Characters / Supergirl (The Character)

Superman Main Character Index
Title Character
Clark Kent/Kal-El/Superman
Supporting Cast
Lois Lane | Jimmy Olsen | Ambush Bug | Steel
Villains
Central Rogues Gallery (Alexander "Lex" Luthor, Bizarro, Vril Dox/Brainiac, Cyborg-Superman, Darkseid, Doomsday, Lobo, Mister Mxyzptlk, Mongul, Phantom Zone Criminals [General Zod]) | A-L | M-Z (Superboy-Prime)
Spin-Offs
Supergirl (Kara Zor-El/Linda Danvers/Supergirl, Supporting Cast, Rogues Gallery) | Power Girl | Superboy (Conner Kent/Kon-El, Jonathan "Jon" Samuel Kent, Supporting Cast, Rogues Gallery) | Legion Of Superheroes (The Founders, Silver Age, Bronze Age, Five Years Later, Postboot, Threeboot, Retroboot, Rebirth, Other Heroes, The Fatal Five, The Legion of Supervillains, Other Villains, Supporting Cast)

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Kara Zor-El:

Kara Zor-El/ Linda Lee Danvers (Pre-Crisis)

I suppose I had. I'm not your apprentice any more, Kal — I'm a grown woman. I didn't come asking your permission or advice — I came to tell you what I've decided!

Superman's younger cousin, Kara Zor-El survived the destruction of Krypton thanks to her father, Zor-El, putting a protective dome around Argo City that sent it hurtling into space. However, the citizens of Argo were quickly dying from Kryptonite poisoning, so before they died, Zor-El and his wife Alura placed their daughter in a spaceship and sent her to Earth where she could flourish under Superman's guidance.

At first acting as Superman's "secret weapon" while she developed her powers in secret under the assumed name of Linda Lee Danvers, Supergirl eventually burst onto the superhero scene as the Maid of Might.

She had a long and illustrious career fighting evil — she became best friends with fellow superheroine Batgirl I (Barbara), became a member of the Legion of Super-Heroes (and struck up a romance with Brainiac 5), and even saved her parents from the past and helped them found New Krypton on the distant planet of Rokyn. She gained her own sidekicks in the form of Streaky the Super-Cat and Comet the Super-Horse and occasionally joined the Justice League of America.

During that time Kara went from a fifteen-year-old orphan to a Stanhope graduate to a San Francisco new reporter to New Athens Experimental School guidance counselor to famous soap opera actress working in New York to college student majoring in Psychology and living in Chicago. She had become a self-assured, mature adult woman and maybe closer to Superman in age than ever before.

In the end, Kara died a hero. When the Anti-Monitor attempted to destroy The Multiverse, she sacrificed her own life so that her cousin might live. In so doing, however, she severely set back the Anti-Monitor's plans, making victory possible for the heroes of the surviving Earths. The greatest tragedy of all, however, was that with the destruction of the Multiverse and changes to the timestream, Kara was erased from history, and no one at all remembered her heroic life and death.

During Convergence, Kara was one of many individuals pulled from their respective timelines and universes and trapped in domed cities by Brainiac. Pulled before her death, Kara learned about her impending sacrifice being needed to stabilize the timeline, only thanks to the combined efforts of her, the pre-Crisis Barry Allen, Hal Jordan as Parallax, and the pre-Flaspoint Superman, the original Multiverse was saved and Kara is no longer dead.

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• Alien Among Us: At the beginning of her life on Earth Kara felt like a fish out of water. Earth wasn't primitive and mundane compared with Argo City.
  Kara: Earth was kind of disappointing at first. All I could see was that it wasn't Argo City... didn't have the scientific majesty of my home world. And most importantly, it didn't have my parents!
• All Girls Like Ponies: Kara's pony Comet could fly! He was secretly a cursed centaur.
• Alliterative Name: Linda Lee.
• All-Loving Hero: Back in the Silver Age she tried to help every person in trouble she bumped into. She also believed people are inherently good.
• Alternate Company Equivalent: She was created by DC to be for Superman what Mary Marvel was for Fawcett Comics character Captain Marvel.
• Always Someone Better: In the Silver and Bronze Ages, she was this to her best friend Barbara Gordon, the original Batgirl. Babs envied Kara because she was a baseline, non-powered human, whereas her friend was virtually a Physical Goddess. Several times Barbara thought that Kara was very lucky because she could do almost anything. However, she complained about it loudly once, and Supergirl told her that having powers isn't what defines a hero.
• Animal Lover: Kara adores animals, especially cats, adopting one tabby cat and naming him Streaky in "Supergirl's Super Pet", and being known to frolick with lions. She also semi-adopts a horse in "The Super-Steed of Steel", and is fond of her cousin's dog Krypto. And in Action Comics #259: "The Cave-Girl of Steel"), Kara travels to the prehistoric age specifically to see dinosaurs.
• Audience Surrogate: Kara filled this role during her first adventures in the Silver Age: she was Superman's plucky, young sidekick who helped him out as she explored his world.
• Back from the Dead: The ending of Convergence established that Kara and Barry Allen no longer had to die during Crisis, as they were sent to fight the Anti-Monitor alongside Parallax and the pre-Flashpoint Superman. Their actions not only stopped the Anti-Monitor, but undid the destruction of the Multiverse.
• Badass Adorable: While she may be one of the strongest beings in the galaxy, she is very much a teenager with her own hangups. She truly loves humanity and her adoptive home as well as being kind and gentle towards most people despite being able to sneeze entire solar systems away and casually breaking the time-barrier.
• Badass Arm-Fold: In Convergence #6, Kara folds her arms as she stares down at the enemy army◊.
• Bash Brothers: With her cousin. In Legion of Super-Heroes classic Story Arc The Great Darkness Saga, both Superboy and Supergirl take on◊ Darkseid. And although Superboy is taken out quickly, Supergirl lays a good whupping on Darkseid.Reviewed here.
• Batman Can Breathe in Space: Kara can do this due to her Kryptonian physiology. Reasons vary according to the writer: Silver Age Kryptonians can do anything, she can hold her breath for absurd lengths of time...
• Battle Couple: With Brainiac 5.
• Being Good Sucks: Kara was a normal, sixteen-year-old girl until she arrived on Earth. She remembers having a normal life and she just wants to be a normal girl again◊, free from the pressure and the burdens of having super-powers. And she often feels she isn't good or worthy enough for being a hero. Several times she has wanted to give up her Supergirl identity but she can not stop herself from helping people.
• Beware the Nice Ones: Much like her cousin, she's usually a nice, compassionate, friendly person. Unlike her cousin, she's headstrong and a little short-tempered and Hot-Blooded. When she gets real angry, it isn't pretty.
  • During the Crisis on Infinite Earths, the Anti-Monitor (a being who eats entire universes) almost kills Superman. Enraged, Supergirl attacked him, broke his supposedly indestructible armor and nearly killed him.
• Birthday Episode: In Action Comics #270, she turns sixteen, and she is thrown a surprise party◊ by her cousin — who baked a giant birthday cake — Batman, Robin and several more friends.
• Blessed with Suck: Kara came to a point where she was tired of being Supergirl constantly instead of being her own person and she actually felt guilty for wanting to lead a normal life.
• Brains and Brawn: With Brainiac 5. She's the muscle, he's the intellect.
• Break the Cutie:
  • Kara is a genuinely nice, sweet teen girl who loses her family and her whole world when her parents launch her off Argo City to save her life. She crash-lands into a strange, alien, primitive world where she doesn't blend in and strangers want to kill her or capture her and examine her. Her cousin sends her to an orphanage because he feared that his enemies would do if they found out about her, telling her to keep her existence a secret while he trained her. Kara hates the Midvale Orphanage but she has to live there during her training, performing heroic deeds anonymously and avoiding to be adopted. Finally her cousin is about to make Supergirl's existence public when she loses her powers.
  • In Many Happy Returns her rocket changes course and she crashes into the post-Crisis universe instead of Earth-One. Everyone yells at her, hurts her, thinks she is an idiot or crazy. Her only living relative turns her down before she can explain she is his cousin because he believes her to be an obsessed fan. She tries to go school and make friends but she is treated as a freak. And then a cosmic being turns up and tells her that she has to return to her universe... where she will eventually get killed.
    Kara: It's nice. It's... peaceful. Not like here. Here people yell at you... or hurt you... or think you're an idiot or crazy... Or let you down. I've never hated anyone or anything in my life. But I hate this world. I hate it.
• Broken Tears:
  • In Elseworld's Finest: Supergirl & Batgirl, Supergirl weeps when she discovers the corpse of her murdered baby cousin, and she cries again while she buries him.
  • In Many Happy Returns, Kara sheds them twice: when everyone is treating her — an orphan who has just lost her home and landed in another world where everyone is a jerk to her and her only living relative turns her down because he doesn't know who she is — as a dumb, crazy girl; and when she is told she has to return to her own timeline... where she will eventually die.
• Broke Your Arm Punching Out Cthulhu:
  • Once in the Pre-Crisis universe Supergirl and her cousin attempted to punch Darkseid. They were amped up by Highfather to insane amounts, but none of their punches even hurt Darkseid and barely even catches his attention.
  • Supergirl trashed the Anti-Monitor during the Crisis on Infinite Earths, but he took her out. She died and her existence was erased from the memory collective of the universe... for a while.
• Brought Down to Normal: Mad Scientist Lesla-Lar took away Kara's powers as part of a scheme to replace her. While in her powerless state, Kara finally found adoptive parents. She nearly abandoned her career as Supergirl, until Mr. Mxyzptlk granted her all the abilities of Superman, plus a (temporary) invulnerability to green kryptonite.
• The Cape: Supergirl is traditionally very much a Cape.
  • During the Silver Age in particular she was one of the most caring and humble superheroes, perhaps more so than her cousin himself since for her first few years she had to do her heroism in secret.
  • Kara died a hero in the Crisis on Infinite Earths. When the Anti-Monitor attempted to destroy The Multiverse, she sacrificed her own life so that her cousin might live. In so doing, however, she severely set back the Anti-Monitor's plans, making victory possible for the heroes of the surviving Earths. The greatest tragedy of all, however, was that with the destruction of the Multiverse and changes to the timestream, Kara was erased from history, and no one at all remembered her heroic life and death. And still she accepted this, though, because she accomplished her goal: save them all.
• Captain Obvious: Kara did this in tongue-in-cheek fashion when she and Linda meet the Spectre and Fatalist in Many Happy Returns:
  Linda: Now who's this guy?!
  The Spectre: Still thrusting yourself into situations that are over your head, are you, Fatalist?
  Kara: I think he's called "Fatalist".
  Linda: Brilliant, Holmes.
• Character Development: Kara goes from being a naive teenager who idolized her cousin to a young woman who was determined to be her own person and figure out what kind of life she wanted to lead.
• Clark Kent Outfit: Supergirl wore very plain clothes, long-sleeved blouses and long skirts to hide her muscles.
• Classical Anti-Hero: Although Supergirl is usually considered a classic example of The Cape, when Kara starts out her career she is an inexperienced, naive, temperamental teenager full of doubts and insecurities — she often is not even sure of wanting to be a hero — that makes mistakes and has to learn from them until she eventually grows into the role of the Ideal Hero.
• Color Contrast: Her clothes contrast red and blue, reflecting both her fiery temper and her compassionate nature.
• Combo Platter Powers: Supergirl was created after Superman had got most of his power upgrades, so she had a lot of different powers from the beginning. In her first appearance she uses her super-strength, hurricane breath and x-ray vision... in the same page.
• Cousin Oliver: Kara Zor-El was sixteen, and Superman and his supporting cast were in their thirties, when she was introduced as a way to attract young female readers. Unlike other examples, though, Kara became a hit among readers who found her charming and adorable. It probably helped that, unlike other examples, Supergirl had her own strip and only made guest appearances in the other Superman books, so nobody felt that they were being forced to put up with her presence.
• The Cowl: Ironically, Supergirl — one of the classic examples of the Cape and cousin of the Cape — used to be like this back in the Silver Age. Before Superman revealed her existence to the world she secretly patrolled the small town of Midvale at night, trying not to get caught while she stopped crimes and saved people. Midvale locals rumored that they were protected by a "guardian angel".
• Deadpan Snarker: Pre-Crisis Kara Zor-El was the nicest and kindest version of Supergirl, but she had little patience for idiots.
  • In Supergirl (1982) #12, while several mooks are shooting at her:
    Supergirl: I hate thinking of the fortune in ammunition thugs like you have wasted on me over the years!
  • A short while later, a cop is berating her:
    Lieutenant Peters: You wanna play cop, join the department and get yourself a badge! Until then, stay out of my way!
    Supergirl: You need a hint as to what you can do with your badge, Peters?
• Did You Just Punch Out Cthulhu?:
  • In "The Great Darkness Saga" she beats Darkseid up, even punching him through one planet, before being defeated.
  • She lays an absolute beatdown on the Anti-Monitor before being taken out by a lucky shot... and as he limped off the battlefield, the Anti-Monitor said she nearly killed him. That's right, she nearly killed a being who ate universes.
• Distaff Counterpart: To Superman. She used to provide the page's image.
• Dye or Die: Kara used a "Kryptonian comb" which allowed her to comb the brunette into her hair as well as comb in blond locks and serious curls when she did the reverse motions.
• Dying Moment of Awesome: Lays an absolute beatdown on the Anti-Monitor before being taken out by a lucky shot. One of the most badass feats ever achieved by any comic book character, ever.
• Establishing Character Moment: Kara's first story has her to agree with Superman's plan to not use her powers without permission and then using them anyway as soon as her cousin's back is turned.
• Even the Loving Hero Has Hated Ones: Kara is usually a nice, kind and compassionate woman, but she absolutely detests Brainiac. In "Let My People Grow!", she actually grins when Brainiac apparently accidentally shrinks himself into oblivion. She also absolutely hates the Anti-Monitor, and it is not because he was the one who killed her. As she tells it during their battle, she has always defended the sanctity of life, but the murderer of the Multiverse is a blasphemy who does not deserve to exist.
• Evil Me Scares Me: Kara was frightened of Satan Girl, a duplicate of hers who was more powerful, evil, ruthless and extremely conniving.
• Fear of Thunder: In a Silver Age story, Kara dreams a What If? in which she was raised by Superman's parents. In one part of the dreams, she wrecks the Kents' house during a thunderstorm.
• Fish out of Temporal Water: In Many Happy Returns, her rocket accidentally ends up in the Post-Crisis universe, which is more cynical, Darker and Edgier than her own universe. Kara — an idealistic, naive and immensely powerful teenager — has trouble fitting in.
• Girlish Pigtails: Linda wore her hair like this when she lived in Midvale Orphanage.
• Grandfather Clause: Skirt-wearing female heroes are rare nowadays, but modern Supergirls wear skirt because the original Supergirl wore one, and her Minidress of Power is so iconic that attempts to replace her skirt with pants or a Leotard of Power have been short-lived and seldom well-received.
• Guardian Angel: After her death and subsequent erasure from the DCU, Kara seemed to have taken up this role. The first time she appeared to a despondent Deadman during a Christmas special, the second time she appeared towards Linda Danvers. However, both times the person in question was only identified as Kara and not Supergirl.
• Hair of Gold, Heart of Gold: Pre-Crisis Kara was an absolutely sweet, innocent child. She stopped being gullible when she grew up, and her adult self had quite the temper, but she always was a nice, selfless person.
• Happily Adopted: Kara was adopted by Fred and Edna Danvers. They loved her and she them, even after she found out that her biological parents were still alive. When she revealed she was Superman's cousin they took it in stride. And they got heart-broken when she died during the Crisis on Infinite Earths.
• Hates Being Alone: Kara felt almost as alone as Clark. Fortunately she had a cousin she could relate to, but she spent several months living in an orphanage until she was adopted. She hated the place because she felt utterly alone and friendless in a strange land. In Superboy #80 both cousins talk about this◊.
  Superman: Many years ago, when I lived in Smallville as Superboy, I could never play with kids my own age for fear of giving away my identity! Oh, how I longed for a human playmate who was super, like myself!
  Supergirl: I know how you feel! I, too, dare not play with anyone my own age!
• Heavyworlder: Krypton having a much greater mass than Earth was one of the explanations for Supergirl's powers.
• Helmets Are Hardly Heroic: Kara hardly wears helmet, even though some of her enemies like Reactron have used headgear. One reason why she doesn't wear mask is to increase people's trust, showing she has nothing to hide. Of course, her invulnerability means she doesn't need protection. Subverted in "The Unknown Legionnaire", wherein she builds and wears a lead helmet when she loses her memories due to her instinctive need to protect her secret identity.
• Heroes Love Dogs: Kara really likes Krypto, and he becomes her pet when she arrives on Earth. In non-canon story Superman #149 in which Superman gets murdered by Lex Luthor, Supergirl becomes Krypto's sole owner when she takes over her cousin's job.
• Heroic Sacrifice: Her death in Crisis on Infinite Earths saved Superman and the whole Multiverse and it was one of the big comic book deaths at that time. Remarkably, in Convergence she found out that she'd die if she left her universe to fight the Anti-Monitor, and she still chose to fight.

