"Supergirl" has a new power, and it was first seen last episode when Kara Zor-El (Melissa Benoist) "emptied the tank" of her heat vision onto a rogue Red Tornado robot. The task was so taxing that Kara found herself powerless when the episode ended.
"She, literally, like, put so much of herself out there to defeat this person that she loses everything and she has this solar flare, so she is rendered powerless in the next episode ('Human for a Day')," executive producer Ali Adler explained to Comic Book.
Co-creator Andrew Kreisberg further shared that this solar flare power is actually something unique to the series.
"It's something that actually, it's, sort of, new from the comics. It was a Geoff Johns idea, which was that Superman's - or any Kryptonian's - cells are, basically, suffused with solar radiation and that's where they get their powers from and the heat vision is an expulsion of that energy," Kreisberg said. "You could actually just, basically, run out and you would need to recharge. I was such a fan of that comic and that run and talked to Geoff and said, 'Could we do something with that?' and he was like, 'Absolutely!'"
Kreisberg is a huge fan of the "Men of Tomorrow" storyline in the comic books, which was created by John Romita, Jr.
In that particular storyline, a powerless Clark Kent and Jimmy Olsen were walking around the Metropolis right after Superman just confessed his real identity. They encounter a robbery in progress, and Superman quickly changes into his costume, stands before the gunman, and tries to talk him out of the crime.
Jimmy is shocked by what happened and reminded Clark how dangerous it is to confront criminals without superpowers. Clark simply answered, "You think I only step in front of guns because I'm bulletproof?"
Kreisberg said that an episode of "Supergirl" will take a nod from that inspiring storyline.
"Geoff being such a good friend of mine, I always try to sit down and read anything that he wrote, and I was really digging on his Superman run that he did with John Romita, Jr., who's one of my favorite illustrators. So I really loved the whole 'Men of Tomorrow' run," he gushed. "I thought that was a great storyline and there's a little shout-out in an upcoming episode to one of the themes in that run."
