One of the many reasons
I’ve been all about Supergirl this past season is the presence of Nia
Nal, a new addition to our crew. She’s added a lot to the show, opened up
several major plots, and is just an all-around fun character to have in the
mix. I’m really glad she’s joined the show (some Nia-related spoilers.)
First introduced as a
new reporter at Catco, Nia is positioned as a young mentee for Kara.
Passionate about journalism and eager to make but a difference but
lacking some of the confidence she needs to put herself out there, Nia grows by
degrees under Kara’s guidance. Like Kara, she very much wears her heart
on her sleeve and is out to make the world better through her reporting; I love
the scene where Kara side-eyes Nia’s hope to write a story on fashion in
National City and Nia convinces her with a heartfelt pitch about the inspiring
output of creativity and collaboration coming out of the industry. Right
away, it shows Nia’s heart and drive, along with her ability to see matters
from perspectives that others sometimes miss.
It also shows something that’s a recurring circumstance for her – her
insecurities and nervousness can get in the way of her goals, but when she’s
able to forget those things for a minute (often when she gets caught up in her
enthusiasm for something,) there’s pretty much no stopping her.
Because even though she
can be timid, Nia is ultimately very brave. Whether it’s confronting
James about Catco staying neutral during a period of rising anti-alien
sentiment or defending Brainy from some intolerant thugs, she frequently overpowers
her own fear for the sake of doing what’s right. It’s hardest for her to
do this, initially, with her gradually-developing powers of prophetic dreaming –
she’d always expected her older sister to be the one to inherit the gift, so
she never studied dream interpretation and feels ill-equipped to accept the
mantle she’s been given – but once she finally realizes how much help she can
offer the heroes, she dives into her training headfirst.
This takes us back to
mentoring again, with Brainy helping Nia learn how to use her powers and Kara
giving her shadowing and hands-on experience in day-to-day superhero business.
Nia’s enthusiasm is as infectious as it is endearing – I love the gusto
with which she takes to astral projecting, defending the vulnerable, and
working on her superhero bravado. While
refusing the call is an often-used trope in genre stories and I understand why
Nia is reluctant to face up to it at first, I love that she’s so all in now.
Finally, I really love
that Nia is both of mixed human/alien heritage (born on Earth, while her mother
was from Naltor) and a transgender woman. This is cool for a lot of
reasons. Genre identities (aliens,
mutants, etc.) so often stand in as allegories for real-world marginalized
communities that shows sometimes forget to include those real-world aspects at
all, but Supergirl acknowledges both. Nia comes out to Kara as an
alien before she comes out to her as trans, but each conversation is given its
own breathing space and emotional content (and the second is what in turn helps
Kara reveal to Nia that she’s Supergirl.) I also like that Nia is fully
both of these identities but that she isn’t “summed up” by either. She’s Nia the character first, and Nia the half
human/half alien and Nia the trans person are just facets of that, much like
Nia the reporter and Nia the burgeoning superhero. And even though the
show presents Nia’s trans identity as not as big deal (and rightly so,) in the
context of pop culture at large, it is a big deal to have a trans superhero
on prime time television played by a trans actress. This has never
happened before, and much respect to Supergirl for being the first show
to cross that milestone. Nia is a fantastic character, Nicole Maines is
an engaging and likable actress, and I can’t wait to see where the character
goes next.
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