Comic Book / Supergirl (Rebirth)

"Stop this. Let me help you. My father may have abandoned you... But I never will."

It's time to finalize our agreement. Superman died. You came to us, looking to carry on the work your late cousin began. But your powers were gone. I said I'd help you restore them. I did. Now comes your end of the deal.

— Dr. Chase

Supergirl is a comic-book series featuring Supergirl, and the character's seventh ongoing series. Published by DC Comics in 2016 as part of their DC Rebirth initiative and part of the Superman universe, it was initially written by Steve Orlando. It redefines Supergirl and her place in the New 52 universe after the events of The Final Days of Superman. It is also a direct sequel to Supergirl (2011), which ended with Kara Zor-El being depowered due to unknown reasons, andthe first run takes inspiration from the Supergirl (2015).

Before dying in The Final Days of Superman, Superman entrusted Supergirl with protecting Earth. After her cousin's death, Kara Zor-El turns to the shadowy organization known as the DEO (Department of Extranormal Operations) to restore her lost powers once and for all as she ponders her place on Earth and wonders if she truly belongs on Krypton. But as a fateful experiment sends her rocketing toward the sun, disaster strikes at home in the form of the lost Kryptonian werewolf Lar-On!

Supergirl vol. 7 proper starts out right after the Rebirth issue with the Reign of the Cyborg Supermen story arc. Supergirl is having trouble adjusting to life on Earth and would rather be back on Krypton. The sudden return of Cyborg Superman and his offer to bring Krypton back will complicate matters even more so.

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Tropes:

• Aborted Arc: The DC Year of the Villain/Event Leviathan tie-in was completely hijacked by the Infected arc after its second issue and wasn't returned to before the series ended. The plot threads that Jeremiah was fighting against Leviathan and that Eliza possibly joined them against him were left unresolved.
• Action Dad: Kara's foster father Jeremiah Danvers is a veteran Government agent trained to neutralize super-powerful alien threats.
• Action Girl: Supergirl is one of the most powerful heroes of The DCU. In the first issue she flies from Sun to Earth in a matter of seconds and wrestles with a super-powerful werewolf.
• Action Mom: Kara's foster mother Eliza Danvers. As Lar-On is attacking the base, she quickly figures out where he comes from and what kind of ammo they need, and throws a red solar grenade at him.
• Actually a Doombot: In Supergirl #2, Kara fights Cyborg Superman. She wins, but she is disappointed when she discovers that it is only a drone.
  Supergirl: Of course... Another lie. Another fake. A drone. It exploded but... I barely touched it.
• Adaptational Badass:
  • In previous comics and most adaptations, Supergirl's adoptive parents, especially her adoptive mother, are non-combatants. Here, they're a hardened Battle Couple.
  • The same can be said to her biological parents. Here, her mother was part of the Krytonian military and her father becomes Cyborg Superman.
• Adaptational Villainy: Pre-Crisis and Post-Crisis Zor-El was a decent person and father who tried to protect his family. Post-Flashpoint Zor-El took part in the creation of the Wordkillers and became Cyborg Superman.
• Adaptation Name Change: Supergirl's adoptive mother is either named Sylvia or Edna, but her adoptive father is always named Fred. Here, they're respectively named Eliza and Jeremiah, their names in the Supergirl TV show.
• Advertised Extra: From issue #8, the cover and solicitation prominently feature the Emerald Empress, last seen in Justice League vs. Suicide Squad having resolved to form a group of five villains to find Saturn Girl, obviously implying that she was going to form the Fatal Five. In the actual issue? She's there for three pages and just rambles nothing of substance.
• Affectionate Nickname: Alura calls her daughter Kara "Karanizu", a Kryptonian term of endearment.
• All-Loving Hero: Kara. 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.
• Archnemesis Dad: Zor-El becomes this to Kara after turning into Cyborg Superman and getting obsessed with getting things "right".
• Anti-Villain: Zor-El only wants to save his family and his city. In order to accomplish this goal, though, he makes choices which are morally dubious at best, and his sanity decreases with each failure.
• Badass Bookworm: Kara is enrolled in National City High School, a specialized science school. However, Director Chase notes that it'll feel somewhat remedial after Krypton. Her Secret Identity looks like a glass-wearing, small, physically unimposing, highly smart nerdy girl... who can lift millions of tons with ease.
• Badass Cape: Supergirl's long, flowing red cape. She can use it as a weapon to hit projectiles back.
• Badass Family: The Danvers. Jeremiah and Eliza Danvers, two agents trained to deal with alien threats and Kara Zor-El, her Kryptonian foster daughter. There's also her cousin's family of course, with Kal-El and Jon being formidable Flying Bricks in their own right along with Badass Normal Lois for a cousin-in-law.
