Warning! This post contains spoilers for Naomi season 1, episode 1.
The CW superhero series Naomi is the latest DC property to get a live-action adaptation, and unsurprisingly, it makes some major changes from the comics. Based on the fairly new DC comic series Naomi created by Brian Michael Bendis, David F. Walker, and Jamal Campbell for Bendis’ Wonder Comics imprint, Naomi follows teen comic book enthusiast and Superman fan Naomi McDuffie, who lives in a small town where nothing ever happens. When a realistic-seeming event involving Superman happens in her small town of Port Oswego, Oregon, Naomi investigates to find out who is behind the hoax. During her investigation, she starts to learn the truth about her adoption and discovers that she has superpowers of her own.
The comic book series debuted with a six-issue release in March 2019. Naomi, as it turns out, is the daughter of two super-powered humans from a different Earth. Her parents were part of the 29 people from her original Earth who were imbued with a form of radiation when the ozone layer was completely depleted. This radiation gave them superhuman abilities. When Naomi was a baby, she was transported to Earth-0, or the main DC universe, to protect her from an evil metahuman who wanted her dead. Now, she goes by the superhero name of Powerhouse and, since her 2019 debut, has been a member of Young Justice and the Justice League.
The comic book and CW versions of Naomi share a lot of the same origin story, but they already have a few key differences between them. In an interview, showrunner Ava Duvernay said that her version of the character would have a different trajectory than the comic book character, whose second solo run Naomi Season Two will release in March of 2022. Immediately, it's clear that the CW character, who even lives outside of the main Arrowverse, has an entirely different relationship to superheroes than her comic book counterpart. While the Naomi trailer showed she still has a Superman connection, one major change sets CW's show up for a story that will be vastly different from the comics. Here are some of the main differences between the CW series and the comics.
In the comic iteration, the character Naomi lives in the main DC universe, Earth-0, where Superman and the other iconic DC heroes exist in reality and live out their adventures. In the CW show, however, Naomi isn't in the Arrowverse, living on an Earth where superheroes aren't real, but are only the stuff of comic book fiction and movies. Naomi is obsessed with Superman comics because, like herself, he was adopted. Because of her interest in Superman, she runs a Superman fan site which is described as the third-largest in the world. Because Superman is fictional in the show, Naomi is surprised when the superhero appears to show up in her hometown, described as "a blue guy" and fighting someone right on Main Street. Her comic book origin has a similar event, but in the comics, it’s clear that this is the real Superman. The people of Port Oswego, Oregon, are excited by their visit from Superman and by his return to help clean up the wreckage of his fight with Mongul. The TV version of Naomi, however, believes the Superman appearance to be a hoax and investigates it with her friends.
In the TV series, Naomi misses the Superman stunt because she passes out when she gets close to the event, in what appears to be an early manifestation of her superpowers. In the comics, however, Naomi simply misses Superman’s appearances because they happened so quickly that she couldn’t get there in time to see him. While the comics version of Naomi is also a Superman fan, she isn’t a big comic book nerd the way she is on the CW series. For her, Superman is a real superhero who she admires because, as an adopted child, she sees him as a symbol of hope that she could one day be special, too.
In both versions of the story, Dee, the man who tells her about her origins, is from an alien species known as Thanagarians, and he is one of only a few people who knows the truth about Naomi. In issue 3 of Naomi, Dee is the local mechanic, and Naomi confronts him hoping to find out more about her past and where she came from. She assumes Dee is her birth father, but Dee insists that they don’t actually have much of a connection. He tells her that he is a Thanagarian and reveals that there’s a multiverse. Dee turns out to be a Thanagarian soldier who had been in battle with Naomi's adoptive father Greg, who is actually an alien from a species called the Rannians. They witnessed her mother bring baby Naomi through a portal as she tried to escape her Earth, and they fought against the people chasing her. When Naomi's mother died, the Rannian took Naomi and raised her, along with his human wife, Jen, and Dee agreed to watch over her from a distance and help keep her safe.
In Naomi episode 1, however, Dee is a tattoo parlor owner, not a mechanic, and their first meeting unfolds somewhat differently. Naomi assumes that Dee knows something about the Superman stunt that took place in the middle of town, and he confesses to it to stop her from investigating further. After she is confronted by Zumbado, she figures out that Dee wasn’t behind the Superman stunt, and goes back to the tattoo shop to ask him about what really happened. He reveals his metal wings to her, encouraging her to ask him who she really is.
The villain Zumbado is one of the 29 people from Naomi’s original multiverse Earth who was imbued with supernatural powers. He eventually takes over her original Earth, ruling as an absolute dictator, and seeks her out in order to destroy her, as she is the only child to be born from any of the 29 superhumans. In the comics, he only comes to Earth-0 to find Naomi after she awakens her superpowers. On the Naomi CW series, however, he hides out in Port Oswego as a used car salesman, observing Naomi from afar. While it isn't clear how long he's been watching Naomi, it seems likely that he's been around for a while. Later in Naomi episode 1, he follows Naomi into the woods where she finds a disc that seems to be connected to her past. He takes the disc from her and leaves with it, but he doesn't seem to be particularly interested in hurting Naomi specifically.
The comic book version of the villain, however, wants to kill Naomi as an act of power. He has killed or helped to kill many of the others like him from his Earth, and he followed Naomi to Earth-0 so that he could kill her and prove that he was the strongest among the 29. On the CW series, his motivations have yet to be made clear. He knows who Naomi is, and also wants the disc, which may be a sort of replacement for the cube that her mother left for her in the comics. Whatever his motivations, the first episode of the series sets Zumbado up as an antagonist right away and introduces him in Naomi's story long before the comics even mention his name.
In her 2019 debut comic, Naomi is shown hanging out with other kids from the town of Port Oswego, Oregon, but she mostly spends time with her best friend Annabelle. There don't seem to be a lot of friends in her inner circle, and she doesn't appear to have much time for romance, either. On the CW show, however, Naomi season 1's cast of characters gives her a core group of friends, keeping Annabelle and adding friends Anthony, Nathan, and Lourdes. While Naomi has other friends in the comics aside from Annabelle, they are either mentioned in passing or aren't named at all. The comic book version of Annabelle seems to be split between her namesake and comic shop employee Lourdes in the CW show, thanks to Lourdes' colorful hair just like Annabelle's pink hair in the comics. Lourdes is also an addition to the show; the CW version of Naomi spends a lot of time at the comic book shop where Lourdes works, and may possibly have a romantic connection with her.
Nathan, Naomi's ex-boyfriend, and Anthony, another friend she may be romantically connected to, are also additions to the CW series. These characters, who seem to be added to give Naomi a romantic subplot (or three), may also help to build her inner circle. In the comics, Naomi becomes a member of Young Justice and later the Justice League, which already surrounds her with characters with whom she can form friendships and relationships. By setting the CW series in a world without superheroes, Naomi needs to have her own cast of friends that can step into supporting roles. The foreshadowing about her romantic ties to Lourdes, Anthony, and Nathan may have come on a bit strong, but if the CW plans to have more seasons of Naomi, it could be beneficial to plant the seeds for potential relationship drama down the road.
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