  Oh, dear God. Did my death mean anything? Did I help them save the world?
  [beat]
  No. I can't think that way. Even if all my death means is I've delayed theirs, I still have to save them.

• Heroic Spirit: Supergirl never quits... ever. Even if she has been beaten, depowered, weakened, captured... by enemies that outnumber her, overpower her, or outsmart her, she will fight on until winning or dying.
• Heterosexual Life-Partners: Kara Zor-El and Barbara Gordon were best friends and knew each other's Secret Identity (although they didn't often team up). During the Crisis, Kara encouraged Barbara.
• I Just Want to Be Normal: Pre-Crisis Supergirl often expressed this desire during the Bronze Age. Unlike her cousin, Kara remembers having a normal life back on Argo City, when she was a normal teenager. After growing into adulthood, she was torn between her desire to have the life of a normal woman and the responsibilities that come with her powers. In Superman vol 1 #282 she explains her cousin◊ that she is thinking of giving up her Supergirl identity because she wants a normal life:
  Superman: Still thinking about giving up your Supergirl identity, Kara?
  Supergirl: I don't know, cousin Kal-El — Maybe! This life of a super-heroine takes up too much of my time... sets me apart from everybody else! I want an ordinary life — with a husband and children some day — free to do what I choose!
• Iconic Outfit: Kara's costume has an iconic, easily and instantly recognizable look: Superman's costume minus the pants plus a blue or — usually — red skirt. She has worn many different outfits since the late 1950's, but most of them are variations of her first gendered costume. Her most famous and most popular uniforms are: Original◊, "Hot pants"◊ and "Headband"◊.
• Interspecies Romance: Kara's first suitors were Dick Malverne (human), Jerro (an Atlantean merboy), Brainiac 5 (a Coluan alien), and Biron (a centaur).
• Intrepid Reporter: For a short while in the early 70's Linda worked as a junior photographer and reporter for San Francisco news station KSF-TV. She quit in Adventure Comics's last story.
• Jack of All Stats: Kara has all powers of Superman. However, she has an edge on speed whereas he is somewhat stronger. She isn't stronger than Superman, faster than Flash, smarter than Batman, better fighter than Wonder Woman and she has not as many powers as Martian Manhunter... but she is one of the strongest, fastest and toughest heroes, she has been trained by Batman and Wonder Woman and is intelligent and resourceful, besides having several useful complementary powers such as flight and super-senses. Her combination of raw power, training, cleverness, determination and hot-bloodness makes her one of the most powerful heroes of the planet.
• Kid Sidekick: Kara played it straight at the beginning, eventually subverted it. She was Superman's sidekick and emergency secret weapon while he was training her, but when he revealed her existence to the world, he made clear that she was his partner. Before that, in Action Comics #288, Kara becomes invulnerable to Kryptonite for a while, and Superman seriously regards her as superior to him, and wonders if he should become her sidekick, and during the Silver and Bronze Ages both cousins interacted as equals.
• Killed Off for Real: Kara was killed by the Anti-Monitor in Crisis On Infinite Earths and erased from History and memory because DC wanted Superman to be the only Kryptonian alive. She remained dead and forgotten for three decades until Convergence finally subverted the trope and undid her death.
• Kindhearted Cat Lover: Kara is a cat person. When she was a student in Stanhope College she owned a pet tomcat called Streaky — which accidentally got super-powers. Several years later she moved to Chicago and she found a stray female cat. Linda adopted it and named Streaky right away◊. She really adores her cats◊.
  Supergirl: Well, now... what've got here? Hiya, little kittycat! You live around here?
  Joan: I've seen her scrounging around the block for days now. I figure she's a stray.
  Supergirl: Not anymore, friend — 'cause this little darling's just been adopted! Isn't that right, little Streaky?
  Joan: You sure don't waste time thinking up names! How'cum Streaky?
  Supergirl: Oh... let's just say she reminds me of a cat I used own!
• Like Brother and Sister: With Superman. Clark cared about Kara more than almost any other◊, and when he is told that she will die, he goes ballistic◊ and then becomes very, very distressed◊.
• Literal-Minded: Kara suffers from this at the beginning of Many Happy Returns. Justified because she is a very innocent kid who has just been stranded in another planet and can barely speak English. Sarcasm, jokes and idiomatic expressions tend to go over her head.
  Linda: Oh, I get it now. You're cute. Reaaaally cute.
  Kara: Do you think I am cute?
• Loves My Alter Ego:
  • In Action Comics #361, a boy wanted to date Linda because he suspected that she was Supergirl. When Linda managed to make him believe she was a normal, powerless girl, he stopped being interested.
  • During her time working as a photographer in San Francisco, Linda Danvers had a crush on her boss Geoffrey "Geoff" Anderson. Geoff was not interested in Linda but he liked Supergirl. He even kissed her at the end of Demon Spawn. However, Linda quit her job and moved away shortly after, and they never saw each other again.
  • In imaginary story Jimmy Olsen Superman's Pal #57 Linda and Jimmy marry. However Linda is amnesiac and depowered when the wedding happens, and doesn't remember anything about her Secret Identity. When Linda regains her memories and her powers she decides she needs to tell Jimmy she is Supergirl but in a tactful way. Her "great" plan was revealing Supergirl's existence to him. Then, as Supergirl, she will make him fall in love with her. Then when he is in love with both Linda and Supergirl, she'll reveal she is one and the same. Surprisingly, her nutty idea worked.
• Magic Skirt: Some artists draw it so short, but so short that you will need a massive Willing Suspension of Disbelief to accept something so short not allowing Panty Shots free of charge.
• The Masquerade Will Kill Your Dating Life: It happened to Kara the whole time. The. Whole. Time. She never could keep a steady boyfriend for long because she was prone to unexplained absences or ditch the guy abruptly because her Super-Senses picked up on something.
• The Matchmaker: In Action Comics #289, Kara vows find a wife for her cousin. She tries to hook Kal up with Helen of Troy, Saturn Girl's adult self, an alien superwoman... However all of her attempts end up in failure, and she vows never play match-maker again.
• Meteor Move: Supergirl does this in Justice League of America #134 when she fights Despero (one of the worst enemies of the League). First Kara grabs him and throws him hard enough to put him into orbit◊, and then she flies out of the planet, meets Despero in space and knocks him out with one punch◊.
• Minidress of Power: She wore a knee-length blue/red skirt for most of her career.
• Mysterious Protector: She was this for a while. Since she was not supposed to reveal her existence to the world until her hero training was concluded, she secretly patrolled the small town of Midvale at night, trying not to get caught while she stopped crimes and saved people. Midvale locals rumored that they were protected by a "guardian angel".
• Naïve Newcomer: Teen Kara sometimes got in trouble due to being unaware of Earth customs.
• New Transfer Student: Her two solo books start when she is transferred to a new college.
• Nice Girl: Kara has the power of a God, but she's generally gentle and kind. Even though she wasn't raised on Earth like Superman, she'll do everything to protect her second home. She's also an idealist and believes most people are inherently good.
• No-Holds-Barred Beatdown: Most famously, she trashed the Anti-Monitor even though he was killing her.
• Not Allowed to Grow Up: The Pre-Crisis Kara is interesting in that she actually aged only a little slower than real time early on; she was 15 when she first appeared in 1959 and graduated high school in 1964, presumably making her about 18 and went on to graduate college in turn in 1971. She spent the 1970s as a young woman in her early 20's before being retconned back to a 19 year old college student towards the end of the Bronze Age.
• Odd Couple: Messianic Nice Girl Kara and distant, intellectual Brainiac 5 (who was, coincidentally, the great-great grandson of one of Superman's worst enemies).
• One-Man Army: Kara is a nigh-invulnerable Flying Brick and virtual Physical Goddess who has been known to wipe whole armies. She broke down Warworld — a planet-sized machine war — by ramming through it.
• Opposite-Sex Clone: In Supergirl (1972) #10, she was cloned. And her clone was a boy called himself Superlad
• Paradox Person: Even though DC went to great lengths to ensure that she couldn't exist in the new universe, the original Kara Zor-El continued appearing in Post-Crisis stories such like Should Auld Acquaintance Be Forgot.
• Plot-Relevant Age-Up: Along with Dick Grayson, the original Kara was allowed to grow up, even if it took thirty years. She started out as a cute little teenybopper, and became a beautiful young woman. There's a huge Tear Jerker in "Whatever Happened to the Man of Tomorrow?,'' when time-travelling young Kara asks Superman if she grows up to be pretty. This is after Kara's own death, and Supes can't tell her that; but he does tell her, as they pass a statue of her adult self in the Fortress, "You grew up beautiful, Kara."
• The Pollyanna: No matter what happened to her, Kara always to be positive and overcome her hardships.
• Punctuated! For! Emphasis!: Kara does this when she scares Rebel away.
  Supergirl: Oh... and Rebel...
  Rebel: Yeah?
  Supergirl: I have eyes that can see through solid matter. I have ears that can hear your slightest word... Your heartbeat... Your breathing... You do anything that hurts others... I will find you... and you won't like it. Do we have an understanding? Do. We. Have. An. Understanding?
• Really Moves Around: Since her hometown Argo City's destruction, Kara Zor-El moved at least six times in just ten years in her search for a new place that she could call "home", where she could belong to and be herself.
• Replacement Goldfish: Supergirl's Big Brother reveals that her parents adopted her in part to fill the emptiness in their lives after their biological son died.
• Respected by the Respected: When introducing his cousin to the Earth's people in "The Unknown Supergirl", Superman tells everybody that Kara is as powerful and reliable as him, and she can be trusted to protect Earth in his absence.
• Ret-Gone: Subverted. Kara was supposed to be retconned out of existence after the Crisis by editorial fiat, but although nobody remembered her she still popped up every so often during the 80's and 90's. Several Crisis events later, her death is remembered and possibly undone.
• Robot Me: When Supergirl fought crime while living at Midvale Orphanage, she used a robot decoy of herself to keep the other orphans from noticing her absence.
• Savvy Guy, Energetic Girl: The energetic girl to Brainiac 5's savvy guy.
• Secret Identity: Linda Lee Danvers. The most notable difference between her appearance and Supergirl's concerns the fact that Kara wears a brunette wig as Linda.
• Secret-Keeper: She knows her cousin's secret in all eras, and Superman also knows her Secret Identity. Kara often helped him protect his Clark Kent persona. Likewise, Kara's secret identity has a good number of protectors.
• Ship Tease: With Jimmy Olsen from time to time in the Silver Age. They even married in an Imaginary Story.
• Sole Survivor: Kara was originally Argo's only survivor. Later on, she discovered than a group of survivors found shelter in a pocket dimension.
• Spirit Advisor: After her death, Kara Zor-El's ghost appears before several heroes to comfort and advising them, like Deadman in "Should Auld Acquaintance Be Forgot".
• Statuesque Stunner: Kara tends to be portrayed as a woman of roughly above average height at 5'7", but occasionally taller, particularly if shown as her future self.
• Super-Breath: Linda has this power: she can blow gale-force hurricane winds out of her mouth, exhale blasts of ultra-cold air and survive underwater or in space without breathing. Her control is so precise that it is practically a form of telekinesis.
• Superheroes Wear Capes: She usually wears a cape just like Superman.
• Superheroes Wear Tights: Her hero costumes.
• Superpower Lottery: Has the same power of Superman including Eye Beams, Flying Brick, Nigh-Invulnerability, Super-Senses, Super-Speed, Super-Strength and X-Ray Vision.
• Teens Love Shopping: In Adventure Comics #397, college student Linda is feeling depressed, and decides she clearly needs go shopping to lift her spirits.
• Thinking Tic: She used to put her finger to her mouth◊ as she puzzled out some conundrum when she was a teenager.
• Thousand-Yard Stare: In Many Happy Returns, Kara does this when she meets Post-Crisis Superman and tries to talk him into being partners but Clark — who doesn't know she is his cousin and mistakenly believes her to be an obsessed fan — turns her down.
  Linda: By the time we found her up on the roof, she was just... sitting there. Staring off into space. She wouldn't talk to us... wouldn't even look us in the eye.
• Thou Shalt Not Kill: Supergirl is very reluctant to kill.
• Trauma Congaline: Not only is Krypton destroyed but Supergirl survives on Argo City but then it's destroyed. So she's orphaned twice.
• Triple Shifter: In the early 80's, Kara went through an era during which she hardly had any sleep. She was working as a soap opera actress, which was extremely time-consuming and only left nighttime to operate as Supergirl. She was going mad due to the lack of sleep (her body doesn't need the rest but her mind does) and private life, so in Superman (1939) issue #376 she quits her job and tells her cousin she is moving to Chicago because she cannot juggle her job and her hero duties.
• Underestimating Badassery:
  • Kara gets this a lot. Because she's a temperamental teenager, their enemies assume she is an easily manipulable, naive little girl. Because she's a super-strong Kryptonian, her enemies assume she's dumb muscle. She always shows she isn't a pushover.
  • In Justice League of America #134, Supergirl joins the League to help find a missing Superman. They find an alien race called the Krill, who force the Leaguers to fight Despero, one of their worst and oldest enemies. Despero is sent up against Supergirl, and one of the Krills thinks she can't possibly win... and then she trashes him. Firstly she grabs him and throws him hard enough to put him into orbit◊, and then she flies out of the planet, meets Despero in space and knocks him out with one punch◊.
• Unstoppable Rage: Kara is — usually — a very nice, kind person, but she's also a Hot-Blooded, short-tempered teenager who protects her loved ones fiercely, and she has occasionally gone on a rampage. In the Crisis on Infinite Earths, when the Anti-Monitor threatened with killing her cousin Superman, she went berserker and almost killed him. Yes, she nearly killed a being that devours universes.
• Vacuum Mouth: Pre-Crisis Kara has "Super-Suction Breath", which is a variant of her Super-Breath. Instead of expelling large amounts of air from her mouth she inhaled air with the purpose of cutting off someone else's oxygen supply.
• Wide-Eyed Idealist: Kara Zor-El was an exceptionally innocent, trusting teenager. Her enemies often exploited her naivete and tried to earn her trust or seduce her so they could manipulate her and kill her or her cousin. Eventually she stopped being so gullible, but she kept believing that people are mostly naturally good-hearted.
• Willfully Weak: Supergirl holds back the whole time because she's too powerful and she'll kill someone if her control slips.
• World's Strongest Woman: Kara is a contender for strongest woman in the DCU, being, powerwise, a female Superman.
• Your Magic's No Good Here: Kara loses access to her powers in the Phantom Zone. In Demon Spawn, Kara is kidnapped and brought to the Innerverse, an Alternate Dimension in where her powers don't work.