• Badass Fingersnap: In "Escape from the Phantom Zone", Supergirl defeats Magog by causing a shockwave which knocks him down with a snap of her fingers.
• Battle Couple: Kara's foster parents Jeremiah and Eliza Danvers are a couple of government agents trained to deal with alien threats.
• Beam-O-War: In The Girl of No Tomorrow, Supergirl and Emerald Empress' Eye of Ekron engage in an optic beam war which Kara appears to be winning when she's suddenly struck down by Indigo.
• Beautiful All Along: In her Kara Danvers Secret Identity, Kara dyes and braids her hair and wears glasses in order to look like an incospicuous, average, geeky brunette instead of a stunningly beautiful blonde with an athletic build.
• Bizarre Alien Senses: Kryptonian senses don't care for puny laws of physics. Kara hears what is happening on Earth in real time while she is on the surface of the Sun. And she uses her microscopic vision on Lar-On to observe his genes and determine that his genetic makeup has been completely mangled by Red-K poisoning.
  Supergirl: I can see his genes.
• Brainy Brunette: Supergirl's secret identity is a brown-haired, nerdy girl.
• Brainwash Residue: In the final two issues, Kara has managed to shake off The Batman Who Laughs' brainwashing which turned her into a cackling, lunatic Jokerized monster. However, she still suffers from hallucinations where she becomes the Infected Supergirl again.
• Breath Weapon: Kara uses her super-icy breath to freeze the fist of a train hijacker.
• The Bus Came Back:
  • Cameron Chase returns to regular appearances in this series as the Director of the DEO. She was last seen (aside from a cameo) in the first Batwoman Annual way back in 2014, where she retired and went back to freelance PI work.
  • In 2017 storyline Plain Sight Shanon Vance -a. k. a., Strange Visitor- makes her first appearance since 2001.
• Call-Back: Director Chase states that Kara is working for the DEO because her powers faded (at Crucible), her cousin Superman died (in The Final Days of Superman), and she wants to keep protecting Earth in his stead.
• Calling the Old Man Out: In "Reign of the Cyborg Supermen", Zor-El intends to annihilate National City to bring the people of Argo City back. Every time his daughter tries to talk him out of it he claims he's doing it for her sake. Finally, Kara becomes fed up and states if he was doing it for her (and not to assuage his guilty conscience), he would listen when she asked him to stop.
• Came Back Wrong: Cyborg Superman turns the people of Argo into Cyborgs to bring them back from the dead. However they are only soulless zombie robots.
  Supergirl: This isn't the future. Look at them. Look at their eyes. You made them monsters! [...] These things aren't alive. You perverted our people's bodies. It isn't right. They move but they don't talk and they aren't really alive.
• The Cameo: In issue #16, Shaggy and Velma from Scooby-Doo pop up in a panel as background characters.
• Canon Immigrant:
  • National City and Eliza and Jeremiah Danvers from Supergirl are major players in this (though all three immigrated earlier).
  • Selena, the villain of the 1984 movie is introduced in #10 as a sorceress invited into the new Fatal Five.
• The Cape: After going through a very hard time, being pushed beyond her limits, becoming a Red Lantern... Kara has finally outgrown her anger and her confusion and is developing into the same kind of hero her late cousin was.
• Car Fu: In "Reign of the Cyborg Supermen", a Kryptonian Cyborg attempts to throw a car at her. Supergirl wraps the car around him.
• Chekhov's Gun: In the sixth issue, the suit of Strange Visitor -a female hero who had not make a comic-book appearance in more than one decade, real time- can be seen in the background. In issue #15, Strange Visitor makes her first proper appearance.
• Chest Insignia: Kara's new uniform has a modified S-shield. Lar-On associates her with the House of El when he sees her emblem.
• Chronic Hero Syndrome:: Kara is the kind of hero who will punch you, throw in a cell... and try to help you.
• Clark Kenting: Kara wears loose clothes, glasses, dyes her hair brown and braids it into a ponytail, and behaves like a insecure, quiet, geeky girl (as opposite to her hot-blooded, fiery and determined real self).
• Clark Kent Outfit: Kara's Secret Identity wears loose clothes and baggy trousers to hide her super-strong physique.
• Composite Character:
  • Zor-El becomes Cyborg Superman, who in the previous comics is Hank Henshaw.
  • Alura gets the career and personal background of Astra, her twin sister in the Supergirl TV series.
• Conlang: Writer Steve Orlando stated that he created Kryptonian grammar in the book, from scratch.
  "If you want to translate Kryptonian, it's not just English with Kryptonian characters. There are rules here."
• Continuity Nod: Director Chase mentions that Kara's landing place was Siberia.
• Cool Uncle: Kara becomes a kind of cool aunt to her first cousin once removed Jonathan "Superboy" Samuel Kent. He pretty much worships her.
