Supergirl: The Main Characters, Ranked by Likability
Supergirl ran for 6 seasons on the CW, expanding the Arrowverse to focus on a powerful female superhero, unlike the predominantly male-led superhero shows the network had been developing. The show developed a strong fandom, with audiences seeing themselves in the characters on screen.
One reason for the strength of the fandom was the openness the show had to include a diverse cast of characters, all of whom went through very real crises of identity, family, relationships, and more. The characters were deep, and, for the most part, very likable.
James Olsen was introduced on the show as a connection with the more well-known Superman mythos, which meant that he was one of the strongest characters from the beginning. He was charismatic, intelligent, and well-liked by the fans.
However, as the show went on, the showrunners struggled to find strong arcs to give him, even making him the accidental symbol of a hate group. With how much his character floundered, many fans were happy to see the character go, particularly when his final arc brought him back to the character that so many knew and loved from the beginning of the show.
Mon-El was the prince of a slave-owning society, who believed that he knew better than everyone, particularly Kara. That's a hard place to come back from, but many fans found that the show was able to successfully do it by sending the character away, only to reintroduce him with a much more palatable personality.
While many fans loved the dynamic of Kara and Mon-El, especially given the chemistry between real-life married couple Chris Wood and Melissa Benoist, even the show's characters admit that Mon-El was immature and often misogynistic. So while he may have grown on many fans, becoming a true hero and a likable love interest, he will always be held back by where he started.
Brainiac-5, or Brainy as he was frequently known, took his place in the show as a Spock-like "mind over emotions" kind of character. He was the smartest character on Supergirl and tried to live his entire life by logical calculations. This frequently got on the nerves of fellow DEO agent Alex, as well as many fans who preferred Winn's nerdy fun to Brainy's emotionless rationale.
However, seeing a character built to be emotionless finding the good of his emotions through humanity is kind of what Supergirl is all about. While Kara and so many other characters are aliens, the show is about the innate good in all humans and the way they bring out that good in their peers. While he took some time to get used to, Brainy eventually became a beloved character, and his relationship with Nia was one of the highlights of the show.
Lena Luthor is a controversial character, who some fans love with all their hearts, and others would prefer she had a smaller role on the show. Both of these reactions came in part due to the fervent section of the fan base who hoped Lena would end up in a romantic relationship with Kara.
Lena was incredibly smart and took on an important role in the show as the cynical technocrat, an important foil to Kara's hopeful brawn-over-brains approach to life. She was sarcastic, firm in her beliefs, and toed the line between a hero and a villain, which made her potential fascinating. Unfortunately, some fans found it frustrating to watch her be uncharacteristically ignorant of Kara's identity and repetitively morally grey, as it seemed the time for those plots was long over.
J'onn had the opportunity to serve several different roles throughout Supergirl, learning to come out of the Hank Henshaw persona he had to take on to survive and instead truly embrace who he was, taking center stage in many of the show's most heartwarming scenes. He served as the only consistent parental figure for Alex and Kara and was just the right combination of strict and sentimental.
It was great for fans to see J'onn grow, taking on his missions pertaining to his family, planet, and culture rather than just being a sidekick for Kara. Martian Manhunter is a powerful character in the comics and other media adaptations, and while his portrayal may not have been everything that comic fans wanted it to be, it was strong, emotional, and important.
The CW broke barriers when they introduced Nia as the first trans superhero on television. For the most part, they handled the storylines that addressed her gender well, providing heartbreaking windows into trans experiences. But one of the things they did best made her a remarkable character beyond her gender. She was not a caricature, as the CW often makes, but was a real, fleshed-out superhero.
Nia was powerful, funny, and hopeful, all the things that fans loved so much about Kara. She had all the elements of a great origin story and had a personality that would lead to further uses of the character, such as her presence in Superman: Son of Kal-El.
Winn Schott is the geeky best friend that every rom-com has taught audiences to root for, the boy who desperately wants the girl, but who she never sees as having romantic potential. Or at least, that's who he starts as. Unlike some of the other characters on Supergirl, Winn gets better with age, finding his element working at the DEO.
Winn loves aliens and is brilliant with technology, making him a vital member of the team as well as the easiest character for nerdy audience members to connect with. He never has to turn into anything other than who he is, and even the nerdiest, vulnerable sides of him are applauded by the other characters and the audiences.
The show is called Supergirl, so how could fans help but like Supergirl herself? She is passionate and hopeful, largely avoiding the descent into darkness that befell most of the other Arrowverse shows. As one of the strongest characters in the DC Universe, the success of the show was always going to hinge on how she could still be challenged, and for the most part, the showrunners did a great job of that.
If anyone were to doubt how amazing Kara is, they just need to watch the season one episode "Human For A Day" to see exactly how special she is. Kara may have extraordinary powers, but what stands out about her is her heart, which is on display in all of her best arcs.
One of the best parts of Supergirl was seeing the dynamic between Kara and her sister, and a large part of that was due to how lovable Alex is. She is deeply dedicated to her work, whether on the science or fighting sides of it and is equally dedicated to her family.
Her journey was one of the most realistic on Supergirl, as she struggled to understand her sexuality and her desire for motherhood, and she is one character that the show could not have continued without. Alex was the bravest of all the characters in Supergirl, because she was always the human in a room of superheroes, still fighting for what she believed in.
Although Cat Grant was only a season regular for the first season, she made her mark, standing out as one of the most interesting and engaging characters to appear on Supergirl. She pushed Kara to be her best self and showcased all of the things fans love most about The Devil Wears Prada's Miranda Priestly without all the bad parts.
Cat Grant was the show's image of what a woman can do if she works hard enough, and though she appeared less as the show went on, she was always Kara's role model, directing her path. It was only right that she was the one to finally help Kara embrace both sides of herself, and fans might wish that strict as she was, they had someone like her in their own lives.