Well for those that have complained from the beginning of ‘Supergirl’ that they have completely changed the character of Jimmy Olsen, you better brace yourselves. The geeky, dimwitted friend of Superman who somehow turned into the confident, athletic, and suave man portrayed on ‘Supergirl’ is now going to become a vigilante in his own right during the first 10 episodes of Season 2.
It has recently been announced that Jimmy Olsen on ‘Supergirl’ is going to become the show’s version of the DC character the Guardian, a mantle fans once thought John Diggle was going to take up over on ‘Arrow.’ According to ‘Supergirl’ executive producer Andrew Kreisberg in a recent interview with Entertainment Weekly:
“These next few episodes are going to make him realize that being a photographer… is not enough for him, so he’s going to go on a pretty exciting career trajectory that we’re really pumped by. James is going to decide that he can no longer sit back and be a sidekick, so he’s going to decide to become a vigilante and he’s going to become Guardian — complete with the shield — which is going to cause a massive problem in his relationship with Kara [Melissa Benoist], because he has decided not to tell her..Now there’s this new masked vigilante, and she has her own feelings about vigilantes, and it becomes a push and pull about who gets to decide who gets to be a hero? He’s recruited Winn [Jeremy Jordan] to help him, Winn is his man in the van, so the two of them are doing this together. Winn and James together is comedy gold. Watching Winn, as he takes his job at the DEO, but then he’s lying to everybody about how he’s spending his nights, because he’s going out with James, and how he walks in exhausted or walks in with a black eye and says he walked into a door, is the fun excitement of building these first 10 episodes.”
So who is The Guardian? In the comics, he was originally a shield wearing hero with superb combat abilities and some super abilities (think a kind of Captain America, except he does not throw the shield), with his backstory and powers retconned to have something to do with Project Cadmus, an organization whose name just happened to come up during the premiere of ‘Supergirl’ season 2. One of the successors to the original Guardian even had a strength-enhancing ex0skeleton to recreate some of the abilities of the original, so there is a world of possibilities for how Jimmy could come upon some powers of his own while becoming a vigilante. Or of course, similar to ‘Arrow,’ Jimmy could be a hero with no powers, but that would be odd with him fighting villains that can stand up to Supergirl, who is extremely powerful. To be clear, I do not really have an issue with the version of Jimmy we see in the Arrowverse, though seeing him as a vigilante might take some getting used to, but I like the idea of him and Winn working together as team and the comedy that could ensue.
And to gather more excitement, the CW has released an image of Jimmy in full Guardian gear:
What are your thoughts on Jimmy becoming a hero? Does it feel completely out of character? Share your feelings on the matter in the comments below!
Nick is a freelance writer based in Los Angeles, who belongs to the privileged few who enjoyed the ending to ‘Lost.’ For more of Nick’s thoughts and articles, follow him on Twitter (@starfro67)
