Supergirl Mehcad Brooks is Jimmy Olsen

I’ll stick up for poor, beleaguered James.

As I mentioned before, I’m not a fan of the Flarrowverse’s propensity to promote pretty much every supporting character to superhero sidekick status. And that applies to James/Guardian too. However, I don’t think his situation is any worse than Spartan, Speedy, Arsenal, Black Canary (x2), Overwatch, Mr. Terrific, Atom, White Canary, Vibe, Killer Frost, Kid Flash, et. al.

Now, maybe the Guardian side-plot will get especially silly and/or start to occupy an excessive amount of screen time. But so far, it’s been reasonably tolerable.

 

I really think they should have written him out when he and Kara called it a day.

What's annoying is I think Mechad Brooks would have been a good addition as the Guardian if he wasn't James Olsen.

 

If Supergirl had been affected by Flashpoint, maybe they could've made it that James was no longer James but just random Guardian guy.

 

The fundamental difference between Guardian and all the other spinoff sidekick heroes, is that Jimmy comes off as fundamentally selfish and unheroic. He chooses to become a superhero because he feels inadequate about his life, and in order to do so, he. . . emotionally blackmails a friend into providing essentially all the capacity to do so. He doesn't bring any genius or dedication to the role, and the only heart he brings is hollow and rotted at the core. If someone told me the intended arc was for him to become a supervillain, I'd totally believe it.

 

Maybe Mehcad Brooks has a very strong contract. It's interesting that in the opening credits he gets second billing, after Melissa Benoist, with Chyler Leigh third.
Usually in the credits an actor's placement indicates their importance to the movie or show. So apparently at one time Kara and James were intended to be the
major players. Usually an actor playing a major role isn't arbitrarily let go unless they create problems, like Suzanne Somers or Charlie Sheen did. And apparently
Mehcad Brooks is well liked on the set. So when Kara and James were no longer a couple they had to find something for James to do that involved more than
sitting at Cat Grant's desk, because he doesn't have the personality to be an ersatz Cat Grant. And with Kara becoming a reporter, having James as a photojournalist
becomes somewhat redundant. So the only way to keep Mehcad involved in the show in any meaningful role is to have him become another action hero.

 

Granted, James-to-Guardian doesn’t quite measure up to, say, Batman’s grand/tragic arc. But that’s true of many other superheroes. Indeed, several of them (including those on the Berlanti shows) kinda just stumble into the costumed crime fighter biz. Or they join up because they think it’s cool. Or they say something vague about wanting to “make a difference.” (Becoming a public school teacher or volunteering for Doctors Without Borders weren’t options, I guess. )

So in the big landscape of superhero origins, James’s motivations strike me as par for the course.

I’ve never really fancied the Jimmy Olsen character; and I guess that’s why I’m indifferent to departures from “official canon” (e.g., Smallville, BvS and now Supergirl). So if a new vigilante in town somehow serves the Supergirl storyline (as a point of dramatic conflict with Kara) I don’t much care that James was selected for this job.

 

Well they could've picked another character instead of James Olsen to be that point of conflict. He could've been either an original character, or even someone like John Henry Irons.

 

Mechad Brooks would have been a good John Henry Irons and certainly would have fit the CW type of casting for that role given he's younger than you'd expect Irons to be.

 

There is a line in an upcoming episode where James says "You're not the only hero in National City".

1. equating himself with Supergirl? really?
2. duh, there are 100's of police officers that are doing what he does without the suit.

I think the showrunners screwed up casting Mehcad as James Olson, I think they limited themselves by doing that...I didn't think that at the beginning, but I definitely do now.

And let me be clear, that has nothing to do with Mehcad Brooks, nothing at all, they could have cast him as a Police Detective, Captain, whatever and taken the Guardian arc from there....

 

I wouldn't mind Jimmy's motives so much if he brought something, anything to the table, or if his origin with Winn were handled better. It just. . . seriously, really casts a dark cloud over the whole affair. At least Booster Gold only stole his stuff, he didn't manipulate a friend into assisting.

And yeah, he'd have been great as John Henry Irons. In retrospect, I really wish they'd gone that way, with Winn because Kara's CATCO friend, and "John" as her DEO friend.

 

James was the Catco version of Lois Lane, with Winn being Jimmy Olsen and Cat Grant as Perry White. As Lois Lane is the beautiful and sexy one at the Daily Planet, James was meant to be the beautiful and sexy one at Catco. The problem is by moving to Vancouver they lost Calista Flockhart and as a result Catco sort of fell apart and Catco has ceased to be a part of the show. It was dumb to put James in charge. That job should have gone to Snapper Carr, as he more fits the Perry White character. If they had done that more could be done with Catco and it would have let James continue in his photojournalist role butting heads with Snapper Carr.

Not sure what the point of having John Henry Irons working at the DEO would be. Just because Mehcad Brooks is black? Kara already has Alex as her DEO friend and J'onn as the boss. What would John Henry Irons add to that? And isn't Guardian basically John Henry Irons anyway? So whatever criticisms about Mehcad being Guardian would apply to him being JHI too, if we are being objective about it.
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It's a shame CatCo is no longer part of the show. I really liked that aspect in the first season with Calista.

