Kara from Krypton: the First Supergirl

image:Supergirl as Linda Lee on a moped image: Kara changing in Supergirl image: young Supergirl flying through space

Supergirl first appeared in 1959 in Action Comics #252, the same DC comicbook in which Superman debuted. She operated during the Silver and Bronze Ages (1) of superhero comics. Supergirl was Superman’s cousin Kara from Argo City, Krypton (2). Her parents were Alura (‘Allura’ in early stories) and Zor-El, Superman’s uncle. “Sole survivor of the doomed planetoid which had hurtled away intact from an exploding Krypton – with a huge bubble of air conveniently attached – Supergirl crash-landed on Earth, just as her famous cousin originally had, after Argo City itself fell prey to deadly green-kryptonite radiation.” (3) She had a red, yellow and blue uniform emblazoned with the family crest, a secret earthly identity (Linda Lee Danvers), and standard Kryptonian superpowers. Supergirl was only 15 when she first landed on Earth, but over the course of the next 25 years she would mature into a young adult and acquire a suprising amount of life experience. Although she was a teenager, she was never a teenage sidekick. Her adventures were her own. Superman was a distant authority figure who would visit from time to time during her high school years (while keeping obsessive tabs on her every move). But once she graduated and went off to college, she lived on her own with almost no adult supervision and generally operated independently.

The Great Superman Book (Michael L. Fleisher and Janet E. Lincoln, 1978, volume three in the The Encyclopedia of Comic Book Heroes) has this to say about Supergirl:

On Earth, like any Kryptonian survivor, she acquired super-powers identical to Superman’s. Kara assumed the secret alternate identity of Linda Lee, an orphan at the Midvale Orphanage, concealing her blond hair beneath a brunette wig and functioning as Supergirl only in secret (at Superman’s insistence) until 1962. She made her debut to the world in Action Comics #285. Adopted by Fred and Edna Danvers, she attended Midvale High School as Linda Lee Danvers, graduated in 1964, and then went on to attend Stanhope College on a scholarship, graduating in 1971.

Supergirl’s alternate identity is a closely held secret, but it is known to Superman, to her foster parents the Danverses, and to the Legion of Super-Heroes, of which she served as a member until resigning her membership at the age of twenty-one. Supergirl is fully aware that her cousin Superman is secretly Clark Kent. Like all Kryptonian survivors, Supergirl is vulnerable to kryptonite. Comet the Super-Horse is Supergirl’s pet and equine companion. Streaky, the orange cat that acquires temporary super-powers as the result of its exposure to ‘X-kryptonite’, is Linda Lee Danvers’ pet cat.

Supergirl’s early adventures in Action Comics are short, simple, and formulaic. The stories started becoming more complex and interesting during her college years, especially once she moved into her own book in Adventure Comics. The late sixties and early seventies marked a time of increased focus on character development and social issues in DC Comics, and while the results were mixed depending on the creative team, there was nothing dull about Supergirl’s 70’s run in Adventure, her own 10-issue Supergirl series, and her eight-year tenure in Superman Family. Kara had a very full career as Linda Lee Danvers: after graduating from Stanhope University with an unknown degree, she took a job as a camera operator and part-time journalist at a San Francisco TV station. Her working relationships at that job were certainly a challenge, especially with Lex Luthor’s niece Nasthalthia “Nasty” Luthor there! A year later she went back to school as a grad student to study drama. Her next and longest position was as a student counsellor at a progressive high school – perhaps her undergrad was in social science? She made use of her drama training when she quit that job too (she always quit her jobs due to poor working conditions for some reason), upon receiving an offer to star in daytime television. Surprisingly, her last series had her returning to college once again, this time studying psychology. After 23 issues the second Supergirl series was cancelled, only a few months before her theatrical debut in 1984. DC intended to place Supergirl in another series, but someone in editorial must not have liked her, because she was shockingly killed off in the Crisis on Infinite Earths which herelded the end of so many female heroes. But Kara had far too strong a presence in DC comics to ever be forgotten.

image: 1970's Supergirl wearing long red boots image: Supergirl talking to an alien girl with gun image: Linda Lee Danvers using her X-ray vision

