CBS’ Supergirl has had a cryptic relationship with other DC superheroes at best, but it seems a top-tier Justice League-r has been right under our noses all along. Find out who among the regular cast has been masquerading as a DC villain, only for tonight’s “Human For a Day” to reveal them as an out-of-this-world DC hero!

You’re warned of SUPER-spoilers from tonight’s Supergirl outing from here on out, but where the DC-inclined among us have been counting down the days until David Harewood’s Hank Henshaw outs himself as the show’s incarnation of Cyborg Superman, said reveal took a major swerve tonight. Those glowing red eyes Henshaw has flashed don’t belong to any robot, but rather a live-action incarnation of DC’s Martian Manhunter!

See for yourself:

Supergirl Martian Manhunter Hank Henshaw
CBS
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Up until now, Supergirl has presented Harewood’s Hank Henshaw as Kara’s superior at the Department of Extra-Normal operations, while last week’s “Red Faced” revealed something Kara and her foster sister Alex had already begun to suspect. Some years prior, their father Jeremiah Danvers and Henshaw disappeared on a Peru mission under mysterious circumstances, only for Henshaw to return with no memory of Danvers’ “death.” Unbeknownst to anyone else, Henshaw has also been flashing the occasional red-eyes, previously believed to allude to the character’s cybernetic comic counterpart.

Tonight’s episode saw Kara mostly powerless after her bout with Red Tornado last week, while Henshaw and Alex found themselves trapped in DEO headquarters, chasing down the mind-controlling alien Jemm (Constantine star Charles Halford) after an earthquake knocked out the power. Naturally suspicious, Alex defied Henshaw’s repeat commands to stay in lockdown, eventually turning a gun on her former boss, and handcuffing him to a pipe.

Eventually, Alex impressively managed to get the drop on Jemm, only for Henshaw to appear out of nowhere and put the villain down for good with superhuman strength. Once the crisis abated, Alex demanded the truth from her superior, to which the being revealed that he was in fact the alien pursued by the real Henshaw and Jeremiah Danvers down south. Danvers realized the creature’s innocent nature, sacrificing his life to stop a relentless Henshaw, while the being swore to Jeremiah he would protect his daughter. Upon Alex’s request, “Henshaw” dropped his shape-shifting abilities, and revealed his true identity as the last son of Mars, J’onn J’onzz.

Of course, J’onzz insisted Alex keep the matter a secret, even from Kara (gotta have that extra drama), so it remains to be seen why the Martian Manhunter would hide his identity from a Kryptonian ally. For his part, star David Harewood expressed relief to EW over the character swap, noting that he hadn’t learned until after Comic-Con, and wasn’t particularly enjoying his initial character:

I had no idea. After the pilot was picked up, my manager told me that they were changing my character. That’s as much as they’d tell me. I was intrigued by that. I didn’t quite know what that meant. When I came to shoot the series, they still didn’t tell me. I did the whole of Comic-Con just lying through my teeth. I didn’t know what I was talking about. They told me about a week after Comic-Con. They presented me with a little Martian Manhunter doll and several comic books of Martian Manhunter. I went home and devoured them. I thought they were just fantastic. I was delighted.

I must say, I was struggling with Hank Henshaw. I didn’t particularly enjoy the pilot. For me, it was a lot of exposition. I just couldn’t find an angle that was interesting with Hank Henshaw. He was all, “I don’t like aliens, I don’t like Kara.” It was all a bit too one-dimensional to me. So I was delighted that they gave me this guy to play. He’s just so fantastical and it’s such a wonderful backstory and history. It just gave me so much more to play.

Harewood also teased that we’d see a bit of his Martian backstory, along with an episode in which a White Martian arrives on Earth to hunt him (it’s a comic thing), but what should we make of the big reveal? Will Supergirl grow stronger, now that a major DC superhero besides Kara has been revealed among the cast? Who else might pop up before Season 1 wraps its 20-episode order?

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