Maeve Nal is a human-naltorian hybrid, the daughter of Paul Nal and the late Isabel Nal, and the estranged older sister of Nia Nal.
Biography
Early life
Maeve Nal was born on Earth to a Human father and Naltorian mother. She was raised in a community where aliens and humans lived peacefully: Parthas.
Disillusionment and shattered dreams
Maeve was first seen at Nal household awaiting the arrival of her sister, who arrives with her friend and boss, Kara Danvers in tow. As the Nals warmly greeted and welcomed their youngest member’s superior in CatCo, Nia herself saunters off to where a glass chalice filled viscous black substance stood. Nia, who sighted something like this in a prophetic vision that she had while falling asleep in the car (with Kara at the driver’s wheel, of course), picks up the chalice and, recalling that in her dream Isabel, the family’s patriarch, died horrifically after drinking the contents, instinctively dropped the ware in shock, terrified. Her sister took notice of the spilled waste that Nia just caused, as the black substance was apparently the ink she used, but good-naturedly informs the latter of that for their Isabel was mentoring Maeve with Japansese-style ink wash painting. The younger Nal sibling apologized for her behavior and before long, their family sat down at the dining table together with Kara for lunch.
As they ate, they also discussed Nia’s history before settling to National City and finding employment there, about how she was inspired after reading Cat Grant’s book multiple times (fourteen times, if not forty, in fact) to venture beyond of Parthas and take profession as an active journalist — when most of the family, and pretty much everyone else in their town, actually prefer a quiet rural life over the boisterous urban counterpart. Maeve puts emphasis to that by telling Kara that her personal abode was by the street near her parents’; well she has to stay close, seeing that she also owns a painting studio and apprentices with her mother in that regard. Kara then took note of the paintings, like the one behind from where she and Nia sat, around the home — having been observing them for a while now since arriving. With her interest piqued, she asks Maeve if they were her works.
An amused Maeve chuckled and informs the visitor that the paintings were, in fact, Isabel's; apparently, Isabel has made the habit of expressing her precognitive dreams through artwork. A practice that Maeve intends to adopt and carry on, as well, once her own powers of prophetic dreaming manifests since they, for whatever reason, has yet to do so. Isabel reminds her eldest daughter to be patient and the latter brings up the topic of Naltorian precognitive dreaming to Kara, who confirms that Nia informed her of that beforehand. Maeve elaborates that the trait matrilineally passes down for and to be exhibited by only one female per generation within the family; the only exception to that is should the supposed girl or woman to inherit it was cursed with so-called "future blindness" with the entailing case being that the gift skips that entirety of that doomed female's time and only to resurface in perhaps the following or later generations.
Isabel speaks up, again reassuring Maeve by recounting the prophetic dream she had when was still expectantly carrying her first-born from within — that her daughter shall be next in line to inherit the dreaming power from the mother; she then encourages Maeve to wait graciously for that day to come.
But what the Nal family, sans Nia, does not know was that the premised precognitive power had, in fact, already manifested from months back in Nia. She realized she inherited it after receiving a futuristic vision through her dreams; and guided by it with Kara and Brainiac 5’s assistance, Nia became crucial in exposing the identity and even apprehending the Children of Liberty’s last remaining head after the Graves siblings, Agent Liberty himself — Ben Lockwood.
Later, Maeve and Kara were seen sitting down together outside of a food-serving establishment somewhere in Parthas. Apparently, Kara was talked by Nia into distracting Maeve, by spending some time with her as part of an interview that Kara was putting up for her next CatCo article concerning life in their town, outside of the Nal house, so Nia could converse privately with her mother — trying to discover if there is a way to transfer the subconscious-based Naltorian power of precognition from one blood sibling to the next, for that was what the younger Nal intended since she never wanted to be the Dreamer, but Maeve does. During the interview, Maeve has nothing but amiable replies to Kara’s questions about how life goes on at Parthas, which was essentially a literal small-town utopia where humans and aliens, of multiple species, are and have always mixed together in presence without much impunity. The citizens’ appreciation to their cherished coexistence being such that those originating from the said town very rarely leave its boundaries for elsewhere, making Nia a particularly noteworthy case and Maeve has apparently both admired and envied that bravery, in and of itself, which compelled her younger sister to be true not just to herself but also to the rest of the world — driving her cause for transitioning from her birth sex as well as taking on the world as a reporter.
