From rare strains of Kryptonite to the Martian Manhunter's imaginary friend, to a Gotham
City franchise opening up a new branch, here are the Supergirl Easter eggs that were definitely
put there for the diehards.
Since its debut in 2015, Supergirl has found an audience by focusing on a more accessible
version of the DC Universe that's easy for casual viewers to get a handle on.
After all, everybody knows Superman, right?
Here's his cousin, she's got the same powers, does the same stuff, is a similarly good and
charming person, let's go have adventures, preferably involving ice cream!
“YES!”
With that in mind, it might be surprising to learn that one of the show's most deep-cut
references comes from one of the very first things we learn about the show: its setting.
It's easy to think that Kara Danvers' adopted hometown of National City has a standard issue
generic name like most of the other fictional towns in the DC Universe.
After all, Gotham is just an old nickname for New York, and Metropolis is literally
just a word that means "big city."
Unlike those, however, National City doesn't have its roots in comics.
It was created for the show, and its name has a meaning that goes a little deeper than
just being a city within a nation, which many, if not most, cities are.
Instead, National City is a reference to Supergirl's publisher.
No, not Cat Grant, but DC Comics.
The fact that "DC" stands for "Detective Comics" is pretty well-known meaning that yes, "DC
Comics" is actually "Detective Comics Comics" but fewer people know that this wasn't actually
the company's official name until the late '70s.
Before that, they were National Periodical Publications.
It's nice nod to the character's history, since National was still the company's name
when Supergirl was introduced in 1959, but it's pretty obscure.
If only there was some major city they could've used with some connection to the letters "D.C."
In "Shelter From the Storm," the 18th episode of Supergirl's third season, Kara, Alex, Mon-El,
and Reign all take a trip to Lex Luthor's mansion.
As you might expect, his interior decorating tastes mostly lean towards deathtraps meant
to kill Superman, but it's not all wall-mounted machine guns and chunks of Kryptonite.
Once the big brawl starts up downstairs, we get a pretty good look at his art collection
when Supergirl and Reign start knocking each other through paintings.
Fortunately, Lex kept one important piece of art upstairs, out of harm's way: Saint
Michael Vanquishing Satan, by Raphael.
In real life, it's a priceless work of art that hangs in the Louvre, and considering
that it's literally a painting of good triumphing over evil, it seems like an odd choice for
Lex Luthor.
There is, however, a reason for it to be there, and it has nothing to do with Lex's taste
in art at least, not on the show.
Instead, it's a callback to Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice, where Lex has a version of
the same scene hanging in his office.
It is, however, a different piece of art.
The movie used a more dramatic version by Gustav Doré called "The Fall of the Rebel
Angels," which Lex hangs it upside down to depict Satan descending from the sky in a
pretty un-subtle metaphor about his feelings for Superman.
Still, it's a depiction of the same scene.
Turns out Lex's tastes are pretty consistent, no matter what universe he's in.
Most people are familiar with Kryptonite, and most comic book fans are aware that the
familiar Green K is only one of several types that have shown up in comics through the years.
Supergirl has tapped into this long tradition, too, digging up Blue, Red, and even "Synthetic"
Kryptonite, all of which have their origins in the comics.
In the finale of season 2, however, the show busts out a pretty obscure one: Silver Kryptonite,
which first appeared in 1963's Superman's Pal Jimmy Olsen #70.
Well, except that it didn't, because it wasn't actually real.
Well, even less real than all the other stuff.
In "The Secret of the Silver Kryptonite," Jimmy tricked Superman into being worried
about a strange new strain with unknown effects, only for it to turn out as a hoax.
It was silver for Superman's silver anniversary — the story was meant to mark 25 years since
the Man of Steel's debut in 1938.
The version we see on Supergirl, however, is very real, or at least as real as regular
green Kryptonite, and can cause paranoia and hallucinations.
In Kara's case, that means that her cousin Clark attacks her because he thinks she's
General Zod, but this version has a precedent, too.
It's actually a reference to the CW's previous long-running Super-show, Smallville, where
it showed up in season 5 with a similar effect on that show's version of Clark Kent.
You'd expect Supergirl to have plenty of references to the old Richard Donner and Christopher
Reeve Superman movies that made audiences believe a man could fly.
What you might not have expected was that they'd build huge plot points around elements
lifted from the Supergirl movie that spun off of them.
Which, at the time, convinced audiences to stay at home instead of going to see it.
Kara's 1984 cinematic outing is often forgotten by fans.
Despite the fact that star Helen Slater made a fantastic Supergirl in her own right, and
would wind up playing Kara's adoptive mom on the TV show, the movie was honestly not
very good.
The inconsistent, confusing plot was largely built around a Kryptonian McGuffin called
the Omegahedron, which had the vague power to do... well, whatever the plot required,
really.
Chasing it down was what led Supergirl to Earth, and the bad guys mainly wanted to use
it for evil magic spells, which, you know, sure, whatever.
Cut to 35 years later, and the show brings in the Omegahedron as a major plot device
in its first season.
Not only was it used by Non to rebuild Indigo, making her an even more formidable threat,
it was also the power source for Myriad, the mind-control device that Supergirl faced off
against in the last two episodes of the first season.
Like the movie, the show kept the limits of the Omegahedron's abilities pretty vague,
but they did identify it as a Kryptonian power source, explaining why Myriad was so powerful
that it could even affect Superman.
