The Black Mercy Makes Its Debut In A Preview Of Next Week’s Krypton
by Erik Amaya
While Seg-El (Cameron Cuffe) continues to challenge the rule of Dru-Zod (Colin Salmon), the situation on Krypton continues to escalate. Does Zod truly have control of Doomsday? And who does he have under the sway of the Black Mercy?
The alien plant life — first dreamed up by Alan Moore and Dave Gibbons in “For The Man Who Has Everything” — has the nefarious ability to feed off a living host while supplying it with its most dream-like life. In that original story, Superman experienced a life on Krypton where he had a family of Els around him. The creature has appeared in episodes of Justice League Unlimited and Supergirl, but its presence here makes us wonder if Seg will get lost in his own ideal of Krypton.
Presumably, such a fantasy will begin with him finding Brainiac (Blake Ritson) and saving baby Jor-El.
Even though it always seemed like Cor-Vex was destined for a name change, the scene itself is one of the sweetest, most touching things to occur on Krypton so far. Also, it is sort of amazing that it took 17 episodes for Seg to put on the House of El crest. But, of course, tenderness on this show is always in the service of making things just a little bit bleaker for anyone even remotely heroic. And now that Nyssa-Vex (Wallis Day) has fully allied with the House of El, it only makes sense that Brainiac would kidnap Jor-El.
At the same time, his motivation behind stealing the infant makes sense. The best of Krypton definitely seems to be in the blood of Els. Although, from the Doomsday flashbacks, it is clear some Els have darker drives and passions. This may explain Dru-Zod’s desire for conquest as the House of Zod is marked by desire to serve. Hopefully, this will continue to be explored.
Krypton airs Wednesdays on Syfy.