Kara Zor-El/Linda Lang (Post-Crisis)

I... I thought I was helping. I mean, what's the use of having all this strength and everything if I can't use it to fix things?

Superman's older cousin, Kara Zor-El survived the destruction of Krypton thanks to her father, Zor-El, putting a protective force-field around Argo City that sent it hurtling into space. However, the citizens of Argo came under attack from the evil alien Brainiac, so before they were conquered, Zor-El and his wife Alura placed their daughter in a spaceship and sent her to Earth where she would care for her young cousin Kal-El.

Arriving on Earth, Kara found that she had been in suspended animation for decades and her cousin was now an adult while she was still a teenager. Adopting her cousin's mantle as Supergirl, she trained under both Batman and Wonder Woman, and eventually moved in with Lana Lang, pretending to be her niece. Throughout her career, she would battle inner demons which sometimes manifested as a violent, blackclad Supergirl (hereafter referred to as Dark!Kara).

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• Abusive Parents: Her first origin stated that her father made her kill her classmates, sent her to kill her cousin and stood around with her while she was naked. Later it was revealed/retconned that her father was a doting nice guy, whereas her mother was harsh and verbally abusive.
• Alliterative Name: Linda Lang.
• All-Loving Hero: After her Darker and Edgier phase was over.
• Alternate Self: She and Power Girl are this to one another, which leaves Kara very weirded out about the possibility of meeting her.
• Always Someone Better: To her friend Stephanie Brown, who always failed to measure up to other superheroes and was constantly told to stop trying, improved in almost all areas of crimefighting after she assumed the mantle of Batgirl from Cassandra Cain. However, in one issue of her own ongoing series Kara stops by for a night together and outshines Stephanie in every way. Not only does she have natural superpowers, but she is also able to understand the Techno Babble explanation for why they are fighting Dracula, and in their civilian identities Supergirl has a much greater zeal for college life than Stephanie did. Stephanie, however, never resented Supergirl for any of this, and liked her even more because of how awesome she was.
• And I Must Scream: In the post-Crisis universe, Kara spent thirty years in suspended animation, curled-up in a tiny pod and trapped in Kryptonite which hurt her and poisoned her mind.
• Anti-Hero: Before Character Development set in. She eventually dropped the "anti" part and settled on being a hero.
• Archenemy: With Reactron, who killed her father and mother and blew up her planet.
• Bash Brothers: With Wonder Girl(Cassie Sandsmark), though at first Supergirl spends her time fighting against Wonder Girl before realizing she would be doing more good fighting alongside Wonder Girl. She and Superman and she and Dick Grayson are a platonic, two-gender variant.
• Battle Couple: With Brainiac 5. She dates him, and also hits things for him while he protects her with force fields.
• Being Good Sucks: Kara was a normal, fifteen-year-old girl until she arrived on Earth. She remembers having a normal life and she just wants to be a normal girl again◊, free from the pressure and the burdens of having super-powers. And she often feels she isn't good or worthy enough for being a hero. Several times she has wanted to give up her Supergirl identity but she can not stop herself from helping people.
• Belligerent Sexual Tension: With Brainiac 5, whose attitude and frosty demeanour rub her the wrong way.
• Big Little Brother: Kara is — technically — fifteen years older than her cousin, but he towers over her. Even if she had not been several decades in suspended animation, Kal would have probably outgrown her anyways.
• Brains and Brawn: With Brainiac 5. She's the brawn, he's the brains.
• Bratty Teenage Daughter: Subverted. Early on Kara behaved as a self-absorbed, fickle, whiny fifteen-year-old. After several issues she got over her attitude, and later it was revealed her early immature behavior was due to Kryptonite poisoning making her mentally unstable.
• Break the Cutie: Kara is a genuinely nice, sweet teen girl who loses her family and her whole world when her parents launch her off Argo City to save her life. She crash-lands into a strange, alien, primitive world where she doesn't blend in and strangers want to kill her or capture her and examine her. Kryptonite poisoning messes with her mind and her memories and alters her behavior, making everyone think she is a jerk. After a while she is getting used to live on Earth when Superman retrieves the Bottle City of Kandor — in which were imprisoned her parents and several thousands of Kryptonians — from Brainiac. However, one of her villains — Reactron — kills her parents and blows New Krypton up, exterminating the last survivors of Krypton. So she lost her family and world thrice.
• Calling the Old Man Out: Does this to her mother near the end of "New Krypton" after she finds her torturing Reactron.
• The Cape: For all her problems, Kara was headed strongly in this direction by the time of the New 52 reboot. She'd put the past behind her, adopted Superman's attitude towards dealing with issues, built strong friendships with other heroes, and was well on her way to being the same sort of paragon as her cousin.
• Character Development: Kara was characterized as a whiny, fickle, immature brat who didn't deserve to wear the S-shield for a while until she decided that she needed to stop being a jerk and truly change. From that point on, she started to mature. Later on, it was explained that her weird behavior, her mood swings, her contradictory memories, her inability to focus on what she was doing... was due to kryptonite poisoning.
• Clark Kenting: Used glasses and a different haircut to become Linda Lang.
• Classical Anti-Hero: She is an inexperienced, naive, temperamental teenager full of doubts and insecurities — she often is not even sure of wanting to be a hero — that makes mistakes and has to learn from them.
• Curb-Stomp Battle: On the receiving end of an absolutely brutal one from Lex Luthor early in her career, which forced her to realize that she did, in fact, need to start thinking her actions through more.
• Daddy's Girl: Once all the retcons were hashed out.
• Dark Action Girl: Dark!Kara who was originally a far more capable fighter than the actual Kara.
• Deadpan Snarker: Kara often makes sarcastic remarks when she gets angry. In Supergirl vol. 5 #22 she fights a Super-Soldier who claims to be "your tax dollars at work". After defeating him, she grumbles:

  Supergirl: Tax dollars at work, my butt!

