Superhero Origins: Supergirl

Superhero Origins: Supergirl

She’s the girl of steel. Welcome to Watchmojo.com, and today we will explore the origins of Kara Zor El, otherwise known as Supergirl.

As with most comic book characters, there are often re-imaginings and different versions to a character’s past. We have chosen to primarily follow the storyline which unfolded in 1958’s Superman #123, which was expanded upon in 1959’s Action Comics #252 and 1985’s Crisis on Infinite Earths #7.

While many fans will recognize the female counterpart to Superman as his cousin Kara Zor-El, she was not the first to dawn the costume.

This in fact was a different, unrelated and short-lived Supergirl. She appeared after Superman was rewarded with an Native American relic after saving an archeologist. Giving it to his pal Jimmy Olsen, Jimmy soon discovered that the totem had granted him three wishes, all of which could be undone by rubbing the totem’s stone.

Ever grateful to Superman, he used his first wish to create a female companion for Superman with all of his very same super-powers.

Zapping into existence, she sought out the man of steel, and explained how she had been created by Jimmy to be his lifelong partner.

Soon enough Supergirl’s infatuation caused her to uncover Superman’s secret identity as Clark Kent, which she inadvertently revealed to Lois Lane. Angry and annoyed, Superman asked her to take a time out from helping him.

Unwilling to leave him alone, Supergirl watched him and saved his life by intercepting Kryptonite used by criminals. Weakened by her exposure to the toxic substance, she used her remaining strength to crawl to Jimmy Olsen’s home, where she asked for him to undo his wish. Professing her love for Superman, she was blinked out of existence rather than be allowed to die of Kryptonite poisoning.

The next year, the Supergirl identity was completely rebooted. This time she was made to have been a fellow Kryptonion survivor who, like Superman, had arrived Earth in a space ship after the planet was destroyed. Kara had survived the planet’s destruction since the section of Krypton where she lived had broken cleanly away from the planet’s debris.

While Kara and a number of her fellow Kryptonians had survived, the ground had transformed into harmful Kryptonite, forcing the inhabitants to cover it in lead. When Kara had reached her teenage years, a meteor strike caused the shielding that protected their home to fail.

This prompted her scientist father, to create a rocket in the hopes of sending her to another world before the atmosphere became lethal. While looking for a suitable planet through the telescope, Kara’s mother spotted Superman on Earth and learned that he was a Kryptonian as well. Making her a matching costume, she was sent off to Earth while the rest of her doomed community perished.

After meeting Superman on Earth, the two Kryptonians discovered that they were in fact cousins since their respective fathers Jor-El and Zor-El had been brothers.

Rather then take her home with him, Superman dressed Kara in Earth clothes and a pigtail wig, and took her to an orphanage in the town of Midvale.

Living under the Earth name Linda Lee, she was instructed to keep a low profile and to learn to live as an ordinary earth girl until she was ready for greater things.

Quickly tiring of keeping her powers hidden, she began going on secret patrols at night, acting as the town’s guardian angel.

Eventually, future issues did feature Supergirl helping Superman on a regular basis. The character was also given a badly received live action film, in which she was shown to have traveled to Earth to retrieve a missing power source from a witch.

Following this, the comics quickly had her sacrifice herself to save Superman during the Crisis on Infinite Earths series, resulting in a new continuity in which she didn’t exist.

Over time, several new non-Kyrptonian Supergirls have been created, although Kara Zor-El did return to the franchise in 2002. That reboot paved the way for several animated appearances and role on Smallville. This, naturally, tweaked her backstory again, this time explaining that she had been sent to Earth to watch over Kal-El until he reached maturity, but arrived late due to an error in rocket trajectory and speed.

Regardless of which backstory and continuity you follow, Supergirl remains a comic book favorite and prominent super heroine.

Are you a fan of the little blue schoolgirl? For more in-depth looks into the origins of your favorite comic book characters, be sure to subscribe to WatchMojo.com.