Supergirl / Tropes M To N

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

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Tropes found in Supergirl

• Made of Indestructium:
  • Back in the Silver Age her Kryptonian costume was made like this, since anything from Krypton was effectively made of indestructium while on Earth.
  • In The Supergirl From Krypton (1959), Alura made her daughter's super-hero costume before Kara left Argo because it would be indestructible on Earth.
  • In the Post-Flashpoint universe, her cape and costume are a kind of indestructible Kryptonian armor.
  • In Red Daughter of Krypton, Red Lantern Kara's outfit and cape never get damaged, not matter what happens to her. Justified since her RL uniform is made of raw energy.
• Made Out to Be a Jerkass:
  • During the Sterling Gates' run, General Sam Lane and his minions Reactron and Superwoman used this tactic against the eponymous heroine over and over again: in Who is Superwoman? they harass Supergirl and try to murder her, and when Kara defends herself, and she gets in trouble for aggravated assault and battery, and attempted murder.
  • In Supergirl: Cosmic Adventures in the 8th Grade, Linda Lee's classmates glare at her when they hear her recorded voice calling them "shallow, petty, mean and bad-smelling". That would be understandable, except that she was venting after spending several weeks putting up with their bullying and their mocking.
  • Also in Cosmic Adventures, Lena Thorul seriously believes Superman made her brother out to be a criminal. Yes, seriously.
• Magazine Decay: In Adventure Comics, while the star was originally Superboy, eventually the Legion of Super-Heroes took over the title, then proceeded to be swapped with Supergirl (which had been a backup in Action since her creation), who became the star from then on. Same thing happened with Superman Family, which was supposed to be an anthology featuring Superman's secondary characters before the Girl of Steel took over the title.
• Magnetic Hero: Supergirl has been known to inspire and be able to rally together and lead other heroes. In "Good-Looking Corpse", where she quickly puts together a completely new and very diverse team of teenager heroes by merely asking them, the main villain remarks she is a danger to his plans mainly because of her capability to get very different people working together. In Smallville Season 11 storyline "Argo" Kara automatically takes charge of the situation, and all Legionnaires treat her as their de facto leader without any argument whatsoever.
• Magic Skirt: Some artists draw it so short, but so short that you will need a massive Willing Suspension of Disbelief to accept something so short not allowing panty shots free of charge. Carmine Infantino and Gary Frank are among the few ones to regularly show the leotard underneath.
• Mainstream Obscurity: Most of people are aware of the existence of Supergirl and most of them know her name's Kara and she's Superman's cousin. Even before being given her own show she had showed up in a live-action film as well as several animated features, shows, cartoons and video games. But ask them about her Rogues Gallery, supporting cast and relevant storylines and they'll be hard-pressed to name one. The'll be too unaware that the character remained dead for eighteen years during which DC tried and failed to replace her with several non-Kryptonian Supergirls.
• Make It Look Like an Accident:
  • In Who is Superwoman?, Superwoman murders her ally Reactron's ex-girlfriend to eliminate a potential witness and makes it look like she died because of a fire caused by a gas leak.
  • The Unknown Supergirl: Lesla-Lar plans to pose as Supergirl as helping Lex Luthor kill Superman, and once the Man of Steel is dead, kill Luthor accidentally while pretending to capture him so he cannot reveal she was in cahoots with him.
  • In Starfire's Revenge, the titular queenpin is paid an exorbitant sum by a fashion designer to murder his greatest rival as making it look like an accident.
    Starfire: I have been offered 1,000,000 dollars for it if I can accomplish the theft and get rid of Paul de Paris and make it look like an accident. So the Salon of Paul is going to have a fire that will destroy his entire collection and Paul too.
• Man-Eating Plant: Kara fights one of these in Supergirl vol 1 #3: The Garden of Death!. A giant, mutant carnivorous plant tries to swallow Kara whole but it quickly spits Supergirl out because it can't bite through her indestructible skin.
• Man of Kryptonite:
  • During New Krypton, Reactron was rebuilt as a Metallo expy, complete with a Kryptonite heart—though in his case it was Gold Kryptonite, the one kind of Kryptonite that could permanently cancel all her superpowers.
  • In one of final arcs of her fifth solo book, Parasite and Silver Banshee teamed with Metallo and the Kryptonite Man to take Supergirl down. Kara admits that fighting the latter two is a headache, but she is not intimidated and tells them bluntly that they will not win.
  • In Elseworld's Finest: Supergirl And Batgirl The Joker pumps kryptonite-based drugs into his bloodstream. So, his body gives off K-radiation which hurts and weakens Kara when she fights him.
• Man of Steel, Woman of Kleenex: Kara has this trouble whenever she hooks up with someone since even her weakest versions can crush steel.
• The Masquerade Will Kill Your Dating Life: It happened to Pre-Crisis Kara the whole time. The. Whole. Time. She never could keep a steady boyfriend for long because she was prone to unexplained absences or ditch the guy abruptly because her Super-Senses picked up on something.