• Defusing the Tyke-Bomb: Subverted with Post-Crisis Kara. An early story stated that her father trained her to be a weapon, and Superman — with aid of Batman and Wonder Woman — took her in and acted this way toward her. However her abusive father was eventually retconned as a hallucination caused by Kryptonite poisoning when the real Zor-El showed up and turned out to be a pretty nice guy.
• Defeat Means Friendship: Wonder Girl Cassie Sandsmark, a Hero-Worshipper who can usually control her temper when her personality is not being externally altered, is rubbed the wrong way by newer, more entitled, more moody, more violent Supergirl to the point Cassie confronts Kara and they have a fight. Sandsmark eats dirt but being stood up to makes Zor-El nicer to Sandsmark from then on. Done again with Bizarrogirl, only Supergirl is the (slightly) less headstrong one this time.
• Distaff Counterpart: To the Post-Crisis Superman, after decades of such a thing being declared, and proven to be impossible the Powers That Be finally allowed a Supergirl kryptonian to exist again.
• Emo Teen: Had shades of this early on in her career, though not without reason. If your planet was destroyed, you were marooned on an alien world, and the person you thought you were going to be protecting was suddenly much older and more experienced than you, you'd have issues too.
• Enemy Within: Dark!Kara who embodies all of Supergirl's repressed anger over the loss of her people.
• Enemy Without: Luthor exposes Kara to Black Kryptonite, causing a version of Dark!Kara to emerge from her body. It embodies all of her negative emotions and proceeds to go on a rampage before being stopped.
• Even the Loving Hero Has Hated Ones: Kara is usually a nice, kind and compassionate woman, but she absolutely detests Brainiac. In "Superman: Brainiac", the mere sight of a Brainiac drone triggers her heat vision. She also absolutely hates Superwoman for her role in the death of her father.
• Evil Costume Switch: Her evil duplicate Dark Supergirl wears a black version of her costume.
• Evil Me Scares Me: Supergirl was split into her normal self and an evil alternate personality when exposed to black Kryptonite. Supergirl was frightened of her dark, violent and murderous self because "Dark Supergirl" claimed she was the real Kara, and Supergirl's nice and well-meaning persona was only an act.
• Fish out of Water: One of the defining traits of this interpretation of the character. Unlike her more famous cousin, who left Krypton when he was too young to remember it, Kara spent her formative years growing up in Kryptonian society before she was sent to Earth as a teenager. Understandably, she has a harder time adjusting to life on Earth than Kal-El ever did, as she still considers herself a Kryptonian at heart.
• Flying Brick: As per usual. Super-strength, super-speed, invulnerability and flight.
• Flying Firepower: Again, as per usual. Eye Beams and several Breath Weapons.
• Freudian Excuse: Originally she was shown to have serious issues with her dad. These were eventually retconned out and replaced with a strained relationship with her Evil Matriarch Knight Templar mother.
• Future Me Scares Me: Post-Crisis Supergirl is scared of her older, alternate self Power Girl.
• Groin Attack: What she did to a Powerboy when she realized he was a stalker; fortunately, he was from Apokolips so it ONLY hurt a whole lot.
• Hair of Gold, Heart of Gold: Post-Crisis Kara behaved as an emo, self-centered, angry, bratty teen early on due to Kryptonite poisoning. However she began dealing with her issues, got cured, and developed into a kind, compassionate and cheerful woman.
• Happily Adopted: Pa and Ma Kent kind of adopted Post-Crisis Kara. They were the only parental figures she established a rapport with, and she regarded them as family.
• Has a Type: Her crushes on Dick Grayson and Brainiac 5 are indicative that Kara has a thing for intellectual, responsible-leader types.
• Hates Being Alone: Once Kara and her friend Stephanie Brown watched a cheesy movie. Most of audience laughed out loud when Dracula cried out he was alone, but both girls couldn't laugh about it. They know what being alone is like, and they don't find it funny at all.
• He's Back!: Kara wanted to give up being Supergirl after the destruction of New Krypton in the fifth volume, but she donned her Supergirl costume again to save Metropolis from Bizarrogirl.
• Heel–Face Turn: Dark!Kara starts out as a monster who was prepared to murder her cousin in the name of Darkseid. By the time of her final appearance she's little more than an emotionally immature teenager who despite her problems still wants to help all of Kara's friends and nearly gets herself killed protecting Dick Grayson from Doomsday.
• Heroes Love Dogs: In her introductory story Kara tried to befriend Krypto, and she was devastated when the dog seemed to dislike her. Later on, they became friends.
• Heroic BSoD: Kara Zor-El had one of these after the destruction of New Krypton. Superman hugged her while she cried in space, and she considered quitting the hero gig for a while.
• Heroic Sacrifice: She tried to kill herself to destroy the Kryptonian Worldkiller and save Earth in the Red Daughter Of Krypton arc.
• Heroic Spirit: She never quits... ever. She has been beaten, depowered, weakened, captured, poisoned... and she's never given up.
• Heterosexual Life-Partners:
  • With Stephanie Brown alias Batgirl. They love spending time together and helping each other. And if you pick on Steph, you will never know what hit you.
  • She and Cassie Sandsmark alias Wonder Girl were very good friends, too.
• Hot-Blooded: At least when compared to her cousin. Kara tends to charge into situations without thinking, which nearly got her killed against Luthor.
• I Hate Past Me: Kara and Karen Starr — Power Girl — don't get along well because Kara was being written like a jerk in the first issues of her book. Kara apologized to Karen after getting her head together, but Karen turned her down.
• Interspecies Romance: Any relationship she has with a non-Kryptonian is this by definition. Most notably with Brainiac 5.
• It's Personal: In the New Krypton storyline, she has a feud with Reactron after he kills her father. It doesn't end well, and he eventually blows up her mother and almost every surviving member of her race. She also takes her enmity with Doomsday this way, knowing that he once killed her cousin.
• Jack of All Stats: Kara has all powers of Superman. However she has an edge on speed whereas he is somewhat stronger. She isn't stronger than Superman, faster than Flash, smarter than Batman, better fighter than Wonder Woman and she has not as many powers as Martian Manhunter... but she is one of the strongest, fastest and toughest heroes, she has been trained by Batman and Wonder Woman and is intelligent and resourceful, besides having several useful complementary powers such as flight and super-senses. Her combination of raw power, training, cleverness, determination and hot-bloodness makes her one of the most powerful heroes of the planet.
• Kid Sidekick: To Superman. Only physically however, as she is chronologically older than him and simply had her physical development interrupted.
• Kindhearted Cat Lover: She owns a pet cat called Streaky, just like her Earth-One counterpart did.
• Leave Me Alone!: She asked her cousin, Batman and Wonder Woman leave her alone for a while as she figured her new life out. Unfortunately she spent one whole year completely aimless and screwing around due to Kryptonite poisoning altering her personality until she understood she needed help.
• Like Brother and Sister: She and Dick Grayson (Robin I/Nightwing/Batman III) have this vibe, with him considering her a little sister. On the other hand, Supergirl is attracted to him at the beginning◊, but after a while she starts treating him like a big brother.
• Magic Skirt: Always covered up no matter what.
• Minidress of Power: Her Iconic Outfit.
• Ms. Fanservice: A pretty notorious example, what with her cheerleader-like costume with constant panty shots, her original exaggerated "size zero" body shape with elongated toned abdomen and long legs, her naked introduction, and her civilian-wear tendency to dress in crop tops and super-low-rise jeans with her thong on display. While most "teen" girl characters got treated like this in superhero comics of the era, her depiction took it to such a degree that it made many people uncomfortable, and was the source of much negative reaction. Finally, when Jamal Igle took over as main artist, he received a direct editorial order to redesign her costume and generally tone down the fanservice, which he was happy to do.
• No Social Skills: Angry, emotionally damaged, and unfamiliar with Earth's customs, Kara gets herself in a lot of trouble during her first few years on Earth.
• Odd Couple: Energetic former Emo Teen Kara and frosty, intellectual Brainiac 5.
• Older Sidekick: Subverted. She is fifteen years older than her cousin, but she was put in suspended animation for thirty years, so she looks younger than him.
• Older Than They Look: Kara's actually Superman's older cousin, and is somewhere in her late twenties/early thirties. Cryogenic sleep, however, has kept her a teenager mentally and physically.
• One-Man Army: Super-strong, super-fast, nearly invulnerable... provoke her at your peril. Kara crushed single-handedly several squads of Brainiac's murder androids during Superman: Brainiac. An impressive feat since they were built to deal with Kryptonians.
• Other Me Annoys Me: Post-Crisis Kara is frightened of Power Girl because their powers go into overdrive when they touch... and because she turned on Karen temporarily. She apologized later on, but Karen turned her apology down.
• Plucky Girl: After Character Development.
• Precocious Crush: On Dick Grayson. She eventually gets over—though dark!Supergirl does not.
• Reformed, but Rejected: After surviving her trial, recovering from her K-poisoning a bit and getting her head together, Kara sought Power Girl out and apologized for everything. Karen replied she couldn't forgive her or trust her.
• Replacement Goldfish: After Superboy's death, Cassie develops a close friendship with Kara. Later on, she decides to cut off ties with Kara specifically because of this trope. Kara didn't take it well.
• Retcon: That thing about her father raising her as an assassin and having her stand around naked all the time? It was just a hallucination she experienced due to latent Kryptonite poisoning. Doctor Fate later suggests that the hallucinations, as well as dark!Supergirl are manifestations of Kara's survivors guilt which she has no idea what to do with.
• Save the Villain: Actually tries to save Reactron from being tortured by her mother.
• Savvy Guy, Energetic Girl: The energetic girl to Brainiac 5's savvy guy.
• Secret Identity: Linda Lang.
• Serial Escalation: Silver Age Supergirl was a relentlessly sweet person who would shut down before she lashed out unless there was a really good catalyst her fury. Post Crisis Linda Danvers was an abrasive hedonist to contrast this. Post Crisis Kara Zor-El continues the trend being a bratty, callously destructive and sarcastic to the point of making Post Crisis Danvers seem subdued.
• Ship Tease: With Brainiac-5. After bringing Kara back in the post-Crisis universe, most of writers teased a relationship between them.
• Sole Survivor: Kara was originally the only survivor of Kryptonian city Argo. However a group of Argonians — including her parents — survived the city's destruction when Brainiac abducted them. However all of them got killed when New Krypton exploded, and Kara is again the Last Daughter of Argo City.
• Split-Personality Takeover: Happens several times be it under Darkseid's influence or simple stress. In a variation on the usual, Dark!Kara becomes more controllable and less evil each time it happens.
• Stripperiffic: A major point of complaint in the pre-Igle stories was just how scanty her costume was as drawn by most artists, especially given that it was supposedly Martha Kent's idea of an appropriate costume for her foster-son's teenage cousin. This was thankfully toned down later on.
• Super-Breath: Kara has this power: she can blow gale-force hurricane winds out of her mouth, exhale blasts of ultra-cold air and survive underwater or in space without breathing.
• Superpower Lottery: Has the same power of Superman including Eye Beams, Flying Brick, Nigh-Invulnerability, Super-Senses, Super-Speed, Super-Strength and X-Ray Vision.
• Superpowered Evil Side: Dark!Kara, who is released under the influence of Darkseid, Black K, or similar events and has none of our Kara's restraint. Each time, however, she gets a little better and easier to control; in her last appearance, she's just a brat, rather than a homicidal maniac.
• Survivor's Guilt: Struggles with this after New Krypton, resulting in the reemergence of Dark!Kara, and a psychosomatic illness that nearly kills her. Dr. Fate helps her overcome it during the events of Reign of Doomsday.
• The Tease: She liked teasing Captain Boomerang Jr. about his obvious crush on her. She eased up on it when she realized it was a real bad thing to do.
• Teens Love Shopping: In The Supergirl from Krypton (2004), Kara has just landed on Earth, and Clark takes her sixteen-year-old cousin to Metropolis so she can buy Earth clothes. She very quickly takes to shopping like a fish to water, and declares it a very fun pastime.
  Clark Kent: "You certainly have the shopping part of being an Earth girl down."
  Kara Zor-El: "Omigosh, that was so much fun."
• There Are No Therapists: Averted. It's a talk with Kent Nelson (Dr. Fate) a psychiatrist that helps Kara get over her trauma and survivor's guilt during Reign of Doomsday.
• Underestimating Badassery: People tend to this to Kara on account of her age and lack of experience. Kara herself does this to Lex Luthor early in her career, and to Reactron in New Krypton, with disastrous results both times.
• Unskilled, but Strong: Early on this was a serious problem. Her lack of experience and general inability to use her powers to her fullest nearly got her killed during a confrontation with Lex Luthor.
• Villainesses Want Heroes: In a strange variation Dark!Kara has a pretty serious crush on Dick Grayson.
• Your Magic's No Good Here: Kara loses her powers when exposed to red sunlight.

Kara Zor-El/Kara Danvers (Post-Flashpoint)

^{Click here to see her rebirth outfit:}

"Not safe"? I'm not the one who turned into an uncontrollable monster whose path of destruction led to a Kryptonite bomb being dropped! And I did reach out to you. Why do you get to judge me'?

