Dr. Jeremiah Danvers is a scientist, the husband of Eliza Danvers, the father of Alex Danvers, and the adoptive father of Kara Danvers. While seemingly dead for 12 years, he was in reality made an unwilling member of Project Cadmus.
Biography
Early life
Jeremiah Danvers was a brilliant scientist living with his wife, Eliza Danvers, in the small town of Midvale. He and his wife helped Superman understand his own abilities at one point in time. In 1989 the couple had a daughter together, Alex Danvers.[1]
Taking in Kara
Eliza and Jeremiah Danvers welcomes Kara into their family.
When Superman discovered his cousin Kara Zor-El, he and his wife took her into their home. He asked Alex to be a sister to Kara.[1]
Kara was enrolled at Midvale Junior High School along with Alex. Kara was freaked out by her new world along with her developing powers. When they went to the beach, she embarrassed Alex by staring at the birds as they did not have them on Krypton. When a car crashed close by Kara ran to the rescue saving a mother and her child. However, Alex was injured by a car door when it exploded. Jeremiah spoke with Kara telling her that Alex was fine and it was just a few stitches. After that Kara decided to hide her powers, with Jeremiah telling her that they already have a Superman and to just be herself. He gave her a pair of lead-lined glasses to help her control her visual powers.[2]
Joining the D.E.O.
One evening Eliza went outside to the porch to get her husband Jeremiah to keep her company while she worked on her dissertation. On the roof, Kara convinced Alex to sneak out and go flying with her, despite the latter's initial protests. While holding onto Kara as she flew, Alex told her that it was amazing. Kara and Alex were caught sneaking in by Eliza and Jeremiah, and lectured about the rules. After someone knocked on the door, the girls were sent up to their room, with Eliza telling Kara not to use her super hearing to listen in on their conversation. Answering the door, Hank Henshaw along with two associates requested to speak with the two. They gave him an ultimatum: work for the D.E.O. or they would take Kara into custody.[3]
Apparent death
Jeremiah meets J'onn J'onzz.
While on a mission to locate J'onn J'onzz in a remote location in Peru, he realized J'onn wasn't a threat but a refugee. Jeremiah tried to stop the mission but Hank became obsessed and refused to. When Hank finally trapped J'onn, Jeremiah sacrificed his life to stop Hank. As he apparently died, J'onn made a promise to take care of Jeremiah's daughters.[4]
Project Cadmus
Jeremiah's body as well as that of Henshaw's was subsequently found and taken by Project Cadmus. The group forced Jeremiah to reanimate the former director of the D.E.O. with cybernetic parts, turning him into a cyborg. Jeremiah attempted to escape multiple times but was always captured by Cadmus' guards and tortured as a punishment. When Cadmus threatened to hurt his daughters if he refused to comply with his demands, Jeremiah surrendered[5] and forcibly became one of their agents, receiving some cybernetic enhancements as well.[6]
When J'onn later tried to erase Jim Harper's memories he learned that Jeremiah Danvers was still alive and being kept at Cadmus.[2]
When Kara and Mon-El were captured by Cadmus and imprisoned in one of their hidden bases, Jeremiah, who had access to Cadmus IDs, rescued them. After removing some lead from Mon-El's injury, he helped the duo escape but chose to remain behind for unknown reasons.
Afterwards, Kara and Alex led a team of D.E.O. agents to where Cadmus imprisoned Mon-El and Kara, only to find the site empty, with no sign of Jeremiah.[7]
Return and betrayal
Jeremiah reunites with his daughter and the D.E.O.
The D.E.O. got an alert from one of Cadmus' suspected bases and found that they were moving a weapon in a convoy. Supergirl and Martian Manhunter went to stop them and saw that what they were transporting was really Jeremiah. Jeremiah was welcomed back to the D.E.O. with cheers and was happily reunited with his daughter Alex. He told them that Cadmus took him from the rainforest and forced him to enhance Hank Henshaw for their own ends but said that he did too good a job and kept him to enhance others as well as build for them. He tried to escape a few times but punished him when they did. Alex saw that his right arm had extensive nerve damage to it. He then told everyone that Cadmus now had a new fusion bomb that they made when they took Kara's heat vision when they captured her and would use it on National City and blame hostile aliens for the devastation.