Supergirl is obviously chock full of ideas and elements pulled from the Superman comics,
and with Lynda Carter appearing as President Marsdin, there are more than a few nods to
Wonder Woman, too.
As far as the rest of the DC Universe goes, however, you might be surprised to learn that
the show's most prominent pull from Gotham City has very little to do with the Dark Knight.
Instead, it comes from the pages of Hitman.
Created by Garth Ennis and John McCrea, Tommy Monaghan originally appeared as part of the
1993 Bloodlines event, in which every DC Comic of the time introduced a brand new hero or
villain to the universe.
If you're wondering why you've never heard of, say, Shadowstryke, Razorsharp, or Ballistic,
it's because Tommy, a working-class hitman for hire whose powers gave him a headache
when he tried to use them, was the only one who was any good.
For some reason, Gunfire, the man who could turn anything into a gun, didn't click with
audiences.
What does this have to do with Supergirl?
Well, Tommy was from a neighborhood in Gotham City called the Cauldron, where his main hangout
was a bar called Noonan's.
If you're a fan of Supergirl, you might recognize that as the name of the restaurant where Kara
worked as a waitress before being hired by Cat Grant.
The show's brightly lit, family friendly dining establishment is a far cry from a dive bar
frequented by hired killers with a literal demon named Baytor as a bartender, but when
it comes to naming places on a superhero show, there's no such thing as coincidence.
Incidentally, this one actually has a reference within a reference: one of the most memorable
scenes set in Supergirl's version of Noonan's comes from the season 1 episode "Falling."
When Kara is exposed to Red Kryptonite and briefly becomes a jerk, she flicks peanuts
at a shelf of bottles behind the bar, shattering them.
If you're a super-cinephile, you'll recognize that as a direct recreation of a scene from
Superman III.
One of the great things about a show like Supergirl is that with so much time to work
with over the course of several seasons and so much history for one of the best characters
in comics, the creators can really dig back into the past and reintroduce forgotten elements
of a character.
Take, for instance, Rick Malverne.
"Malverne.
Why does that sound so familiar?"
“Because he grew up in Midvale."
Even on the show, he's not the most prominent character; only one appearance outside of
a flashback, in season 2's "Alex."
There, he's depicted as a childhood friend of Kara's who learned her secret back in their
school days, but kept it to himself until he was an adult, using that knowledge to kidnap
Alex and manipulate Supergirl into breaking his father out of prison.
Unless you've read a bunch of Supergirl comics from 50 years ago, you might've missed that
Rick is actually from the comics, although he's a very different character there.
On the page, Dick Malverne, who got a name change for obvious reasons, was Supergirl's
version of Lois Lane or Lana Lang.
He was the childhood friend who suspected Supergirl's secret identity and kept trying
to get her to reveal it, which in Dick's case once escalated into literally faking his own
death.
Like his TV counterpart, it was later revealed that Dick had always known Supergirl's identity
for a fact, and his elaborate plans were his way of dunking on the girl he had a crush
on.
Truly, a character who lives up to his name.
There are plenty of references to comics to be found in dialogue throughout Supergirl,
but on the off chance that you haven't noticed, there's also a reference in most of the episode
titles throughout the series.
In Season 2, we got one that was a nesting doll of deep-cut comics references: "Supergirl
Lives."
There was once a movie in development with the same title, And yes: it's that Superman
movie.
The one that Tim Burton was going to make, with Nicolas Cage in a glorious mullet wig
and that amazingly weird Batman & Robin-style muscle suit.
All things considered, it's probably a good thing that movie never happened.
There's another layer to the reference, though.
"Supergirl Lives" was directed by podcaster, filmmaker, and occasional comic book writer
Kevin Smith, who wrote the screenplay for Superman Lives and has frequently spoken about
the experience.
There are even a couple of references to his unproduced screenplay in the episode, if you're
sharp and nerdy enough to catch them.
"It's Thanagarian snarebeast."
It won't blow anybody's mind to learn that most of the characters we see on Supergirl,
especially the ones who run around in costumes, are from the comics.
Guardian?
He's from the comics, although he's never been Jimmy Olsen under the mask.
Indigo, the evil robot?
She's from the comics, too!
The Martian Manhunter?
That dude's been a member of the Justice League since 1961, you know he's from the comics!
Here's one that might actually surprise you, though.
Remember Zook, the imaginary friend that J'onn mentions having when he was a kid back on
Mars?
"What was his name?"
"Zook."
Yeah, that is also from the comics.
No, really.
In the Silver Age, there was a very weird trend of superheroes having weird little magical
imps showing up in their stories to cause wacky troubles.
Obviously, the most famous, and the one who got the whole trend started, is Superman's
fifth-dimensional foe Mr. Mxyzptlk, who appeared on Supergirl in season 2, and you've probably
heard of Bat-Mite, the Caped Crusader's biggest fan.
Those are just the well-known tips of the inter-dimensional iceberg, though.
Aquaman was annoyed by a sprite named Qwisp, who had a twin brother named Quink.
The Flash even had one, Mopee, a "guardian angel" who was revealed to have been completely
responsible for Barry Allen getting his powers in a story that fans hated so much that it
was immediately retconned out of existence.
Zook, on the other hand, managed to rack up 18 appearances in the Silver Age as a full-on
sidekick before being shuffled off into the limbo of things we don't talk about… unless
it's on Supergirl.
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