Superman's older cousin, Kara Zor-El survived the destruction of Krypton thanks to her father, Zor-El, who put her in a spaceship to save his only daughter.

Kara crash-landed in Siberia, not knowing she had been several decades in suspended animation, Krypton was gone, she was stranded in an alien planet, and her four-month-old cousin had become a grown man. Confused and angry by her current situation and new powers, and targetted by unknown enemies, Kara had trouble coming to terms with her former life's loss, fitting in Earth and trusting her cousin and she was angry and upset for a long time.

During the events of The Final Days of Superman, Kal told her he was dying, and he asked her to consider taking over his job. Kara agreed, and after her cousin's death, she joined the DEO —Department of Extra-Normal Operations — to get her lost powers back. She was given a Secret Identity, foster parents and moved to National City.

Unfortunately, Kara soon lost her alliance with the DEO and her good standing among the National City residents. Before long, the coming of Rogol Zaar and his claims of destroying Krypton led Kara to travel through the galaxy to find out the truth. When she returned to Earth, her parents were mysteriously gone. She was investigating their disappearance when she got tangled with DC Year of the Villain, becoming one of the Infected by The Batman Who Laughs.

In the aftermath of that event, Kara took part in Dark Nights: Death Metal, which once again upended and changed the story of the DC Universe. It is not known how that event exactly affected Supergirl's history, but it restored a version of her original debut, as well as her death in Crisis on Infinite Earths (it remains unexplained how she got better).

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• Adaptational Angst Upgrade: You kinda expect her to be more easy-going, especially if you're most familiar with the Kara from Superman: The Animated Series as many casual fans are. So the fact that she can become so infuriated that a Red Lantern ring is drawn to her is unusual. After her Red Lantern phase, though, she appears to have got over it.
• Affectionate Nickname: Alura calls her daughter "Karanizu", a Kryptonian term of endearment.
• Aliens Speaking English: Averted and later played straight: Kara could only speak Kryptonian at first and was taking English lessons from Siobhan. When she met fellow Kryptonian H'el in Issue #14, he gave her the ability to understand and speak English perfectly.
• All-Loving Hero: Even before her character development she hated hurting anybody. After it... when the public demands to know why she's trying to redeem the mass-murderer Cyborg Superman she replies she refuses to give up on anybody.
• Alternate Self: Supergirl and Power Girl are the exact same person from different universes. Power Girl is very reluctant to meet her mainstream universe self at first partly because she is worried the universe would explode if they actually touched. When they finally meet in Supergirl #19, the universe is fine, the two Karas psychically bond, kick butt together and the only snag is Kara's fortress AI mistaking the other Kara for a clone and trying to destroy her.
• The Big Guy: Her combination of great physical power and hotheadedness tend to push her into this role on a team, notably as a member of the Justice League United.
• Big Little Brother: Kara is — technically — sixteen years older than her cousin, but he towers over her. Even if she had not been several decades in suspended animation, Kal would have probably outgrown her anyways.
• Blessed with Suck: A lot of people tried to manipulate her or take advantage of her because she was so powerful, to the point she calls her formidable powers a curse in the Red Daughter of Krypton arc:
  Supergirl: This strength, this power — It's been like a curse. But I refuse to be a victim anymore!
• Boxing Lessons for Superman: She has been taught martial arts as part of her schooling on Krypton, although she's far from an expert.
• Boyish Short Hair:
  • Kara — who is a short-tempered, hot-blooded brawler and not feminine in the least — wears her hair this way◊.
  • Inverted in Supergirl (Rebirth), where Kara has longer hair that goes past her collarbone◊, and, as a result of the Character Development she had gone through, is less short-tempered and violent and more compassionate and peaceful.
• Break the Cutie: Kara is a genuinely nice, sweet teen girl who loses her family and her whole world when her father launches her off Krypton to save her life. She gets stranded in a strange, primitive alien world where she feels lonely and angry because she doesn't fit in. She cannot bring himself to trust her cousin, and everyone else appears to try to manipulate her until she flies off the handle.
• Bring My Red Jacket: During her Red Lantern stint, Kara and wears a red-and-black uniform and her battles are bloodier and more violent than usual.
• Brought Down to Normal: In the aftermath of the Crucible Academy arc, Kara was depowered due to the manipulations of Vandal Savage. DEO agent Cameron Chase, offered to help her get her powers back if she joined the Department of Extra-normal Operations.
• The Cape: She didn't want to hurt anyone and was willing to help people, but her obsession to bring Krypton back and her anger and loneliness issues were holding her back. During the Red Daughter of Krypton arc she finally faced her inner demons and outgrew her angst and anger. When Supergirl (Rebirth) starts out, she has become the kind of hero who will punch criminals and monsters but also try to reach out to them.
• Character Development: The entire series is largely about Kara confronting her demons, getting used to her powers and new circumstances and doing a lot of sorely needed growing up. And, in 34 issues, she goes from scared, angry, but ultimately well meaning teenager to wise, kindly heroine who Superman entrusts with the protection of Earth while he shakes off the Doomsday virus. As he's dying, he asks her to do so again.
• Deadpan Snarker: Has some good deadpan lines.
  • In Supergirl #22, after Cyborg Superman reveals that he needs her flesh to become whole again, Supergirl gives this gem of an answer:
    Supergirl: You want to say that again? I couldn't hear you through all the creepiness coming out of your mouth!
  • In Supergirl (Rebirth) #1, Kara and her foster mother Eliza have a friendly battle of wits:
    Supergirl: Eliza, Jeremiah — Do you need help?
    Eliza: Not at all! I live to work hours cleaning twenty square feet.
    Supergirl: Sarcasm is not unique to Earth, you know.
    Eliza: Good. You already speak my language. This adjustment process will be easy.
• Determinator: Kara never quits. Never. Not even when she's poisoned with Kryptonite, her body is getting stolen by an alien abomination, and her heart has stopped. Even so, she'll keep fighting. She explains that her mother taught her to never give up.
  Supergirl: But then I thought of mother. I remembered all I had to live up to. A daughter of the House of El never quits. I wasn't about to be the first.
• Eye Beams: She uses it constantly, and she has blown spaceships up and boiled tsunamis off with it.
• Fanservice Pack: Scaled back. Her outfit is a Leotard of Power and while she shows quite a bit of leg right up to the pelvic bones, her overall appearance has been downplayed for a more teenage girl look.
  • Scaled back further by the addition of a skirt in the #1 issue of her Rebirth series.
• Fantastic Racism: hates clones, believing that they inevitably turn evil, which proves unfortunate for Superboy, whose very existence revolts her — though it could be argued that she pities him more than anything else. This turns out to be a learned prejudice, one held by Kryptonians at large due to the Kryptonian Clone Revolt. The events of H'el on Earth cause her to re-examine this prejudice and unlearn it, and when she runs into Superboy again in issue 38 and he's attacked, she immediately jumps to his defence.
• Five-Second Foreshadowing: Twice over in DC Rebirth when Wonder Woman accidentally summons gods from the Dark Matter Multiverse because she didn't consider the words of a prayer carefully enough and they start driving every human on the planet suffering a Crisis of Faith into murderous rampages. Right after Steve Trevor warns her of what to consider if even super humans like Cheetah are being affected Supergirl sucker punches Wonder Woman and screams that "Rao is dead", demonstrating it's not just humans Diana has to watch out for. Supergirl is quickly restrained and brought to her senses by Wonder Woman, but Supergirl herself was just to setup Wonder Woman being kidnapped by more aliens who came to Earth specifically because of the gods Wonder Woman allowed into their multiverse.
• Flanderization: Past versions of her were merely headstrong and a little Hot-Blooded. Here, her anger is an actual plot point in the Red Daughter of Krypton arc.
  • Superboy explicitly notes that the Kara he met on Krypton during the time travelling battle against H'el was much nicer than the version that he encountered on Earth. He quickly and logically concludes that the fact that she lost her entire world soured her just a tiny bit.
  • As of issue 34, she seems to be calmer, wiser and kinder, having got the rage out of her system and been asked by Superman to protect Earth in his stead.
• Flying Brick: She is super-strong, super-fast, super tough and can fly.
• Flying Firepower: And, in addition, she has heat vision, freezing and hurricane breath and is an Action Bomb.
• Future Me Scares Me: Kara gets upset when she meets Power Girl because she feels pathetic and inadequate compared with her more intelligent, stronger and more mature adult self.
• Genius Bruiser: She was a genius by Kryptonian standards back home. This means that high school on Earth is miserable for her, as Earth technology is practically in the Stone Age by comparison.
• Hair of Gold, Heart of Gold: Kara was a lonely, insolated teen who had anger issues and Survivor Guilt due to losing her family and getting stranded in an alien world. Even so, she went out of her way to help people and risked her life to protect others. In the Red Daughter of Krypton storyline she confronted her anger issues and got over her rage, angst and confusion. When Supergirl (Rebirth) kics off, she has become the kind of person who will stop criminals, send them to prison and try to help them.
• Hair-Trigger Temper: After showing up on Earth Kara was very irritable and snappy due to months of being manipulated, abused and betrayed in addition to be an orphan of a dead world and having no form of support system (Superman does repeatedly try to help her, but his being — in her mind — a grown man saying he's her baby cousin and his apparent indifference to Krypton's fate, plus general teenage cussedness and her many issues means that she winds up throwing it in his face until after the Red Lantern arc). Her temper got worse, to the point she eventually became a rage-powered Red Lantern. During her RL stint, she barely could control her anger, and she often blew up with no reason or provocation and regretted her outbursts afterwards. Paradoxically, that situation taught her how to keep her temper under control.
• Happily Adopted: Kara's foster parents are Jeremiah and Eliza Danvers who first appeared in Supergirl (Rebirth) # 1. Although they are technically her DEO-appointed handlers, they established a strong rapport after a few weeks.

  Jeremiah: What did I miss?
  Eliza: Just the launch, Jeremiah. But the new uniform sure fits.
  Cameron: Years since I let you two get married and you still find ways to help me question that decision.
  Supergirl: Comms are live. I can hear you two.
  Eliza: We're your parents, Kara. We're not dead.