• Mass "Oh, Crap!": When Kara gets a Red Lantern Ring in "Red Daughter Of Krypton, everyone'' stare at her with "Oh, GOD, She's going to kill us all NOW!" horrified expressions.
• The Matchmaker: In Action Comics #289, Kara vows find a wife for her cousin. She tries to hook Kal up with Helen of Troy, Saturn Girl's adult self, an alien superwoman... However all of her attempts end up in failure, and she vows never play match-maker again.
• Maybe Magic, Maybe Mundane: During a flashback in The Hunt for Reactron, Thara is praying when she suddenly knows that Kara is in danger, and she suddenly knows how she can efficiently use a rare plant to save her friend from a giant predator. In the aftermath, Thara is wondering how she knew what she had to do, and Kara states she does not care whether if their god Rao subtly influenced Thara (which, given later revelations, is an actual possibility) or her friend got lucky or whatever. The only thing that matters to her is that Thara saved her life.
  Supergirl: I don't know if it was voices or Rao or luck, but you saved my life.
• The Maze: Destiny of the Endless' realm is the "Garden of Forking Ways"◊, a fluctuating landscape which warps four-dimensional space, traversed by forking paths, where trespassers are doomed to wander around until their deaths. Lobo and Supergirl are the only ones who have managed to navigate their way out of the Garden in The Lords Of Luck storyline, and it was only because Lobo's superpower is the ability to track down people across the universe, so he ignored the shifting geography and zeroed in on Destiny's presence... and because Destiny actually wanted to meet them.
• Mecha-Mooks: Supergirl and her cousin are some of the few good guys to keep a contingent of Mecha-Mooks, the Superman and Supergirl Robots in the Fortress of Solitude. In the Silver Age, they were mainly used as decoys to preserve their secret identities, and occasionally to pinch hit for one of them when they'd been incapacitated by Kryptonite or some such. A bridge got dropped on the bunch of them in the Bronze Age.
• Medium Awareness: At times, especially during the Silver Age, Supergirl appeared to be aware of the Fourth Wall, occasionally winking at the reader/audience (the first instance possibly happening in Action Comics #260), and even addressing to the readers. In elseworlds story Superman Vol 1 #192: "Clark Kent's Super-Son!", Clark Kent has lost his powers and forgotten he is Superman. Supergirl and Batman agree to not reveal anything because, well, the story would be over.
  Batman: "Psst, Supergirl! We're the only ones here who are aware that Clark Kent is Superman!"
  Supergirl: "Of course, Batman, but we agreed that we'd never reveal the truth to Clark because... (dramatic pause) because you see, readers, that would ruin this imaginary story! So we're keeping mum and minding our own business! Let the writer and editor solve this super-mess they got Clark into!"
  Batman: "Check! As Supergirl said, we're sitting this story out!"
• Megaton Punch: Supergirl hits as hard as her cousin and is more temperamental and less self-controlled. She regularly sends her enemies flying◊.
• Meteor Move:
  • Supergirl does this in Justice League of America #134 when she fights Despero (one of the worst enemies of the League). First Kara grabs him and throws him hard enough to put him into orbit◊, and then she flies out of the planet, meets Despero in space and knocks him out with one punch◊.
  • In The Killers of Krypton, Supergirl opens the Final Battle by punching Empress Gandelo's face hard enough to send her flying into the sky. Supergirl instantly takes off after her, uppercuts Gandelo again, overtakes her sailing body a second time and then finally spikes her enemy. Gandelo crashes into the land below with such a devastating force that the impact brings the surrounding mountains down. Then Supergirl finishes off by nuking the whole island with her heat vision.
• Mind-Control Eyes: In Superman/Batman #77, Kara gets glowing red eyes when she is under the influence of Scarecrow's fear toxin.
• Mind Probe:
  • In Red Daughter of Krypton, Red Lantern Sheko does this telepathically to judge people. If she finds them innocent, she let them go; If she finds them guilty, she burns them down. She tried to read Supergirl's mind, but she got thrown out.
  • Supergirl Vol 1: Linda Danvers's roommate Wanda is a telepath. In the first issue, Wanda probes Supergirl’s mind telepathically.
  • In Supergirl Vol 2 #23, Supergirl fights a mutant with Psychic Powers. During the fight, said mutant attacks her mind telepathically.
• Mini Dress Of Power: Several of her most Iconic Outfits include a blue or red skirt: her original outfit◊, her Pre-Crisis outfit◊], her Post-Crisis costume◊ and her Rebirth one◊.
• Minnesota Nice: Pre-Crisis Kara grew up in Midvale -a fictional town located between somewhere between Smallville (Kansas) and Metropolis (Illinois)-, and she is a nice, kind and compassionate -albeit short-tempered and fierce- woman.