Timeline

See Comicbooks: Supergirl/Kara for series timelines and issue downloads

Action Comics #252 (May 1959) – Supergirl lands on Earth. Placed in Midvale Orphanage by Superman under strict orders not to reveal her superpowers or secret identity. She adopts the identity of Linda Lee and hides her blonde hair beneath a pig-tailed, brunette wig.
Action Comics #276 (May 1961) – Supergirl joins the Legion of Super-Heroes. She would leave at age 21 (the normal age limit for members is 18).
Action Comics #279 (Aug 1961) – Kara’s superpowers are stolen by Lesla-Lar of Kandor, who is her physical double. No longer needing to protect her secret identity, she allows herself to be adopted (permanently this time!) by Edna and Fred Danvers, becoming Linda Lee Danvers. She also changes her hair style in this issue.
Action Comics #280 – becomes a student at Midvale High School.
Action Comics #283 – regains her powers thru magic by Mr. Mxyzptlk. Her powers permanently returned on their own by the end of Action Comics #284.
Action Comics #285 (Feb 1962) – Kara’s secret identity as Supergirl is revealed to her foster parents, and then to the world.
Action Comics #309-310 (Feb-March 1964) – Discovers her Kryptonian parents are still alive in the “Survival Zone” and builds a machine with the help of Fred Danvers to bring them back safely. Alura and Zor-El settle in Kandor, a bottled city that Superman keeps in the Fortress of Solitude. When the city in the bottle is later enlarged, they resettle on New Krypton/Rokyn.
Action Comics #318 (Nov 1964) – Graduates from Midvale High School, winning a four-year scholarship to Stanhope College. She leaves home to study at Stanhope, joining the Alpha Lambda sorority soon after she arrives. Her major is never revealed.
In 1969 Supergirl “graduates” from her back-up strip in Action Comics (final appearance in issue #376, May ‘69) and takes over top billing in Adventure Comics #381 (June 1969). With more pages to work with, and a company-wide move towards more character development, Adventure marked the beginning of more complex Supergirl stories.
Adventure Comics #379 (Nov 1970) – Supergirl changes her costume for the first time, when her uniform is damaged. She will switch costumes a number of times over the next year and a half, before settling upon the classic 1970’s costume (later with boots and altered shorts).
Adventure Comics #404 (March 1971) – Supergirl is given a pill that is meant to render her powerless, but instead her powers begin to malfunction intermittently, leaving her powerless at the most inopportune moments. Supergirl’s problem with her “come-and-go powers” would continue for the next two years.
Adventure Comics #406 (May 1971) – graduates Stanhope College and moves to San Francisco to take a job at KSF-TV as a camerawoman and freelance journalist. Quits in her final appearance in Adventure (#424, Oct 1972).
Nov 1972 – Supergirl gets her first self-titled series (with Zatanna starring in a back-up strip). In Supergirl #1 she leaves San Fran, after quitting her job, to enroll in nearby Vandyre University (which is stated as being 10 miles away) as a graduate student in drama. Takes up residence in the Delta-Zan dorm.
The Superman Family series debuts in May 1974, continuing the number from Jimmy Olson with the first issue being #164. Reprints of Silver Age Supergirl appear in the book; Supergirl appears in new stories starting with issue #165, June-July 1974. This takes place between Supergirl #9 (Jan 1975) and Supergirl #10 (Sep-Oct 1975), which would be the final issue of that series.
Superman Family #165 (June-July 1974) – completes her drama course at Vandyre and moves to Florida to begin her new job as student advisor at the New Athens Experimental School.
Superman Family #208 (July 1981) – Supergirl quits her position at New Athens to become an actress in the TV soap Secret Hearts, in New York City.
Sep 1982 – Superman Family is cancelled to make way for Supergirl’s second series, Daring New Adventures of Supergirl. Lois Lane appears in a back-up strip.
Nov 1982 – Supergirl begins her second self-titled series, Daring New Adventures of Supergirl, by going back to college in Chicago to enroll in the psychology department at Lake Shore University. The series is retitled Supergirl with issue #13.
Sep 1984 – Supergirl vol. 2 is cancelled with issue #23. DC intended to start a new title starring Supergirl and possibly Superboy. The final page features an epilogue in which Dick Malverne makes a surprise appearance, with promise of romance to come. An editorial note promises the reappearance of Supergirl in a new series, but sadly this was not to be.
1985 – DC Comics publishes the 12 part series Crisis on Infinite Earths. Supergirl heroically sacrifices her life to save Superman and, by extension, all of existence in Crisis on Infinite Earths #7 (Oct 1985).

