Supergirl / Tropes E to F

Tropes A to B | Tropes C to D | Tropes E To F | Tropes G to H | Tropes I To J | Tropes K To L | Tropes M To N | Tropes O To P | Tropes R To S | Tropes T To U | Tropes V To W | Tropes X To Z

---

Tropes found in Supergirl

• Early Installment Character-Design Difference: Supergirl originally didn't wear the red skirt which has become part of her iconic look, and she wore her hair short and curly. In the 70's, her hairstyle changed to the wavy and shoulder-length look which she became associated with.
• Easily Forgiven: In Action Comics #317, Linda believes her friend Lena is dating a spy and makes them break up, thinking she is protecting Lena. Shortly after she finds out that Lena's boyfriend isn't a spy and Lena wants to leave the country because she feels betrayed by her only friend. Supergirl explains her actions to both and apologizes. Lena's reaction? "Well, it was an honest mistake".
• Eating Lunch Alone: Happens several times:
  • In Supergirl (Rebirth), Kara eats lunch alone when she is transferred to her new school since everyone thinks she's a weirdo.
  • In Supergirl: Cosmic Adventures in the 8th Grade: Early on, Linda eats lunch alone because she is shunned and bullied the whole time by cruel schoolmates. Later Lena joins her, but both girls are still shunned by everyone else.
• Eating Optional: Kara doesn't need to eat since Kryptonians get all the energy they need from the sun, but often will out of habit or because she enjoys the taste.
• Eiffel Tower Effect:
  • In The Hunt for Reactron, Supergirl and two friends are staying in Paris. Then Kara and her friend Thara get into a fight during which the former gets accidentally slammed into the Eiffel Tower.
  • Strangers at the Heart's Core: When Supergirl lures villain Klax-Ar back to Earth, she makes landfall on Manhattan, right next to the Statue of Liberty, whose sight makes Klax realize where they have arrived.
• Elaborate Underground Base: In Action Comics #271 Supergirl builds an underground base beneath the Arabian Desert, complete with guest and trophy rooms.
• Embarrassing Nickname: Post-Flashpoint Kara hates when her mother calls her 'Karanizu', feeling she's too old for pet names.
• Emotion Eater:
  • The Japanese assassins Gakidou and Sakki, The Hate Furnace not only have Intangibility, but can feed on negative emotions like lust and anger to boost their strengths to astronomical levels. Supergirl defeated them by simultaneously beating them up and overloading them.
  • In the same story, Powerboy revealed he can channel others' emotions to fuel his abilities, but the excess emotions caused him to go psycho on Kara.
    Powerboy: (to a restrained Supergirl) I feel. Feel everyone else's hate, love, pain, fear... and it becomes this... (forms ball of black energy) Of course, you saw what happens when it goes the other way.
• Endangered Species: Supergirl is one of the few Kryptonian humanoids still alive.
• Enemy Within:
  • In Demon Spawn, Supergirl's dark side has spawned a pocket dimension which exists inside the mind of the eponymous heroine and is crawling with demons and evil creatures. One of those creatures -Nightflame, a humanoid swordswomen and sorcerer that is Supergirl's death wish's embodiment- tries to take over Kara's body.
  • Post-Crisis Kara had an evil doppelganger for a short while until she reabsorbed it. Her evil side -dubbed by SG fans Dark Supergirl or Dark Kara- embodies all of Supergirl's repressed anger over the loss of her people, and later it resurfaces and takes over. Remarkably, Dark Supergirl is less evil during her reapparance. She is pretty much an angry jerkass.
• Enemy Without:
  • In Adventure Comics #421 Pre-Crisis Supergirl fought Nightflame, a sword-wielding witch who was a manifestation of her dark side -specifically her death wish- who left Supergirl's mind and entered the physical world to fight her and capture her.
  • Lex Luthor once exposed Supergirl to black kryptonite. It's not clear whether he knew what exactly it would do to her, but he hoped it would be bad. Well, turns out the stuff does this, and Kara had an evil doppelganger for a while. She managed to pull herself back together, but "Dark Supergirl" later resurfaced as an Enemy Within.
• Engineered Public Confession:
  • In Action Comics #319, Donna Storm frames Linda Danvers -the eponymous heroine- for stealing. So Linda alters Donna's earrings into radio transmitters that would broadcast her voice through the school's P. A. system, and then prods Donna into confessing.