Kara kindly tells Maeve that they all have special privileges given to them from the point of birth and the latter then tells the disguised Kryptonian of how her mother Isabel, the Dreamer of her generation, whom Maeve is expected to next inherit the precognitive disposition from, used hers in nurturing Parthas and its denizens, hence her status as a respected figure and dependable pillar of the community there. Maeve goes on to say that the good fruit didn’t fall too far from the tree, for her grandmother, Isabel’s own mother who was also her own generation’s Dreamer, was an acknowledged heroic figure back on Naltor — not unlike Supergirl on Earth; Maeve then expresses her bright-eyed desire to become that kind of hero as soon as her own Dreamer powers manifest, in lieu with the Nals’ present familial generation, to continue the matrilineal legacy. Of course, the CatCo journalist, who was actually Supergirl herself in her assumed civilian alter-ego (and thus far more knowledgeable to the target of Maeve’s ambition than the eldest Nal daughter), being aware that the next Dreamer would in fact not be Maeve, based on her experiences with Nia, tries to “soften the blow” by illuminating to Nia’s older sibling that heroism, super or otherwise, may not be as appealing as a non-hero(ine) would believe.
Just then, Kara notices two Children of Liberty nearby with their alien-sniffing dog barking at some passing bystanders. The Kryptonian in disguise frowned at their presence there, and Maeve proceeds to denote that unruly folks — who look down and despise tranquil unity between humanity and alienity — from nearby towns and settlements would come annually to Parthas, during its Harvest Fest, to protest at those residing there; she coolly demeans that it is part of human nature, and out of apparent despicable jealousy, that when some people harbor something desirable, others who don’t have such might seek to deny the former of that just to “get even”. Kara gets slightly nervous at the Children of Liberty’s presence, fully aware that they are capable of and willing to throw more than shouts and insults wherever they went, but Maeve she tells not to fret for those at Parthas, regardless of race or species, are able to defend themselves should things get confrontational and, if they so must, coming quick and straight to the aid of their own who cannot. She stresses underlying confidence that, on their turf, the Children would not dare do anything since an outsider’s blatant attempt in making an enemy of even a single member from the town’s citizenship, human or alien, would earn the provoking party the enmity (and retaliation) of the entire town as a whole — and there is a reason why the quaint community of Parthas stood unblemished from even long before the resigned former President Marsdin enacted in National City the Alien Amnesty Act: strong inclusion tolerance and zero racial discrimination allowed the town to stand strong against adversity and even difference in opinion, for the people there are all one in both heart and mind putting themselves first as proud citizens united in their hometown and as independent individuals coming second if not last, and bringing woe to anyone foolish enough to pose challenge to that.
The two of them later returned to the Nal household to find Isabel killed by a spider’s bite and Nia unconscious. The latter wakes up to find her distressed sister weeping over their mother. And with Isabel’s demise abruptly turning the impending Harvest Fest into a memorial for one of their distinguished members there, Maeve, not long after that, was seen wearing a pure white dress to pay her final respects to her mother.
Despite of Nia being no happier of this development any more than Maeve was, Maeve repressively seethes at the younger Nal emphasizing to Nia that the precognitive gift and title as The Dreamer only passes down exclusively from mother to daughter; so then why would Nia be the one to inherit it from their mother and not Maeve when Maeve’s younger sister wasn’t even a naturally-born female?.
