SPOILER WARNING: This article contains major spoilers for "What's So Funny About Truth, Justice and the American Way?", the latest episode of Supergirl.


Both of Supergirl's Season 5 villains just got a major upgrades. In "What's So Funny About Truth, Justice and the American Way?", Manchester Black got himself a new set of superpowers, while Ben Lockwood secured an official position at the White House.

The episode made good on its promise to introduce the Elite, with Manchester joining forces with Menagerie, the Hat and a nameless Morae. As they escalated their violence against anti-alien racists and the government, Supergirl made it her mission to stop them. However, she couldn't tangle with them by herself; they outnumbered her four-to-one, so she invited along her friends Martian Manhunter, Dreamer and Brianiac-5.

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During the ensuing altercation, Brainy went toe-to-toe with the Hat, which proved to be a terrible error on Brainy's part. The Hat managed to steal Brainy's Legion of Super-Heroes ring off his finger as they fought. The Hat subsequently gave the ring to Manchester Black, which granted him the power of flight.

In the comics, of course, Manchester has a few superpowers of his own. He is both telepathic and telekinetic, which made him a formidable foe for Superman. He can create mass illusions and once almost gave the Man of Steel a stroke by telekinetically pinching the blood vessels in his brain.

On The CW's Supergirl, however, Manchester has no such powers, instead relying on methods like torture to achieve his goals. With Brainy's ring, he has become much more powerful. At the time of writing, it is unclear what other abilities he could unlock from the Legion ring, but this development certainly doesn't bode well for Supergirl and her friends.

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Meanwhile, Agent Liberty himself has earned a dangerous new position. At a meeting with President Baker, Lockwood asked if the Children of Liberty -- his anti-alien hate group -- could be deputized, but Baker had something bigger in mind and named Lockwood the White House's Director of Alien Affairs instead.

Seeing as Baker just broke protocol to launch a satellite intended to shoot alien spacecraft out of the atmosphere, he likely has some nefarious intentions of his own. Indeed, he may even be the one who instructed Otis and Mercy Graves to enlist Lockwood in the first place. After all, the Graves siblings were taking orders from an as-yet unseen leader who organized both Lockwood's rise to power and President Olivia Marsden's fall from grace, all of which just so happened to benefit Baker.

Airing Sundays at 8 pm ET/PT on The CW, Supergirl stars Melissa Benoist as Kara Danvers, David Harewood as Martian Manhunter, Mehcad Brooks as Jimmy Olsen and Chyler Leigh as Alex Danvers.