Hopefully we’re not alone in the belief that nothing is more exciting than meeting a beloved character’s doppelganger, evil twin, or even an alternate self from another universe. It has certainly happened on The Flash, the first time the team visited Earth 2. Or how about Caitlin Snow’s dramatic transformation when she first became the wicked Killer Frost? And anyone remember that old Buffy episode, “Dopplegangland,” where Anya brings Willow’s sultry vampire doppelganger to Sunnydale? It’s a real classic.
Well, it looks like in Season 4, Supergirl is at it…again. During the last moments of the Season 3 finale, Supergirl pulled a quick redo to put an end to Reign’s growing power, but this time without the accompanying deaths of her family and friends. She had killed Reign the first time, breaking her own code. This time, she would do it “right.”
So, just a quick super-powered time travel to a few moments before, with no worry of the consequences. Instead of killing Reign again, she took Reign and Sam to the Dark Valley. There, Sam was able to overpower her alter ego, forcing Reign to drink water from the Fountain of Lilith which trapped her in the Dark Valley permanently. Problem solved.
However, when Kara used the black rock to travel to the Dark Valley with Reign and Sam, it summoned a smoke trail over to Siberia, of all places, where a clone of Kara suddenly appeared. The last scene of the episode shows the clone waking up, naked and afraid, near some kind of military camp. That black rock is no joke, and now we’re super worried about what Lena Luthor might accidentally, or purposefully, do with it, and what kind of insanity the clone of Kara that it created will bring to the story.
So what can we expect from this alternate Kara?
We’ve already met Bizarro, a twisted and demonic-looking clone of Supergirl (borrowed from the pages of a Superman comic story), in the midst of the first season. But she was a new version of Supergirl. Now we have a new version of Kara. And did Supergirl do some damage to the timeline by her quick trip back in time? Or will the powers that be leave those timeline course-correct stories to Team Flash?
We can pretty safely assume that this black rock is actually Black Kryptonite. Originating in the beloved Smallville series before making its way to various comic stories, Black Kryptonite is a weaponized version of kryptonite, created by heating the standard Green Kryptonite to extreme temperatures. On Smallville, the rock actually separated Doomsday from his human identity, Davis Bloome, creating two separate beings. Sounds very much like what the rock did to Reign and Sam, and now to Kara and this mystery clone. We’d bet the keys to Catco that Black Kryptonite is exactly what we are dealing with.
The clone’s appearance in the Russian province of Siberia has lead to some chatter about the Superman comic story “Red Son.” In the 2003 comic, a story was told that imagined the Superman we know and love having landed in the Soviet Union instead of in Smallville, Kansas in the good ol’ USA. A drastically altered version of this story could be fun for Supergirl to explore. And it’s extremely fun to ponder.
Let’s take a trip back to 1985, when the world first learned about Ivan Drago, the villain in Rocky IV. After three movies filled with beatings, Rocky was ready to retire. But then the emerging Soviet superstar boxer Ivan Drago reared his ugly head. He bragged and boasted and showboated his way to the USA, which encouraged the in-need-of-validation Apollo Creed to challenge Drago to an exhibition fight for posterity. In short, Drago basically beat Creed to death, sending Rocky on a road back to the ring to avenge the death of his best friend. This same history is being called back on for the upcoming movie sequel, Creed II. The sons of Apollo Creed and Ivan Drago will have a dramatic and vengeful fight to the finish. With the resurgence of this classic story, let’s imagine a Supergirl variation.
Naked, alone, and in Siberia, the Kara clone finds refuge in a cold military group, perhaps an evil version of the D.E.O. Her smarts and skillsets make her a valuable member, especially when she discovers her superpowers. The Kara we know is as good and moral as a Disney princess. Imagine the polar opposite. Being trained and supported and essentially raised by a group of evildoers with dangerous technology and malicious intentions.
When Supergirl and the D.E.O. learn of dark happenings on the other side of the world, they eventually realize a need to intervene. And this will lead to an epic face-to-face battle between Kara/Supergirl and her evil Soviet clone! Lena and her mastery of Black Kryptonite would surely serve some major purpose.
However the clone story develops, we can’t wait to see how Kara and crew decide to put an end to it. Will there be a fight to the death, or will they once again use a method to conjoin Kara with her clone?
Fun to think about, don’t you think?