    Donna: I wanted to get even with you, and with your friend, Supergirl. You've both been getting in my hair. I don't mind telling you this, because you can't prove I'm the guilty one.
    Linda: Can't I? You'd be surprised!
    "At that moment, Donna's confession is pouring out through the public address system in the nearby stadium..."
  • In Supergirl: Cosmic Adventures in the Eight Grade, Belinda asks Linda Lee how she is doing. Linda starts complaining about her shallow, petty and bad-smelling schoolmates and teachers, not knowing she is being recorded.
    Linda: I didn't mean it that way... I have a really, really keen sense of smell is all... I didn't know she was recording me...
• Entitled Bastard: Daily Planet sleazy journalist Cat Grant launched a smear campaign against Supergirl with the intention of driving her away Metropolis. Cat called Supergirl a reckless, out-of-control teenager. Cat accused her from spearheading a Kryptonian Alien Invasion. Cat complained about her out-of-fashion dress and the length of her skirt. During one year she told over and again that the world doesn't need a Supergirl. Whenshe ran into troubles in Day of the Dollmaker, she blackmailed Kara into helping her because she couldn't find Superman. And as they teamed up, Cat kept insulting her.
  Supergirl: "The hero the world doesn't need," Cat wrote about me. Some days, though, it sure feels like it does. Though, if there weren't three kids missing, I'm not sure I'd help her. You can't say those kinds of things about a person then expect them to just fly up and give you a hand.
• Era-Specific Personality: In the Silver Age, Supergirl was a sweet, shy and insecure child who was permanently frightened of disappointing her cousin. Bronze Age Kara was a short-tempered, fierce, confident and mature woman who was fully adapted to live in Earth, did not care for Superman's approval and was not afraid of calling him out. In the mid-00's was reimagined as a morose, mood-swinging teenager who was constantly mourning Krypton, could not relate to her cousin and was unable to fit in with Earth people (these changes were due to DC's belief that her original personality would be unrelatable to modern readers). Since then, her personality has swinged between angsty teenager (when written by someone who thinks her original personality is unrelatable to modern readers) and mature young lady (when she is written by people like Sterling Gates, Tony Bedard or Steve Orlando, who think an angsty and angry Supergirl is unrelatable).
• Escape Pod: In every alternate universes, when Kara's hometown or planet is about to be destroyed, her parents prepare a escape pod and launch her towards Earth. Her pods' have considerably changed throughout the years: Silver Age, Post-Crisis◊ and Post-Flashpoint◊.
• Establishing Character Moment: Kara's first appearance has her agreeing 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 Evil Has Loved Ones: Pre-Crisis Lex Luthor is so bastard as they come, but he loves his family deeply. In the Supergirl strips he goes to extraordinary lengths to prevent his sister Lena and her son from discovering their blood relationship. Supergirl herself states he only looks like a decent human being around his family. In Adventure Comics (Vol. 1) issue #388:
  Supergirl: But it was a white lie! Luthor doesn't want Val to live with the stigma of having a master criminal for an uncle! This was his one decent act in a lifetime of crime!
• Everyone Loves Blondes: Kara Zor-El is a much desired Kryptonian beauty, especially in the Post-Crisis continuity.
• Everytown, America: Supergirl's hometown in the Pre-Crisis era as well as other continuities is Midvale, a small nondescript town located in Illinois (or, depending on the continuity, Midwestern USA).
• Evil Cannot Comprehend Good: Kara hated Cat Grant because Cat published news articles slandering her. Still she rescued Cat when villain Dollmaker kidnapped her. Dollmaker couldn't understand why Supergirl would want to save someone she hated.
• Evil Costume Switch:
  • Post-Crisis Supergirl, Kara Zor-El, did this twice.
    • The first time was in The Supergirl from Krypton (2004), when she is captured by Darkseid and turned into one of his Furies. This was very brief, but during that time she wore, essentially, skintight red-and-black pants and a black bra.
    • The second time was when she was hit with black kryptonite in Supergirl #3, causing an evil duplicate to suddenly emerge from her body... already wearing a black version of her normal costume. Apparently, evil kryptonite clones have black clothing as part of their very nature. This trope was also lampshaded an issue later, when evil Supergirl switched her costume with the original's at superspeed, in an attempt to fool Batman and Superman as to who was the evil clone. The black costume returned in a later Justice League of America storyline where a battle with the Omega Man accidentally reawakened the Dark Supergirl persona within her.