• Minor Living Alone:
  • Supergirl (2005): Fifteen-year-old Kara lived alone in her own apartment during several months until she was adopted by Lana Lang.
  • Supergirl (2011): When she returns to Earth after leaving the Red Lanterns, sixteen-year-old Kara finds a job as waitress and rents a flat in NYC Queens. When Superman meets with her in Crucible, she has spent several weeks living on her own, and insists on going on living with no supervision.
  • In The Girl with the X-Ray Mind, teenager Lena Thorul is living on her own due to -allegedly- have no living relatives.
• Missing Mom:
  • She always loses her parents. In some universes, twice.
  • In Gotham City Garage, Barbara and Kara's mother died when they were very young. Kara barely remembers her.
• Mistaken for Pedophile: Hal Jordan once had to remind himself he "isn't Ollie" to get himself to stop thinking weird thoughts about the seventeen year old Supergirl.
• Mistaken for Prostitute: In The Supergirl from Krypton (2004), a naked Supergirl wanders confused into an alley, having just woken up from her rocket, and is spotted by three workers. One of them mistakes her for a prostitute and decides to play Lothario only to have his hand crushed and be slammed through a wall. The second tries to help his friend. The third wisely proclaims he's not with the other two and offers her his coat.
• Mistaken for Superpowered: In Superboy 1949 #5, when Lucy of Borgonia moves to Smallville, Superboy uses his powers stealthily to make people believe she is some kind of superhuman girl.
• Mistaken Identity: In Adventure Comics #350, Superboy and Supergirl could not be in the Legion anymore because a "green kryptonite cloud" is about to envelop the Earth for a few years. So, they nominated a couple of replacements to take their places, named "Miss Terious" and "Sir Prize". The two wore suits that completely concealed the people inside, and it is heavily implied (and the other Legionnaires clearly believe) they are Superboy and Supergirl wearing lead armor to protect themselves from the kryptonite. They were not. They were Dream Girl and Star Boy, two former Legionnaires who were expelled from or left the Legion due to technical violations of the Legion Code; after their actual identities are revealed, the Legion turns out to be willing to forgive and forget, modify the Code, and accept them back again. They even explain how the two (who have considerably different powers from Superboy and Supergirl) managed to accomplish things like flying and knocking out a dinosaur with one punch.
• Modeling Poses: In Adventure Comics #424, Linda Danvers does a Head-and-Hip pose in front of a mirror as she tries on a dress which she intends to use to seduce information out of an ex-gangster.
• Modesty Shorts: Jamal Igle drew biker shorts under her skirt.
• The Mole: In Action Comics #317, Kara believes her friend Lena's boyfriend Jeff Colby is an enemy spy. Later she finds out that Jeff was really working with the F. B. I. and trying to trap a spy ring.
• Moment Killer:
  • In Supergirl Vol 1 #8 Linda and her Boy-Of-The-Week are about to kiss when her super-hearing detects trouble and she has to leave.
  • In Supergirl Vol 5 #19, when Wonder Girl and Supergirl reunited there was the extremely close hug, actual "I love you", leaning in... and being shot with a rocket launcher by Ravager, who apparently enjoys having invulnerable teammates.
• Monogender Monsters: The vast majority of Supergirl's enemies are female: Satan Girl, Lesla-Lar, Nightflame, Nasthalthia Luthor, Reign...
• More Deadly Than the Male: Kara is just as powerful as her cousin, and at the same time more hot-tempered and less self-restrained. Succinctly put, if you get Clark mad, he'll merely punch you out; if you get Kara mad, she'll pummel you to the ground (or, if she believes you can take it, punch you through one planet). By way of example, in Crisis on Infinite Earths the Anti-Monitor almost killed Superman and then got almost killed by Supergirl. And in The Great Darkness Saga, Darkseid took longer to take her down than Superboy.
• More Hero than Thou: In DC Comics Bombshells, one of the heroines must give her life in order to destroy the giant Tenebrae threatening London. Supergirl volunteers but Stargirl refuses to let her adoptive sister die, so Courtney knocks Kara down and proceeds to blow the Tenebrae and herself up.
• Moses in the Bulrushes: Kara Zor-El's parents sent her to Earth to save her life, but the details differ from one origin story to another: In The Supergirl From Krypton (1959), she was rocketed from Argo City when she was fifteen, nearly three decades after Krypton's destruction, and Zor-El and Allura expected her cousin to look after her (and he did so by putting her in an orphanage where she lived until she was adopted by the Danvers in The Unknown Supergirl). In The Supergirl from Krypton (2004) and Last Daughter of Krypton she was fifteen when she was blasted off into space right before Krypton fell apart, and her parents asked her to find and take care of her baby cousin. In Supergirl: Being Super, her rocket is found by a kindly couple of Midvale town and she does not learn about her heritage until she is sixteen...
• Most Writers Are Writers: In some continuities, Kara is a reporter.
