Fans were perplexed at least and outraged at most a few months ago when it was announced that CBS’s series ‘Supergirl’ would feature a teenage Kal-El a.k.a. her cousin Superman. How?! Kal-El was an infant when he and teenage Kara were rocketed from the exploding planet Krypton and by the time she arrived on Earth, he had already grown to adulthood. Having a teenage Kal-El made no sense!
Unless it’s a dream sequence. Which it is.
The next episode, entitled ‘For The Girl Who Has Everything’ is an adaptation of the classic Alan Moore tale ‘For The Man Who Has Everything’ from 1984’s ‘Superman’ Annual #11, widely considered one of the best Superman stories of all time. In the original, cosmic villain Mongul places Superman in a coma using a hallucinogenic, parasitic plant called the Black Mercy. In the coma, Superman dreams, in a completely realistic manner, that Krypton never exploded and he grew to adulthood there, with both his natural parents and eventually himself marries (a Kryptonian doppelganger of Lois Lane) and has a young son that is the apple of his eye. Of course this is all ripped away from him, when he is freed from this trance, with the help of Batman and Wonder Woman.
The story was previously adapted in a 2004 episode of ‘Justice League Unlimited’.
This is how the ‘Supergirl’ version is summarized:
“Kara’s friends must find a way to save her life when a parasitic alien attaches itself to her and traps her in a dream world where her family is alive and her home planet was never destroyed. Kara’s beloved cousin Kal-El joins her and her parents in domestic Kryptonian bliss, where neither of them needed to escape to Earth, or become super heroes. Also, Alex, Hank and the DEO must fend off a Kryptonian attack while Kara is out of commission.”
Executive producer Andrew Kreisberg discussed adapting this classic story, by saying:
“There was something about that particular story that, to me, was almost even more resonant for her. For Superman, when it happens to him, it’s his wish for something that he never had. But for her, she wants something back that was taken from her. It really is like her stepping into this fantasy of what life would’ve been like if she had never left Krypton and had grown up there, if her parents were still alive, if she had grown into the person and the life that she wanted to lead. Again, because it’s coming at a time where she’s feeling so low about her life on Earth, it becomes that much more potent. … She’s actually getting back everything that was taken away from her and the only way out of it is to reject it. Imagine how horrible that’s going to be.”
How do you feel about such an iconic SuperMAN story being co-opted for his younger cousin? Are you looking forward to this episode?
‘For The Girl Who Has Everything’ airs this Monday at 8:00 pm ET on CBS.
Sources: Entertainment Weekly, Coming Soon