  • This was based on a Silver Age story in which Supergirl was exposed to a piece of red kryptonite that created Satan Girl, who likewise wore a black outfit. Her version had a cowl and no S-symbol, because her identity was originally a mystery.
  • In Red Daughter Of Krypton Kara flies off the handle and becomes a Red Lantern (Red Lanters are berserk anti-heroes at best, and evil jerkasses at worst). She starts wearing a red-and-black version of her costume, completed with a red domino mask and a different Chest Insignia.
• Evil Counterpart: Supergirl has fought many evil versions of hers throughout her career:
  • The original Satan Girl, an evil twin created by exposure to Red Kryptonite, is every bit as powerful as a Silver Age Supergirl but with zero moral compuctions.
  • Post-Crisis Dark Supergirl is a version of the former, but even nastier and violent.
  • Superwoman (Lucy Lane) is another female with super-powers and complicated family issues. Nonetheless, she's an human with a super-powerful costume, whereas Supergirl is a Kryptonian with natural-born powers. And even though Supergirl stands up to her mother when she crosses one line, Superwoman would make anything to earn her father's approval, no matter how atrocious.
  • Bizarro-Girl is Supergirl's imperfect clone. She's more of a backwards loony with a warped sense of morality than an evil twin, though.
  • Overgirl is Supergirl's Nazi counterpart.
• Evil Doppelgänger: Supergirl has Satan Girl (an evil duplicate born from her inner darkness), Ultragirl (her evil counterpart from the Anti-Matter Universe), Overgirl (her Earth-10 Nazi alternate self), and Bizarrogirl (her imperfect, duplicate with backwards morals and a loony disposition).
• Evil Gloating:
  • In Who is Superwoman?, Supergirl has just unmasked the titular villain and demands answers. Superwoman isn't dumb enough to confess why or on whose orders she murdered Agent Liberty, but she still gloats about killing Supergirl and then framing her for the crime. Supergirl proceeds to beat Superwoman to the ground.
    Superwoman: Now that you're here on Earth someone else can play the role of Agent Liberty's Kryptonian murderer.
    Supergirl: But the hard drive image—
    Superwoman: Was easily dealt with, along with records of its existence. And with the good Inspector counting feathers on his wings in Heaven no one will be able to point the finger at me. I'll make sure that you are the one who's blamed. Unfortunately for you, you won't be able to tell them otherwise as you'll have suffered a "mysterious disappearance".
  • At the end of Red Daughter of Krypton, Worldkiller-1 boasts that Supergirl's heroic sacrifice has failed to destroy him, and now that she's dying she can't stop him from taking over her cousin's body. And then he dumps her body in the Sun... which is the worst possible way to dispose of a Kryptonian.
    Worldkiller-1: "A noble sacrifice, but in the end, you accomplish nothing. I touched your mind. I glimpsed your memories. I saw your cousin, Kal-El. Superman. He will serve my mission just as well... and he won't have a Red Ring to stop me."
  • In Crucible, Roho loves gloating over his inevitable victory before running away.
    Roho: I will take my wounded and cede this battle. But it is only one in a greater war. One you and Crucible cannot win.
  • Last Daughter of Krypton: At the beginning of the final battle, Reign stands aside and gloats while her Worldkillers gang up on Supergirl, instead of joining her soldiers in dogpiling the Kryptonian to kill her quickly.
    Reign: Why am I telling you all this, Kara Zor-El? Because I want you to know... who it is that kills you today.
    Supergirl: [thinking] She keeps talking, just watching the fight like it's all for her amusement. But I stopped listening a long time ago. I'm too busy trying to stay alive.
  • In The Killers of Krypton:
    • Harry Hokum has captured a depowered Supergirl, and instead of killing her, he brags about torture her and cut her up before ordering his men to drag her to a cell. In the way, Supergirl finds a way to get her powers back, escape and begin wrecking his base.
      Harry Hokum: You won't be so defiant when I break you down for spare parts. And I'll be far less forgiving.