• Crystal Spires and Togas: As seen in the first scene, in Argo City everybody wore colourful, bright clothes and long, flowing robes and capes. And the buildings were tall, alien-looking structures made of glass and metal.
• Deadpan Snarker:
  • Eliza Danvers has a witty sense of humour:
  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.
  • On the other hand, Director Cameron Chase's wit is drier:
    Cameron: Years since I let you two get married and you still find ways to help me question that decision.
• Destination Defenestration: In "Reign of Cyborg Supermen", an Argoan zombie grabs Ben Rubel by the collar and tosses him against a window. Ben crashes through the glass and falls down, but Supergirl shows up and stops his freefall.
• Distress Ball: During Orlando's run, Benjamin Rubel had to be rescued at least once per storyline due to his inability to follow a sensible course of action such as "Don't get near from that glowing portal".
• Does Not Know His Own Strength: In Supergirl vol. 7 #1, as Kara is learning how to drive, she puts her foot on the brake... and through the bottom of the car. When it happens, her mother cries out "Again?".
• Doomed Hometown: Kara explains Lar-On that Argo City is gone.
• Driven to Madness: In the DC Year of the Villain tie-in issues, Supergirl got infected with Joker's toxin as protecting Superman from a poisoned batarang poisoned by The Batman Who Laughs. Kara spent several issues turned into a pale-faced, spike-wearing, raving lunatic.
• Dye or Die: Kara dyes her hair brown to disguise herself.
• Dynamic Entry: Kara interrupts the battle between Lar-On and the DEO agents when she suddenly swoops in on the werewolf, grabs him and flies away with him.
• Eastward Endeavor: Given that her powers had gone haywire since "The Girl of No Tomorrow", Superman advises Kara to go to China and pay a visit to Kong "Super-Man" Kenan and his master I-Ching. Kara listens to I-Ching's lecture on the nature of Qi and its relationship with her powers, learns meditation and relaxation techniques, and manages to regain her focus and become spiritually balanced.
• Electronic Telepathy: In issue #7, the DEO develops a device which would allow Supergirl's mind to access Lar-On's comatose brain and find a way to heal his psychological damage.
• Emergency Transformation: A villain Kara gets into a fight with ends up critically injured and left behind in his collapsing lair. He manages to survive by fusing with a gelatinous alien creature, gaining shape-shifting, strength to match Supergirl, and the ability to directly interface and hack into any technology, like Kryptonian data crystals.
• Evasive Fight-Thread Episode: In Snickers promotional comic "The Fastest Women Alive", Supergirl and Jesse Quick race each other for charity across the world. Though, Parasite interferes with their racing, and readers never have to see who wins.
• Expy: Ben Rubel is a Dick Malverne expy: he goes to the same school as Kara, and suspects that she isn't what she looks.
• Eye Beams: Supergirl has Kryptonian heat vision. Lar-On's werewolf form is a variant: his eyes shoot fire rays instead of heat beams.
• Faceless Eye: The Emerald Empress and her weapon, the floating, intelligent Eye of Ekron, plague Supergirl during Orlando's run. In "The Girl of No Tomorrow" Kara's super-senses ascertain the Eye is thousands of years older than Earth, and it is apparently but subtly influencing the Empress.
• Fantastic Racism: Downplayed. Director Chase doesn't really like or trust aliens, although she's willing to work with them and give them the benefit of the doubt.
• Fantasy-Forbidding Father: In "Mission: Mind", Lar-On's father believed that his son, who dreamed of becoming an astronaut, was setting himself up for failure, so he did his best to disabuse him of the idea that he would ever be good enough.
• Fatal Flaw: Pride: Director Chase thinks that Kryptonians were arrogant, and their hubris led to their destruction.
• Five-Man Band: The Fatal Five in the "The Girl of No Tomorrow" story arc:
  • Big Bad: The Emerald Empress assembled the group intending to destroy Supergirl and all she stands for.
  • The Dragon: Magog, a spear-wielding metahuman.
  • Evil Genius: Indigo, an android able to go toe-to-toe with a Kryptonian, hack in any network and calculate the team's chances of success.
  • The Brute: Solomon Grundy. A clone of the real deal but even stronger and definitely more savage, he is the team's -dumb- muscle.
  • Dark Magical Girl: Selena, a scantily-clad, flirty, powerful sorceress with a snarky sense of humor and absolutely no loyalty to her "teammates".
• Flying Brick: In the first issue Kara already shows her flying brick skills: she survives being hurled into the Sun, flies back to Earth in a matter of seconds, and wrestles a super-strong werewolf.
• Forceful Kiss: In The Killers of Krypton, Supergirl and Starfire's brother Ryand'r are fighting an army of Supergirl clones, but Kara is running low on solar power. Kara asks Ryand'r to give her a power boost as quickly as he can, so Ryand'r grabs her and kisses her. Later he assures he wasn't looking for excuses to be a creep, but that was really the fastest way to transfer energy into her cells in the middle of a battle.