• Hates Being Alone: She was so sick of being alone and insolated that she flew off the handle and joined the Red Lanterns.
• Hero with Bad Publicity: Confused and frightened, she fought Superman when they first met; which didn't exactly make the public like her. She yo-yo's back and forth on this — some remember her fight with the Worldkillers in New York and praise her as a hero. Others... not so much.
• Heroes Love Dogs: Krypto was the family's dog. Kara is delighted◊ when she learns that Krypto survived.
• Heroic BSoD: In the Red Daughter of Krypton arc she went through one after meeting and beating Lobo, believing everyone wanted to manipulate her and she belonged nowhere. She was so upset and furious that she became a Red Lantern. A while later she was told that she would be a Red Lantern forever because she would die if she took her Power Ring off. She fell to her knees in despair and fury, threw her head back and screamed while incandescent light poured from her eyes.
• Heroic Spirit: She never gives up. Never.
• He's Back!: At the end of "Red Daughter of Krypton" arc, Kara becomes again Supergirl, and decides to return to Earth and protect the planet.
• How Do I Shot Web?: Supergirl had a hard time adjusting to her new-found powers when she landed on Earth.
• It's Personal: In the Red Daughter of Krypton arc, Supergirl explains that she hates the Worldkillers (sentient, genetically-engineered biological weapons) and the Diasporan alien race because they kill planets, and she's an orphan of a dead world. She's very committed to stop them all.
  Supergirl: How could anyone make it their mission in life to murder whole worlds? Can you imagine what an abomination that is to an orphan from a dead planet? [...] This world-killing stuff... it hits a nerve. It makes me furious, and the ring just fans the flame!
• Leotard of Power: Unlike previous incarnations, Supergirl's outfit in the New 52 lacks a skirt. Rebirth returns to the previous status quo by adding a skirt — though, in line with Supergirl (2015), she doesn't bare her midriff.
• Leave Me Alone!: Kara kept this attitude for a long while in the New 52 universe. When Superman and Supergirl argue in Red Lanterns #30, he reminds his cousin that she wanted him to leave her alone to live her own life since she showed up on Earth — so, fine, he's letting her live her life. Though as he warns Guy and his Red Lanterns, he will be keeping an eye on them, so they had better do right by her.
• Let's You and Him Fight: New 52 she's convinced she needs to kill Wonder Woman by H'El, who makes her own intentions to slay Supergirl clear. Diana ultimately neglects her kill shot when she has an opening and successfully convinces Supergirl that H'El's plan to revive Krypton isn't worth the cost.
• Made of Indestructium: Her outfit and cape.
• My Blood Runs Hot: From Supergirl 28 through Supergirl 33, with the same Red Lanterns issues, Kara is the recipient of a Red Lantern Ring, while still keeping her Kryptonian abilities.
• Most Common Superpower: Averted. She has a rather modest bust to match her slim teenage physique.
• My Greatest Failure: She feels guilty for Krypton's destruction, even though she intellectually knows there was nothing she could do to save it.
  Supergirl: And now Krypton's lost forever. There was nothing I could do to save it, but it feels like I'll be trying to make up for that the rest of my life.
• Naked on Revival: In issue 23, her body was dissolved using a machine, leaving only her clothes in a pile. In issue 24, her body was restored by the same machine, but she had to put her clothes on manually.
• Nice Girl: Once you get past the angst and anger issues, both of which she outgrows, she is, in her own way, every bit as sweet and kind as her cousin.
• No-Holds-Barred Beatdown: In New 52 Supergirl Issue 28, she pummelled Lobo until he stopped moving and talking. Not an easy feat.
• No Social Skills: Unlike Superman, she arrives on Earth as a teenager instead of being raised amongst humans as a young child. As a result she is unfamiliar with Earth customs and can only speak Kryptonian for the first dozen or so issues.
  • In Issue #8, Kara meets Siobhan, who can speak any language after hearing a few words of a language. She's able to communicate with Kara and helps her adjust to life on Earth.
  • It gets really showcased in Issue #11 when she goes on a date with Siobhan's brother. She walks in on him while he was getting dressed and took a pizza without paying for it.
• Older Than They Look: Kara was a teenager when her father put her in a spaceship. The ship put her body in stasis and landed on Earth years later; which is why her baby cousin Kal-El looks older than her.
• One-Man Army: Kara first wiped a wave of enemies as soon as she landed on Earth. During her Red Lantern days, there was not much she couldn't handle, and she nearly single-handedly defeated the whole Diasporan force.
• Perpetual Frowner: Until issue 34, at least, you could count the number of times she's smiled in the New 52 on one hand. Now, she smiles a bit more.
• Pre Ass Kicking One Liner: In New 52 Supergirl Issue 28, after Kara shots Lobo's ship down:
  Lobo: Bloody Nass! That ship was custom built! The things I did just to pay for it...!
  Kara: Don't worry... You'll pay for them ALL.
• Puny Earthlings: Though she mostly does so in jest, her dialogue bears a hint of condescension amidst her discomfort with Earth culture, much like the far more extreme Zod. Joking or not, she considers Earth's science primitive by Kryptonian standards, and frequently vocalizes how much she wishes to be back on Krypton. This fades somewhat with her Character Development, though she still occasionally jokes about it.
• Rage Breaking Point: She's been through hard times during her time on Earth, leading to a lot of built up rage. Her fight with Lobo is the final straw, as his attempt to manipulate her causes her to thrash him. Her rage is enough to attract a Red Lantern ring.
• Red Eyes, Take Warning: At the first issue of the "Red Daughter of Krypton" arc, her eyes' red glow intensifies as she gets angrier. At the beginning their eyes give off a faint red light◊. At the end they pour red fire◊.
• Red Is Violent: Red Lantern Supergirl is not evil — she joins the Guy Gardner's team and despises Atrocitus — but she's more violent, more aggressive and more short-tempered than her usual Hot-Blooded self. She also wore a mostly red uniform.
• Single Woman Seeks Good Man: After meeting Red Hood again, Kara states that though she finds him attractive, she doesn't want bad boys like him, but someone normal and dependable. Red Hood, for his part, thinks this is a good thing.
• Smarter Than You Look: Her hot temper, teenage naivete and lack of fighting finesse leads a lot of enemies to consider her simply Dumb Muscle. In fact she does have brains — as witnessed by her outwitting Tycho and Sanctuary.
• Spin Attack: In New 52 Supergirl #30, she performed a spin attack to repel a squad of alien enemies. She grabbed an alien and used his body as a blunt weapon, spinning around to hit all enemies surrounding her with her "weapon".
• Super-Breath: Kara has this power: she can blow gale-force hurricane winds out of her mouth, exhale blasts of ultra-cold air and survive underwater or in space without breathing.
• Superpower Lottery: Since she's a Kryptonian like Superman, she has the same powers as him. Plus..
  • Action Bomb: Can release the solar energy within her as an explosion without harming herself. At first, this ability seemed to be unique to her, but eventually Superman was shown using it as his "Super Flare" — though his burned off all of his powers for a day.
  • The Needless: As long as she stays charged with solar radiation, Kara doesn't need to eat, sleep, or breathe.
• Teeth-Clenched Teamwork: Every time she worked with Superboy, at least at first, due to Kryptonian Fantastic Racism towards clones. The events of H'el on Earth seem to have changed her opinion of him and clones in general (ironically, she ended up helping to lead the original Clone Revolt), and when they run into each other again in issue 38, she instantly jumps to his defence, facing down a group of powerful heavy hitters, more skilled and experienced than her, and telling them that if they want Superboy, they're going to have to go through her.
• Thou Shalt Not Kill: Supergirl does not know her own strength. She gets upset when her actions endanger people and is relieved once that she sees that nobody has been harmed.
  • Subverted in Red Daughter of Krypton. Supergirl is horrified when she apparently kills mass murderer and hitman Lobo after kicking him. Then he takes advantage of her distress to catch her off guard, and almost fries her brains with an ultrasonic device. Right there and then she decides he has "got it coming".
  • Subverted again at the end of that arc. She executed an artificial, genocidal body-snatching alien abomination reasoning that "This is not murder. It is the end of a terrible mistake."
• Tomato in the Mirror: Reign suggests to her that she is the fifth, missing Worldkiller. Kara denies it but deep down worries Reign might be right.
• Trauma Conga Line: She woke up with missing memories, on an alien world, all alone and was promptly attacked by men in Powered Armor. Shortly after that, she encountered a grown man claiming to be her baby cousin. Shortly after that she's lured in and kidnapped by an amoral trillionaire who wants the secrets of Kryptonian technology, poisoned with Kryptonite, and then the guy who rescues her is murdered in cold blood. After she gets away from all of that, she's utterly alone in an alien world, then finds a link to her very dead home. She follows it... and finds that her home is basically a ghost city, whereupon she is beaten up by a Kryptonian supersoldier called a Worldkiller. After escaping all that, she has to fight four Worldkillers, then, exhausted, is promptly attacked by the US Army and Police, with only one human standing up for her (and is, conveniently, an Omniglot). Said human befriends her, then turns out to be the Silver Banshee, who is being hunted down by her father, the Black Banshee. After briefly being absorbed, body and soul, she fights her way out. Then she gets attacked again, while on a date. Oh, and the first man she falls in love with is H'el, who's manipulating her, using her affection for him to trick her into a brief Face–Heel Turn. Then, in defeating H'el, she's poisoned with Kryptonite. Again. And then there's the revelation that her father was experimenting on her. No wonder the poor girl has problems.
• Underwater Base: In issue #13, she gains the Sanctuary: a Kryptonian base at the bottom of the ocean. It's basically her version of Superman's Fortress of Solitude.
  • A.I. Is a Crapshoot: Sanctuary is programmed to eradicate any Kryptonian double in her presence. When Supergirl and her Earth 2 counterpart Power Girl enter Sanctuary in issue #19, it deems Supergirl the double and tries to eliminate her. The two Karas must destroy Sanctuary to save Supergirl. However, the A.I. survives in a robot body; hellbent on destroying Supergirl.
• Underwear of Power: Kara wore one of these before "Rebirth".
• Unskilled, but Strong: She may be as powerful as Superman, but she doesn't have his years of experience or combat skills. Her lack of skill is remarked upon during her fight with Wonder Woman.
• Working Through the Cold: The events of H'el on Earth left her with kryptonite poisoning. Despite this she can still fight at full strength. It eventually gets to her; leading to her capture by Cyborg Superman. The kryptonite poisoning is removed when Cyborg Superman dissolves her body and extracts the kryptonite before restoring her.
• When She Smiles: It's rare, but it is absolutely adorable. Becomes more common after the Red Daughter of Krypton arc allows her to let go of most of her rage.
• You Can't Go Home Again: She really wants to go back home to Krypton, but can't since Krypton was destroyed. This motivates her temporary Face–Heel Turn in H'el on Earth. Superman's perceived indifference towards Krypton and its fate is one of the causes of friction between them.
• Your Magic's No Good Here: Kara loses access to her powers in red sunlight.

Other Supergirls:

Lucy of Borgonia

First Appearance: Superboy (1949) #5 (1949)

Lucy was the young ruler of a Latin American country. Since her parents' demise and her ascension to the throne ten years before, Lucy had been forbidden from leaving her palace and meeting any of her subjects on the orders of her chancellor and regent Norvello. Lucy hates her situation but thinks her regent must mean well, unaware that Norvello is a treacherous, manipulative tyrant who is using her as his puppet queen. Nonetheless, Lucy is sick of living like a prisoner in her own home, so she flees from her country with her old maid Elena.

A few weeks later, Lucy starts attending Clark Kent's high school in Smallville. Lucy piques Clark interest because she is a good student and a fine athlete, and although she is initially unpopular, she becomes famous after punching one runaway thief. Newspapers begin calling her "a Supergirl", unintentionally revealing her location to Norvello, who orders his henchmen to bring her back.

Meanwhile, Smallville's Mayor asks Superboy and Lucy to co-host the upcoming Smallville's sports festival. Lucy attends the event wearing a female version of Superboy's costume, and Clark uses his powers to make Lucy seem a real Supergirl.

After the event, though, Lucy is kidnapped and dragged back to Borgonia. Norvello -who by this point has dropped all pretension of being her loyal counselor- puts an iron mask on her and tries to ruin her reputation by arranging an audience to tell the country that the queen despises her subjects. Lucy cannot refute his allegations because he will get her killed, but Superboy (who tracked Lucy down after her disappearance) exposes Norvello's ploy. Norvello's coup fails and he is captured, but Lucy still does not want to be a queen. Nonetheless, her maid Elena convinces her to take the crown by pointing out that Borgonia has suffered under Norvello's tyranny for long enough, and Lucy's people need a decent ruler.

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Tropes associated to this character:

• A Child Shall Lead Them: Lucy is the Queen of Borgonia, although she is young enough to be Superboy's classmate.
• Blessed with Suck: Lucy's royal blood has gotten her imprisoned, persecuted, threatened and smeared by a power-hungry tyrant.
• Doing In the Wizard: Played with. Since people treats Lucy as a Supergirl, Superboy helps her pretend she has powers during a sports event. However, Superboy warns beforehand he will be using tricks to make her look like a super-heroine.
• Gilded Cage: Lucy lived in a lavish palace...which she had not been allowed to leave since she was a little child.
• King Incognito: Lucy pretends to be a normal girl as living in Smallville.
• Made Out to Be a Jerkass: After forcing her to wear an iron mask, Norvello arranges a public hearing to tell Lucy's subjects that their queen despises them so that she loses popular support, sure that she will not refute his claims because he will get her killed.
• Man in the Iron Mask: Norvello gets an iron mask locked over Lucy's head and melts the key, planning to keep her masked and locked up while he carried out a smear campaign against her.
• Mistaken for Superpowered: Superboy uses his powers stealthily to make people believe that Lucy is superhuman.
• New Transfer Student: Lucy enrolls in Smallville's high school with the name of Lucy Regent.
• Noble Fugitive: Sick of being unable to lead a normal life, Lucy flees to America to live like an anonymous girl, free of duties and obligations.
• Orphan's Ordeal: Lucy is her country's queen because her parents passed away ten years before, but she allows Norvello to make decisions on her behalf.
• Puppet King: Norvello keeps Lucy isolated and unaware so that he can rule her country as he sees fit.
• Put on a Bus: After Superboy has busted Norvello's coup, Lucy is not mentioned again.
• Reluctant Ruler: Even after Norvello has been outed and jailed, Lucy is unwilling to be a queen. However, her maid Elena convinces her that her country needs her.
• Uptown Girl: Played with when Lucy develops a crush on Clark. On the one hand, she is a princess, and he is son of a small-town shopkeeper. On another hand, he is the world's first and mightiest superhero, and she is a mere human.

Super-Girl

First Appearance: Superman (1939) #123 (1958)

Super-Girl was an artificial entity created when Jimmy Olsen used an Indian totem to wish for a crime-fighter who helped Superman out. Unfortunately, Super-Girl was clumsy and clueless, and she even jeopardized Clark's secret identity.

Nonetheless, Super-Girl ends up saving Superman from death by Kryptonite, at the coste of her own life. As dying from radioactive poisoning, Super-Girl crawls back to Jimmy Olsen's apartment and asks him to wish her out of existence, regretting that she was unable to help Superman.

