Supergirl (TV series)

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Fandom
Name: Supergirl
Abbreviation(s):
Creator: Greg Berlanti, Ali Adler, and Andrew Kreisberg
Date(s): October 26, 2015 — present
Medium: live-action TV series
Country of Origin: United States
External Links: Wikipedia, IMDB
S1 Promotional Image
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Supergirl is a CBS and CW television series about the titular character of the same name.

Canon

Twenty-four-year-old Kara Zor-El, who was taken in by the Danvers family when she was 13 after being sent away from Krypton, must learn to embrace her powers after previously hiding them. The Danvers teach her to be careful with her powers, until she has to reveal them during an unexpected disaster, setting her on her journey of heroism.

Main Characters

Arrowverse

Despite being created by Greg Berlanti, the series was originally not related to Arrow, The Flash and Legends of Tomorrow, due to the shows being on different networks (although CBS is a partial parent-channel of The CW, with Warner Bros.)[1]. In February 2016, it was announced that Barry Allen of The Flash would appear on Supergirl in a crossover episode in March[2]. On February 9, the episode of The Flash[3] had an easter egg of Kara flying as Supergirl. This suggests Supergirl exists on an alternate earth in the Arrowverse multiverse, which is confirmed in the crossover episode[4].

In May 2016, the series was moved to CW after there was talk of budget issues and possible cancelation[5].

Connections with Other Fandoms

The series connects with the 1984's Supergirl film due to Helen Slater's portrayal as Eliza Danvers, Kara's foster mother and Lois and Clark: The New Adventures of Superman due to Dean Cain portraying Jeremiah Danvers, Kara's foster father, and in Season 2 introduced Queen Rhea of Daxam (Mon-El's mother) being portrayed by Teri Hatcher (Lois Lane in the Lois and Clark series).

Laura Benanti from House MD appears as Alura Zor-El, Kara's mother, as well as Alura's twin sister, Astra In-Ze. In Season 3, Erica Durance (Lois Lane from Smallville) takes the place of Benanti as Kara's mother.

The star of the show, Melissa Benoist, is from Glee. Calista Flockhart from Ally McBeal stars as Cat Grant, David Harewood from Homeland stars as Hank Henshaw/J'onn J'onzz, Chyler Leigh from Grey's Anatomy stars as Alex Danvers, and Peter Facinelli from the Twilight film series appears in the series as Maxwell Lord. Laura Vandervoort, who portrayed Supergirl on Smallville, appeared as Indigo in the 1st season. Katie McGrath from the BBC's Merlin portrays Lena Luthor and Lynda Carter from The New Adventures of Wonder Woman appears as The President of the United States in the 2nd season. Also appearing in season 2 are: Kevin Sorbo from Hercules & Andromeda as King Lar Gand (Mon-El's father) and Darren Criss from Glee as well appears as the Music Meister in crossover episodes between Supergirl and The Flash.

In Season 4, another Smallville alum Sam Witwer (who portrayed Doomsday in the Smallville series) appears in Supergirl as Agent Liberty.

Fandom

Months before the show actually premiered, fandom had already started once the First Look/Trailer was released. Various gifs, picspams, and fan theories were posted to Tumblr. Medie created a comment fest at Dreamwidth[1]. Fanfiction started soon after which was posted to Archive of Our Own and Tumblr. Supergirl's Pilot was released online months before it would actually premiere in May 2015[6]. Millions watched it and created gifs and other fanworks were created for it along with various opinion/comments on Tumblr. Others remained spoiler free and did not watch it until it was finally released on October 26. A few Tumblr blogs were started to focus on the series after the pilot was released online. The pilot premiered with 12.94 million viewers and became the #1 premiere of the CBS 2015 season[7].

In 2016, Supergirl was ranked number fifteen in the Top 20 "most reblogged" live-action television show on Tumblr, one of three Arrowverse fandoms and one of five CW fandoms.[8]

Terminology

Shipping

Since the release of the First Look/Trailer, the first pairings were Kara/James, Kara/Alex, and Kara/Winn. Crossovers with The Flash and Man of Steel: Kara/Barry Allen and Kara & Clark Kent (as well as Kara/Clark), also appeared. Once the show aired, a few other pairings appeared: Kara/Cat, Cat/Maxwell, Alex/Maxwell, Kara/Maxwell, Alex/Astra, Alex/J'onn, Kara/Adam, James/Lucy, James/Winn and Winn/Siobhan.

The Superflash episode[4] reintroduced interest of Kara being paired up with Kara/Barry and also Kara/Oliver, the episode also introduced fans to the pairing Leslie/Siobhan, Winn/Barry, Kara/Barry/Winn, and Winn/Cisco.

By end of the first season Femslash dominates the fandom with the Kara/Cat, Alex/Astra and Alex/Kara. While there is some het shipping and fanworks, it's seen less often, with the exception of Alex/Hank aka Alex/J'onn.

With Season 2 casting news and some spoilers released, including the news of one character being canonized as gay, theories to who that would be was constant: the top contenders were Alex Danvers and Winn Schott, but some believe Kara Danvers also[9]. With announcements of Clark Kent, Maggie Sawyer and Lena Luthor joining the series, Clark/Winn, Alex/Maggie, Alex/Lena, and Kara/Lena pairings became quite popular, even more so as the second season aired. Some Alex/Winn also appeared due to the onscreen comments between the two at the DEO. Clark/Kara also appeared more frequently after the first two episodes was released. Kara/Mon-El appears after Season's 2 episode 3[10]. Winn/Mon-El also appeared after the next episode[11]. Shipping appeared for Winn/Lyra after Lyra was introduced[12]. The series also introduced the pairing J'onn/M'gann which is a rarepair and is normally a more familiar relationship in other DC fandoms.

