Supergirl: Top Five Moments from Season One

Supergirl‘s first season has come and gone in the blink of eye, leaving fans with only the memories of a very enjoyable year and a cliffhanger to speculate over until the fall. Featuring high-flying superheroics and plenty of action, Supergirl was one of the best comic book TV shows of the year, mainly because the show let Melissa Benoist shine as the Girl of Steel without shying away from the character’s ties to the great Superman mythos. To celebrate a successful first season, here’s a look back at five of the top moments from the past year.

Supergirl Uses Her Solar Flare

Superspeed, superstrength, flight, heat vision, cold breath, super-senses and a limited invulnerability to everything besides the toughest blows. Superman and Supergirl’s power set is pretty well known to even the most casual of superhero fan. But occasionally, Kryptonians have shown flashes of other, more bizarre powers like ventriloquism or super-hypnosis. Recently, the Superman comics introduced the “solar flare”, an explosion of energy capable of defeating almost any enemy, but that left Superman totally powerless afterwards. 

Surprisingly, Supergirl also introduced the “solar flare” into Supergirl’s arsenal.  When fighting the android Red Tornado, which the US government developed specifically to kill Kryptonians, Supergirl discovered that she couldn’t beat the self-adapting robot, even after her sister Alex killed the man controlling it. With Red Tornado now sentient and fixated on killing Supergirl, an enraged Supergirl unleashed a supercharged blast of heat vision that totally incinerated the robot.  However, as she discovered the next day, her new solar flare ability left her totally powerless, leaving National City in danger when an earthquake struck the following week.

Supergirl’s solar flare moment was a critical character moment for the developing hero, as it showed Supergirl that even she had a limit, and that there were consequences for losing her temper in battle.

Hank Henshaw is the Martian Manhunter

The first truly shocking moment of the season, Hank Henshaw revealing himself as the Martian Manhunter had social media buzzing for days. With Supergirl powerless after using her solar flare, Henshaw revealed himself as the Last Son of Mars to stop a dangerous alien criminal from killing Alex during a lockdown at the DEO. As both Kara and Alex had thought that Henshaw was somehow responsible for Alex’s father’s death, the reveal was a huge turning point in the dynamic of the show.

J’onn became a fantastic mentor for Supergirl and one of her strongest allies.  He also acted a surrogate father for the Danvers sisters and proved his loyalty to the family by outing himself as an alien to rescue Alex from a red kryptonite affected Supergirl.

Alex Kills Astra

The better part of Supergirl’s first season revolved around the battle between Kara and her aunt Astra. Although Kara and Astra were close on Krypton, Kara’s mother (and Astra’s twin sister) Alura arrested Astra for planning a coup to take over Krypton. Ironically, Astra’s arrest saved her life, as she wasn’t on Krypton when it exploded. When Kara became Supergirl, Astra came out of hiding and explained her plan of “saving” Earth by implementing Myriad, a mind control wave. Supergirl wasn’t convinced, which led to a series of skirmishes between Astra, Supergirl and the DEO.

That all came to a head when Astra and her husband Non went on separate raids to plant Myriad technology in National City. While Supergirl squared off against Non, Alex and J’onn fought Astra. In a dramatic sequence, Astra bested J’onn in battle and prepared to kill him, which forced Astra to run the Kryptonian general through with a kryptonite sword. Arriving on the scene, Astra and Supergirl quickly made their peace, although Astra couldn’t explain what Myriad was before she died. Astra’s death was another big turning point for the show and directly set up Supergirl’s final confrontation with Non and the Fort Rozz prisoners.

The Flash/Supergirl Crossover

Rumors (and hopeful editorials) that a crossover between The Flash and Supergirl sprung up as soon as CBS announced it had picked up Supergirl last spring. It took nearly a year for those rumors to come true, but the wait was definitely worth it. The Flash/Supergirl crossover episode was probably the best show of the season and teamed up two of the finest superhero actors on television. Grant Gustin and Melissa Benoist oozed adorable chemistry together and showed that superhero team-ups didn’t need to be angsty to be successful.

The timing of the crossover was perfect, as it came days after the release of Batman V Superman: Dawn of Justice, which received plenty of criticism for its dark tone and moodiness. Supergirl and the Flash teaming up reminded superhero fans that there was more than one way to do a crossover and was the perfect alternative for fans not impressed with the Batman V Superman movie.

Kara Saves National City from a Nuclear Missile

Supergirl had plenty of heroic moments this season, but none were more iconic than when she stopped a nuclear missile from destroying her hometown of National City.  Indigo, a psychotic Coluan ex-Fort Rozz prisoner, had fired the missile at National City in the hopes of starting a nuclear holocaust, but Supergirl chased after the missile and caught it in mid-flight. After trying unsuccessfully to divert the missile by brute force, Supergirl put aside her concerns with the DEO (at the time, she thought that DEO head J’onn Jonzz had killed her aunt) and asked them for help. J’onn talked her through the process of disarming the bomb and Supergirl stopped it from detonating with just moments to spare. Not only did stopping the missile show Supergirl’s determination and strength, it also showed her true character by proving that she knew how to rely on others for help when necessary.