Last week’s Supergirl introduced us to Morgan Edge, who by the looks of things will be a thorn in her side for the third season. But who exactly is he and what are his comic book origins?
In the episode, Morgan Edge is portrayed by Adrian Pasdar. The character is real estate developer who has plans to buy out CATCO because he does not agree with their bleeding hearts approach to news. Unfortunately for him, Lena Luthor beats him to the punch, which is likely to have some pretty serious repercussions as the series moves forward.
The character of Morgan Edge was introduced to Superman comics back in 1970. He was part of a bold new direction for DC comics, which was being headed up by new editor Julius Schwartz who had brought along comic book superstar Jack Kirby from Marvel Comics. Kirby would take over the art duties on the series Superman’s Pal Jimmy Olsen.
Kirby’s first issue of the comic would introduce Morgan Edge as the head of Galaxy Broadcasting and the new owner of the Daily Planet.
Morgan Edge was a commentary on the traditional capitalist ideals of the era and he is pretty much being used the same way in the new series of Supergirl. Edge was more than just a representation of the worst ideals of capitalism — he was pure evil. In the comics, he is a bigwig at Intergang and a servant of Darkseid.
All this was a sticking point with other Superman titles. His introduction into the main Superman title in #233 threw the status quo of Superman comics for a loop. He basically announced, in his new capacity as owner of the Daily Planet, that Clark Kent would no longer work for the newspaper, but would instead be a news anchor for WGBS-TV.
After this particular story arc, Morgan Edge would continue to appear in both Superman and Action Comics and would always present a challenge to both Clark Kent and Superman given that he had a different worldview.
In the Supergirl television series, he is being used in a similar way, but instead of him being in media he is in real estate. Last week he was at odds with Lena Luthor who wanted him to build affordable housing in their efforts to rebuild the city. Edge was more interested in building luxury homes for the wealthy and even stooped as far as to try and buy out CATCO to silence any media opposition to his plans.
Quite how he will be used throughout the rest of the season remains to be seen, but given his comic book history with Darkseid it will be a lot of fun finding out.
Supergirl airs Monday nights at 8/7c on The CW.