The following contains spoilers for Superman & Lois Season 2, Episode 9, “30 Days and 30 Nights,” which aired Tuesday, March 29, on The CW.
Superman & Lois Season 2 has challenged the eponymous couple from all sides, as sinister cult leader Ally Allston has targeted Lois Lane’s journalistic integrity while siding with rogue U.S. Army General Mitch Anderson against Superman himself. Through this gauntlet, Superman and his friend John Henry Irons faced off against the supervillain Bizarro before the Man of Steel got trapped in Bizarro’s inverted world for a full month. And as the Kent family is overwhelmed by the sheer amount of super-powered peril, the glaring lack of Kal-El’s cousin Supergirl is becoming increasingly and distractingly noticeable.
In the midst of Superman being stuck in Bizarro World, the Arrowverse is ravaged by a string of disasters, prompting Steel to step up and defend the world as best as he can in the Man of Tomorrow’s absence. In the face of a world without Superman, Lois and Clark’s super-powered son Jordan has also embarked on a fledgling superhero career of his own, albeit while enduring understandable concern from Lois. But with the Arrowverse suffering as Superman remains missing, the lack of other Arrowverse heroes helping out feels glaringly questionable, especially the visible lack of Supergirl being even referenced.
When Supergirl ended, Kara Zor-El was still very much a superhero, even going as far as to publicly reveal her secret identity to the world so she could live a more fulfilling life rather than trying to maintain the long-running deception. However, since the Supergirl series finale, Kara has been completely absent from the Arrowverse, with Alex Danvers as the sole Supergirl character appearing in the recent crossover event “Armageddon.” There hasn’t even been a mention of Kara yet on Superman & Lois, which is strange given her familial connection to Kal and Tyler Hoechlin’s Superman making his debut in the Supergirl Season 2 premiere.
Superman & Lois has displayed some tenuous links to the wider Arrowverse, though these references have currently been few and far between. Arrow character John Diggle visited the Kent family in Smallville during Season 1, while Clark has made passing allusions to his friendship with Barry Allen before. Over on The Flash, the Justice League headquarters still has a spot at its council table marked for Superman, while Barry has similarly referenced knowing Clark. And yet, beyond this, the once tightly cohesive Arrowverse has Superman & Lois as something of an outlier, separated from its counterparts.
With allusions like these, Supergirl herself wouldn’t even have to make a physical appearance on Superman & Lois to account for the discrepancy during Superman’s absence. A passing line of dialogue from a news broadcast or offhand comment mentioning what Kara has been doing in the interim would be a relatively simple way of resolving this glaring void. Instead, the continued lack of even the smallest acknowledgment of Supergirl’s existence is a puzzling one for Arrowverse fans.
Superman & Lois has put its heroes through the wringer, with even the Man of Steel needing some backup to help him save the day. Though Steel’s inclusion is certainly a welcome one, Clark has an entire team of friends to contact if he needs reinforcements, including his own cousin. While Superman & Lois has taken advantage of being largely isolated from the wider Arrowverse to develop its own voice, it’s high time that the show starts to recognize that it’s in a shared universe, with Supergirl as a prominent force within it.
To see if Supergirl ever gets a mention, Superman & Lois airs Tuesdays at 8 pm ET/PT on The CW.
