the planet — he didn’t destroy it: he gave it to Batman so that if he should ever lose control or become too power-hungry, he could be stopped.

THE DAILY PLANET

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(Photo: The CW/Warner Bros. TV)

It’s been referenced plenty in Supergirl, but it’s worth noting that as Clark lands in Metropolis and returns to work, The Daily Planet building gets its first on-camera appearance on the show.