Alex Danvers: Kara's adoptive sister and director of the DEO

Who is Alex Danvers? A sister created for the series

Alexandra “Alex” Danvers was conceived for television, not for a comic. Greg Berlanti, Ali Adler and Andrew Kreisberg created her for the Supergirl series. The producers say so themselves in a video released by CBS: the character does not come from the comics. In the series, Alex is the biological daughter of Eliza and Jeremiah Danvers. She is a doctor and a bioengineer. She works at the DEO, the Department of Extranormal Operations, where she is the director's right hand. She has no powers.

Chyler Leigh's casting as a series regular is announced on February 26, 2015. You may know her as Lexie Grey in Grey's Anatomy: the two roles have nothing to do with each other. As a child, Alex is played by Jordan Mazarati, then by Olivia Nikkanen. In the French dub, she is voiced by Véronique Desmadryl, according to Wikipedia. Alex is there from the pilot, which aired on October 26, 2015, on CBS in the United States to 12.96 million viewers. She stays until the very end of the six seasons, which ended on November 9, 2021, on The CW, again in the United States. In France, the French dub arrives on Série Club in November 2016, then on TF1 in the summer of 2017.

The actress who plays Kara, Melissa Benoist, has her own article. The role of Cat Grant, played by Calista Flockhart, has one too. Here, you follow the sister. If you want to place Supergirl among all the Superman series, the complete list puts them in order.

A sister chosen by Superman: Kara with the Danvers family

The bond between Alex and Kara runs through Superman first. In the pilot, Kal-El, who has already become Superman, rescues Kara Zor-El and takes her to live with Eliza and Jeremiah Danvers. This scientist couple had helped him understand his own powers. So Kara grows up under the same roof as Alex. Alex owes her sister to a choice made by Kal-El. In English, the phrase works both ways: Kara is Alex's adoptive sister, and Alex is Kara's.

Clark had the Kents. Kara has the Danvers. The casting underlines this link with the Man of Steel. Jeremiah Danvers, Alex's father, is played by Dean Cain, the Clark Kent of Lois & Clark. Eliza Danvers, her mother, is played by Helen Slater, the Kara of the 1984 Supergirl film. The American press announces their arrival in February 2015, without revealing their roles. On screen, Alex's parents are therefore a former Superman and a former Supergirl.

This household is not a quiet one. The DEO discovers Kara. It then forces Jeremiah to work for it, in exchange for the right to keep Kara in his family. When Alex joins the DEO in turn, she carries on a story her father started because of Kara. For what separates and connects Kara and Kal-El, the feature Supergirl and Superman sums it all up.

Alex Danvers at the DEO: the agent of a fake Hank Henshaw

In the pilot, Kara discovers what her sister had been hiding from her. Alex is not just a scientist: she is a DEO agent and the right hand of its director, Hank Henshaw. Later, the episode “Manhunter” (March 21, 2016, US airdate) goes back over her recruitment. According to summaries on fan wikis, the series shows in a flashback that Henshaw came to recruit her after an arrest for drunk driving.

This Henshaw is not who he claims to be. Behind his face hides J'onn J'onzz, the Martian Manhunter, who has taken on the identity of the real Henshaw. The real Henshaw, the former director of the DEO, is presumed dead. He comes back in season 2 as Cyborg Superman, starting with “The Darkest Place” (November 21, 2016, US airdate). So J'onn is not the first director of the DEO. He runs the agency at the start of the series, under a stolen name.

That name comes from the Superman comics. In those comics, Hank Henshaw is created by Dan Jurgens, in The Adventures of Superman #465, dated 1990. He becomes Cyborg Superman in The Adventures of Superman #500, dated June 1993. Wikipedia counts him among Superman's main enemies. On screen, then, Alex's boss bears the name of one of Clark's adversaries. J'onn's powers and his link with Superman have their own article: just remember that Alex learns her trade under his command.

Astra, the confession and the pod: the sister before the agent

Alex's work soon hits the family. In “For the Girl Who Has Everything” (February 8, 2016, US airdate), she kills Astra, Kara's aunt, with a kryptonite sword. The episode's title echoes, almost word for word, the title of a Superman story by Alan Moore, For the Man Who Has Everything. J'onn takes the blame for the act in Alex's place. She keeps the secret until “Solitude” (February 29, 2016, US airdate), when she confesses the truth to Kara, who forgives her.