Danvers family's dinner in celebration of Jeremiah's return.
He was then reunited with his wife Eliza and everyone decided to celebrate at Kara's apartment. Jeremiah met Alex's girlfriend Maggie Sawyer and watched as Alex and Kara were with their new relationships and told Eliza that he really missed a lot. Eliza told him that they would just have to start over, even when it came to the two of them. J'onn then announced that Jeremiah would be re-instated back with the D.E.O. but Mon-El thought that Jeremiah returning to having his old job and access was a little too fast. Kara pulled him aside to wonder why he was being so suspicious of Jeremiah when the man offered to walk Mon-El out. Mon-El tried to apologize but Jeremiah told him that he knew who Mon-El really was. He also told him that he didn't think Kara would be happy when she learned the news as well. With that, he then left Mon-El in the hallway and returned to the others. J'onn took Jeremiah to the D.E.O. where he saw that the place had changed and J'onn said that it was thanks to his daughters. Jeremiah told J'onn that its natural for the young to demand change but J'onn was the one that was opened to it. J'onn then left Jeremiah to go and oversee the hunt for Cadmus' weapon and he went to try and access the D.E.O. mainframe and was caught by Winn. Winn had gone to Mon-El and they went to Kara about his suspicious behavior and Kara went to confront Jeremiah about it and he told them that he just wanted to try and catch up with all the things that had happened while he was away. When they had a lock on the weapon, Jeremiah stayed with J'onn to oversee the operation but when Kara, Alex and Mon-El got there, the place was empty.
Jeremiah fighting the Martian Manhunter.
Jeremiah then moved to slip away but he was noticed by J'onn who wondered why he couldn't read Jeremiah's mind. Jeremiah made his way to the mainframe when J'onn confronted him and saw that his injured arm was actuality cybernetic. Jeremiah said that he'd changed before he then attacked J'onn, Winn and the D.E.O agents that tried to stop him from trying to copy some files. J'onn saw that Mon-El was right about him but Jeremiah said that it was more complicated than that before he seriously injured J'onn and fled after sabotaging the mainframe to cover his tracks.
He then met up with Lillian Luthor and Hank Henshaw at the woods outside National City but they were found by Kara and Alex due to Winn having placed a tracer on Jeremiah. They then revealed that they had placed bombs on a train track which Kara went to try and save. leaving Alex to confront her father. Alex told Jeremiah that he was bringing him in but Jeremiah said she wasn't going to. He claimed that what he was doing had been for her, but she pointed out that he betrayed the D.E.O. and their family and he said that it was complicated. He then stood out and told Alex to shoot him if she wanted and he would understand if she did. However, she found that she couldn't and Jeremiah walked off, leaving her brokenhearted. It was later discovered that what he had stolen from the D.E.O. was the registration list of all the aliens living in the country.[6]
Exodus
Jeremiah was classified by J'onn as a threat to the D.E.O. and was ordered to be arrested and detained on sight. Alex went off on her own to find Cadmus and discovered their base of operations, but was quickly found and detained by Jeremiah. He showed her a space frigate (type Hoshin, "best in the Karark fleet") that Cadmus was using to conduct Operation Exodus. They were taking all the aliens in the registry and putting them on board a ship, which would make a hyperspace jump to the other side of the universe, where the aliens would receive shuttle back to their home worlds.
Jeremiah siding with Alex against Lillian Luthor.