Following her introduction in the season 2 premiere, Lena Luthor paired with Kara became popular and quickly skyrocketed as the most popular pairing of the series. This led to ship wars between Kara/Lena and Kara/Mon-El shippers, which continue, albeit less intensely following the departure of Mon-El from the series.[13]

Interest in Supergirl/Wonder Woman appeared between seasons 2 and 3, with the release of the Wonder Woman film and after the promo trailer of Kara wearing Wonder Woman's boots[14].

Season 3 introduced the Legion of Super Heroes to the universe, and introduced the pairings Mon-El/Imra, Winn/Querl, and Querl/Kara.

In Season 4, Nia Nal, Lex Luthor and Kelly Olsen made their debut along with them appeared several new pairings: Nia/Querl, Alex/Kelly, and Lex/Eve. Lois Lane makes her first official appearance during the season's crossover event, and while Clark/Lois pairing existed prior to this more fanworks were posted using the canon scenes.

Criticisms & Controversies

Season 1

  • Some male viewers of the pilot "complain[ed] about too much pro-female messaging, about feminism in general, and/or about those of us criticizing sexism and gender discrimination (including comparing 'pro-female' messaging to misogyny, or claiming criticizing these specific male reactions was equivalent to 'trashing the opposite gender' and other such nonsense)"[15]
  • Comments on the Facebook post for the new 2019 Supergirl and Batwoman trailer ("World's Finest") include misogynous complaints bashing the characters themselves, objections to the use of the phrase "World's Finest" when Superman and Batman are not included, overall criticism of the CW verse, and disapproval of the casting of actress Ruby Rose as Batwoman
  • "Criticism of the trailer's rom-com influences, perceived cheesiness, comparisons to a certain Saturday Night Live sketch, and complaints that its version of Kara Zor-El isn't ... a "strong female character" are all problematic"[16]
  • Antifeminism[17][18][19]

Seasons 2 and 3

  • Queerbaiting and Homophobia
  • On Supergirl and Homophobia, a meta post focused on what happened at the SDCC17 and how that affected fans of the series and in particular Supercorp fans.
  • Andrew Kriesberg, co-creator of the show and one of the executive producers, was fired around the time of the episode "Reign", the episode that took the series into the winter hiatus, following accusations of sexual harassment from at least nineteen current and former employees of shows he'd worked on--actors, writers, producers, and staffers[20][21]. It remains to be seen how his leaving will affect the show.

Fanworks

Fanart

Vids

For more pairing-specific vids, check out the ships individual pairings: Category:Supergirl (TV series).

Recs

Archives & Resources

LiveJournal Communities

Dreamwidth Communities

Twitter

Tumblr

See individual pairing/character pages for more links.

Facebook

Forums

Resources

References

  1. ^ Supergirl#Shared Universe at Wikipedia
  2. ^ TVLINE.COM. A Supergirl/The Flash Crossover Is Happening: Find Out How and When. February 3 2016.
  3. ^ The Flash (CW) Season 2 Episode 9 "Welcome to Earth-2"
  4. ^ a b Supergirl Season 1 Episode 18 "World's Finest"
  5. ^ ‘Supergirl’ Moves To The CW, Renewed For Season 2. Deadline. May 12, 2016.
  6. ^ ‘Supergirl’ Pilot Released 6 Months Early: Expected to Reach Quarter of A Million Downloads in 24 Hours! May 22, 2015.
  7. ^ 'CBS’ ‘Supergirl’ Premiere Episode's Popularity Beats ‘The Muppets,’ ‘Scream Queens,’ ‘Quantico’ Combined. Published Oct 31, 2015.
  8. ^ 2016′s Top TV Shows - Live Action
  9. ^ It's confirmed in Season 2 Episode 5 "Crossfire" that Alex is the one who is gay, others still say that the other two (Kara and Winn) are gay or at least bisexual
  10. ^ Supergirl Season 2 Episode 3 "Welcome to Earth" - Mon-El wakes up
  11. ^ Supergirl Season 2 Episode 4 "Survivors"
  12. ^ Supergirl Season 2 Episode 13 "Mr. & Mrs. Mxyzptlk"
  13. ^ Supergirl Season 3 Episode 23 Battles Lost and Won
  14. ^ Supergirl - Extended "Wonder Woman" Promo on YouTube
  15. ^ 'Supergirl' Flies High In Premiere And Silences Sexist Criticisms Mark Hughes at Forbes.com. Oct 27, 2015
  16. ^ Supergirl: a few thoughts on the trailer criticism James Hunt of Den of Geek. May 15, 2015
  17. ^ CBS’s “Supergirl”: In your face with antifeminism. A Voice for Men. October 28, 2015.
  18. ^ Is Supergirl Sexist?. Entity. October 31, 2016.
  19. ^ Why CBS's 'Supergirl' Is Anti-Feminist, Family-Friendly Viewing Newsbusters. October 27, 2015
  20. ^ 'Supergirl' producer Andrew Kreisberg fired after sexual misconduct investigation. USA Today. Nov. 29, 2017.
  21. ^ ‘The Flash’ Showrunner Andrew Kreisberg Suspended Amid Sexual Harassment Allegations. Deadline. November 10, 2017.
Related Concepts, Fandoms, Terms, Fanworks
See also Batwoman, Arrow, The Flash, Vixen, Constantine, Legends of Tomorrow, Arrowverse
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