SUPERGIRL: SERIES 1

My name is Kara Zor-El. I am Supergirl.

I won’t lie, I was just as sceptical about the Supergirl TV series as everyone else. I mean, she’s not exactly a superhero you take seriously. Having seen the series, I think that’s kind of the point. While The Flash and…Y’Know, that green guy, have had more than their fair share of attention on TV over the past few years, the only thing Supergirl’s had was the movie in the 80s. I haven’t seen it, but I’m guessing it’s pretty bad.

For those of you who don’t know, Supergirl’s story is as follows: She, like her baby cousin Superman, is sent to Earth whilst Krypton is on the brink of destruction. But her pod gets knocked off course and travels through the Phantom Zone first, where time doesn’t pass. When she does finally land on Earth, Superman is all grown up and Superman-ing. Years later, a plane crash near National City forces her to reveal her powers to the World. From there she becomes Supergirl and fights aliens that have crash landed on Earth in the Kryptonian prison, Fort Rozz, among them her Aunt Astra.

It’s true, the series does take time to get going. Thankfully, not as long as the first series of Gotham. This series gets properly good right at the end of episode seven, when they introduce Martian Manhunter into the mix, a brilliant DC character who has had virtually no media attention, ever. He’s pretty awesome. Here he is...

They build up to it over the previous few episodes, and if I hadn’t gotten round to watching the series months after it actually premiered, it would have been a great reveal. It still was, but knowing it was coming took some of the specialness away. From then on, you start to take the series more seriously, as more well-known characters are introduced, such as Bizarro.

The highlight of the series in regards to episodes comes in the form of Episode 16, in which after being exposed to Red Kryptonite, Supergirl starts going a bit evil. The episode on the whole was excellent, and showed what happens when Heroes turn bad really well. Plus, I finally got to see the Martian Manhunter vs Supergirl fight scene I've been waiting for. The other highlight is the Supergirl/Flash crossover, 'World's Finest'. Just, because...Well, the Flash is in it.

The episodes do unfortunealty fall into a bit of a pattern when it comes to lay-out but it’s very rare for TV shows to avoid this. Having watched The Flash series and it’s crossover episodes with the other guy’s show, something else starts to feel very similar too. All three heroes have their own team, and when you start noticing the similarities, it might start to annoy you a little bit. One more note on the Characters, like the Flash series did with Barry's dad, I think it's a nice nod that they got the Supergirl from the 80s movie to play this one's adoptive mother. I think they also got Superman from Lois & Clark to play her adoptive Father as well.

Much like The Flash, Supergirl isn’t a dark show. It’s light and sometimes funny, which is right for the hero.

The major flaw in the series, however much it might sound petty, is the fight scenes. They’re not brilliantly shot, and sometimes they look like primary school drama productions. But, as they most often occur at the end of the episodes, you’ll still have a good half an hour to avoid them. Having said that, the sky fight between Supergirl, Martian Manhunter and the White Martian was actually pretty good.

I can see people thinking two different thoughts about this series. Either you’re willing to give it a shot, or you’ll just laugh at it. Hell, the main reason I started watching it is because I wanted to see Martian Manhunter in action. Looking past Martian Manhunter for a moment, the series itself is actually not as hilariously bad as I thought it was going to be....Sometimes. It’s a light hearted approach to a hero that’s not meant to be dark and gritty like Nolan’s Batman. It doesn't take itself too seriously, and that pays off, but their are times, more often than perhaps there should be, were you'll realise it's not anywhere near as good as some of DC's other TV shows.

Quote of the series definitely goes to Hank Henshaw whilst he’s searching for the alien known as Jemm: “I’m in a sewer, Danvers. Everything is just peachy.”