• Morton's Fork: Superman Family issue #214 has Supergirl depowered and trapped by Lex Luthor in a cell. The only way out are two doors. One of them leads to a pit whose bottom is a bed of steel spikes. The other door opens onto a blast-furnace.
  Supergirl: Just the kind of duplicity I'd expect from Luthor. Both doors spell disaster! And either way, I lose... unless I go back the way I came!
• Most Common Superpower: She's considerably smaller than most heroines, but is still a bit above average than a lot of real life women. Power Girl, on the other hand... She has a very nice bust when she grows◊ up◊, anyways, and in Elseworld's Finest: Supergirl And Batgirl she is the most buxom female character.
• Mother Nature, Father Science: Zol-El and Alura, the parents of Supergirl. Zor-El is an artist and very kind and opened-up. Alura is a scientist and usually an example of Good Is Not Nice. A flashback revealed that she used to be an Emotionless Girl before her relationship with Zor.
• Ms. Fanservice: Post Crisis Supergirl was a pretty infamous example, what with her cheerleader like costume, being introduced naked and later dressing in low cut jeans with her thong on display, and her constant panty shots when in costume. While most young teenaged girls in comics get treated like this, she did it to such a degree that it made many people uncomfortable, and was the source of many of her criticisms. Editors eventually issued a demand for this to be limited and/or stopped, and thankfully it did.
• Mugging the Monster:
  • In The Supergirl from Krypton (2004), a naked Kara wanders confused into an alley, having just woken up from her rocket, and is spotted by three workers. One of them mistakes her for a prostitute and decides to play Lothario only to have his hand crushed and be slammed through a wall. The second tries to help his friend. The third wisely proclaims he's not with the other two and offers her his coat.
  • In Adventure Comics #397, Nasthalthia Luthor and her cronies tried to bully Linda. Cue Supergirl giving them a very wild -and fast- ride before throwing them into a fountain.
• Muggle Foster Parents:
  • Fred and Edna Danvers were the adoptive parents of Pre-Crisis Linda Lee Danvers/Kara Zor-El and Secret Keepers for her role as Supergirl.
  • Post Crisis Jeremiah and Eliza Danvers -two agents of the D. E. O. (Department of Extra-normal Operations), a Government agency created to deal with and neutralize alien threats- became Supergirl's foster parents in Supergirl (Rebirth). They helped Kara 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:
  • Kara has used sometimes her heat vision to roast marshmallows and her Super Speed to tidy an apartment.
  • In The Supergirl From Krypton (1959), Linda uses her powers to tidy her bedroom up. She bends the iron leg of her cot straight, dusts out her room in a big blow and fixes a broken mirror.
  • In Action Comics issue #253, Kara uses her super-breath to freeze melted ice cream.
    Oh, dear! The refrigerator wasn't turned low enough last night and the ice cream melted! Everyone will be disappointed! Hmm... Nobody is watching me, so... I'll blow my Super-Breath to super-cool it again!
  • Supergirl has used sometimes her heat vision to roast marshmallows and her Super-Speed to tidy an apartment (as seen in a flashback during the storyline Red Daughter of Krypton).
  • Subverted in Supergirl (Rebirth). Kara wants to use her Super-Speed to rebuild the wrecked base of the DEO, but her foster mother suggests that she first needs to learn how non-powered people deal with disasters, so she helps out without using her powers for a bit.
  • In Supergirl Vol 1 #7, Linda stumbles upon Zatanna's frozen body. She wraps her cape around the magician girl and uses her heat beams to warm up her cape like an electric blanket and revive Zatanna.
  • In Supergirl (1982) issue #13, Supergirl's adoptive father has trouble lighting his pipe, so his daughter helps him out with a burst of heat vision.
  • In Supergirl: Cosmic Adventures in the 8th Grade, Linda uses her powers to such things like reheat her lunch (sadly she got it burned) and to keep a tub of ice cream cold.
  • In Bizarrogirl, Kara floats up◊ to her bedroom's damaged ceiling to paint it white.
  • At the start of The Unknown Supergirl, Linda uses her super-speed to fix a carnival display made by the Orphanage's kids which had been ruined by a windstorm. Later, As cleaning her home, Linda ponders it would be easier and quicker if her parents were aware of her secret identity, since she would use her heat vision to dry dishes instantly or would literally blow the dust out of the place.
    Linda Danvers: It's maddening to have to wipe these dishes so slowly! Actually, I could dry them in an instant, with my heat vision!
  • In Strangers at the Heart's Core, Linda Danvers uses her Super-Speed to clean out her office and catch up on her work within seconds before taking her leave of absence.
  • The Untold Story of Argo City: When Edna Danvers loses her wedding ring, her daughter Linda's X-Ray vision finds it stuck into the drain of the kitchen sink. Then Linda uses her heat vision to cut the pipe and welding it back together after retrieving the ring.