Sources include The Superman Super Site, Supergirl’s Short Biography, and the “Supergirl’s Career” feature in Superman Family #165, page 50.

The Crisis on Infinite Earths

In 1985, DC Comics ran a 12-issue crossover storyarc called “Crisis on Infinite Earths” which was designed to reduce the increasingly complicated DC superhero multiverse, which featured multiple versions of the same characters on Earth-1, Earth-2, etc. into a single, streamlined universe with one, revised timeline. Superman’s story in particular was to be simplified. The multiple Earths were merged and many characters died and memories of them erased in the minds of the survivors. History was retroactively rewritten, and while some characters who died were remembered by those who survived the Crisis, all memories of Supergirl’s existence were erased.

The Crisis was a critical turning point in all of DC’s books, and is particularly important to Supergirl’s history as it was the event in which she died. Published as both a hardcover and paperback oversized graphic novel. This is one book that DC Comics has kept in print over the years, as it redefined the entire DC Universe.

The previous Golden Age, Silver Age, and Bronze Age had all made changes to Superman’s origin story and enhanced or reduced his abilities, but the Modern Age begun by Crisis was a complete reboot. In this new version of Superman, a DC company mandate stipulated that Superman be the sole survivor of Krypton with no relatives or superpets. There was no Supergirl from Krypton in this universe, and no one remembered Argo City. Yet the souls of those who had existed pre-Crisis were not destroyed. Supergirl’s spirit lived on, perhaps to be reborn in another form.

A new Supergirl appeared just three years after Kara died, and in keeping with the revised Superman mythos, she was not biologically related to him. Her story starts in Matrix: A New Supergirl. Nearly twenty years after Kara’s death and the rewriting of history, a reinvented version of the last daughter of Krypton was introduced to the post-Crisis universe: Kara II.

Footnotes

1. Supergirl debuted during the “Silver Age” of DC Comics and this original version of the character is frequently referred to as the “Silver Age Supergirl”, although her 1970’s-80’s adventures took place during the Bronze Age. The first appearance of Superman in 1938 marked the beginning of the first, so-called “Golden Age” of American superhero comics. The term Silver Age places a character and her stories within a specific period in American culture, "the era when women were portrayed as victims, not having jobs outside of homes, passive, needing to be rescued; women who were sexually independent were not to be trusted. The golden age came out of the pulps and the pulps were by men and for men and therefore had little to no interest in women as anything except as an adjunct to men’s desires." (Barb Lien-Cooper, "Any Comment?") Not much has change about this view of women as superhero comics continue to be a by men, for men dominion. Female characters and superheroines can be “strong and assertive” only while remaining conventionally “sexy” – i.e. existing for the consumption of men.

The “Post Silver Age” or “Bronze Age” in DC Comics was from 1972-1986, and ended with the history-changing “Crisis on Infinite Earths” comicbook event (1985) in which the Silver Age Supergirl and many other main characters died. The Modern Age (1986-present) marks a distinct break with the ages that preceeded it, as DC Comics officially relaunched their comicbook line and began revamping and reintroducing old characters into the “new” continuity.

2. According to canon, Kara’s full name is “Kara Zor-El”. That is how she refers to herself, and DC continues to use this patriarchal naming convention for the relaunched Supergirl. I think it sounds dumb. Some modern readers have taken to calling her Kara-El, which is still a patrilineal naming convention, but slightly less odious and peculiar sounding than having her father’s full name pasted on.

3. Diana Shutz, The Supergirl Archives, Volume 1, 2001.