    • As she is being dragged to a cell, Supergirl taunts Splyce until the villain shoots an energy bolt at her. Splyce starts mocking her, unaware that her solar blast has recharged Kara, who is just pretending to be knocked out.
      Splyce: "I may not be allowed to kill you... But I can do... this!" (fires an energy blast) "I have heard the legends about you and your cousin. So unearned. Who's the pathetic one now?"
      Supergirl: (thinking) Tamaranean solar power. Not quite as smooth as Earth's. Don't react, Kara. Not just yet.
  • Strangers at the Heart's Core: When Klax-Ar spots Kara, he demands she pays attention to him, and then he rants about his identity and backstory, his super-powerful vehicle's origin, and his plans to steal her powers, pry the Earth's location from her mind and then take over the world. Essentially he told her exactly what she needed to know to beat him up, which would have not happened if he had probed her mind from afar without drawing her attention.
    Klax-Ar: "I'll attack your greatest cities— They will be helpless before me and you'll be compelled to accept my dictates! And this monument is the first to— Huh—? The sled is faltering...?"
• Evil Knockoff: In several Bronze Age stories, Supergirl was cloned by some mad scientist or shady group who intended to create a duplicate who would get Supergirl out of their way and work for them.
• Evil Is Petty:
  • In Action Comics issue #309, Kara is following a lead to find her missing parents. However the criminals exiled to the Phantom Zone ruin her chance to locate her parents' whereabouts out of spite.
  • Xenon is so obsessed with killing Supergirls that he doesn't care whether killing one of them will end the multiverse.
• Evil Makeover: Sometimes it happens to Kara. Usually she switches costumes◊ and she wears less clothing, wears a black or red-and-black version of her costume.
• Evil Me Scares Me:
  • Pre-Crisis Kara was frightened of Satan Girl, a duplicate of hers who was more powerful, evil, ruthless and extremely conniving.
  • Post-Crisis 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.
• Evil Twin:
  • In the Silver Age there was Supergirl's Enemy Without Satan Girl in Legion of Super-Heroes, created by Red Kryptonite.
  • Post-Crisis Supergirl went through a similar story which created "Dark Supergirl", although she ended up as more of an Enemy Within.
  • And then there's Bizarrogirl, who causes chaos on Earth because she's just as confused as Kara but doesn't deal with it as well.
  • A Mirror Universe Ultragirl has also been seen, but thus far Kara hasn't had to deal with her.
• Evil Wears Black: Several Supergirl's evil counterparts wear black. Dark Supergirl wears a black version of Kara's regular costume, and Satan Girl wears a black bodysuit, cape and cowl.
• Exactly What I Aimed At:
  • In Supergirl vol. 5 #59, Supergirl fights Dollmaker. He ducked when she shot her heat beams and mocked her aim. A second later he realized she wasn't aiming at him. She was releasing his hostage Cat Grant.
    Dollmaker: Ha! You missed me!
    Cat: She wasn't aiming for you, you little bastard.
  • When Tycho tries to blackmail Kara in New 52 Supergirl issue 4, she shoots her heat vision at the floor. He mocks her aim... until he's warned that her eye beams blasted the space station's central core.
    Tycho: Ha! Nice shot! Might want to work on your aim, though.
    Assistant: Mr. Tycho! She wasn't firing at you! She was aiming for the central core!
    Tycho: But that's impossible! How could she possibly—?
    Kara: (thinking) I don't need to speak their language to know that I guessed right.
• Exact Words:
  • In The Supergirl From Krypton (1959), Superman explained Supergirl that her existence should be a secret for the time being. She answered that she would keep her presence on Earth a complete secret of everyone. As soon as he was gone, she quickly put on her Supergirl costume and flew out of her bedroom window on night patrol. After all, she never actually agreed not to be Supergirl, she just agreed not to get caught being Supergirl.
  • In Supergirl vol. 6 #26, Lobo is furious with his employeer Rhialla.
    Rhialla: There's no need for threats, Lobo. Besides, Section Nine of your contract forbids you from killing your employer, remember? And we both know you always honor a contract.
    Lobo: Contract says nothing about maiming you.
• Expo Label:
  • Super Powers Tester?. In a Supergirl story she's shown working out on the title machine to check on her invulnerability, Super Strength and heat vision abilities.
  • Gang Lords' Clubhouse?. Supergirl #6. The cover shows the interior of a gang headquarters with one of the gang members kissing the Maid of Steel.