    Linda: My X-Ray vision has located the wedding ring you lost, mother! It must have slipped from your finger into the drain of the kitchen sink!
  • In The Girl with the X-Ray Mind:
    • When Supergirl sees a bridge about to collapse, she flies beneath the archway, holds it upwards to stop it from falling down, and uses her heat vision to repair the broken beams.
      Supergirl: Relax, folks! I'll have this bridge fixed in a super-jiffy! I'll use my heat-vision to re-weld and strengthen the old steel beams!
    • Since Lena's application for a job is rejected by the FBI on grounds of her having no past, Supergirl decides to find out the truth about Lena's family by going back in time.
  • The Last Days of Superman: One of the items on Superman's "Things to Do Before My Quickly-Approaching Death" list is to dig a system of canals for irrigating desert lands. However, he becomes too weakened to overtake the task, so it is Supergirl who carries out the project.
  • The Strange Revenge of Lena Luthor: When a saboteur blows up a railway, the Girl of Steel fills up the hole with Super-Breath and then melts and squeezes the rails back into shape.
  • The Attack of the Annihilator: Supergirl uses her super-strength, super-speed and heat vision to build a new garage for Batgirl's Batcycle.
• Murder by Inaction: In Superman (Volume 1) #338: Let My People Grow!, Brainiac gets accidentally hit by his size-changing ray and is shrinking rapidly and uncontrollably. He begs Supergirl to save him, but she refuses to◊: her enlarging ray has only two shots left, which she plans to use on her cousin and the Bottle City of Kandor, and she is NOT wasting energy on him. Even Superman pleads with her, but Kara doesn't cave in◊, and lets Brainiac disappear. Reviewed here.
• Murder the Hypotenuse: Action Comics #338 has an alien named Raspor chasing Supergirl as ignoring his partner, even though the former despises him, and the latter is in love with him. Raspor's partner attempts to gun down Supergirl out of jealousy, resulting in Supergirl lecturing her on the stupidity of both shooting her invulnerable self and treating her as her rival.
• Muscles Are Meaningless: When Kara returned in 2004, she looked like a slender, sixteen-year-old... who could bench-press airplanes, lift mountains and outrun light. Writers were easily able to tease the fan base with the idea that teenager might be stronger than her full grown powerfully built cousin Superman. Turns out, he just holds himself back due to living his whole life in a world made of cardboard. Though one of the teases was correct. She can fly faster owing to her smaller size.
• My Fist Forgives You: Grace Choi of The Outsiders tried this on Supergirl as revenge for freezing during a battle and failing to watch her back, but broke her hand despite her formidable strength.
• My Future Self and Me: In the Pre-Crisis Superman comics, this was declared physically impossible. If you time travelled back to a period where you already existed as a distinct being, you could only observe things as an invisible, intangible phantom. So, in Whatever Happened to the Man of Tomorrow?, when young, teenage Supergirl visits the present and doesn't understand why she's not intangible. It's because it's after her own death. She asks if the contemporary version of herself is visiting another era and Superman, fighting back tears, confirms that "Supergirl is in the past.
• My God, What Have I Done?: In Action Comics #317 Supergirl thinks her friend Lena is dating an enemy spy and she makes them to break up to protect Lena from a future heartbreak. Shortly after Supergirl discovers said boyfriend wasn't an enemy spy and Lena is completely distraught because she thinks she is alone since her only friend has betrayed her. She has this reaction before explaining herself and apologizing to Lena and her lover.
  Supergirl: Oh, what have I done? My meddling has destroyed Lena's whole life. And I called myself her best friend!
• My Greatest Failure: New 52 Supergirl feels guilty for Krypton's destruction, even though she intellectually knows there was nothing she could do to save it.
  Supergirl: And now Krypton's lost forever. There was nothing I could do to save it, but it feels like I'll be trying to make up for that the rest of my life.
• My Horse Is a Motorbike: In the Silver Age Supergirl rode a flying horse for a while. In New 52 story "Be Careful What You Wish For" Kara rides a space rocket bike.
• My Life Flashed Before My Eyes: In DCU Infinite Holiday Special issue #1, Supergirl gets to answer some of the Christmas letters that get sent to Superman. One of those letters is from a girl who wants to see her father. However her father is an asshole who doesn't want his daughter to know he is a screw-up. Supergirl convinces him to clear things up with his ex-wife and daughter through an unorthodox method: she lets him drop from a height of 29,000 feet, hoping he will see his life flashing before his eyes, including changes he would have wanted to change if he had gotten more time.
  Supergirl: "You know the cliché, Fred. Everyone does. "When you're about to die, your life flashes in front of your eyes." But I've been there, and it's crap... isn't it? You see something, though. You see the holes... the missing bits. And all of the things that would have made your life complete, if you had one more year... a day... a second. I don't know what you saw, Fred, but considering you were in free fall for a solid minute, I bet it was an eyeful. Maybe you are a screw-up. A loser. A drunk. But maybe, the piece you're missing... can make you something better. But only if you go to her, and try. Merry Christmas, Fred. Hope it's a good one."
