The Maid of Might. The Girl of Steel. The Girl of Tomorrow. The Last Daughter of Krypton. The Princess of Power. The Blonde Blockbuster. The Stanhope Sensation. The female Flying Brick.
The Distaff Counterpart Superhero.
Supergirl is a comicbook superheroine, originally created as a Distaff Counterpart of Superman, drawing inspiration from Mary Marvel (in fact one of Supergirl's co-creators, legendary comic artist Otto Binder also created Mary Marvel.) A summary of her history both in and out of comics can be found here
and here. An in-depth, light-hearted exploration of the character can be found here: Supergirl: the Life and Times of Kara Zor-El. And a chronology of her pre-Crisis appearances can be consulted here.
Though there have been other variations (see below) Supergirl is best known as Kara Zor-El, Superman's cousin from the planet Krypton. A fellow survivor of that planetary catastrophe, she arrived on Earth later than Kal-El. Far younger than her now-adult cousin, she oftentimes struggles with Earth's strange mores and being in the shadow of the world's greatest hero while growing into a compassionate and heroic young woman. Her role, especially in earlier comics, fluctuated between being a supporting character in Superman stories, occupying in the Superman mythos a similar niche to Robin in the Batman mythos and having her own largely unrelated stories. She has been an on-again-off-again member of the Legion of Super-Heroes, different incarnations of the Justice League of America, the Teen Titans and the Red Lanterns Corps.
In 1985 the original Supergirl was killed off in the Crisis on Infinite Earths crossover when DC Comics decided to return Superman to the status of Last of His Kind. For the next two decades various characters occupied the mantle before Kara Zor-El was restored to continuity. Over the years the various versions of Supergirl have held their own solo titles at several points.
"Lucy de Borgonia"
DC's first character named Supergirl is possibly Lucy de Borgonia, a South American princess who made her only appearancee in Superboy #5 (November, 1949). Wearing an orange-and-purple costume, Lucy had no powers but Superboy helped her fake them."Super-Girl"
As a test, they released Superman #123 (August, 1958), a Jimmy Olsen story where he got three wishes. One wish was for a woman to keep Superman company, but though meaning well, this magical Super-Girl kept messing up her super-feats. Jimmy sadly wished her away when she sacrificed herself to save Superman from kryptonite, and was about to die anyway. (Note that in most later reprintings of this story, Super-Girl was intentionally miscolored to look different from Supergirl; originally, and as seen in DC Archives, she looks identical to Supergirl except that the skirt of her Mini Dress Of Power is rednote .)Kara Zor-El (Linda Lee Danvers)
The issue sold well and the DC powers that be decided that Supergirl's time had come. Thus was born Supergirl - a.k.a. Kara Zor-El, Kal-El's cousin. She first appeared in Action Comics #252 (May, 1959). At first, she was "Superman's secret weapon". As Linda Lee, an orphan at the Midvale Orphanage, she hid the existence of Supergirl from the world, secretly doing good and helping those in trouble.Eventually, as the audience for good female characters increased, Superman judged her ready, and Supergirl was unleashed on the world. She was adopted and became Linda Lee Danvers; she gained her own Smallville-esque supporting cast, becoming an occasional member of the Legion of Super-Heroes and love interest to popular LSH member Brainiac 5.
Very unusually for DC Comics (at the time), Kara's adventures in Action Comics were serialized from the early 1960s onwards rather than stand alone as was the general practice (including for Superman himself who she shared the comics with). Supergirl's status quo gradually changed over the course of the decade and she aged at a slightly slower than real time rate, going from a cute 15 year old to a high school graduate and then to a college student and later a career woman, moving and changing jobs constantly (she became a camerawoman in San Francisco, a student councilor in Florida and a soap opera actress in New York).
Power Girl
In the 1970s, a fateful decision was made: If Superman had a cousin on Earth-1, where Supergirl had long been established to live, why not one for the original Superman, Kal-L of Earth-2? Thus was Power Girl, aka Kara Zor-L of Earth-2, introduced (in All-Star Comics #58, Feb. 1976), with an origin much like Supergirl's, except for a Hand Wave to the effect that her capsule had taken much longer to reach Earth. Power Girl used a very different costume, an all-white one which highlighted her breasts, large even by comicbook standards. note She was instantly inducted into the Justice Society of America and soon became a fan favorite. See more on her own page.The Crisis
Supergirl's monthly strip was published throughout twenty-six years in Action Comics, Adventure Comics, her first solo, Superman Family and her second self-named title. DC cancelled Supergirl (Volume 2) in 1984, planning to launch a new title, DC Double Comics, starring Supergirl and Superboy.But as the 1970s and early 1980s came along, Supergirl fell out of fashion with comic fans. A number of creatives disliked the character and wanted her gone even before the failure of her big budget live-action film.