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Tropes associated to this character:

• Born as an Adult: Super-Girl is formed as a fully grown-up woman.
• Destructive Savior: Her inexperience causes her to mess up repeatedly: she tries to put a fire out and blows the roof up, she blows out a safe's door instead of melting the lock...
• Dying Declaration of Love: Her final words:
  Super-Girl: (sobbing) "Farewell, Jimmy! Give my... my love to Superman..."
• Hair of Gold, Heart of Gold: All this blonde heroine wanted was to help people, and she regrets she was unable to help Superman as she dies.
• Heroic Sacrifice: She gets poisoning Kryptonite when she saves Superman from a chunk of Kryptonite.
• Kryptonite Factor: Even though she is not Kryptonian, she is also vulnerable to Kryptonite.
• Ret-Gone: Nobody brings the former blonde Superman's partner up when Kara Zor-El shows up because Super-Girl's adventures became non-canon after her debut issue.
• Only Known by Their Nickname: Since she is an artificial being wished into existence, she is only known as Super-Girl.
• Primary-Color Champion: She wears a female version of Superman's blue-and-red costume.
• Superpower Lottery: She was devised as a female Superman, and has the full Kryptonian combo.
• Unwanted Assistance: Superman complained that Super-Girl made every trouble worse every time she tried to help him.

Matrix

All of sudden, I don't feel so bad about not having parents.

A purple shape-shifting creature from a Pocket Dimension, she was created by that universe's Lex Luthor and patterned after the New Earth Superman. When that universe was attacked by Phantom Zone escapees that she was no match for, Pocket Universe Lex sent Matrix to recruit New Earth Superman, but was too late to save the universe.

Matrix was later taken in by Superman to be raised by Supes' adoptive parents and eventually became the first Post-Crisis Supergirl.

She later accidentally fused with Linda Danvers, and made her the next Supergirl.

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• Anti-Hero Substitute: To the original Supergirl. Kara is a classic Cape and Matrix was unpredictable, prone to sudden outbursts of violence, and wore a Stripperific, spiky version of her costume for a while. To sum up, DC replaced Kara Zor-El◊ with this◊. This gets deconstructed later on when Mae became dangerously close to permanently turning into a cold blooded killer after several traumatic experiences, but found the resolve to stop before she actually killed someone upon remembering murdering someone evil doesn't justify the act.
• Artificial Human: She is an artificial life-form called the "protoplasmic matrix", that Lex has used to create Matrix, who resembled his true love, the deceased alternate-reality Lana Lang. Lex had also patterned her physiology to resemble Superman's, whom he had seen by using one of his many inventions to look into the mainstream universe.
• Brainwashed and Crazy: She was one of a number of heroes implanted with Trigon Seeds during one of Raven's Face–Heel Turn stints.
• Evil Makeover: When Matrix went crazy she shifted her costume into something sleeveless with spiked bands around her arms.
• Flying Brick: via Psychokinesis.
• Foil: To Superman in a sense. While Superman was raised on Earth from infancy, Mae's experiences with the human race were brand new. Superman was a stranger to humanity as a baby, but humanity shaped him as he grew older to the point he considers himself a human being. Mae had to learn about humanity as a young woman and her experiences began to influence her while struggling with her past and whether or not she could call herself human.
• Invisibility: One of her lesser-used powers. She could cloak herself (becoming both invisible and inaudible, even to Superman's super hearing).
• Mythology Gag: She is supposed to be the artificial lifeform which Lex was designing in "How Luthor Met Superboy".
• Naïve Newcomer: So naive she shacked up with Lex Luthor. In her defense, the Lex Luthor of her world was a heroic individual, so she carried those expectations with her into the main universe. Also at the time he was posing as his own son and so he wasn't thought to be the "evil" Luthor.
• No-Holds-Barred Beatdown: She does this in her Convergence miniseries when she finally has enough of Lex's bullshit.
• Put on a Bus: Matrix went into comic limbo after merging with a New God named Twilight.
• Ret-Gone: After Infinite Crisis nobody seems to remember Matrix even existed.
• Secret Test of Character: The opening arc of Peter David's run pushed Mae past her limit, placing her in situations that tested her moral resolve and forcing her to question her own goodness when told she was merged with a thoroughly corrupted person (Linda). It turned out everything she'd gone through was an attempt by Buzz and his demonic overseers to turn Supergirl over to the dark side, but at the last second she relented.
• Shapeshifting: She was a protoplasmic life-form and had a malleable genome, so she could assume any humanoid form of similar mass. She could even use her psi-power to rearrange the molecular structure of fabrics, and alter clothing and costumes with her thoughts. After Matrix merged with Linda, she underwent a form of Shapeshifter Mode Lock; having "defined" herself as Linda and Supergirl, she could only shift between these two forms and nothing else, and also lost her ability to become invisible.
• Telekinesis: Her primary power was telekinesis which she could use to move objects with her mind and enhance her strength, physical durability, and speed to superhuman levels. By levitating herself, she could fly at supersonic speeds.
• Tin Man: Part of what drove her was her perceived lack of humanity. After merging with Linda, she was given the opportunity to live as a regular human. Although everyone who knew it really was Matrix stated she had more of a soul than Linda did up to that point, including Linda.
• Unstoppable Rage: Matrix was very close to killing her lover Lex when she discovered he had made thousands of clones of her from the residue he collected after her fight with Doomsday.

Laurel Gand/Andromeda

Fisrt Appearance: Legion of Super-Heroes (Volume 4) #5 (1990)

Laurel Gand Andromeda was a Daxamite heroine created to fill Supergirl's role in the Legion. See the Legion of Super-Heroes characters page.

Kara from Odiline

First Appearance: Superman/Aliens #1 (1995)

Kara was a native of planet Odiline. She was born on Argo City, named after the original Kryptonian city because Odilians were huge Krypton fanboys. When Odiline also exploded, Argo survived thanks to the forcefield dome surrounding the city.

The Odilians tried to keep themselves alive as hoping for some kind of help finding them. Unfortunately, they were found by a very aggressive alien species who started preying on them. When Superman finds the floating city, Kara is the only survivor.

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Tropes associated to this character:

• Expy: As a blonde, blue-eyed alien named Kara born in a floating space ghost town called Argo City, she was Kara Zor-El with her serial numbers filled off.
• Human Aliens: She looks exactly like an Earthborn human girl.
• Last of His Kind: She is the last Odilinian alive.
• Put on a Bus: She is last seen flying an escape pod and heading into deep space. She is not seen or heard of again.
• Sole Survivor: Kara is the only Odilinian who wasn't blown up together with her planet or eaten by Xenomorphs.
• Uncertain Doom: Despite being believed dead by Superman, she also escaped from Argo. However, it is unknown where her escape pod was heading to, and whether it had enough food, oxygen and fuel to keep her alive during her trip.

Linda Danvers

I thought I was fighting Xenon! What the hell—? Auntie Monitor?! Who's her partner, Uncle Screen Saver?

Linda Danvers was a troubled teenager who joined a demonic cult and was involved in many illicit and illegal activities, manipulated by her boyfriend Buzz. Little she knew, Buzz was a demon that intended use her as a sacrifice. Buzz attempted to kill Linda to release a demon, but Supergirl Matrix intervened to save her life, accidentally becoming merged with Linda. Linda and Matrix became the new Supergirl, and Linda began to fight criminals and demons to redeem herself.

Linda enjoyed many adventures fighting evil alongside other heroes, but after the events of Many Happy Returns, in which she was unable to save the original Earth-One Supergirl, she retired.

After her retirement, Linda made a brief appearance in Superman/Batman #24-25 when several Supergirls join forces to free Superman from the Source Wall, and several appearances in Shadowpact and Reign of Hell.

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• The Atoner: For her sins as a demon worshipper and several other mistakes.
• Break the Cutie: Linda goes through this... several times. As soon as she gets better, she goes through Hell again.
• Cape Wings: As the Earth Angel of Fire.
• Corrupt the Cutie: What Buzz did to her, though she admits everything she did was of her own free will.
• Deadpan Snarker: She was very sarcastic.
• De-power: After being separated from Matrix, Linda found herself with reduced powers. She could no longer shapeshift into her "Supergirl" form, and all of her angelic powers were lost. In addition, Linda's strength and durability were reduced by half, she lost her ability to fly and produce psionic blasts, and instead was only able to leap around 1/8th of a mile in a single bound. After encountering Twilight as the new Earth-Born Angel of Fire, Linda regained all of the powers that she'd possessed while initially merged with Matrix, sans her ability to assume her "Supergirl" form. Her strength and durability returned to their original levels and she was able to fly and produce psionic blasts of force once more.
• Despair Event Horizon: She crossed this after she was forced to send the pre-Crisis Kara Zor-El back to her universe and her eventual death, as well as losing her daughter even though she'd been told Ariella would be spared from erasure.
• Eye Colour Change: Linda Danvers suspected something was off when she saw that her eyes permanently changed from brown to blue, after being rescued from a certain death by a cult. It's because she WAS dying, and the Matrix version of Supergirl merged with her, causing some of her features to wind up reflected in Linda.
• Fallen Angel: In Reign in Hell #6, Linda reappears in the Doctor Occult backstory. She appears as a fallen angel summoned by Lilith but mysteriously released. In Reign in Hell #7, Linda uses her flame vision to kill some injured demons who were huddled around a tiny campfire, Dr. Occult is horrified by her willingness to kill innocents. Linda believes that no one in Hell is innocent, and then accuses Dr. Occult of being a damned soul. Linda says she does not deserve to be trapped in Hell, and that she would see everybody burned to char before she accepted being kept in there. Dr. Occult casts a spell to show Linda who she really is, and she flies away in horror.
• God of Fire: She is an Earth-Born Angel of Fire.
• Happily Married: Spent five years married to the Superman of Earth-One after switching places with Kara.
• Mama Bear: Was willing to let the universe fall apart if her daughter wasn't spared from being retconned.
• Mythology Gag: Pre-Crisis, Linda Danvers was Kara Zor-El's secret identity and the Danvers, Fred and Edna, were her adoptive parents. Post-Crisis, Linda and Kara Zor-El are two separate people, and the Danvers, Fred and Sylvia, are Linda's biological parents.
• Playing with Fire: After being merged with Matrix for some time, Linda became the Earth-Born Angel of Fire. While she retained her original abilities, she also gained the ability to produce bursts of fire from her eyes (called Flame Vision), form angelic wings composed of flames, and could use her wings to create a flaming portal that allowed her to "shunt" (teleport) long distances.
• Psychic Powers: Upon fusing with the Matrix Supergirl, Linda gained her psychokinetic abilities. Linda was also able to produce concussive blasts of telekinetic energy, typically referred to as "psi blasts."
• Put on a Bus: After her series ended, Linda pretty much dropped out of The DCU, last seen in hell during the Reign of Hell mini-series and not since. She hasn't been consigned to Canon Discontinuity, but she's barely ever mentioned anymore, either.
• Put on a Bus to Hell: Literally. In Reign in Hell #1, the team of Shadowpact attacks Linda Danvers in her Gotham City apartment, which makes Linda fight back. She manifests the flaming wings she had while merged with Matrix, but still loses to the collective powers of Blue Devil and Enchantress. However she is teleported to Hell, as Hell is recalling all of its "debts".
• Re-Power: During her Supergirl stint, her powers changed constantly.
• Ret-Canon: Her second costume is based on DC Animated Universe Supergirl. It's explained in-story that Linda fashioned it from things she found in a costume shop, after Matrix (who wore a classic version of the costume) was forced to leave her.
• Ret-Gone: She was retconned out of existence after Flashpoint.
• Secret Identity: As Linda, though by the end of the series, pretty much everyone knows.
• Superpower Lottery: She is not a Kryptonian but she is still powerful. She is a Flying Brick (she has Super-Strength, Super-Speed, Nigh-Invulnerability and Flight), with Psychic Powers (telekinesis and for a while, pyrokinesis), and Shapeshifting.
• Trauma Conga Line: Linda was a troubled teen who was manipulated by her boyfriend into joining a cult and committing crimes. Said boyfriend attempted to sacrifice her to draw a demon into the world. She survived and became a hero to redeem herself. Unfortunately, every time she starts being happy, something happens that puts her through the wringer again.

Cir-El

I may have been created to mislead you, and tricked into bringing him here — and maybe I'm not your real daughter, Superman — but I have learned stuff from you — like it's my responsibility to go through the time thing and stop all this from ever happening! Be proud of me, dad!

A girl that claimed to be Clark and Lois Lane's daughter from the future. She is later found to be a human girl who was genetically altered by the villain Brainiac to appear Kryptonian.