• Mysterious Protector:
  • Silver Age Kara was this for a while. Since she was not supposed to reveal her existence to the world until her hero training was concluded, she secretly patrolled the small town of Midvale at night, trying not to get caught while she stopped crimes and saved people. Midvale locals rumored that they were protected by a "guardian angel".
  • Post-Crisis Kara also did this once. In the DC Universe Holiday Special 2008: A Day Without Sirens, a "Day Without Sirens" is proposed right before Christmas. Commissioner Gordon believes such an initiative is doomed to failure. The criminals of Gotham would never heed such a calling. However, the day proceeds without police sirens. It turns out that◊ Batgirl teamed up with Supergirl and both girls handled covertly all emergency calls during that day. Supergirl ended up completely exhausted, though, making clear she cannot keep it up forever.
    Oracle: Just rest easy knowing you did something special today.
    Supergirl: You really think so? Do you think this one day is going to make a difference?
    Oracle: I know so. Never discount the healing power of a little hope, Kara.
• My Suit Is Also Super:
  • In The Supergirl From Krypton (1959) Alura makes her daughter's costume, saying that it will become indestructible super-cloth on Earth, which explains how Supergirl can fly through a supernova without ruining it.
  • During her Adventure Comics run, Supergirl has to wear -during several issues- a suit made from normal cloth which got torn or burned the whole time.
  • In her second solo book she saves two persons from a cascade of molten steel by using her cape to shield them.
  • In the Post-Flashpoint universe, her costume is Kryptonian armor and nearly as indestructible as her.
• Naked on Arrival: Post-Crisis Kara was found naked in stasis in her spaceship, justified as allowing her to absorb more yellow sun energy. This was retconned out during the Sterling Gates' run.
• Name From Another Species: Inverted by Linda Danvers/Linda Lang/Kara Danvers, who is a Kryptonian alien adopted by humans and given a human name. Her original name is Kara Zor-El.
• Naturalized Name: Pre-Crisis Supergirl used "Linda Danvers" as her Secret Identity but more modern depictions typically avert this trope and have her use her name, Kara Zor-El, instead.
• Neck Lift: Sometimes Supergirl does this when someone pisses her off:
  • In the end of New Krypton, Supergirl does this to Sam Lane after he has successfully engineered the death of New Krypton and the Kryptonian genocide.
  • In the beginning of the Day of the Dollmaker storyline (Supergirl vol. 5 #58), she does this to Toyman◊ during an interrogation when she thinks he's lying. Her Glowing Eyes of Doom stress that she's serious and mad.
  • In Supergirl vol. 5 #13, Kara grabs Simon Tycho's neck when he breaks into her underwater secret base.
  • In the beginning of the Red Daughter of Krypton story arc (Supergirl vol. 6 #28) Kara grabs Lobo's neck◊ and slams him into the nearest wall before punching him through it.
  • In the cover of Red Lanterns #31, Sheko does this to both Supergirl and Bleez.
  • In ''Justice League United #3, Lobo suckerpunched her. She grabbed his neck and lifted him off the ground before punching him across a valley.
  • In Supergirl #36 (first part of the Crucible arc), a stranger alien is testing Supergirl. After finding him she grabs her neck, she flies upwards and demands answers, hinting that it's a very long drop.
• The Needless: Subverted. In most continuities Supergirl doesn't need to eat, sleep or breathe because she draws energy directly from the Sun... but she does it anyway for several reasons: the act makes her feel "normal"; and even if her body can go without resting, her mind needs to have a breather lest she becomes deranged and aggressive.
• Never a Self-Made Woman:
  • On the one hand, Kara is one of the mightiest heroes of her universe; on the other, she is cousin of THE greatest hero of her universe, who mentored her and trained her when she arrived on Earth. Most of versions of the character struggle to walk out of the shadow of Superman, but it's hard to shake the "Superman's younger cousin" label off.
  • Silver Age Superman trained Supergirl when she was a teenager. However she got Character Development, and in The '80s she was a mature, intelligent, confident and extremely powerful young woman and crimefighter who didn't need her cousin's advice or approval (a fact Superman agreed with). Many creatives and fans kept brushing her off and dismissing her as "Superman with boobs", though.
  • Power Girl was constantly trying to prove she didn't need her cousin's mentoring anymore, going so far to tell him she couldn't listen to his well-meaning advice because she needed to follow her own path.
  • Post-Crisis Kara got help and training of Superman, Batman and Wonder Woman when she arrived on Earth, but at the beginning she messed up... a lot. After a monumental screw-up, she thought that her cousin was about to lecture her, and she stated that she was finally learning and she didn't need his validation. To her surprise, Clark agreed.