As for Mechad being John Henry Irons, wouldn't it be nice if either Flashpoint or the Legends of Tomorrow affected Supergirl's earth and suddenly there's a different Jimmy Olsen working at CatCo and now Mechad is Irons?

None of them would know any differently either. After all, Diggle didn't know that he had a daughter before who was now a son. James could change in a similar way.

Maybe Earth 38's James dies and they meet a guy who looks like him from another earth who is Irons, and also another guy who is more of a traditional Jimmy.

Flash has to deal with a guy who looks just like his father but isn't. Instead he's Jay Garrick. So it wouldn't be a big stretch to have a guy looking just like Mechad but isn't Jimmy.

 

Why would you need a Jimmy character at this point. You just said that CatCo is no longer a huge part of the story line, so you would end up with another character with nothing to do.

 

He wouldn't have to be a main part of the cast but just a guest like Snapper Carr who shows up every now and then.

That would free up Mechad Brooks to be someone else like John Henry Irons (via a multi-verse switch or a time aberration), who might later die in battle and be written out completely.

 

To me that would just give people something to ***** about, and not add anything that is needed. It would be a waste of time and money.....time and money that I would like to see aimed at strengthening the villains.

 

I'd like to see a greater focus on Kara's blossoming career as a journalist and Jimmy could be her assigned / regular photographer who also provides (limited) advice when it comes to getting the story based on his years of experience working with Clark Kent.

That would take quite the rewrite of the current set-up, but at least it would allow them to retain the character since it appears they're unwilling or unable to send him back to Metropolis (or somewhere else).

Or if they're completely over CatCo and developing Kara's storyline (as opposed to Supergirl's storyline), then simply have Jimmy drafted into the DEO, like Winn was. He can replace the nameless soldiers who normally accompany Alex on various operations and ... I don't know ... do stuff that is tolerable and vaguely interesting.

 

yes this has been problem since ben 10 came onthe scene the only difference was he was kid turn teen and unlike the way the writers like to push 20's or some like tony stark the problem is he lerned life lession that being a jerk isn't good and be came better person alonside being hero.

the problem here is where Mehcad Brooks james olen is involved it's taking too long and it feel un satisfactory here and the lesson he should have learn should have been with his time with super man.


I wouldn't any one from arrow as an example with the exception of the characters from flash most of the ones in arrow got into it for the reason not really desirable . oliver's was some force by his father and the other were more revenge thing. and sara was forced into the life of an assassin
the flash character made the chose the only6 that's act almost similar ly to jame is wally. and that's only of late.

the problem is he's past that point and there's lot's camera people that are reporter's them selves and us video camera's as well normal ones at the same time . unlike the animated movies that spun of of tv show justice league unlimted it seem that writers are behind on current events of of peoples professions


the problem here is un like the people that made lois and clark the tv show lois was more then a lo9ve interest. sadly this wasn't whatthe show runners were thinking when they brought Mehcad in they too busy push him to the press in public interview and male Eye candy for kara. and to a degree while Candice who play's iris was made eye candy in the same way they really didn't put any forethought plan wise with what to do with her be side barry's girl girl friend.


I said this befor I agree with other that Mehcad was miscast and he should have been john Henry iron's . but I've also stated too the reason Oslen was used was cause he was always super girl first boyfriend and he had strong relation hip with her both in the books and animated which is being over looked by some people here (not all ) .

and guardian should have been some else but the show runner made the biggest mistake with screw up who it was supposed to be from the jump and ruing with making him a bigot of all things . so the fault is their. and I've said that when doing it in arrow they need to drop that habbit of just taking names and then screwing up from becoming who they are supposed to be. it just happened even faster here sadly.

 

I didn't like jimmy as guardian at first but I've warmed up to it. It gives him and Winn there own story line apart from Kara.

 

Definitely, heck they could have even written him as the egotistically jerk that they are now...and no one would have batted an eye.

 

Yeah, he should've been that. A new rival in town who tries to hog the limelight.

If he was Steel, he could've called himself the Man of Steel, much to Kara's annoyance.

Barry needs to change the timeline just once more so that Jimmy can suddenly change identity and no-one on Kara's earth will remember things any differently.

 

If James dies at the end of the 2nd season, I wonder if they will pull a Henry James Olsen again.

 

I'm not sure what they can do to fix this...so, I'm going to start looking for the positive things about Guardian, and that will definitely help my overall enjoyment of him.

 

And have a little brother who grows up to look just like him?

People weren't expecting Jimmy Olsen to die in Smallville, being such a key character, but he did. So why can't they kill him off here too and replace him with someone more suitable?

And meanwhile, if Mechad Brooks really does want to still play, then he can be John Henry Irons from another alternate earth with no previous connection to Kara.

As long as he's not John Henry James Olsen.

 

Kind of miss seeing James lately. Hope to see more of him.