How Myriad in 'Supergirl' Will Influence the End of the Season

Maybe Barry Allen (guest star Grant Gustin) should have stuck around a little longer. After The Flash and Supergirl (Melissa Benoist) kicked back with ice cream and Barry returned to Earth-1, Non’s super evil plan “Myriad” kicked off and now Non (Chris Vance) holds most, if not all of National City under mind control.

Following the fight against Livewire and Silver Banshee with the help of The Flash, Kara finally makes her big move on the hunky James Olsen (Mechad Brooks). James stares at her, blankly, slowly to her dismay, and when he leaves, she finds out it’s not just him walking in step. It’s all of National City, and we the audience learn it’s Non moving forward with his ultimate plan, Myriad.

Myriad in Supergirl is a little different from Myriad in DC comics, mainly because Myriad was originally a person. Debuting in Superman #77 in 1993, Myriad was Sasha Green, an expert martial arts instructor who trained Lex Luthor II (who was actually Lex Luthor in a new, younger body posing as his own son, because comic books). After Luthor kills Green because she embarrassed him in front of Supergirl and Lois Lane, Green’s body is taken over by the alien parasite Gemir and grants her superpowers (Gemir also “activated” others like Cardinal Sin and Sparx).

Myriad isn’t really a mind control villain, like, say, Kilgrave in Jessica Jones. Rather, Myriad can mentally “link” with a person upon touching them. She can control them, sure, but she also gains their memories, abilities, even a little of their physical look, and can even feel their pain. Also, she gets amnesia after she absorbs these from somebody. Truly, she becomes a “myriad” of a human being.

Myriad went MIA in comics in the ‘90s, appearing only for seven issues total in different ongoing books at the time like Batman and Superman: The Man of Tomorrow. She’s been gone ever since and is pretty Z-list, so there won’t be any angry fanboy rants that Supergirl regurgitated her into a process than a person.

In an interview with EW, series producer Andrew Kreisberg previewed what’s in store as Supergirl reaches the end of its freshman year and how Myriad factors in. “As you’ll hear in subsequent episodes, you start to get very cogent arguments on the bad guy’s side on why Myriad is the way to go,” Kreisberg says to EW. “For us, we always love it when the bad guys have a point — they’re leaving out the point about killing a lot of people, or you losing your free will, but next week, Non actually gives a speech where he talks about, ‘What has your free will gotten you? It’s gotten you a planet full of reality TV shows and politicians who can’t stand each other, and you’re all standing around sitting by as global warming is coming to destroy your planet.’”

Kreisberg adds: “What if everybody was working in lockstep, what if everybody was moving in the same direction, what if everybody was working together, wouldn’t that be better? … Obviously we can all talk about how that’s horrible and you’re losing your free will and we’ll all miss our reality shows, but he has a point of view you can argue, and that always makes the most compelling villains.”

But the show will still have its share of smash-and-bash villains too. Next week’s “Myriad” will guest star former WWE wrestler Eve Torres as Maxima, a strong warrior with a sense of pride that’s been played for laughs once or twice, like the time she hosted Plastique’s bachelorette party at a Tex-Mex restaurant in Extreme Justice #10. That probably won’t happen in Supergirl, but if [Maxima brings Kara to a Jose Tejas] don’t be surprised.