    Supergirl: No, listen to me. I have to say: I know you love me, and that's why you feel a need to act like my big brother or my dad — But you're neither one! Maybe I need to learn things the hard way. But I am learning! I want to be a family with you and Uncle Jon and Aunt Martha, but I don't need your... validation! I can get by on my own terms, and I'm doing just fine, and —
    Superman: I know.
    Supergirl: ... ... What?
    Superman: I know you're doing fine. That's what I want to talk about. You made one of your worst mistakes ever with Air Force One, but you bounced back from it and did some real good in Washington. And I don't want you feeling like you're in my shadow.
• Never Be a Hero: Played with in the Silver Age. When Kara Zor-El arrived on Earth, Superman insisted that his cousin kept her existence secret for a while during which he trained her. And she wasn't to operate openly until he gave his say-so. However he was kind of justified: she was a recently-orphaned teen Physical God who needed desperately some kind of stability as she got used to her new life and learnt to use her godlike powers, several -imaginary and canonical- stories showed why being Superman's secret emergency-weapon was a good idea, and when he finally revealed her existence to the world, he stressed that his cousin was his partner, no his sidekick.
• Never the Selves Shall Meet:
  • Pre-Crisis Superman stories have time travelers turn into phantoms if they arrive somewhen they already exist. A memorable use of this concept occurs in Whatever Happened to the Man of Tomorrow?, when a young Supergirl has traveled to the story's present (which is shortly after her death in Crisis on Infinite Earths), and casually asks her cousin why this hasn't happened.
    Superman: (looking away) Right now Supergirl is... in the past.
  • Also, the first time Post-Crisis Supergirl met Power Girl, shaking her hand caused Power Girl to suddenly go berserk and attack everyone. This was attributed to them being alternate universe counterparts and it making reality glitch out for a moment or something, but it hasn't happened since.
  • In the New 52 Supergirl issue #19, Supergirl and Power Girl meet up again with very different results, providing both a discussion/lampshading and subversion of this trope. It turns out Power Girl knew about the main DC Earth's version of Supergirl but didn't dare because she didn't want "the universe to explode if we touch." (What actually happens when they do touch is that they exchange memories.)
• New Media Are Evil: Supergirl #60 -part of the Good-Looking Corpse story arc- has a guy launch an attack on the entire DCU metahuman community by creating a Foursquare-esque smartphone app for people to post metahuman sightings so villains can then track them down and attack them.
• New Powers as the Plot Demands:
  • Although Kara was created in the early Silver Age and she was so overpowered like her cousin, she was not liable to come up with new powers every issue. Still she used super-ventiloquism, in Action Comics #258 she used super-aiming and in Supergirl Vol 1 issue #1 she uses Super-Suction Breath to capture a serial killer (she draws out the air out of a cab so the man in there faints).
  • During the Joe Kelly run, Supergirl gained the ability to grow sharp glass shards from her body. Later, it was explained away as Kryptonite poisoning causing her blood to crystallize in the oxygen when she was cut and never mentioned again.
  • Parodied in Way of the World. Kara fights a villain that at one point brags about his new powers:
    Alphonse Luzano: The same technology that merely repairs Shelley's body is capable of so much more! Hyper-Strength! Hyper-Speed! Plasmagenesis! Yes, that's a word! Hyper-sensual perception!
    Supergirl: "Hyper-sensual"?
• New Transfer Student:
  • In Adventure Comics #397, Nasthalthia 'Nasty' Luthor is transferred to Stanhope College, where Linda Danvers alias "Supergirl" takes classes, as part of a plan of her uncle Lex Luthor to lure Supergirl out and kill her. Although their plan failed, 'Nasty' was a pain in the neck of Supergirl for the rest of that run.
  • Most of Supergirl's solo books start with Supergirl being transferred to a new college or school.
• Nice Girl: Pre-Crisis Supergirl was every bit as kindhearted, friendly, and devoted to justice as her more famous cousin; even her later, brattier versions tend to soften over time and show the true depth of her compassion.
• Nigh-Invulnerability: Supergirl has invulnerability, which is part and parcel of the Kryptonian pack. She's survived nukes, planets exploding, getting dumped in a star...
• Ninja Pirate Zombie Robot: In Supergirl Rebirth #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 Endor Holocaust
  • Supergirl does her best to avoid and prevent collateral damage and civilian casualties, but often being a young and inexperienced hero, she sometimes fails. Every time it happens, she feels horribly guilty.
  • In Superman/Supergirl: Maelstrom she was unable to stop a Darkseid minion from bringing a hospital down.
  • In Red Daughter Of Krypton, both Lobo and Worldkiller-1 deliberately choose to fight her in populated cities, knowing that she would hold back not to hurt people.
