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Supergirl <span class="SFPTagline"> From SCIFIPEDIA </span>
Supergirl is a fictional comic book super-hero character owned by DC Comics. Supergirl is Superman's cousin from the planet Krypton who came to Earth with the same powers and vulnerabilities as the Man of Steel. Though she is physically younger than her cousin, she is just as powerful.
The Silver Age SupergirlThe creation of Supergirl was one of the defining moments of the Silver Age of Comics. When Krypton is destroyed, a chunk of it flies off intact, including people and buildings. This is Argo City. The Kryptonians living there manage to create an artificial atmosphere and get lead shielding down to protect them from the ground which, like all of Krypton at the time of its destruction, has turned into kryptonite. Among Argo City's inhabitants is Zor-El, brother to Jor-El, and his wife Alura. Soon, Alura gives birth to a daughter named Kara. As Kara grows up, she watches her cousin Kal-El's adventures on Earth through high tech long range telescope. She fantasizes about joining him there as a partner. Reaching the age of fifteen, Kara's wish was about to come true, but not as she would have hoped. When a meteor shower destroys the lead shielding, it became evident that the inhabitants of Argo City would soon die of kryptonite poisoning. Like his brother before him, Zor-El manages to launch his only child to Earth just in time to save her. The main difference being that this Kryptonian would arrive on Earth a full grown teen-ager. He dressed her in a costume based on Superman's, anticipating their future relationship.  The Man of Steel is shocked and delighted when Supergirl landed on Earth and tells Superman her story. He immediately jumps into the role of surrogate parent. Since Linda is new to Earth and her powers, he decides that they must keep her existence a secret from the world until he deems her ready. He creates for her the identity of Linda Lee (complete with brunette wig instead of glasses) and registers her at Midvale Orphanage. There Kara begins using her powers in secret to help people, always being careful not to reveal her existence. It was at this point that she is recruited by the time traveling Legion of Super-Heroes, as her cousin was before her. Interestingly enough, it is during her second visit to the Legion (in 1961's Action Comics #276) that she meets Brainiac 5, who begins hitting on her immediately (in a polite. early 1960s, way). Soon she is adopted by Ted and Edna Danvers. As Linda Danvers, she attends Midvale High School. There she meets Dick Malverne, who would be her teen-aged sweetheart, as Lana Lang had been to young Clark Kent in Smallville. After graduating high school, she attends Stanhope College. Eventually, in Action Comics #285, Supergirl's existence is revealed to the world. Supergirl's series continued as a second feature in Action Comics.  Supergirl in the Bronze AgeThe Maid of Might eventually got her own short-lived comic in the 1970s, then again in the 1980s, and was also featured in Adventure Comics for a while. In The Bronze Age of Comics, Supergirl's life and costume changed in many ways, as creators sought to define her for this new era. Their inability to do this in a commercially or critically successful way, probably contributed to what was to happen to the character next. In 1985, DC Comics began what was surely their most ambitious project ever. The Maxi-Series Crisis on Infinite Earths would attempt to simplify the DC Universe in many ways, essentially restarting and reshaping the continuity of all the DC characters. One part of the plan was to have Superman be the only survivor from Krypton. To achieve this, Kara was doomed to die during the Crisis, her existence eventually erased from the continuity as though she never existed. First Modern Age (Matrix) Supergirl The longest running Supergirl character other than Kara from Krypton was the artificial matrix creature created by a heroic Lex Luthor from an alternate "pocket universe". This "Matrix Supergirl" had tremendous strength and could fly. Otherwise, her powers were different than Superman's and included telekinesis, invisibility, and shape-shifting. She became a supporting character in all the Superman related books after the Silver Age Supergirl was wiped from the continuity. When everyone on her pocket universe Earth is killed, Superman takes her in, and makes her a member of his extended family as he later does with the Modern Age Superboy. She even stays with his parents, Jonathan and Martha Kent, while trying to decide what she was going to do with her life on Earth. The Kent's call her "Mae" for short. This character had one-shot specials and a mini-series of her own, and even meets the Legion of Super-Heroes. She falls under the spell of Lex Luthor for a while, until she finds out that he really just wanted to use her as a weapon against Superman. She