Last night, the Girl of Steel made her triumphant return with season 2 of Supergirl. After the first season aired on CBS, Supergirl joined the rest of Greg Berlanti's DC heroes on The CW and set a Monday ratings high for the network. The series picked up right where season 1 left off, with Supergirl (Melissa Benoist) and J'onn J'onzz (David Harewood) investigating a crashed Kryptonian pod - we learned over the summer that the inhabitant would be Mon-El. Of course, the big change this season was the addition (at least for a few episodes) of Kara's famous cousin, Clark Kent aka Superman (Tyler Hoechlin). And much of the first episode of this season was spent exploring the relationship between Kara and her cousin - while also trying to figure out what she wants to do as a day job.

With Kara a bit preoccupied with both of her jobs, her new "boyfriend" James Olsen (Mehcad Brooks) began to play second fiddle. What seemed like a relationship that was set to blossom at the end of season 1 fizzled out rather quickly, and Kara ended things before they really even got started. Now that his hopes of finding love with Kara seem to be dwindling, James Olsen is set to take on a new character arc this season - one that you might not expect.

According to Kryptonsite, it was revealed at a CW Q&A session that James Olsen will soon take on the vigilante alter ego, Guardian. CBR is reporting that Andrew Kreisberg, a Supergirl producer, addressed the news, "James will decide he can no longer sit back and be a sidekick. It will cause massive problems in his relationship with Kara because he has decided not to tell her."

While James decides not to include Kara in his decision, he will not be playing hero alone. In fact, he will be recruiting long-time friend of Kara, Winn (Jeremy Jordan), who recently joined the DEO. According to Kreisberg, “Winn is his man in the van. Putting Winn and James together is like comedy gold.” And with the DEO being unaware of Winn's new extracurricular activities, he will have a lot of explaining to do, like “why he walks in exhausted, and why he has a black eye.”

For those that are unfamiliar with James Olsen's soon-to-be alter ego, The Guardian, he is most commonly associated with Jim Harper, though the mantle has also been assumed by Malcolm Duncan (this was the case in season 2 of Young Justice). It is not necessarily surprising that Guardian would be making an appearance in this season of Supergirl. He is often connected with Project Cadmus (which will be a major player this season), where he has served as Head of Security. What is an enormous surprise is that James Olsen would be the man to take on the role. This is especially true because Jim Harper has already appeared on Supergirl. Portrayed by Eddie McClintock, Col. James Harper appeared in the season 1 episode, 'Manhunter,' which addressed Project Cadmus and Hank Henshaw's alter ego J'onn J'onzz.

It will interesting to see how fans of the series react to the news that, at least initially, James Olsen, and not James Harper, will be Guardian. Very often it can be a turn off when comic book adaptations so drastically move away from the source material. Still, it will be nice to see James Olsen in a role other than romantic interest. We'll just have to wait and see whether Guardian is the right role.

Supergirl continues Monday October 17 with ‘The Last Children of Krypton’ at 8pm on The CW.

Source: Kryptonsite, CBR