She may as well have stabbed Nia in the heart with those words; and seeing her then-revealed-to-be precognitive sister was heartbroken made Maeve realized she has gone too far. But too late to take back what she said she instead turned her back on Nia and walked away, barely throwing any notice the whole time at Kara, who was nearby and already standing by the door hearing the tirade that just occurred between the Nal sisters — having just been similarly told off by Alex back when she, as Supergirl, intervened during the Children of Liberty’s assault at Isabel Nal's memorial.
Nia was still in tears, from what Maeve told her before they parted ways, as she and Kara drove back to National City with Kara driving.
Personality
Maeve is a supportive and loving sister to Nia; even from back when the latter was still her "brother" and was nothing but supporting during Nia's transitioning days from his gender of birth to the sexuality, in both mind and body, that the "then-her" chose to become. However, that changed after she learned Nia inherited the Naltorian powers rather than her, which should not be possible on the grounds that this precognitive disposition - which traditionally manifests on one person in the Nal family per generation - supposedly only expresses itself in females of the same family. Seeing this development not only as a breach of trust between the two of them but also a personal insult thrown her way by Nia, Maeve, who spent a great deal of time studying and training herself in preparation for the day when she would finally experience her first Naltorian prophetic dream, as anticipated by her and the rest of the Nal household after her mother Isabel (who was pregnant with Maeve at that time) dreamt a vision revealing that a daughter of hers shall inherit her alien powers of precognition, cruelly lashed out at her sister when she realized that her efforts were all for naught and that they have all misinterpreted Isabel’s vision at the firstborn child's long-termed expense.
In a moment of repressed rage, this lead to her accosting the impossibility in the whole situation of Nia becoming the Dreamer instead of her older sister, who (even though both were Isabel's children) was the "true" woman out of the two of them, hurting Nia in ways that neither of them could have predicted - with and without literal foresight.
As Maeve stated to Kara, she has always been jealous of Nia's willingness to dare her way through life outside of Parthas. So Maeve instead contented herself with life from within her hometown and close to her family home; not just as a proud and peaceful citizen from thereof but also one expected and groomed to be her mother’s successor, as the next Dreamer of their town after Isabel, in line of their family’s alien legacy, showing a well-meaning but ambitious side to Maeve's demeanor as she explicitly stated to Kara her intent to model herself after her grandmother, who was revered as a heroine back on Naltor, much like Kara's own heroic alter-ego on Earth, once she too has attained her maternally-passed precognitive dreaming capability, showing a well-intended ambitious side to Maeve.
This expectation of hers, not just her own but also of everyone else in Parthas who knew of the Nal family's importance in their domain, after Isabel dreamed that her daughter shall inherit the gift in question, compelled Maeve to extensively prepare with bated breath for the day when she finally receives the Dreamer title - and the rare, desirable power that comes with it - from her mother, emphasized by her having apparently kept and researched multiple texts and human literature concerning the topic of dream interpretation, and that Nia herself informing Kara that Maeve has trained intensely, anticipating the whole time as she awaits for the Nals' legacy of prophetic power manifesting in her for as long as both sisters and their parents could remember.
Powers and abilities
Powers
- Human-Naltorian Hybrid physiology: Although Maeve is half-nltorian, she does not have the inherited matrilineal precognition power as it, from their mother, went into her younger sibling instead of her.
Abilities
- Artistic: Like her mother, Maeve is a talented painter and is Isabel's apprentice in that regard.[1]
- Dream Interpretation: As Maeve believed she would inherit the naltorian precognition powers, she studied and has learned how to interpret dreams and their meanings; such that Nia believes had Maeve receive the precognitive powers instead, the latter could interpret the underlying meaning(s) with better veracity than the former ever could (given that Nia never bothered to study the language of dreams as she, like the rest of their family, thought that Maeve was destined to be the next dreamer and therefore the latter's responsibility in learning in-depth the language) and perhaps even reacted accordingly to prevent their mother's passing.[1]
Appearances
Supergirl
Season 4
- "Suspicious Minds" (phone)
- "Blood Memory"
- "Menagerie" (mentioned)
References
- ↑ 1.0 1.1 "Blood Memory"