• Forgiveness: One of the core themes of the book. Supergirl was welcomed into National City in spite of her not-quite-stellar past. She wants to repay them all by making "Hope, compassion and help for all" her motto and never giving up on anybody, no matter what they have done. In that spirit, she forgave her broken, madman of a parent, which didn't sit well with the people she protected from him.
• Freudian Excuse: In The Girl of No Tomorrow, Supergirl confronts the Emerald Empress, a woman who was sold into slavery by her own family and was abused and mistreated by the powerful and rich until she bumped into the Emerald Eye of Ekron. Now she uses her Eye's power to pillage and loot and questions why Supergirl never helped her when she craved for justice, instead opposing her when she seeks revenge.
  Emerald Empress: I have a complicated relationship with Justice. Slaving under the Duke, knowing awaited after a short life of torment... I didn't fear Justice, I longed for it. Supergirl and her dynasty patrolled the universe, but when salvation came for me, it did not wear an "S". It was an Eye. Supergirl ignored my suffering. But once I was free of it, pillaging the galaxy in service to my eye, she had no problem standing against me.
• Funetik Aksent: In-Universe Kara Danvers has a weird lilt and struggles with contractions ("They do not exist in Kryptonian"), to the point her accent has been mocked by her schoolmates. Ironically, she has previously noted "[Superman's] accent sounds like he learned Kryptonian from a textbook".
• Genius Bruiser: Director Chase notes that Earth science is primitive for her newest Flying Brick agent's standards.
• Ghost Town: Cyborg Superman returns to Argo City to try to relive the inhabitants.
• Giant Eye of Doom: Shortly before the climax of "The Girl of No Tomorrow", Supergirl turns around and finds the larger-than-a-human-head Eye of Ekron staring at her, floating by its mistress the Emerald Empress's side.
• Glasses-and-Ponytail Coverup: Kara dons the ponytail-and-glasses disguise with an improvement: her glasses include an holographic device which changes her hair color.
• The Glasses Come Off: Supergirl wears glasses and adopts a geeky if snarky behavior when she is being Kara Danvers, and she takes them off when she has to perform her hero duty.
• Goggles Do Something Unusual: Kara Danvers wears glasses with a hidden holographic projector to change her hair color and protect her secret identity.
• Hair Flip: Kara Danvers has taken this habit to express confusion or annoyance. In Plain Sight she runs her hand through her hair when she finds out about an upcoming school dance because she can't see the point.
• Hair of Gold, Heart of Gold: She is a blonde, and the kind of person who will stop you, send you to prison and try to help you. She stops Lar-On's rampage and talks him down, saying she'll never give up on him.
• Happily Adopted: Kara has a pretty good rapport with her adoptive parents after a few weeks.
• Hero with Bad Publicity: Although she's saved the world several times for this point, Director Chase regards her as an out-of-control liability due to the number of messes she caused or took part in before getting over her angst, loneliness and anger issues.
• Hoist by His Own Petard: When Supergirl fought Kryptonian werewolf Lar-On, he hurled a bunch of burning rocks at Kara, but she caught them with her cape and threw them back.
• Home Base: Before dying, post-Flashpoint Superman handed the key of the Fortress of Solitude over to Supergirl. The massive arctic fortress is now hers.
• Hulk Speak: Lar-On speaks this way when he is a werewolf. His beastly nature overwhelms him and he refers to himself in third person, barely uses names and verbs, and doesn't care about using correct verb tenses.
  Lar-On: Zor-El — ashamed of my name. But you — never forget Lar-On!
• Humans Need Aliens: Kara provided the DEO (Department of Extra-normal Operations) with Kryptonian technology to help them fight alien threats off. Moreover, Lar-On would have killed everybody in the base if Kara hadn't returned.
• Hurl It into the Sun: As a last resort to get her powers back, the DEO launches Kara into the Sun.
• I Did What I Had to Do: Cyborg Superman defends his actions stating that he did what he needed to do to guarantee Kara's happiness.
  Cyborg Superman: I heard you, Kara. You longed to return to Argo City. I did only what needed to be done to give you that.
• Ironic Echo: In The Girl of No Tomorrow storyline, Cat Grant and Selena's sarcasm war starts off with Cat saying "Already bored" and ends up with Selena mockingly saying "Already bored" and mind-reading her.
• Jet Pack: Cyborg Superman equips all Argonian zombies with jet packs.
• Journey to the Center of the Mind: Kara travels into Lar-On's mind and explores his memories to find the source of his anger, which would allow him to control his werewolf transformation.