• Expy Coexistence:
  • Zig-zagged due to company rivalry. Captain Marvel (later known as Shazam!), was created by Fawcett Comics as a very blatant expy of Superman. However, he proved to be more popular than the hero that inspired him, and also introduced the first Distaff Counterpart and Junior Counterpart: Mary Marvel and Captain Marvel Jr. To compete, DC Comics then introduced Supergirl and Superboy. In the meantime, DC Comics had a long-standing lawsuit against Fawcett and won, allowing them to purchase the Marvel franchise. In Superman vs. Shazam!, the Superman Family share an adventure with the Marvels for the first time. After Crisis on Infinite Earths rebooted the DC Universe, both hero families have appeared side-by-side ever since.
  • After Crisis On Infinite Earths retconned Supergirl out of existence, Laurel Gand (aka Andromeda) was created to fulfill the same role on the Legion of Super-Heroes, with the same powers and almost exactly the same look. She continued to do so even after Supergirl was reintroduced to continuity.
• The Extremist Was Right: In The Untold Story of Argo City, a Kryptonian named Jer-Em, who claims Kryptonians aren't meant to have powers, is treated as a fundamentalist, but many years later New Krypton would prove that relocating a whole Kryptonian city in Earth is a real bad idea.
• Eye Beams: Part of the standard Kryptonian pack, Kara's heat vision is her best weapon. In the New 52 she uses it constantly, and she has blown spaceships up and boiled tsunamis off with it.
• Face Death with Dignity: As Supergirl is dying in Crisis on Infinite Earths, she asks her cousin to not cry, and she tries smile despite the bleeding hole in her belly. Later it would be revealed she knew she would die if she fought the Anti-Monitor, but she went and battled anyway.
• Falling into His Arms: Males have been falling into Supergirl's arms for decades. Depending on the situation it was played for drama, romance... or laughs.
  • In "Good-Looking Corpse", Supergirl catches a young boy falling from a rooftop, and then she finds out he willingly jumped off the building as a ploy to introduce himself and ask her number.
  • Batman story The Attack of the Annihilator provides a more straight example when Batgirl gets blasted off a building and caught by Supergirl◊.
• False Reassurance:
  • In Elseworld's Finest: Supergirl & Batgirl, Kara has just discovered Luthor's dirty secrets and asks whether he's planning to kill her. Luthor replies he will not kill her... because The Joker will do so.
    Supergirl: So what are you going to do now that I know? Kill me?
    Luthor: Oh, no — I'd never do that... [The Joker] will.
  • In Hel On Earth, When Supergirl asks H'el if resurrecting Krypton will do anything to Earth, he assures her that the people of Earth won't suffer. That's because they'll all be dead after the Sun implodes if H'el's plan suceeds.
• Family of Choice:
  • In the Pre-Flashpoint universe, Lana Lang took care of Kara as she was going through a very tough time. Later Kara would tell Lana became family to her. In the DC Rebirth continuity, Lana told Superman is her family in spirit although they aren't blood relatives.
  • In Gotham City Garage, Kara Gordon misses her sister Barbara left back in the city tyrannically ruled by Lex Luthor's. Natasha Irons tells she understands but the biker gang is now her family.
    Natasha Irons: I know that feeling. The loved one you can't shake. It's hard. But you gotta remember... You got new family now. Them you left behind are just cogs in Luthor's machine. Rule number one at the Garage: We ride for our sisters.
• Fanservice Pack:
  • Pre-Crisis Supergirl started out as a cute-as-a-button fifteen-year old girl in a modest Mini Dress Of Power. As her series went on, she became more beautiful and curvier, a progression helped because she was allowed to age gradually, and she wore new suits with varying levels of fanservice, with the one from Adventure Comics 409 being particularly stripperiffic. Before her death she had become a stunning, buxom blonde woman in her mid-twenties. Here's a look at the different costumes she had over the years.
  • Scaled back in the New 52. 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.
• "Fantastic Voyage" Plot: In Action Comics #283, Supergirl, when she was affected by three Red Kryptonite meteors, got shrunk to microscopic size, which she used to her advantage to take care of some infectious viruses that were inside Dick Malverne's adoptive father.