Alex was shocked that her father was helping to forcibly deport all the aliens but he explained that Lillian wanted to have them killed before he convinced her to do it this way instead. Jeremiah still claimed that he was doing this for her, to protect her and Kara from Cadmus. When Lillian returned, she revealed that Kara had printed an article online that exposed their whole operation and they needed to send all the aliens they had away now. However, Alex revealed that she had planted explosives throughout the base and detonated two to show she wasn't bluffing. She pleaded Jeremiah to help her stop Cadmus' intentions. When Lillian started the launch, Jeremiah moved to help Alex. Lillian then set Hank Henshaw loose upon him. After a brief battle, Jeremiah was thrown from the scaffolding they were fighting and taken again.[5]
A couple months later when Alex confronted Lillian, demanding to know where her father was, Lillian claimed she didn't know.[8] So far, Jeremiah's current whereabouts and status remain unknown.
Personality
Jeremiah is shown to be a loving parent willing to protect his family. He is shown to be tolerant of alien human races unlike several other people.
Powers and abilities
Powers
- Cybernetic enhancement: Jeremiah was artificially augmented by Cadmus combining technology with his body.
- Enhanced strength: Due to his cybernetic arm, Jeremiah is much stronger than a normal human; enough to match J'onn J'onzz in a fight.
- Enhanced durability: Due to his cybernetic enhancements, Jeremiah is much tougher than a normal human; enough to take hits from J'onn J'onzz reletievely unharmed. Also, his cybernetic arm is durable enugh to block bullets.
- Enhanced stamina: Jeremiah's natural stamina levels have been increased considerably, allowing him to fight and remain active for long periods of time without becoming fatigued.
- Telepathy immunity: Jeremiah's cybernetic enhancements made him immune to all forms of telepathy; even from someone as powerful as J'onn J'onzz.
Abilities
- Genius-level intellect/Expert Tactician: Jeremiah is an expert tactician able to infiltrate the D.E.O. so he could get files for Cadmus .[6]
- Expert scientist: Jeremiah displayed a sharp intellect and is an extremely gifted scientist, enough to be able to turn a human into a cyborg.
- Expert computer hacker: Jeremiah is an highly skilled computer hacker, capable of breaking into the D.E.O.'s system with ease.
- Expert of deception: Jeremiah was good at deceiving people, shown when he was "rescued" by the D.E.O. and acted like he was ready to assist them in taking down Cadmus when he was actually infiltrating. The only person he could not fool, however, was Mon-El who wasn't convinced about his return at all.
- Expert hand-to-hand combatant: As an agent of the D.E.O., Jeremiah is an expert in unarmed combat; he was proven to be skilled enough to hold his own against Hank Henshaw[2] and even defeat J'onn J'onzz.[6]
- Expert marksman: As a former agent of the D.E.O., Jeremiah is an expert with firearms.
Appearances
Supergirl
Season 1
Season 2
Season 3
Season 4
|
The Flash
Season 3
- "Duet" (mentioned)
Comics
Adventures of Supergirl
- "This Is My Life" (mentioned)
- "Sistery Mystery" (mentioned)
- "Wake Up Calls" (mentioned)
- "Pieces" (pictured)
- "Breaking Point" (mentioned)
Behind the scenes
- In the DC comics, Kara's adoptive father is named Fred Danvers, and he is a police officer.
- Jeremiah Danvers, an in-part original character specifically created for the show, was incorporated into the DC comic book universe, first appearing along with Supergirl in Superman/Wonder Woman #29 (July, 2016). Starting with Supergirl: Rebirth (October, 2016), he along with his wife, are introduced as agents of the D.E.O. and the adoptive parents of a teenage Kara Danvers.
- Dean Cain previously played Superman in Lois & Clark: The New Adventures of Superman.
- He also played Curtis Knox in Smallville; Clark Kent told Knox they had more in common than Knox realized, a reference to Cain's previous role as Superman.
- In "Exodus", Lillian Luthor calls Jeremiah, "The only Superman we need" in a conversation about how humans shouldn't look up to God-like aliens like Superman.
Trivia
- Jeremiah has not been seen since Cadmus was disbanded and he has probably gone into hiding. As of Season 4, his current whereabouts is unknown.