• Know When to Fold 'Em: In "The Girl of No Tomorrow", the sorceress Selena joins the Fatal Five to take Supergirl down. She and Magog raid a Government building where the Girl of Steel is resting but they're curbstomped by a Supergirl's ally. Selena judges it's time to cut her losses and teleports away.
  Selena: Well. This fight is certainly going in a direction. I think I will, too.
  Magog: Selena! You can't just desert me! We're in this, coward!
  Selena: Read the fine print, Magog. I didn't sign up for werewolves. Have fun.
• Kryptonite Factor:
  • Red Kryptonite is non-lethal but it does weird things to Kryptonians. Lar-On suffers from lycanthropy because Red-K poisoning.
  • Eliza uses a red solar grenade against Lar-On when she notices he speaks Kryptonian.
• Lap Pillow: In the Plain Sight arc, Jeremiah Danvers rests his head on his wife Eliza's lap while they talk about their adoptive daughter Kara's troubles.
• Last-Second Chance: Supergirl is very big on "second chances" at this stage:
  • Played straight with Mastrocola, a data thief whom she put behind bars. Aftewards she visited him several times to encourage him change his life. She got to him and later the man was seen attempting to be a hero.
  • Deconstructed when Cyborg Superman invaded National City. Supergirl stopped him and then tried to help him afterwards. Another super-villain leaked she was protecting a murderer and the public turned against Kara despite her arguing her father was a broken mad man and she couldn't give up on him or anybody for that matter.
• Leave Me Alone!: Upon arriving on Earth, Lar-On wants to be left alone.
• Legacy Character: Kara joins the DEO to restore her powers and carry on her cousin's work.
• Legion of Doom: "The Girl of No Tomorrow'' storyline gave us a new incarnation of the Fatal Five, five villains assembled by Emerald Empress to kill Supergirl.
• Love Makes You Evil: Cyborg Superman makes horrible, horrible things such like turning corpses into reanimated, soulless zombie cyborgs and making human sacrifices. And everything -everything- he does is because he loves his daughter and wants her to be happy. He says "I'm doing this for you!" over and again, and he means it.
• Luke, I Am Your Father: In Supergirl #2, Cyborg-Superman tells Kara he is her father (who she had previously thought dead). Understandably, she didn't take this revelation well.
• Lunacy: Lar-On is a Kryptonian lycanthrope who transforms at the sight of the moon. This is discussed however and it's nots due to any unique properties of moonlight, as moonlight is just reflected light like most celestial bodies have, but the psychological issues of Lar-On himself whose dreams of being an astronaut were crushed by his father.
• Make Me Wanna Shout: Kara is trapped inside a contraption which adapts to her skills. She cannot break free until she realizes she can hear the machine, which means its adaptive cells speak to each other on a specific frequency. Supergirl isolates the sound and then she shouts, flooding the air with the same frequency the adaptive cells use to coordinate countermeasures, deafeaning them so they cannot work together to adapt to her.
• Military Brat: Kara's biological mother was part of the Kryptonian military, while both of her adoptive parents are seasoned military agents.
• Movie Superheroes Wear Black: And at some points during "The Killers of Krypton", Kara replaces her blue threads with a black stealth suit.
• Muggle Foster Parents: Jeremiah and Eliza Danvers are Supergirl's foster parents and DEO-appointed handlers. They are raising Kara and helping her understand Earthlings and adapt her new home-world.
  Eliza: (smiling) Damn — Look at her go. And here's us, the adorable, slow-moving human parents.
• Mundane Utility: Subverted. Kara wants to use her Super-Speed to help rebuild the base, but her foster mother suggests that she needs to learn how non-powered people deal with disasters.
• My Hovercraft Is Full of Eels: The Danvers learn Kryptonian to make Kara feel more at home. They. . . need some practice.
  Jeremiah: If it makes you feel more comfortable, we've been trying to learn Kryptonian. I think we've gotten pretty fuzzy. Only you can hear me when I speak this malodorous. It's a hard language to overcook, but we want you to be happy. If it makes you feel more at home, you can discombobulate with us in Kryptonian any time you feel nauseous. Honest. (In English) How did I do?
• Mythology Gag:
  • Ghost Site 252, a nod to Kara making her debut in Action Comics #252.
  • Kara's secret identity is a brunette girl.
  • In Supergirl 1, Kara fights the Kryptonian werewolf Lar-On, who first appeared in World's Finest (1941) #256 (1979).
  • The Phantom Drive and Regeneration Matrix are lifted right from The Man of Steel.
  • The Phantom Drive opening up a rift to the Phantom Zone is also similar to The Man of Steel.
  • A Zone portal opening up accidentally, and the fight eventually taking all fighters to the sunny side of the planet is reminiscent of Lar-On's first appearance in World's Finest (1941) #256.
  • Argo's bedrock is Red Kryptonite. In the Silver Age it was Green K.