eventually had her own comic book written by Peter David. In this series, she is merged with dying teen-ager Linda Danvers, and the two became linked, creating a Supergirl with a Linda Danvers identity, like in the Silver Age of Comics. She even dates a guy named Dick Malverne. Peter David is an excellent writer, and many comics fans loved this comic, if not the Supergirl character herself. The character took a lot of twists and turns in the series, and had a costume change that made her a very unique and interesting Supergirl. This series lasted a full 80 issues, before the character was retired. Second Modern Age Supergirl With the Modern Age of Comics upon us, it was eighteen years before a Kara from Krypton was allowed back into the DC Universe continuity. Finally, in 2004, the powers that deemed Superman remain the only Krypton survivor, relented. This new Supergirl’s origin was similar, but different, than the original. According to her, unlike the Science Council, Zor-El believed his brother Jor-El’s claims that Krypton would explode. A scientist as well, Zor-El built a ship to save his teen-aged daughter from Krypton’s destruction. He placed Kara into the rocket, but Krypton blew before the rocket could ever take off. The rocket with the girl in it somehow became buried in an asteroid that was propelled across the galaxy, with all the other radioactive debris that was the remains of Krypton. Within the insulated rocket, Zor-El’s ship kept Kara in suspended animation, bathed in yellow sun radiation from mysterious sun-stone crystals. Eventually, the rock broke apart and fell to Earth along with a meteor shower of kryptonite. While Batman and the rest of Earth’s heroes scoured the planet for the kryptonite to protect Superman, Batman found the rocket at the bottom of the ocean. Her memory fractured from the experience, an already super-powered Kara emerged from the ship, united with her cousin Kal-El at last. Kara Zor-El was taken to Paradise Island by Wonder Woman and trained in combat while she contemplated her future. She chose to follow in her cousin's footsteps to be a hero, and Martha Kent made her a costume from the blankets in her rocket, as she had done for her adopted son Clark years ago. Supergirl was announced to and welcomed into the super-human community. It seems also that this Supergirl has spent a subjective year in the future, a member, like her Silver Age counter-part, of the Legion of Super-Heroes. Supergirl now has her own comic book, and also appears every issue in a book titled Supergirl and the Legion of Super-Heroes. All well and good, but there may be more to Supergirl’s origin than at first appeared. Batman was immediately suspicious, having “a bad feeling” about her. Harbinger, a meta-human with the power to predict great disasters, has said of Supergirl that “her presence will bring death and destruction.” Even Krypto tried to attack her. Recent revelations in the current Supergirl storyline indicate that Zor-El may have sent Kara to Earth to kill Superman, thereby saving our planet from a "curse on the House of El". Stay tuned. Other SupergirlsBefore, after, and between the appearances of these three Supergirls, there have been other comic book characters who called themselves Supergirl, or something similar. Before the Silver-Age Supergirl, Clark Kent was magically changed into a girl in Superboy Vol. 1 #78. Lois Lane became Super-Woman back in Action #60 (1943). Jimmy Olsen magically calls a Super-Girl into existence in Superman #123 (1958). Power Girl began as an Earth-Two version of Kara. When Earth-Two was destroyed during DC Comics' Crisis on Infinite Earths (1985), Power Girl was somehow carried intact into the new united universe. She is now the sole survivor of both the Earth Two Krypton and the entire parallel universe that was her place of birth. Most recently, there was a Supergirl(Cir-El) that claimed she was from a possible future where she was Superman's and Lois Lane's daughter. None of these characters (excepting Power Girl) are around anymore, and should not be confused with the actual girl from Superman's Krypton. Other MediaSupergirl: The Movie (1984) Starred Helen Slater as Supergirl, Simon Ward as Zor-El, Mia Farrow as Alura, and Faye Dunaway as the villain. Good production quality, and not a terrible adaption of the character. A composite of the two Modern Age Supergirls appeared in the last few seasons of the Justice League animated series (2001-2006). External LinksCategories: Superhero characters | Invulnerable characters | Superman characters | DC Comics characters | Flying characters | Super speed characters | Alien characters | Superhuman strength characters | Legion of Super-Heroes | Otto Binder characters | Curt Swan characters | John Byrne characters | Jeff Loeb characters | Michael Turner characters | Kryptonians | Supergirl | DC Comics series | Enhanced sensory characters
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