page_title: List of Supergirl characters
section_title: James Olsen / Guardian
hierarchical_section_title: List of Supergirl characters / Main characters / James Olsen / Guardian
caption_attribution_description: English: Mehcad Brooks of "Necessary Roughness" at 2011 USA Upfronts, Lincoln Center.
context_page_description: Supergirl is an American television series developed by Greg Berlanti, Ali Adler, and Andrew Kreisberg based on the characters created by Jerry Siegel and Joe Shuster in the "Superman" franchise and Al Plastino and Otto Binder's character Supergirl. The series stars Melissa Benoist in the titular role of Kara Zor-El / Kara Danvers / Supergirl, as well as Mehcad Brooks, Chyler Leigh, Jeremy Jordan, David Harewood, and Calista Flockhart, with Katie McGrath, Chris Wood, Floriana Lima, Odette Annable, Jesse Rath, Sam Witwer, Nicole Maines, April Parker Jones, Azie Tesfai, Andrea Brooks, Julie Gonzalo, Staz Nair and LaMonica Garrett joining in later seasons. In addition to original characters, several other characters from DC Comics universe also appear throughout the series. For its first season, Supergirl aired on CBS, before moving to The CW for its second season.
context_section_description: James Olsen (portrayed by Mehcad Brooks; season 1–5) is a former Daily Planet photographer who moved to National City and became the new art director for his former colleague, Cat Grant's media company, CatCo Worldwide Media. He is a potential love interest for Kara. Among his reasons for moving across the country include his breakup with his fiancée Lucy Lane (with whom he has since reconciled), and keeping an eye on the newly revealed Supergirl for Superman, who considers him a close friend. While working at the Daily Planet, James received the Pulitzer Prize for taking the first photograph of Superman.
  In season two, though initially attracted to each other, James and Kara decided that they are incompatible as a couple but remain friends. With Winn's help, James becomes Guardian. He was also named acting CEO of CatCo after Cat Grant took a sabbatical from the company.
  In season three, James and Lena Luthor begin a relationship. By the end of season three, James reveals himself to the public as the Guardian.
  In season four, James works to help Supergirl when it comes to deal with the Children of Liberty. After CatCo prints a story about the alien march, James is shot by an unseen sniper. It was discovered that the sniper was a thought-to-be-dead Otis who survived the Hellgrammite attack. After being injected with a Harun-El serum, while dealing with a traumatic stress, James begins to developing metahuman abilities similar to Kryptonians'. During the fight against Agent Liberty at Shelly Island, James and Agent Liberty remove the Harun-El serum from each other.
  In season five, James is replaced by Andrea Rojas as editor-in-chief of CatCo and quits after refusing to support her sensationalist plans. He later leaves National City and returns to his hometown Calvinville to take over its newspaper.
  Brooks briefly portrays a parallel universe version of his character from Earth-X, where he was a member of an underground resistance against the New Reich, the Freedom Fighters. This James Olsen / Guardian is killed by Dark Arrow after a fight.
  In the season four crossover Elseworlds, Brooks portrays the Earth-1 version of Olsen, who works as a bodyguard for Cisco Ramon.
caption: Mehcad Brooks
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