  • Cameron saying "Then it's a job for Supergirl" at the end of the first issue.
  • The names and likeliness of Supergirl's adoptive parents are directly taken from the Supergirl TV series.
  • Possibly counting as an Early-Bird Cameo, Cat Grant mentions having taken a course on body-language taught by Carolyn Wu-San, who is the aunt of Cassandra Cain and the sister of Lady Shiva, whose abilities are built on their ability to read their foes' body-language. It also indicates that Carolyn might have been Spared by the Adaptation, since pre-Flashpoint she'd suffered Death by Origin Story decades ago.
  • Selena the sorceress was held in jail in Limbo Town for crimes against someone named Nigel Grimm. Nigel was the name of Selena's on/off boyfriend and teacher in the Dark Arts in the 1984 film.
• Neck Lift: In Plain Sight, first thing villain Deceilia does upon meeting Supergirl is grabbing her neck.
• Nighttime Transformation: Lar-On, a Kryptonian werewolf who first appeared in World's Finest (1941) #256, automatically and unwillingly changed shape at night until he learned how to control his transformation.
• Ninja Pirate Zombie Robot: In issue #3, Cyborg Superman brings the people of Argo City back from the dead by turning them into cyborgs. So they are alien zombie cyborgs.
• No Honor Among Thieves: In "The Girl of No Tomorrow", the partnership between the Fatal Five falls apart at the time same than their leader's plan, which is because Selene teleports away, abandoning her teammate Magog, when she realizes he's about to be defeated and captured.
• "Not So Different" Remark:
  • Kara explains Lar that they are not so different in order to appease him.
    Supergirl: I know your anger. Your confusion. I remember it from when I was stranded here. Disoriented. A different language. Different world.
  • While she sees Supergirl's rocket leaving Earth, her foster mother thinks is how her biological parents felt when they blasted their only daughter off into space to save her.
    Eliza: Look at her go. It feels strange, Chase, blasting Kara off into space. This must be how her real parents felt.
    Cameron: I think they'd relate.
• Obligatory Earpiece Touch: In issue #1, Supergirl hears her earpiece buzzing right when she is being berated by Catherine Grant. Quickly she touches her right earlobe as putting one hand up to hush up Miss Grant, who bristles at being literally put on hold.
• Oblivious to Hints: In Plain Sight, Ben's blatant desire to take her to the next school dance in a not-so-subtle way goes unnoticed by Kara Danvers.
  Kara: But this is meant to be an elite school— aren't we here to learn? This "dance" just sounds like a distraction.
  Ben: Maybe sometimes people need a distraction. I take it you're... not interested, though.
  Kara: Not in distractions, no.
• Our Werewolves Are Different: Lar-On is a Kryptonian werewolf. His condition was caused by red Kryptonite poisoning. He turns into a muscled, huge, purple-red, humanoid wolf with firey Eye Beams.
• Parental Sexuality Squick: Downplayed. Kara really doesn't like hearing her foster parents flirt when she's around (or when she is not around. She can hear them from anywhere, literally). They are not concerned about her squicked reaction, though.
  Jeremiah: What I did miss?
  Edna: Just the launch, Jeremiah. But the new uniform sure fits.
  Supergirl: Comms are live. I can hear you two.
  Edna: We're your parents, Kara. We're not dead.
• Parental Substitute: Eliza and Jeremiah Danvers become Kara's guardians when she moves into National City. They are both her handlers and her foster parents.
• Pedestrian Crushes Car: Variant in Supergirl vol. 7 #1. Kara breaks several cars while she's trying to learn how to drive.
• Phantom Zone: Lar-On was quarantined to this place, where he would remain frozen outside real time.
• Pietà Plagiarism: In issue #3, Cyborg Alura holds Kara's foster mother in her arms.
• Playing with Fire: Lar-On's eyes shoot streams of fire.
• Poor Communication Kills: The DEO didn't necessarily want to hurt Lar-On, but they didn't want an alien to tear their base down. Lar-On didn't want to hurt anyone but he couldn't explain he only wanted to be left alone because he didn't speak or understand English. Thus, they fought.
• Power Incontinence: As part of their plan to discredit Supergirl, the Fatal Five shoot her with a ray that turns the solar charge in her cells into a fission reaction that exponentially increases here power. This causes surges of power that leave her causing sonic booms in flight, overwhelmed by super hearing or firing her heat vision uncontrollably and would eventually destroy her. She's stabilized surgically, so no more power surges, but now has to adapt to her new power level.
• Primary-Color Champion: Supergirl's new blue-and-red outfit is based on several of her classic outfits and the TV-series suit, retaining the armour look of the New 52 suit.
• Punch Catch: In The Girl of No Tomorrow, the Girl of Steel catches Solomon Grundy's giant punch, so oversized that she needs both hands.