• Fate Worse than Death: In Escape from the Phantom Zone, Xa-Du has found a way to escape that involves to boil other inmates and turn their souls into fuel for their armor.
  Thing is, ya can't die here. But ya can sure change shape. So when we boil ya down an' funnel ya inta Lord Xa-Du's ecto-armor, ya spend yer life as melted jelly. Imagine it. I'd go crazier.
• Fearful Symmetry:
  • In the beginning of Red Daughter of Krypton, Supergirl and Silver Banshee fight like this.
  • In Bizarrogirl, the main character and her Bizarro counterpart have a duel where her opposite powers and mirror moves cancel each other out.
• Fight Magnet: This was a big trouble for Supergirl during her beginnings in the Post-Crisis and New 52 eras when everyone she met, hero or villain, picked a fight with her, to the point she wondered why she couldn't go a day without fighting someone.
• Fight Off the Kryptonite: Supergirl has to do this constantly:
  • Red Daughter Of Krypton: Earth's atmosphere was poisoned with Kryptonite When Supergirl fought Worldkiller-1. Supergirl had to rely on her power ring to keep fighting while she tried to overcome the K-radiation killing her cells and making her natural powers fade.
• Fingore: In The Supergirl from Krypton (2004), Kara wanders confused into an alley, and is spotted by three workers. One of them mistakes her for a prostitute and reaches for her. Kara grabs his hand and accidentally crushes two fingers of his.
• Finger Poke of Doom: Kara does this several times in her fifth solo book: to Harley Quinn in Supergirl #0, a pirate mook in Supergirl #11 and Bizarrogirl◊ in Supergirl #55.
• Fireballs: In Superman Family #168, Supergirl fights "Lemon-Lips" Romero, a wannabe sorcerer who, among other things, can summon and hurl around man-sized fireballs.
• First Law of Resurrection: Kara Zor-El was famously killed off in Crisis on Infinite Earths as part of a general overhaul to make Superman the only Kryptonian again. Afterwards, DC took great pains to establish that Kara didn't and couldn't exist in the new continuity: implying Jor-El was an only child, stating her hometown Argo City got blown up long before Krypton did, retconning that Superman was the only Kryptonian who could survive out of his planet...It took her nearly 20 years, but of course she came back.
• Fish out of Temporal Water: In Many Happy Returns, Pre-Crisis Kara accidentally ends up in the Post-Crisis universe, which is more cynical, Darker and Edgier than her own universe. She -an idealistic, naive and immensely powerful teenager- has trouble fitting.
• Fist of Rage: In Demon Spawn, Linda/Kara clenches her fists after putting up with "Nasty"'s bullying.
• Flaming Sword: One-time enemy Nightflame◊ wields a flaming sword.
• Flanderization: Supergirl started off as a sweetheart with quite a temper if pushed and a snarky side. Then she got killed and writers and fans got into their heads the notion that Kara was a saccharine-sweet, ever-smiling girl who never, ever, talked against her cousin (which flies in the face of her character development throughout the Pre-Crisis period). In order to (over)compensate for this, subsequent reboots amped up her hotheadness and hotbloodedness to the point she was turned into a Red Lantern and became "Miss Rage Issues" to the fandom's eyes.
• Flawless Token:
  • With her reintroduction in The Supergirl from Krypton (2004), several suggestions were made that Kara was possibly a greater Flying Brick than her cousin. Many stories written soon after her introduction as Supergirl had other heroes saying that she might be faster than Superman, might be stronger than Superman, etc. Overall, characters seemed to believe Kara would eventually surpass Clark in all parameters. Later these compliments and expectations simply vanished, and the more traditional "as strong as Superman, but maybe slightly less so because she's smaller" interpretation again prevailed.
  • In The Unknown Supergirl story arc about Supergirl's secret apprenticeship and training, Kara had a power outage. Then she briefly got everything back — along with invulnerability to Green Kryptonite. (Mr. Mxyzptlk was responsible.) Superman seriously regarded her as superior to him, and wondered if he should become her assistant.
• Fleeting Demographic Rule:
  • A recurring plot during the early years of Silver Age Supergirl was Linda Lee getting adopted by one couple and then returned to the Midvale Orphanage because her new adoptive "parents" turned out to be exploitative crooks. Linda getting adopted for real in The Unknown Supergirl put an end to those plotlines.
