Supergirl has been bringing in a variety of big characters from Superman lore for Season 2, and fans will soon see a new version of Cyborg Superman on the small screen. We've known for a while that Kara would run into Cyborg Superman while on a mission to Cadmus, but we haven't known anything for sure about his identity. Now, DC has revealed just who we'll see battling Kara in tonight's episode of Supergirl, and he'll have a very familiar face. Hank Henshaw will return to the show, this time as Cyborg Superman.
Two versions of Hank Henshaw have already appeared on Supergirl, both played by David Harewood. The first version was the D.E.O. agent who took his job hunting aliens very seriously. Season 1 revealed that Hank died on a mission with Jeremiah Danvers when Jeremiah chose to protect J'onn J'onzz. Hank and Jeremiah got into a fight, which ended in Hank falling off a cliff to his presumed death. J'onn then took Hank's place at the D.E.O.
From the looks of things, Supergirl Season 2 will take the ambiguity out of original Hank's fate. Kara will run into Cyborg Superman on her mission to rescue Mon-El from Cadmus, and she'll discover that the scientists of Cadmus recovered the real Hank Henshaw's body and used their technology to turn him into something else entirely. Those of us who caught the teaser at the end of the last episode had a pretty good idea that somebody looking an awful lot like Hank would be attacking Kara in the near future; DC Entertainment confirmed speculation that the Supergirl version of Cyborg Superman would indeed be Hank Henshaw.
It's not a huge shocker than Hank is Cyborg Superman. The comic version of Cyborg Superman went by the name Hank Henshaw before going through his villainous transformation, and Supergirl never stated that the original Hank was totally, absolutely, 100% super dead. Throw in the fact that the show had already revealed that Jeremiah Danvers is alive at Cadmus, and it makes sense that Hank is also still among the living in some form or other.
A big question now is of how much of Hank Henshaw there is left in Cyborg Superman. The comic villain had his mind warped by his transformation, but it's likely that the comic origin story is very different from the Supergirl origin story. Hank doesn't necessarily need to have lost his mind to want to attack Kara. After all, he was killed in an altercation over an alien and has been apparently pieced back together by an organization devoted to getting rid of the aliens on Earth. He may hate aliens like Kara more now than he ever did when he was hunting them on behalf of the D.E.O.
Interestingly, the Cyborg Superman of DC Comics has an origin story that connects him to the supervillain known as Mongul. Supergirl gave a nod to the bad guy earlier in Season 2 when Mon-El mentioned to Kara that he'd visited Warworld, which is a roaming artificial planet controlled by the brutal Mongul. It's possible that Cyborg Superman's appearance combined with the reference to Mongul means that Kara will be facing a truly terrifying team-up from Superman villains in Season 2. We'll have to wait and see.
Tune in to The CW tonight at 8 p.m. ET to see the clash of Supergirl and Cyborg Superman on Supergirl.