• No Guy Wants an Amazon: The Brave and the Bold #63 (from 1965) revolves around this trope. Basically, Supergirl and Wonder Woman both get new boyfriends who don't approve of what they do and would be disillusioned if they saw them at work. This leads the two to bend over backwards trying to save lives without losing their boyfriends by lying to them about their actions. Finally, they give it up and return to fighting crime, as they realize that it is what they need to do.
• No-Holds-Barred Beatdown: Being a temperamental Kryptonian teenager, sometimes she's flipped out and trampled villains which tried her patience until she ran out of it:
  • Most famously, she trashed the Anti-Monitor even though he was killing her.
  • In New 52 Supergirl issue 28 she pummelled Lobo until he stopped moving and talking. Not an easy feat.
• Non-Human Sidekick: Krypto The Super Dog, is Superman and Supergirl's Kryptonian pet. He was later joined by Streaky the Super-Cat and Comet the Super-Horse. And a long while later, by Beppo the Super-Monkey. Together, they formed the Legion of Super-Pets.
• No Romantic Resolution: Kara's second solo book ends with her childhood crush Dick Malverne showing up and kissing her all of sudden. Readers never got to see Kara's reaction because the series was abruptly cancelled and the character killed two years later (DC had plans for a relaunch but they never materialized). Several decades later writer Paul Kupperberg revealed that Supergirl would turn Dick down. However, 2004 book Solo #1 picked up that plot thread and solved it after twenty years: Dick confesses that he loves Linda, he always knew she was Supergirl... and he's dying from cancer. They kiss and he passes away later that night.
• No-Sell:
  • Kara was born in the early Silver Age, which means she was invulnerable to anything weaker than a nuke since the beginning.
  • In Action Comics #286 Lex Luthor shot at her with a machine gun even though he should know better than anybody how tough Kryptonians are. Naturally, she stood still while the bullets bounced off.
  • In Many Happy Returns, super-villain rebel shoots a beam weapon at Kara. Kara stands her ground as several laser rays "hit" her and asks if they were supposed to hurt because she is feeling nothing.
• Normal Fish in a Tiny Pond: Supergirl comes across as a Physical God as well as a super-genius to Earth people, but back in Argo City she was a normal, ordinary Kryptonian girl. The only thing remarkable about her were her parents.
• Not Allowed to Grow Up:
  • Supergirl goes forth and back with this, only Kara has been given a few continuities where she actually grew up to be a young woman^note pre-Crisis and an All-Star version as Superwoman, other Supergirls never went past their late teens. This is more prevalent when Power Girl exists in the given continuity, having Supergirl as an adult woman would basically negate Karen's character, as she serves as the adult life for a Distaff Counterpart of Superman.
  • The Pre-Crisis Kara is interesting in that she actually aged only a little slower than real time early on; she was 15 when she first appeared in 1959 and graduated high school in 1964, presumably making her about 18 and went on to graduate college in turn in 1971. She spent the 1970s as a young woman in her early 20's before being retconned back to a 19 year old college student towards the end of the Bronze Age.
• Not Good with Rejection: Kara has an unfortunate record of falling for guys who later turn out to be jerks, super-villains or jerkass super-villains (Powerboy, H'el) who hate when she sees through their ruse and breaks up with them. When it happens, they try to abuse her... and find out what bullying the obscenely super-powered, temperamental girl is a spectacularly bad idea. Powerboy is a case in point: he brutally beat her up, including dragging her face down the side of a skyscraper, and tied her to a bed. She beat him up, dropped a house on him and told him never to bother her again.
• Not in Kansas Anymore: Parodied in Convergence: Adventures of Superman #1. When Superman and Supergirl enter the Phantom Zone, Kara quips: "Are we even in the same universe as Kansas?"
• "Not So Different" Remark:
  • Supergirl and Lobo in the New 52. Although the former is a hero devoted to protect people and her cousin Superman's protegee and the latter is a violent jerkass and Anti-Hero at best, both of them are two angry, lonely aliens and the last of their respective kinds. In Red Daughter Of Krypton, Lobo tells this to Supergirl:
    Lobo: I know, because I was like you once. Bitter. Alone. Mad as Hell. But I didn't let it consume me. I put it to work.
  • Several examples in Supergirl Rebirth:
    • When Kara fights Lar-On, she explains 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.
• Not the Fall That Kills You…: In the 2007 DCU Infinite Holiday Special # 1, Supergirl|wants a guy to have his life flash before his eyes, so she saves him from a 29,000 feet fall.
• Novelization: The Supergirl (1984) movie also had an official novelization by Norma Fox Mazer which delved more deeply into characters like the witch Selene.
• Now, Let Me Carry You: In The Last Days of Superman, Supergirl, the Legion and even volunteers from places as Kandor and Atlantis set out to fulfill all pending tasks which Superman intended to do to protect the future of mankind before his passing.
• Now or Never Kiss: In Supergirl #51 Kara kisses Mon-El as he flies towards Comic Book/Brainiac's ship.

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