  • Supergirl learns to get over her grief, anger and feelings of abandonment and accepts Earth as her new home. Are we talking about Girl Power(2005), Last Daughter of Krypton (2011), Red Daughter of Krypton (2014) or The Killers of Krypton (2018)?
• Flight: Supergirl flies as well as her cousin and is even faster.
• Flight, Strength, Heart: Kara often used "Super Ventiloquism", in Action Comics #258 she uses "Super Aiming" and in Supergirl Vol 1 issue #1 she uses Super-Suction Breath to capture a serial killer. Supergirl once complained (to herself) how "lame" "Super Breath" was.
• Fling a Light into the Future: Kara Zor-El's parents sent her to Earth to escape from the destruction from Argo City and meeting Superman/looking after her younger cousin.There she became Supergirl, one of the greatest heroes of Earth.
• Floating Continent: Superman Family #215: "Crisis at the Crossroads in Time" features two floating cities, built on top of enormous masses of rock, and anchored to the surface by massive chains. In the 5,020th century this is all that remains of the ancient New York City.
  Yes, floating— floating like the twin cities built atop chunks of igneous rock, secured to the surface by enormous "mooring chains"! Floating like all that is left of the distant memory called New York!
• Flying Brick: Kara has the full Kryptonian pack: super-strength, super-speed, flight, invulnerability, super-senses, heat vision, several breath weapons...
  • New 52 Supergirl is an Action Bomb.
  • In Red Daughter Of Krypton, Kara gets a Red Lantern ring temporarily. She gains the ability to vomit burning plasma, and her ring gives her an extra set of powers: creation of light constructs, force-fields, space warping...
  • In the first issue of Supergirl Rebirth Kara 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.
• Flying Car: In Last Daughter of Krypton, Zor-El used to own a sleek flying vehicle before Krypton's destruction. He often used it to take his daughter to his lab.
• Flying Firepower: All incarnations of Kara Zor-El are a Flying Brick with heat vision.
• Forced Transformation: In Supergirl vol 1 #7, Tony Martyn, a Peace Corps volunteer who Kara has a crush on, is turned into a giant Yeti by evil wizard Orgox.
• Forceful Kiss:
  • In Starfire's Revenge conman Derek Ames kisses Supergirl abruptly as part of a plan to seduce her.
  • In the cover of Supergirl Vol 1 #6, a guy kisses Supergirl forcefully (a scene that never happens in the issue).
  • In the last scene of Supergirl Vol 2, Linda's Old Flame Dick Malverne appears, grasps her chin and kisses her abruptly. Young Love gave that scene its own spin.
  • In Superman Batman #19 -later reprinted as Supergirl Vol 5 #0, Supergirl runs into Poison Ivy, and the super-villain plants a kiss on Supergirl's lips to poison her.
  • In Supergirl Vol 5 #3, Kara Nightwing impulsively before flying away to face Lex Luthor.
  • In Supergirl Vol 5 #51 Kara kisses Mon-El as he flies to Brainiac's ship.
• Forgiveness:
  • One of the core themes of Supergirl (Rebirth). The titular heroine 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.
  • In Bizarrogirl, the titular character, a backwards loony who doesn't know moral humanity, kills a man. Once she fights alongside Supergirl and learns the difference between saving lives and ending them, she decides to punish herself and wonders if she'll ever be earn her redemption.
    Bizarrogirl: Does self-punishment end, Supergirl?
    Supergirl: It might never end, Bizarrogirl. We can be sorry for what we've done, be sorry for hurting others, but it's what we do afterwards that really matters. But if it does end, it will be because you look into a mirror... and realize you've already punished yourself enough.
• Forgotten First Meeting: Silver Age Superman first met Supergirl when his cousin's rocket landed on Earth... or so he thought. Since both characters had the ability to time-travel and were members of the Legion of Super-Heroes, they had already met back when he was a teenager Superboy, but his first memory of her was wiped out to protect the future.
• For Great Justice: Kara varies between fighting for Justice and fighting for Happiness (her motto being: "Hope, Compassion and Help for all").
• For Happiness: Kara has this as her motto: "Hope, Compassion and Help for all". She's more liable to use her powers to make people happy than beating criminals up.
