Why Kara and Brainiac Could Be the Best ‘Supergirl’ Ship

Ron Robbins
TV Arrowverse
TV Arrowverse The CW

Since embracing her unique Kryptonian abilities and becoming Supergirl, Kara Danvers has managed to keep National City a bit more guarded than she’s been able to guard her heart. The road to true romance is often rocky, and we get it. However, in Season 4, Supergirl may actually begin her character’s historical relationship with Brainiac 5, and we are here for it. Let’s take a quick look at her journey to Brainy.

James Olsen

Mehcad Brooks and Melissa Benoist in 'Supergirl'

First, there was James Olsen. James kind of stepped all over Winn Schott’s huge crush on Kara Danvers, and worked the game that Winn could only dream of having. We barely had a moment to ship them before James and Kara were paired up. But as Kara was still getting her feet wet as Supergirl, she really couldn’t dedicate the attention that a new relationship required. And was James entirely ready to move on from his relationship with Lucy Lane? Their romance was over almost as quickly as it began.

Mon-El

Melissa Benoist and Chris Wood in 'Supergirl'

Then Kara finds common ground and a romantic spark with Mon-El, the newest alien survivor of an unexpected crash landing on Earth. Believing they have nearly everything in common, Kara grooms him to be a fellow superhero while simultaneously falling in love with him. But then he went and got sucked into that wormhole. Wait, what?

The Legion of Superheroes

Ok, let’s review a bit of comic book history. You see, Mon-El’s storyline on Supergirl was borrowed and redesigned from the pages of the Superboy comics in 1961. It was the character of Superboy who stumbles upon Mon-El after his crash landing. Believing him to be a fellow Kryptonian, Superboy befriends him, names him, and trains Mon-El to be a hero. Their story is real cute, until Superboy begins to distrust Mon-El due to his immunity to kryptonite. His revenge on Mon-El is nearly fatal.

Distraught over inadvertently poisoning Mon-El, Superboy saves his life by sending him to the Phantom Zone, where his lead poisoning would not progress but he would also basically be in another dimension. It’s a complicated plot development, but it frees up the Mon-El character to later be used in the futuristic, 30th century-based Legion of Superheroes stories about a club of super-powered teenagers … including our new friend, Brainiac 5.

Jesse Rath as Brainiac 5

Back here in the Arrowverse, it is Supergirl who discovers and befriends Mon-El. Their relationship develops and becomes very strong. It’s almost perfect. But, drama.

It turns out that Mon-El is the son of Rhea, the evil queen of Daxam, and she has arrived with her army to rough up the world as we know it. Our heroes develop a lead poison plan to destroy the Daxamites, but with obvious risk to Mon-El. In order to save his life, they accept Mon-El’s necessary departure from Earth’s atmosphere. Obvi, during that trip his pod flies into a wormhole. One that takes him to the future, where he meets his soon-to-be-fellow Legionnaires.

In the Arrowverse, these teammates are no longer teenagers. After a long absence that gives Kara just enough time to mend her broken heart, Mon-El and the Legion of Superheroes arrive from the 31st Century to help the D.E.O. with their newest battle. This created a lot of drama, especially because one of those Legionnaires was Mon-El’s new wife, the lovely Imra Ardeen AKA Saturn Girl. This dramatic plot twist is also what finally brings Brainiac 5 to our screens.

Jesse Rath, Chris Wood, and Amy Jackson in 'Supergirl'

And now it’s time for the purists to celebrate. Because in the comics, Brainiac 5 was a teenaged alien from the planet Colu who sought to join the Legion of Superheroes to atone for the wrongdoings of his great-grandfather, the OG Brainiac, one of Superman’s most vicious foes. And once the Legion recruited Supergirl, Brainiac 5 was shook, and a timeless love story was born.

Being Human

Chyler Leigh and Jesse Rath in 'Supergirl'

As Brainiac 5 is Coluan, he has natural shapeshifting abilities. This is a good thing, because his natural appearance might have caused some to spit out their chai lattes. It could be suggested that he looks like a blue, bedazzled, younger, and futuristic version of Doc Brown from Back to the Future. As portrayer Jesse Rath is just so cute, we squealed when he used that shape-shifting ability to adopt a human visage in order to better fit into society. It also increased his chemistry with Kara. We can already tell they will be simply adorkable together.

Their love story is comics canon since the 1960s, and we would love to see that play out in the Arrowverse. During the Season 3 finale, Mon-El announces his need to return to the future to deal with a new threat, and he recruits Winn to join him. Reports indicate that Jesse Rath has been upgraded to series regular. With Winn and Mon-El out of the picture, it stands to reason that Brainiac 5 will be filling in as the resident geek and as Kara’s love interest. He’ll have his little Coluan hands full, and we can’t wait.

Ron Robbins
Ron is fascinated by Max Headroom. His top three favorite things of all time are macaroni & cheese, General Hospital, and Archie Comics. Ron is easily triggered and living in West Hollywood, CA.