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• Anti-Hero Substitute: To Linda Danvers. Linda was a troubled teenager who strove to atone for her crimes. Cir-El is a black-wearing, angry, angsty edgy teenager with a dark and troubled past. Although the angst part came more from her split personality Mia, while Cir-El did have some depressed moments she was usually very excitable and eager to do good.
• Blue Is Heroic: She wears a blue cape.
• Boyish Short Hair: She is a short-haired Action Girl.
• Brought to You by the Letter "S": She wears a large red "S"-letter.
• Chest Insignia: Her costume exhibits a large red "S" rather than the traditional "S"-shield.
• Daddy's Girl: She positively loved Superman when she believed he was her dad and sought nothing but to do right by him and Lois, her "Mom." Even after discovering she wasn't their kid, Cir-El still loved Superman and followed his example by sacrificing herself to save his life.
• Dark Is Not Evil: Her costume is all black and she wants to be a superhero.
• Go Mad from the Revelation: When it is revealed she was created by Brainiac by grafting some Kryptonian DNA onto the body of Mia with fake memories added.
• Gone Horribly Right: Brainiac sought to create a fake daughter of Superman as a weapon, and he succeeded so well in regards to the former she went back in time and stopped her creation to save her father.
• Half-Human Hybrid: She's a Half-human kryptonian.
• Heroes Love Dogs: Cir-El was thrilled when she met Krypto◊.
• Heroic BSoD: She has a breakdown when her real origins are revealed.
• Heroic Sacrifice: Cir-El realized that she must sacrifice herself to end the cycle that brought Brainiac and the Futuresmiths into reality. She throws herself into a time portal to prevent herself from being born, and thus, prevent the future from ever happening. To add insult to injury, she had erased herself, was brought back to do a major crossover event, then was subsequently sent away again right afterward.
• Kid from the Future: She claimed to be Lois and Clark's kid. She wasn't.
• Leotard of Power: She wears a black leotard.
• Perpetual Frowner: She seldom smiles.
• Plucky Girl: She eagerly wanted to spend time with her supposed parents and especially loved cuddling with Krypto. Despite the trauma she went through with her identity and finding out her life was a lie, Cir-El still had to resolve to do right by Superman's example and bravely sacrificed her existence to save him.
• Ret-Gone: She has been erased from continuity.
• Split Personality: Cir-El was a personality grafted on a troubled young homeless woman named Mia. Unlike Cir-El, Mia hated superheroes and she especially loathed Superman.
• Unwitting Pawn: Of Brainiac and the Futuresmiths to kill Superman.

Alternate Universe versions:

Supergirl (Elseworld's Finest)

Kara: Wonder Woman laughed when I begged to join the Justice Society. I'd studied Earth's history, so I knew who she was... I didn't know I'd come to see her as my mother... and the rest as my family.

AKA: Linda Danvers / Kara Zor-El of Earth-1098

Elseworld's Finest: Supergirl & Batgirl universe's Supergirl, Kara was the only one to escape the destruction of Argo City. Her parents sent her to Earth because they had heard of their heroes, never knowing her cousin Kal-El was sent there, too.

Upon landing, Kara joined the Justice Society of America and was adopted by Wonder Woman. She saw the Society as her family and Lex Luthor — Society's main backer — as a friend and mentor. In a world which had never heard of Superman, she became world's mightiest hero.

Several years later, a kidnapping forces Kara to team up with Batgirl, Gotham City's nearly dictatorial protector. In the process, she learns of her cousin's fate, Luthor's true self and makes a new friend.

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• Amazonian Beauty: She is beautiful, tall, and muscular.
• Beware the Nice Ones: Supergirl is nice, kind, polite, and good-natured. Still, when she discovered that Lex Luthor killed her cousin baby several year ago, she wanted to kill him.
• Break the Cutie: Kara was an innocent, nice woman. Then she found out that someone who she thought was a very good person murdered her baby cousin several years ago, and was manipulating her all along.
• Broken Pedestal: Lex became this to Kara when she realized what kind of person he really was.
• The Cape: In her cousin's absence, she is world's greatest hero.
• Defrosting the Ice Queen: Kara managed to befriend Barbara Gordon, a jerkass who trusted no one, was constantly angry, was cold to other crimefighters and could be stubborn and irrational.
• Giving Someone the Pointer Finger: Kara points at Batgirl when she calls her out on being more interested in keeping a well-meaning metahuman out of Gothan than in rescuing a hostage.
• Glowing Eyes of Doom: Supergirl's eyes glowed red when she wanted to kill Luthor.
• Heterosexual Life-Partners: Supergirl and Batgirl don't get along well at the beginning, but they turn into this over the course of the story.
• Horrible Judge of Character: Kara thought Luthor was "the most wonderful man in the world". To be fair, he deceived everyone but Batgirl and Bruce.
• Hot-Blooded: Kara is emotional, passionate, impulsive and stubborn.
• Interspecies Romance: Subverted. Most of people thought Supergirl and Lex Luthor were together, but their relationship wasn't romantic at all.
• It's Personal: Taking Lex Luthor down became a personal matter to her as soon as she discovered her cousin's corpse.
• Just Friends: Kara insists that she and Lex are just friends despite of a number of rumors claiming otherwise.
  Barbara: My secrets may be the key to saving your boyfriend.
  Supergirl: Don't be trite — we're just friends.
• Last of His Kind: Kara is truly the last Kryptonian... because Lex murdered her baby cousin.
• Mini Dress Of Power: Subverted. Her adult self wears what wold have been Superman's costume.
• Most Common Superpower: This Supergirl is as buxom as her Earth 2 counterpart.
• Nice Guy: Kara is nice, kind, polite, compassionate, and likes trusting people… too easily.
• Parental Substitute: Wonder Woman became Kara's surrogate mother when she showed up on Earth.
• Secret Identity: It's never stated, but since this universe is strongly based on Earth-One it's presumably Linda Danvers.
• Secret-Keeper: She knows Batgirl's secret identity.
• Superpower Lottery: Flying Brick with Eye Beams Breath Weapons and Super-Senses.
• Tomboy and Girly Girl: Supergirl is the tomboy to Batgirl's girly girl. Kara is more masculine and aggressive, has a crew cut and wears trousers and sweaters. Batgirl is more female, has long hair, and wears dresses and jewelry.
• We Used to Be Friends: Supergirl regarded Luthor as a kind of father… until she learnt that he murdered her baby cousin.
• Wide-Eyed Idealist: Supergirl is too trusting and naive. Her naïveté nearly gets her killed.
• You Killed My Father: Supergirl wants to kill Luthor after finding out that he murdered her cousin.

Supergirl 1,000, 000

Hi! My name is Supergirl. What's your name? You guys are slimy. Did you know you're slimy? Are you called the Slimy Guys?

AKA: Ariella Kent

The daughter of Linda Danvers and an alternate Silver Age Superman. After her parents were erased by the Crisis on Infinite Earths and The Spectre's interference, Ariella was left to wander space and time on her own.

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• Does Not Know Her Own Strength: Due to her high level of power and young age, Ariella can be highly destructive, as she has not learned to hold back her abilities.
• The Dreaded: Ariella is a humorous example. She's a mere six-years-old girl who obliviously causes chaos and destruction wherever she goes. Several alien civilizations call her R'E'L, the Destroyer of Worlds.
• Enfant Terrible: How everyone else views her, as this six-years-old is too naive and innocent to realize that she destroys everything around her whenever she moves.
• Goo-Goo-Godlike: Comes with being the daughter of Linda Danvers and an alternate Silver Age Superman. She is most likely second only to Superboy-Prime when it comes to raw power.
• Person of Mass Destruction: She is Earth-One Superman's daughter. She can move planets.
• Red Baron: Dura, an alien that had been fleeing from her since Ariella had nearly destroyed his planet, called her "R'E'L, the Destroyer of Worlds".
• Super Power Lottery: A hybrid of metahuman/Kryptonian heritage, Ariella possesses vast powers for her young age. She has incredible superhuman strength and speed. She can fly, travel through time at will, move objects via telekinesis, and teleport anywhere she wishes. She is invulnerable, and ages at an extremely slow rate, energy blasts, energy absorption and also duplication. She also has X-ray vision and heat vision.

Supergirl (Cosmic Adventures)

I can see through everyone's clothes! I don't want to see through everyone's clothes!

AKA: Linda Lee/Kara Zor-El

An alternate version of Earth-One Kara from the all-ages comic, Supergirl: Cosmic Adventures in the 8th Grade.

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• Alliterative Name: Linda Lee
• Break the Cutie: Mxy tries this. It doesn't work. She's Supergirl, darnit!
• Cloud Cuckoolander: With her constant fantasies of "Moon Supergirl".
• Does Not Know His Own Strength: She accidentally broke a desk in half when she put her hand on it. And she put her hand through a wall when she was writing in a chalkboard.
• Naïve Newcomer: She doesn't get most Earth customs.
• Non-Human Sidekick: Her cat Streaky and her horse Comet.
• Plucky Girl: Her unending optimism despite all odds infuriate Mxy to no end.

Kara Zor-L/Karen Starr/Power Girl

Jay Garrick: I swear, P. G. — only you would have the gall to tell the fastest man on Earth-Two to "Hurry Up".
Karen: It's not "gall", Flash — it's determination!

Superman's cousin and Kara's alternate self on Earth 2.

Kara Zor-L's parents sent their baby daughter to Earth before Krypton's destruction, but because her Symbioship was considerably slower than Kal-L's she spent several decades in suspended animation until her ship finally landed on Earth and she met her cousin. She was adopted by Clark Kent and Lois Lane and eventually joined the Justice Society of America.

After Crisis on Infinite Earths, there was no Earth 2, and Power Girl's origins and powers were endlessly retooled. Joining the modern Justice Society before Infinite Crisis, the new Crisis revealed that Power Girl is still Superman's cousin from Earth 2 (the Pre-Crisis Earth 2) restoring her memories and stabilizing her powers.

She is also Most Common Superpower incarnate.

You can find out more about her in her own article.

Supergirl of Earth-149

You can stop wasting bullets! I have all of Superman's astonishing powers! Gangdom may have suceeded in treacherously killing Superman, but I'm going to carry on his great work!

AKA: Linda Lee/Kara Zor-El

In Earth-149 — an Alternate Universe seen in Superman Vol 1 #149 — Lex Luthor managed to murder Superman for good before Kal revealed Supergirl's existence to the world. Kara attended her cousin's funeral assuming her secret identity of Linda Lee, and right after she sought Luthor out, captured him and brought him to the Bottle City of Kandor, where he was put on trial for murder and banished to the Phantom Zone.

Shortly afterward Supergirl took over for her cousin, becoming a popular, beloved and very heart-broken hero.

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• Be Careful What You Wish For: Kara was dying to reveal her existence to the world... until Superman got murdered by Lex Luthor. She arrested and punished Luthor, revealed herself and took over for her cousin, becoming a beloved hero, but she lost the only family she had left and thus, is now the last child of Krypton.
  Bystander: Good luck! We miss Superman, but we're glad you're taking over for him!
  Supergirl: ... I never thought it would turn out this way... all the time I was Superman's secret emergency-weapon, I eagerly looked forward to the day when I could operate openly! Now that it's finally happened, I — I feel no happiness at the "glory" that's now... mine...
• Canine Companion: Krypto became her partner after Kal's death.
• Heartbroken Badass: She hardly smiled after her cousin's death.
• Heroes Love Dogs: Kara became Krypto's owner.
• Immune to Bullets: Supergirl breaks into the Luthor's lair while he and other criminals are celebrating her cousin's death. Several of them shoot her — even though she has just informed them that she is Superman's cousin — and she suggests that they stop wasting bullets◊.
• Last of His Kind: With Superman's death, she is the last Kryptonian.
• Latex Perfection: Kara finally reveals herself to the public by crashing Luthor's celebratory party in a full Superman suit and mask, then removing it to reveal herself.
• Legacy Character: Kara takes up the role of Supergirl to fight crime and protect Earth after her cousin gets murdered by Lex Luthor.
• Spanner in the Works: Luthor thought he was unstoppable after Superman's death and he was going to get away with his murder because he was not aware of the existence of Supergirl.
• Superpower Lottery: She's an Earth-1 Kryptonian pretty much and just as dangerous as Superman, if not more so, due to her loss.
• Take Up My Sword: Supergirl takes over for her cousin after capturing his murderer.
• World's Strongest Woman: Supergirl is unquestionably her world's strongest being after Superman's death (Pre-Crisis Amazons and Martians are noticeably weaker than Kryptonians, there is no Power Girl, and there is no Marvel Family).
• You Killed My Father: Supergirl reveals her existence by capturing her cousin's murderer. As she takes Luthor away, she warns a group of gangsters they may have succeeded in treacherously murdering her cousin but they will have to deal with her now.
  Supergirl: My name is... Supergirl! I'm Superman's cousin from Krypton! I've been his secret emergency weapon for years! Luthor, in the name of planet Krypton, I arrest you for murder!

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