The next crisis hits her position. In “Manhunter,” Alex is blamed for having covered for J'onn, and she flees with him. The DEO then passes, on an interim basis, into the hands of Lucy Lane, the sister of Lois Lane. The Lane family passes through the agency too. In the last episode of season 1, “Better Angels” (April 18, 2016, US airdate), Alex brings back Kara, who has passed out in space, aboard her sister's pod. J'onn receives a presidential pardon and gets his job back.

Remember the pattern of this first season. At the DEO, Alex follows orders. When it comes to Kara, she chooses her sister, even if it means lying, then confessing everything. This tension between the agency and the family keeps coming back afterward, up to the day Alex has her own memory erased to protect Kara.

Superman, Lucy Lane, Maggie Sawyer: Clark's universe around Alex

In season 1, Superman only appears from a distance, in silhouette or blurred: the series never shows the adult hero's face. You finally see him in full from season 2 onward. Tyler Hoechlin plays him starting with “The Adventures of Supergirl,” aired on October 10, 2016, in the United States, the first episode on The CW. With him, Kara saves the Venture, a commercial spacecraft hit by an engine failure. At the end of the same season, Rhea takes control of Superman and sends him against Kara (“Resist,” May 15, 2017, then the finale on May 22, US airdates). During the Daxamite invasion, J'onn is put out of action and Alex holds the DEO together.

Another link with Clark: Maggie Sawyer comes from the Superman comics. John Byrne created her in Superman (vol. 2) #4, dated April 1987. In those comics, she is captain of the Metropolis Special Crimes Unit and Superman's main contact on the police force. The series turns her into a National City detective, played by Floriana Lima, and Alex's girlfriend. In the comics, Maggie is also linked to Batwoman, who proposes to her in Batwoman #17 (2013), according to the website Inverse.

Around Alex, several characters thus point back to Superman's universe:

• Jeremiah and Eliza Danvers: her parents, played by a former Superman and a former Supergirl.
• Hank Henshaw: a name borrowed from a Superman enemy created in 1990, who became Cyborg Superman.
• Lucy Lane: Lois's sister, interim head of the DEO in season 1.
• Maggie Sawyer: in the comics, the Metropolis police officer created by John Byrne in 1987.
• Kelly Olsen: the sister of James Olsen, Superman's friend, and Alex's future wife.

Alex Danvers, director of the DEO, from June 2018 to February 2020

The promotion comes at the end of season 3, in “Battles Lost and Won” (“Guerres et Conséquences” in the French dub), aired on June 18, 2018, in the United States. The context is surprising. Alex comes to see J'onn to resign: she wants to become a mother. J'onn refuses. He is the one who leaves the DEO, and he names Alex director in his place. Wikipedia sums up the series' DEO this way: first run by J'onn, before Alex succeeds him.

Season 4 does not give her a free hand. In “Ahimsa” (November 4, 2018, US airdate), President Baker imposes a superior on her, Colonel Lauren Haley, played by April Parker Jones. Alex remains director, but under supervision. To protect Kara from Haley, she makes a weighty decision in “Suspicious Minds” (“Soupçons” in the French dub, January 20, 2019, in the United States): she asks J'onn to erase Supergirl's identity from her memory. She no longer knows that her sister is the heroine. Her memory comes back in “Red Dawn” (May 12, 2019, US airdate), when she sees Kara beaten by Red Daughter in Midvale.

After the crossover Crisis on Infinite Earths, aired in December 2019 and January 2020 in the United States, the series changes the game. In the world recreated by Crisis, Lex Luthor is now the owner of the DEO. “The Bottle Episode” (January 19, 2020, US airdate), the first episode of the series after the crossover, starts from this situation. Alex does not stay under his control for long. In “Back from the Future – Part Two” (February 16, 2020, US airdate), she resigns, and Lex installs Brainy, Querl Dox, at the head of the agency. Her time as director therefore covers all of season 4 and the first twelve episodes of season 5, which has nineteen.

After the DEO: Sentinel, the crossovers and the dream of a cape

Without a badge, Alex changes roles. From the end of season 5, she acts as a vigilante, in a suit that J'onn prepares for her. At the start of season 6, launched on March 30, 2021, in the United States, she takes the name Sentinel, on J'onn's advice. According to the Arrowverse Wiki, the name pays tribute to N'or Cott, a friend of J'onn's. Don't confuse Sentinel with Guardian: Guardian is the identity of James Olsen, then of Kelly Olsen.

One season 5 episode muddies the waters. In “Alex in Wonderland” (March 22, 2020, US airdate), Alex dreams of herself as Supergirl thanks to the Obsidian lenses. It is virtual reality, not a real change of identity.

