Super Girl

The History of Supergirl:
Her presence has been felt throughout the comic book world and in popular culture for forty years. Her adventures have helped to change the course of public perception towards young women in general, and those rivers continue to be changed by her latest exploits. But Supergirl's evolution from Silver Age supporting character to 'The World's Greatest Heroine' in her own right has been a long and rocky road, fraught with creative highs and frustrating lows. With plenty of miles left for the plucky young heroine to travel, let's look back at how the character has changed and evolved.
Supergirl began as an idea, originally as a way to extend the legacy of 'The World's Greatest Hero', namely Superman, the Man of Steel. Unlike Superman, it's uncertain who actually created her, as this has been attributed to the persons responsible for her first 'official' story in Action Comics #252 (writer Otto Binder, editor Mort Weisinger, and artist Al Plastino). It seemed that in the 50's, anything connected with the character of Superman couldn't possibly go wrong, so the creative forces behind this character started to add new concepts and ideas to his mythos, in order to expand the possibilities for future exploits. Stories of Superman as a boy (known as 'Superboy' stories during this time) had begun in 1949 with a good deal of success, so it was probably only natural that National Comics (DC Comics' trade name in the 50's) began to look at a super-powered female version. Another possibility for the idea may have stemmed from the Captain Marvel mythos, whose Golden Age family included Mary Marvel, 'The World's Mightiest Girl'. There were also a few Superman stories where his paramour Lois Lane would acquire super-powers. Yet there was still some trepidation into adding a super-female, as it would require some major tinkering with Superman's existing mythos (particularly the idea that he was 'The Last Son of Krypton') in order to make the new concept fit.
So the creators responsible for Superman 'tested the waters' with two Super-Girl try-outs, the first one (athletic acrobat Lucy Regent, the Queen of Borgonia) in Superboy #5 (November/December 1949), and the second (created by Jimmy Olsen from a magic totem) appeared in Superman #123 (August 1958). These stories were tentative steps toward the introduction of a recurring character, to see if the comics-buying public would accept such an idea. Reactions were generally positive, thus in Action #252 (May 1959), "The Supergirl From Krypton" made her debut, popping out of a rocket ship smashed into the Earth, and cheerfully saying to a startled Man of Steel, "Don't worry, Superman! I'm alive without a scratch!"
As mentioned earlier, there were problems with Superman's existing mythos to accommodate the arrival of Supergirl. One of those elements was the explanation for Superman's powers. In previous Superman stories, it was explained that the difference in gravity between Earth and Krypton fostered the "abilities beyond those of ordinary men". Another problem would be the explanation for a super-powered young woman to arrive on Earth years after the destruction of Krypton. And third (and most important to DC's editors at the time), this new character should not upset the romantic relationship between Superman and Lois Lane, a key element of most Superman tales.
To resolve the powers problem, it was explained that Earth's yellow sun gave Superman and Supergirl their powers, since Krypton had revolved around a red sun. As for the age problem, it was explained that Supergirl was born on a chunk of Krypton that remained intact after the explosion. A breathable bubble of air kept its few inhabitants alive, and a sheet roll of lead protected them temporarily from Kryptonite, which the soil itself had transformed into. Later, this rather improbable premise was expanded upon to include a whole city encased under a domed shield, with plenty of air, food & water to live on for years. The city would then be named Argo, and on this rock several years later, a daughter would be born to scientist Zor-El and his wife Alura, and they would name her Kara.
Likely for editorial convenience and to prevent fan demands for the two characters to procreate, the Kara Zor-El incarnation of Supergirl was invented as Superman's cousin, thus also preserving the Lois/Superman relationship. As years went by, this aspect of Supergirl's creation would come back to haunt the character, but this will be mentioned later. For the beginnings of her existence, Supergirl complimented Superman well as a sort of 'sidekick character', and her solo adventures immediately became the back-up feature in Action Comics from 1959 through 1968.
In her early stories, Supergirl lived at the orphanage in the small town of Midvale, performing super-deeds unknown to the public as 'Superman's secret emergency weapon'. These were very difficult times for her, as not only did she have to keep her existence a secret, she had to actively thwart any attempt by prospective couples to adopt her in her secret identity of Linda Lee (she had made a promise to Superman to remain an orphan). Supergirl managed to do both, and invented ingenious ways of performing her good work, such as burrowing underground or donning a Superman costume. Sometimes she would make a mistake during an adventure, but afterwards she would ponder and reflect on what she'd learned.
Supergirl remained as 'Superman's secret emergency weapon' for roughly a period of three years. It's been said that the possible reason for this was so Superman editor Mort Weisinger could continue to monitor the Maid of Might's popularity. Had she not clicked with the comics-buying public, it's been speculated that this incarnation of the Girl of Steel would have perished saving her cousin and the world a lot sooner than she did.
When Superman finally revealed Supergirl's existence to the world, she also began to acquire a regular supporting cast, as well as foster parents Mr. & Mrs. Danvers. A regular boyfriend was paramour Dick Malverne (who was known as Dick Wilson in the Midvale Orphanage). Dick would usually play Lois to Linda's Clark, as he would always suspect that she was secretly Supergirl. Lena Thorul, secretly the kid sister of Superman arch-foe Lex Luthor, became Supergirl's best friend. And once in a while, the Girl of Steel would travel through time and have an adventure in the 30th Century with the Legion of Super-Heroes.