• Puny Earthlings: The vast majority of aliens and people from the future treat Earth's citizens this way, declaring them to be weak and primitive compared to their own civilizations. Even Supergirl isn't exempt from this trope, as she constantly struggles with how primitive Earth technology is compared to the technology of Krypton and constantly wishes she was back there again.
• Race Lift: Belinda Zee was originally a white girl when she made her first appearance in Supergirl: Cosmic Adventures in the 8th Grade. Her mainstream continuity version is a black girl.
• Reasonable Authority Figure: Cameron Chase doesn't trust Kara, but she's willing to work with her and give her a chance to earn her trust.
• Recruit Teenagers with Attitude: Supergirl, an incredibly powerful sixteen-year-old who was a ball of angst and anger issues before her Character Development agrees to work for the DEO. Director Chase notes that her newest agent used to be out of control.
• Red Eyes, Take Warning: The cover of the first issue subverts this: Kara's eyes are glowing red, but she looks happy.
• Ret-Canon: National City from the Supergirl (2015) TV show now exists in the DC Universe. Also, the names and likeliness of Kara's adoptive parents are directly taken from said TV show.
• Retcon:
  • Argo City burned up in Supergirl (2011) story arc Last Daughter Of Krypton. Here it's been destroyed but it isn't completely gone.
  • Minor retcon: Zor-El is brown-haired instead of blonde.
  • Cat Grant's appearance and attitude (and possibly age though that might be down to the attitude) have been tweaked to more closely resemble Calista Flockhart's version of the character from the Supergirl (2015) TV show.
• Revenge Before Reason: Subverted. Lar-On wants to kill Supergirl when he hears she's Zor-El's daughter. However she talks him down, pointing out that she has nothing to do with whatever her father did, and killing people will not bring his family back.
• Sadistic Choice: Zor-El had to choose between banishing an innocent to the Phantom Zone and let someone potentially extremely dangerous run free.
• Sanity Slippage: Krypton's destruction and his inability to save Argo City and his own family have deteriorated Zor-El's sanity to the point he strikes a bargain with Brainiac of all people. Supergirl wonders what happened to his father after hearing about some of his actions.
• Screw This, I'm Outta Here: In "The Girl of No Tomorrow", Selena leaves the Fatal Five and teleports away when she realizes they are about to be curbstomped and captured.
• Secret Identity: For first time in the New 52 continuity, Supergirl has a secret identity: Kara Danvers.
  Cameron: "Kara Danvers" is a tool for you to walk amongst the people you protect.
• Secret-Keeper: Only Supergirl's foster parents -Jeremiah and Eliza Danvers- and her boss -Director Cameron Chase- know who Kara Danvers is.
• Secret-Identity Identity: is given a secret identity by the DEO. However, "Kara Danvers" is merely a tool to socialize with humans and understand them in order to protect them better.

  "Kara Danvers" is a tool for you to walk amongst the people you protect.

• Sequel Series: To Supergirl 2011.
• Shooting Superman: Invoked and deconstructed in Supergirl vol. 7 #1 when Director Cameron points out that bullets may hurt innocent people after bouncing off her.
  Director Chase: Bullets bounce off you. But where do they go next?
• Small Name, Big Ego: Cat Grant thinks she is the center of the universe, and several train hijackers were after her. She isn't and they weren't.
• Small Steps Hero: In "One Life", Supergirl saves a high-school boy from several bullies, and the biggest bully complains that she's "bothering" them instead of tossing the Moon around.
• Snark-to-Snark Combat: In The Girl of No Tomorrow, Catherine Grant and Selena engage in a snark war as soon as the latter teleports in Cat's apartment:
  Selena: You think you're powerful. I've known power since you were a vodka-fueled question on the tip of your parents' tongues. My name is Selena.
  Catherine: I don't know who you are, but no one denigrates vodka like that in my home.
  Selena: Your media empire supports Supergirl. Starting today, we put her and everyone she knows to the boot. Including you.
  Catherine: (pointing to Selena's footwear) Really? Those boots?
• So Proud of You: Back in Krypton, Zor-El said Kara he was proud of her during a school excursion:
  Zor-El: The Kamnium in the lake petrified these animals ages ago. They're not going anywhere.
  Kara: Exactly. They're stuck here. But If I holo-photo them all, then a little piece of them can escape with me. It's pretty strange, I know. Everyone else thought so.
  Zor-El: That's because no one else would ever see it that way, Kara. I would never say that's strange. That's Hope. That's what the crest we wear stands for. That's why I'm proud you're my daughter.
• Spikes of Villainy: When Supergirl becomes infected with Joker Venom during her "Year of the Villain" tie-in, she dons a costume covered with sharp spikes.