Alex also travels from one world of the Arrowverse to another, in the crossovers Crisis on Earth-X (November 2017) and Crisis on Infinite Earths (December 2019 and January 2020), going by US airdates. In Elseworlds (December 2018), Chyler Leigh plays another Alex, the one from Earth-1, and not the Alex of Earth-38, the Earth of Supergirl. Her last screen appearance came on December 7, 2021, in “Armageddon, Part 4,” an episode of The Flash. If these numbered Earths leave you lost, the article on the DC multiverse puts the parallel worlds back in order.

Maggie, Kelly and Esme: Alex outside the DEO

Her private life ends up affecting her job: it is by wanting to become a mother that Alex gets to run the DEO. In “Changing” (November 14, 2016, US airdate), she tells Kara that she is a lesbian and talks to her about her feelings for Maggie Sawyer. One episode even bears her first name, “Alex” (May 1, 2017, US airdate): in it, she is kidnapped by a man who demands the release of Peter Thompson. She proposes to Maggie in the season 2 finale (May 22, 2017, US airdate). The couple breaks up during season 3: Alex wants children, Maggie does not.

Her next partner is Kelly Olsen, played by Azie Tesfai, the sister of James Olsen. Their story begins after Lex's fall, at the end of season 4. In season 6, they take in Esme, a little girl they decide to adopt (episodes of October 5 and 12, 2021, US airdates). They get married in the last episode of the series, “Kara,” aired on November 9, 2021, in the United States. The finale bears her sister's first name.

The coming-out arc is well received by critics and audiences, according to Wikipedia. On November 14, 2016, the website TVLine reports Chyler Leigh's pride in this storyline. The series is nominated at the GLAAD Media Awards in 2017, a few months after this arc, then in 2019, 2020, 2021 and 2022, without ever winning. It is the series that is nominated, not the character. On June 8, 2020, Chyler Leigh comes out in turn, in an essay published on the website of an organization she co-founded, without giving herself a label. In it, she writes that the scene where Alex finally confesses her truth became for her “a variation of my own” — a variation on her own story.

Alex Danvers in the comics: what really exists

You will look for Alex in vain in the main continuity of DC comics: to date, no version of her is recorded there. Outside the Arrowverse, the DC Database disambiguation page only lists a Jan Danvers of Earth-One, the son of the Danvers family in the comics of the 1960s. In comic book form, Alex only appears in stories tied to the series. The first, “Sister Act,” is a short story credited to the producers, published in July 2015 in the Comic-Con special issue of TV Guide, before the pilot aired. The main one, Adventures of Supergirl, is a spin-off series launched digitally on January 25, 2016, during season 1, and wrapped up in the summer of 2016. Sterling Gates writes it, with a rotating team of artists, including Bengal and Emanuela Lupacchino. As early as chapter 1, Alex arrives in a DEO helicopter. Six printed issues follow starting May 11, 2016, then a collected edition in the fall of 2016. The story runs parallel to the series, without picking up its plotlines. Alex appears in most of the 13 chapters.

DC comics nonetheless pick up the family setting of the series. In Supergirl: Rebirth #1, cover-dated October 2016 and on sale August 17, 2016, Steve Orlando and Emanuela Lupacchino place Kara with Eliza and Jeremiah Danvers, DEO agents, alongside Cameron Chase. Alex is not there. This issue belongs to the 2016 DC Rebirth relaunch. The DEO itself is older in the comics: Dan Curtis Johnson and J. H. Williams III created it in Batman #550, cover-dated January 1998, before the series Chase (February 1998). Depending on the source, its name is spelled “Extranormal” or “Extra-Normal.”

One last trap: Alex Danvers is not Linda Danvers. In the comics, Linda Lee Danvers is the civilian identity of Kara, who is adopted by Fred and Edna Danvers in Action Comics #279, dated 1961. Alex, for her part, is the biological daughter of the series' Danvers.

Conclusion

Alex Danvers does not come from the comics. The series invents her as Kara's sister and brings her to the screen in 2015. In the story, it is Superman who creates this bond, by entrusting Kara to the Danvers. The DEO makes her an agent, then a director, from June 2018 to February 2020 (US dates). She ends up as a vigilante under the name Sentinel, and married to Kelly Olsen in the last episode.

For Kara herself, read the article on Kara Zor-El and the feature on what connects her to Superman. For the man who trained Alex at the DEO, the article on Martian Manhunter takes over. And for the actress who wears the cape beside her, the one on Melissa Benoist.