• For Halloween, I Am Going as Myself:
  • Supergirl sort of gets away with a variation of this in Adventure Comics #392. It's Supergirl Day at Stanhope Women's College, so everybody's supposed to wear a Supergirl dress. Unfortunately, Kara flew through something radioactive and now her dress is being decontaminated. As Linda, she gets a replica dress at school, but has to wear it for some actual super-deed that leaves it badly ripped. She simply tells everyone she took it off because it was a bad fit and didn't look right.
  • In Adventure Comics #404, villain Starfire's gang is pulling bank robberies in the neighboring town of Carvale, where a Mardi Gras celebration is going on. So Kara goes to the party dressed as Supergirl in order to bled into the crow and capture the robbers.
• For the Evulz: In Many Happy Returns the Fatalist started a twisted, sick game of emotional manipulation that messed with God's Plan and could have destroyed the whole multiverse… just because he wanted.
• Form-Fitting Wardrobe: Supergirl's costumes are often skintight, defining her upper body perfectly.
• Fountain of Youth: Several Silver Age stories featured Supergirl temporarily regressed to infancy via various means, sometimes retaining her adult mind. In Action Comics #260 she gets turned into a toddler after swimming through the Fountain of Youth by accident.
• "Freaky Friday" Flip: Supergirl goes through this in Strangers at the Heart's Core where Lesla-Lar swaps bodies with her.
• Freudian Slip:
  • In "The Reign Of The Supermen" part of The Death of Superman storyline, Superboy meets Supergirl for the first time right in the middle of rescuing a car from almost driving off the bridge, and he gets distracted by her appearance.
  Supergirl: Was that high school stunt really necessary, Superman, or were you trying to impress me?
  Superboy: Aw, I was chest choking… ab, ah, I mean—I was just joking!
  • In Elseworld's Finest: Supergirl And Batgirl, the Joker is obsessed with Batgirl:
  The Joker: Phone home. "Lexcorp, honey, don't wait up. I'll be late. I've decided to stay in Gotham for a Bat — a bit — visit old friends."
• Friendless Background: Kara had this issue in Supergirl (2011) reboot. She was stranded in a strange planet, her family and acquaintances were all dead, she didn't trust her cousin, she had no friends and she felt very lonely and isolated. Her situation led to a Despair Event Horizon combined with a Rage Breaking Point and her becoming a Red Lantern for a while.
• The Friends Who Never Hang: Kara Zor-El and Barbara Gordon are usually depicted as close friends, but they are hardly seen hanging out together when they are not "heroing". However some statements hint they meet each other off panel.
• From Stray to Pet: Kara is prone to adopt stray cats. In Action Comics #261, she finds a stray tabby cat and takes him in, naming him "Streaky" on the spot because of the lightning bolt-like yellow streaks on his sides. Unbeknownst to her, Streaky had been given powers because of a bizarre Kryptonite-related accident, and would become her Action Pet for several years. In Supergirl (1982), she finds another stray kitten scrounging around her apartment, and she takes him to her house right away, naming him "Streaky" after her first cat.
• Fun with Acronyms: In Adventures of Supergirl, Brainiac is a hacker called Vril Dox who tries to deceive Kara Danvers by pretending to be a digital personal assistant named Virtual Remote Integration Logistics.
• Funny Background Event:
  • When Darkseid kidnaps Kara in The Supergirl from Krypton (2004) to brainwash her into one of his Female Furies, Superman, Wonder Woman and Batman visit the civilian home of Mr. Miracle and Big Barda in the hopes that Barda will help them get to Apokolips so they can rescue her. While she's discussing this with Superman and WW, Batman can be seen wandering around the room observing furniture and decorations, until a panel or so later he discovers a secret switch that reveals a false wall hiding Mr. Miracle's costume. Barda is not amused.
  • In Elseworld's Finest: Supergirl And Batgirl, Luthor kisses Barbara Gordon's hand before beginning a speech. As he's speaking, Babs wipes her hand behind him.
• Future Food Is Artificial: In the Superman universe, this is usually the case for future or alien civilizations. In Argo City -Kara's hometown, which survived the destruction of Krypton-, people subsisted on food replicators because the soil was radioactive, ergo, incultivable.
• Future Me Scares Me: In issue #19 of her sixth solo book, Kara meets Power Girl and gets upset because she feels pathetic and inadequate compared with her more intelligent, stronger and more mature adult self.

---