The Supergirl season 2 premiere, “Adventures of Supergirl,” saw Kara teaming up with her famous cousin, Superman.

Supergirl season 1 walked a shaky tightrope in regards to its approach to Superman. He was named and even appeared a couple of times, but his face was never seen. Any direct interactions he had with Kara were via instant message or text. That changed with the second season premiere, as Superman not only showed up but also teamed up with Kara.

‘Supergirl’ recap: Season 2, episode 1

The producers initially didn’t want to bring Superman into the story while Kara was still establishing herself as a hero in her own right because he would likely overshadow her; it made complete sense for Clark to be an off-screen presence in the first season. But now Kara has saved the world — including Clark — and become that hero. So bringing in her cousin and exploring that relationship works.

There are some humorous moments of characters from Winn to Cat Grant fangirling over Clark/Superman, but his presence never felt overwhelming for me. Kara still got to shine; and for the moments of Clark giving Kara advice on balancing a regular life with a superhero identity, Clark has his own moments of looking up to Kara, as he asks if she could tell him more stories about his parents. There’s nice balance.

Moreover, Clark and Kara are kindred spirits, having come from an alien planet to live among humans and figure out all that entails. They can talk to each other about things that their other loved ones can’t completely understand. Having that connection is good for both of them, and I’m excited to see it explored further.

Initially, I wasn’t sure of about the casting choice of Tyler Hoechlin as Clark, but any doubts were washed away with this episode. I found him charming and optimistic in the way I expect Superman to be. I enjoyed his chemistry with Melissa Benoist, and I definitely buy them as relations.

Besides Clark’s presence in the episode, there were — believe it or not — a few other storylines going on.

First, we had the introduction of Lena Luthor, Lex Luthor’s adopted younger sister. Having taken over Lex’s company with his most recent arrest, she had just moved to National City. She intended to change the name of Lex Corp to L Corp to distance it and herself from her brother. However, that didn’t sit well with Lex, who hired assassins to kill her.

Though Clark and Kara were initially suspicious of her, it turns out that she is a victim and they end up protecting her and giving her some good press. Lena has something of a parallel arc to Kara, as both women are looking to establish themselves out of the shadows of their more famous (or infamous) family members. It should be interesting to see these two continue to interact as the story goes on.

Another story going on was Kara’s search for a new job; Kara was promoted from Cat Grant’s assistant in the season 1 finale and was given a deadline to decide what she wanted to do with herself. She initially thought she might like to get involved in marketing, but Cat rejected that since it was just the result of an online aptitude test. As usual, Cat pushed Kara to be her best self.

And spending time with Clark helped Kara figure out what she wanted to do: be a reporter. Cat revealed that the day Kara interviewed with her, Cat wrote “Reporter” on her resume and filed it away before hiring her on the spot. She believed Kara would make a good reporter all along.

I kind of love this for Kara; making connections with other people is important to her, and being a good reporter requires the ability to connect with and keep sources. I have to imagine that her working as a reporter would only help her in terms of investigating cases that need Supergirl as well.

A third story the episode explored was the budding relationship between Kara and James. In the season finale, they kissed. But Kara, it turns out, doesn’t actually know what she wants. After a couple of aborted attempts at having a date, Kara breaks things off with James.

This runs counter to the advice Cat Grant gave her about jumping into the water even though she’s afraid of the hard swim — advice she took when it came to her professional prospects. She says she wants to focus on learning how to be Kara, but I doubt that means Kara and James will only be friends forever.

Yet, again, the romance story doesn’t dominate anything. It’s just one of many things Kara is dealing with, and I appreciate that. Kara is a female hero, but she is not defined by her romantic prospects.

Other odds and ends

What did you think of the ‘Supergirl’ season 2 premiere?