Then came the Crisis on Infinite Earths. The powers that be decided that Supergirl was a symptom of the longstanding decline in the Superman franchise, which had made the books a poor seller for DC Comics. In order to try bringing back Superman's uniqueness, it was decided that Superman should be the only surviving Kryptonian. So in issue #7 of the Crisis (October, 1985), Supergirl made a Heroic Sacrifice to help stop the villain's plan. But then DC decided to do a full-on reboot of the Superman franchise, resulting in the now dead Supergirl being declared to have never existed. In a bit of major irony though, the copycat Power Girl survived and was given a new origin story, as the granddaughter of an Atlantean sorcerer sent through time to the present day.
Matrix
Eventually, John Byrne decided to recreate Supergirl -lest DC loses the legal rights to the name- in the form of "Matrix", a shape-shifting purple creature who just so happens to take Supergirl's form. The new version first appeared in Superman vol. 2 #16 (April, 1988). Hailing from a pocket universe where Superboy existed (in order to keep the Legion of Super-Heroes universe from collapsing from the removal of Superboy from canon) and all life was destroyed by escaped Phantom Zone villains, Supergirl followed Superman into the mainstream DC Universe and for a time, things were good even as Supergirl began dating the Post-Crisis Lex Luthor (who, granted, was pretending to be his own son)."Laurel Gand/Andromeda"
At the same time, DC ran into still another trouble. Supergirl had been a member of the Legion of Super-Heroes. Those stories still were in continuity, but Supergirl had been erased from existence. How did they solve this? In Legion of Super-Heroes (Volume 4) #5 (1990), Keith Giffen and other writers introduced Laurel "Andromeda" Gand, a Daxamite and Mon-El's cousin. Laurel was identical to Kara in all ways but name: she had her same powers, personality and attitude, was cousin to the Legion's inspirational figure (Mon-El pre-Zero Hour) and even dated Brainiac 5. Andromeda was also a member of the Reboot Legion, but she faded to comic limbo when that version of the team was shelved."Kara of Odiline"
In the first Superman/Aliens crossover, written by Dan Jurgens, Superman finds a blonde, blue-eyed alien girl named Kara living in a floating city named Argo City, named after the original Kryptonian city since the inhabitants of Odiline -"Kara"'s homeworld- were big Krypton fanboys. Superman instantly took a liking to "Kara" and treated her like a long-lost close relative, but she was believed dead at the end of the crossover, and she was never mentioned again."Linda Danvers (Post-Crisis)"
Meanwhile, Matrix grew stale, and in a few years Peter David was called in to retool her. In Supergirl vol. 4 #1 (September, 1996), Matrix traveled to the town of Leesburg, and melded with a troubled girl named Linda Danvers, calling back to her pre-Crisis name. The fusion of the two resulted in an "Earth-Born Angel", a holy being with powers of fire that would serve as the Myth Arc for her new series.Eventually, the "angel" aspect and the "Linda" aspect separated, with Linda keeping some powers of her own. This came at the same time that Supergirl was introduced in Superman: The Animated Series, so in a bit of media property alignment, Linda was given the cartoon Supergirl's costume. In Many Happy Returns, the final story arc of the series, Linda met the original Pre-Crisis Supergirl whose rocket somehow detoured to the Post-Crisis universe. David hoped to use the arc to kickstart a new series entitled Blond Justice, and while the story sold very well, the new series was not to be. Ultimately, Kara returned to her universe, and Linda retired from superheroing. However, the success of Many Happy Returns, suggested that there was interest in the original Supergirl...
Cir-El
But first, a new character showed up; the Darker and Edgier Cir-El, who claimed to be Clark and Lois Lane's daughter from the future. She first appeared in Superman the 10 Cent Adventure #1 (March, 2003). However, she was a very unpopular character, and in short order her claims were debunked and she vanished into the timestream.Kara Zor-El (Post-Crisis)
At this point, Dan DiDio rose to power at DC Comics. As urban legends goes, DiDio freaked out when he accidentally discovered the current Supergirl's convoluted origin of pocket universes and "earth angels" and made one of his first edicts upon taking over DC Comics to be DC bringing back the real Supergirl. (The success of the aforementioned Many Happy Returns arc probably didn't hurt either). A new Kara Zor-El was introduced, having crash-landed onto Earth just in time to be (re)introduced into DC Universe canon in Superman/Batman #8 (May, 2004). In a twist, it was revealed that Kara was older than Kal-El when they lived together on Krypton, and had been sent into space in order to care for her baby cousin on Earth; her rocket, however, going off-course had meant she arrived as a teenager when he was an adult.Since then Supergirl's basic identity in The DCU has held steady as Kara Zor-El. Confusion didn't end there though as her own named title was prone to retconning Kara's personal backstory on Krypton every three issues or so under a string of writers before finally settling down some 30 issues in. This roughly coincided with being brought into the extended New Krypton storyline, dealing with several hundred Kryptonians appearing on planet Earth led by Supergirl's parents. The book finally managed to become well regarded and is now a stable part of the Superman Family of comics. Supergirl also appeared in Supergirl and the Legion of Super-Heroes, in which she was stuck a thousand years in the future with the Legion (having made the Time Travel trip during a Time Skip in her own book, and then getting Laser-Guided Amnesia before she returned). To top it off, 2009 saw a toony-style miniseries aimed at kids, called Supergirl: Cosmic Adventures in the 8th Grade which was Exactly What It Says on the Tin. The original writer says he had plans to write sequels retelling her pre-Crisis story (her time in the Legion ''et al''), taking her up to the 12th Grade.
