My thoughts on Superman's full appearance in Supergirl and its possible effect on the CW shows.
Hi, all. As you know by now, just as Supergirl is now part of the CW television network, Superman will also appear in the aforementioned TV show. I was not too surprised at all (will explain shortly) when I first read about Superman finally appearing. There were a few things I thought about upon the news of Superman appearing.
Hi, all. As you know by now thanks to Rohan Patel's great job in posting the big news a few days ago, Superman will also appear in the Supergirl TV show within the CW network:
http://www.comicbookmovie.com/supergirl/official-supergirl-season-2-will-introduce-superman-a142368
I was not too surprised at all (will explain shortly) when I first read about Superman finally appearing, but then again, it is Supergirl’s cousin. The show can only go so far with obscure appearances of the Man of Steel before finally showing his full face, etc. There were a few things I thought about upon the news of Superman appearing.
The first thing was CW being permitted to have Superman appear on a CW show. It has long been declared that we would not see the likes of him, Batman or Wonder Woman any time soon in the shows simply because they are DC/Warner Bros. big three prized assets reserved for the films. Yet, we’ve all noticed a pattern where characters are either killed off or sent somewhere off-screen so that they may be used by either the film or TV division ( i.e. Deathstroke(incarcerated) and Black Canary(killed) [both rumoured to appear in the DC cinematic universe], Amanda Waller and Deadshot [both killed on TV and new versions to be seen in the Suicide Squad film], and so forth). There might be others I can’t remember, but I think Superman is another to add to the list of characters switched from TV to film and vice versa. Ever since I became aware of Superman’s shocking event at the end of Batman v Superman, I immediately wondered if this event would signal his transition from film to TV (albeit a short one for at least two episodes). And, lo and behold, it happened.
Secondly, I’m sure we’ve all suspected what Superman’s inclusion would mean, not just for Supergirl but for the rest of the CW universe. Mind you, I have not forgotten that this is still a version of Superman originating from Supergirl’s world, knowing that a certain crossover event with the Flash last season confirmed that her world is another alternate reality compared to Earth-1 (the main world from which the current TV shows are based on). I think this simply adds more speculation as to whether or not there is another Superman (or even another version of Supergirl ) on Earth-1. I know that there had already been debates for a long time regarding Kal-El’s possible existence in the Arrow/Flash world, but the question is bound to spring up again once you have intergalactic beings from another dimension traveling to Earth-1. With all the weird superpower/supernatural activity going on in Star City, Central City, etc., I could easily picture the likes of Cisco, Barry, and Wells develop growing suspicion of extraterrestrials already present on Earth-1. We must consider also the popularity of characters like the Flash, Green Arrow, etc. who have always interacted with Superman in the comics and animations, making it hard to imagine their respective shows ending without interacting with an Earth-1 version of Kal-El on TV. Personally, I think it is a case of Earth-1’s versions of Kal-El and Kara neither willing nor prepared to reveal themselves during the past several years of the shows’ stories, if they do indeed exist.
I know it is very early days to think about this stuff and we must wait and see until the shows resume in the fall and progress over time. Yet these new CW developments raise very interesting possibilities. It is also possible that they may never come to fruition considering that ‘alternate reality Superman’ will only appear on Supergirl for a short time and we don’t know yet if he’ll travel with her to Earth-1. Also, hinging on the likelihood that ‘cinematic Superman’ will appear again next year in Justice League, the film group might restrict tv from certain freedoms with using Superman up until mid-2017 before the JL movie comes. Please let me know what you all think, lads / lasses. Cheerio!