• Superpower Lottery: Being Superman's cousin means she hit the jackpot: she's a Flying Brick with super-senses, heat vision, several breath weapons, capability to store and emit sunlight... However she was depowered at the end of Supergirl vol. 6, and the story starts out when the DEO helps her to get her powers back. After being attacked by the Fatal Five, her powers are supercharged, making her even stronger than her cousin Superman!
• Super-Senses: Kryptonian senses aren't limited by silly, pesky things such like laws of physics. As she's orbiting the Sun, Supergirl hears her foster mother asking for help. In real time. Later in that issue she uses her microscopic vision to read Lar-On's genetic makeup.
• Super-Breath: In issue #1, Kara uses her super-icy breath to freeze the fist of a train hijacker.
• Tailor-Made Prison: In Plain Sight, the D.E.O. makes Feminum-enhanced glass cells to hold Supergirl after capturing her (Feminum being the metal the Amazonian bracelets are made of:
  Chief Bones: I have to thank you, Magog. Testing our new Feminum-enhanced glass-cells has been a valuable service. Thanks to our arrangement with Doctor Mokkari, the D.E.O. should even be able to hold a Kryptonian.
• Take My Hand!: A sinister example: Cyborg Superman declares that he can take Supergirl to Argo City, and she only needs to take his hand.
• Taking the Bullet: In issue #15, Kara shields several innocent bystanders. Even more awesome than other examples because she has been warned those bullets can hurt her.
• Technical Pacifist: Supergirl is more proactive and more hot-tempered than her cousin, and is willing to try to and reform criminals and villains... even if she has to beat them up first.
• Teleportation: Sorceress Selena has this power. In The Girl of No Tomorrow Selena teleports herself away when she realizes her allies are about to be defeated.
• Three-Point Landing: In issue #3, Kara lands like this when she arrives on Argo.
• Time Stands Still: In "Plain Sight", Kara Danvers has to sneak out of school without arousing the suspicions of the D.E.O. agent questioning her. So Kara turns around, heat-blasts the fire alarm and turns back again, moving as fast than the person talking to her seems frozen in her spot.
• Tragic Monster: Lar-On was a werewolf due to Red Kryptonite poisoning. He was dangerous and uncontrollable but he had committed no crime and he wanted to hurt nobody. Nonetheless, he was quarantined to the Phantom Zone -in where Kryptonians dumped their worst criminals-, and when he escaped the Zone, his family was gone and he was stranded in an alien world and attacked by hostile forces.
• Trespassing to Talk: In the first issue, Kara returns to her Fortress of Solitude and finds Cyborg Superman waiting for her and claiming he can take her back to Krypton.
• Uncanceled: Though this run officially ended at issue #20, DC announced after its publication that it would be returning (with unchanged numbering) as a spinoff of Brian Michael Bendis' Man of Steel.
• Ungrateful Bastard: In The Girl of No Tomorrow, the denizens of National City swiftly and completely forget about any and all Supergirl's good actions as soon as they find out her father is a murderer whom she was trying to rehabilitate.
• Unknown Rival: Cat Grant has a panic room in her office because "She's the sworn enemy of Lois Lane and needs a place to hide." She seriously thinks this, even though Lois couldn't care less for Cat.
• Untrusting Community: Kara is not welcome in National City when it comes out that the Cyborg Superman who struck the city and killed dozens is her father.
• Villain Team-Up: In The Girl of No Tomorrow, Emerald Empress recruits four other villains -Selena, Indigo, Magog and Solomon Grundy- to kill Supergirl after destroying her reputation.
• Wake Up, Go to School & Save the World: Supergirl always finds harder to attend school and make friends than being a super-hero. She attends National City High School along with being a teen superhero, but she doesn't manage to fit in with her schoolmates because she isn't familiarized with human social customs and Earth's science is primitive and ancient to her. However she has saved the world dozens of times for now.
• We Have Become Complacent: In "Reign of Cyborg Supermen", Cameron Chase points out that Kryptonians became almost extinct because they thought nothing could destroy them, so they refused to listen to the signs that their planet disagreed.
  Cameron Chase: "Kryptonians thought themselves superior. Invincible behind their philosophy and technology. When their planet said otherwise, they didn't work together. They turned on each other."
• Well-Intentioned Extremist: Really, the only thing Zor-El wants is to bring Argo back to life and make his daughter happy. He doesn't get why Supergirl thinks his methods are horrible.
• You Are Not Alone: Kara gives the speech to Lar:
  Supergirl: People feared me, too. At first. This doesn't have to be you. You're not alone. Stop this. Let me help you. My father may have abandoned you... But I never will.

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"Kara Danvers" is a tool for you to walk amongst the people you protect. I accept you on Earth, Supergirl. I believe in your potential. But I do not trust you. Not yet. But through Eliza, Jeremiah. Through your life as Kara, I hope you find your place. And my trust.

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