Power Girl (Post-Crisis)
Meanwhile, Power Girl had gone through some changes as they tried to figure out what to do with her. Recruited for the Justice League Europe branch, Kara had her powers decreased (due to a Deus ex Machina lifesaving operation). She developed a new edgy, ultra-feminist attitude to let her serve as the resident shit-disturber on the JLE team (which was briefly retconned as being the result of allergies caused by diet sodas). She was made a businesswoman with her own computer company, mystically pregnant caused by her Atlantean grandpa, and most humiliatingly, was given a short-lived vulnerability to "natural, unprocessed materials" by Chris Claremont that was so silly and stupid that it was quickly dropped as soon as it was established.Eventually, she found a home in the ongoing JSA series, and now that she was being focused on by a single writer, she started to gain some consistency. In the series, it was revealed that she wasn't Atlantean after all — but that left the question of what she was.
In the run-up to Infinite Crisis, the surprisingly simple answer was revealed: she was... Kara Zor-L, the cousin of the Superman of Earth-2. As the Earths were being merged, she had somehow fallen through a crack in time, emerging in the Post-Crisis universe unchanged, and the inconsistencies in her powers and origins since then had been side effects of the universe trying to fit her in. (Note: She is specifically from the Earth-2 that existed prior to Crisis of the Infinite Earths. A new Earth-2 that's like the old one appeared after Infinite Crisis but it has its own Power Girl. Much to the original's dismay.)
Post-Flashpoint Kara Zor-El and Power Girl
In 2011, DC published Flashpoint and rebooted their universe. Since Supergirl had to start from square one again, DC took the chance to streamline the character: Supergirl is Superman's cousin from Krypton who crashed to Earth much later and only remembers her cousin as a baby. Her personality is angrier and edgier than preceeding Karas' to emphasize her alienness in contrast to her Earth-raised cousin. There has never been other Supergirls.After managing her grief and her anger issues -ironically by becoming a Red Lantern-, Kara was retooled to make her closer to her then-ongoing live-action counterpart. Thus, she moved to National City, took up the Kara Danvers civilian name and started working for the DEO and Cat Grant as attending high-school. As the Supergirl (2015)'s show's popularity waned, though, DC began to drift away from this status quo until dropping it completely. Around that time, DC released another mini-series: Supergirl: Being Super.
In 2020, Supergirl's solo book was cancelled after fifteen years of almost uninterrupted publication; though DC released a new miniseries, Supergirl: Woman of Tomorrow, wherein Kara was quietly aged up. Since then, her own title's loss has been counterbalanced by making her again a regular cast member in her cousin's stories.
DC's 2022-2023 Crisis events altered Supergirl's backstory -together with the entire universe's- once again, retconning back into canon her Silver Age origin (but keeping being the "older than her cousin" 2004 tweak), and restating her heroic sacrifice against the Anti-Monitor is actually remembered by everyone.
Post-Flashpoint Power Girl
Meanwhile, on Earth 2, Power Girl is also Superman's cousin from Krypton. However, she started her career as Supergirl, her Superman is dead, and she wound up stranded on the main Earth for several years. She co-starred in Worlds' Finest with her best friend, Huntress (who, much like PG, started out as a sidekick in E2, having been Robin to her dad Batman). Before returning home, Kara meets her counterpart and discovers they have a strange bond due to their status as Alternate Universe counterparts of each other. Ultimately, this version was Put on a Bus together with her entire universe when the Earth 2 line was dropped.The character remained in limbo for several years during which DC occasionally dropped hints of the imminent return of the original Power Girl. In 2023 she reappeared with no fanfare (the fact that she was gone for years, during which an alternate universe version was running around the place before abruptly disappearing, was not acknowledged in-universe, and may have been undone by the same Cosmic Retcon mentioned above) and a new personality shift. Even though she is more integrated in the Superman family than ever, she is moodier, angrier and whinier, constantly complaining that she is ignored by everyone and treated as Supergirl's inferior copy. She also appears in Justice Society of America (2022), where she is none of those things (well, maybe angrier) and has apparently been around since the seventies in universe.
For a list of comic storylines and other works in the franchise, go to the franchise page here.
Supergirl subpages:
- 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
