TV Underdogs: Will ‘Supergirl’ find more chances for ‘Hank Henshaw’ to shine?
When we first saw the “Supergirl” pilot, there was basically one thing we never expected: The presence of Martian Manhunter on the series. He’s someone who is beloved within the DC Universe, but never really touched on much on TV … at least until now. We’re thrilled that the show is giving us this character, and of course we have a little bit of greed now as a result. Why wouldn’t we want to see more of the character?
In our hope to figure out how the series can utilize David Harewood more than they have to date, we’ve made him the focus of our penultimate entry in our month-long TV Underdogs series.
Why he’s an underdog – Let’s chart the journey of J’onn J’onzz here for a minute, shall we? His entire alien race was killed off by White Martians, he came to planet earth, and in an event to protect himself, took on the identity of Hank Henshaw and vowed to do good at the DEO. While he is an alien and may understand how to battle aliens more than anyone else, he’s still under the radar and working with limited resources in comparison to some of his opponents. He’s a character still trying to figure out his identity on earth, and we don’t know how he can be more of an underdog than he is.
Why you don’t see more of him – For the first few episodes, it was because we thought he was a curmudgeon alien-hater. Now, it’s because he is still figuring out how much to use his powers. For the time being he is still convinced that Planet Earth needs Hank Henshaw much more than they need J’onn J’onzz. As for whether or not it will stay that way forever, that is something that is still very much to be seen.
Ways to use him more – The biggest way is simply to make J’onn more of a true partner to Supergirl out in the field, while continuing to have him operate as Hank anytime that his identity could be in jeopardy. This to us gives us the best of both worlds: As much Harewood as possible, and then some great superhero fight scenes. Also, how about showing more flashbacks to J’onn’s initial arrival to Earth? We know now of the terrible things that happened to his fellow Martians, but giving us more insight into this would help to understand further the way in which he interprets humanity.
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