Then there were the Super-Pets.... Streaky and Comet. Supergirl acquired Streaky the Super-Cat while she was still at Midvale Orphanage, while Comet the Super-Horse (who was secretly the centaur Byron) arrived shortly after Linda Danvers checked out a dude ranch named after Supergirl. In time, as changes continued to occur for the Girl of Steel (such as entering and leaving college, or taking on a job in San Francisco), most of these cast members eventually faded away.
From her second story until around 1968, Supergirl's main artist was Jim Mooney. Mooney's soft, expressive style helped a great deal in defining the character of Supergirl, who was shown in various moods of joy, sorrow, confusion and reflection, an extremely rare feat for comic book characters at the time. In her adventures, Supergirl would prove not only that young women could achieve the kinds of heroic deeds formerly reserved for men, but the Maid of Might showed that she could still act like a girl while doing them. For the late-50's and much of the 60's, this was considered quite a radical notion, so Supergirl may have unwittingly contributed to dispersing some previously held social mores!
Supergirl was also one of the few comic book characters who seemed to thrive on the changes of the times, and stagnate when she wasn't allowed to change. Towards the end of her Action Comics back-up feature and at the beginning of her Adventure Comics period, Supergirl stories became a bit run-of-the-mill, as Super-editor Weisinger was ending his tenure. However, with the arrival of Mike Sekowsky as editor/writer/artist, the Maid of Might got a major kick-start into the hip and swinging 70's, beginning with a costume contest for the ever-growing legion of fans. This gave Supergirl a constantly changing wardrobe until the end of Sekowsky's tenure, when she settled on the hot pants/ blouse combination that would take her through the next decade.
Sekowsky's yearlong editorship of Supergirl also included a plot device that added heightened drama to the mix. A villain had duped the Girl of Steel into swallowing an anti-superpower pill, which caused her powers to come and go at unwelcome intervals. Supergirl had to augment her natural abilities with various devices developed by her father Zor-El and other scientists in the bottle city of Kandor. Eventually her full powers would return before Supergirl's Adventure run ended, under subsequent editor Joe Orlando.
Orlando continued to capitalize on the excitement generated during the Sekowsky year, but without the plotting errors that sometimes happened in Sekowsky's stories. Orlando also brought in many new talented writers and artists (such as Bob Oksner, Steve Skeates, Len Wein & Marv Wolfman), and this resulted in many of the greatest Supergirl stories ever created.
The character was thrust into her most contemporary setting yet, and this gave her writers the chance to tackle such weighty subjects as sexism, war, abuse of power by 'authority figures', the dark side of oneself, discrimination, loving one's enemy and much more. Artist Oksner's rendering of Supergirl revealed an even greater tenderness than before, with depths of humor, thrills and pathos that had been only hinted at in the past.
Unfortunately, the excitement didn't last when Supergirl was finally given her first self-titled magazine in 1972. The series was doomed to failure even before it began, as the editorial reins were handed from person to person, instead of leaving the successful Adventure Comics creative team at the helm. After another editor suddenly left the company, DC eventually settled upon an editor more familiar with handling romance rather than super-heroics in their books. As a result, Supergirl's adventures instantly became mired in trivial pursuits, with the Maid of Might's personality becoming lost in the debris of hackneyed, meaningless plots and stories. The character never fully recovered from this series' disaster.
After ten issues of squandered potential, Supergirl was dumped into a new 'umbrella' title called The Superman Family in 1974. She shared this book with Jimmy Olsen and Lois Lane, other Superman cast members whose books had also been cancelled, and they rotated the top slot each issue with classic Silver Age reprints filling out the rest. Eventually the book's format was changed to allow for all-new stories, but by then, the pattern had been already cast. Uneven stories, run-of-the-mill villains, and mediocre artwork did nothing to restore Supergirl's stature after her first self-titled flop. Her tales seemed to have no direction to them, and her settings continued to change without reason. She was a student, then a student councilor, then all of a sudden, Supergirl moved to New York to become a soap opera star, all seemingly at the whim of each new set of writers and artists. It didn't matter. The mediocrity continued until the demise of The Superman Family comic in 1982.
After that, Supergirl was given another shot at a solo title, this time scripted by Paul Kupperberg, who wrote some of her stories towards the end of The Superman Family run. Unfortunately, (The Daring New Adventures of) Supergirl began with the unlikely premise of the Maid of Might returning to college in Chicago at the age of nineteen. This move seemingly ignored all of the character's previous stints at college, and the various jobs she held down between them. The series never improved from this premise, turning in what has been regarded as the least compelling set of Supergirl stories ever, many of them virtually interchangeable with those of Superman. The results of this series pointed out the flaw that had plagued the Maid of Might since her inception; in many a comic reader's eyes, she was too closely related to Superman to be taken seriously as a heroine in her own right. Although in her best adventures she was shown to be individualistic and more optimistic in outlook than her 'cousin', Supergirl could never shake off the misconception that she was 'Superman-lite'. So after 23 indistinctive issues, a costume change, guest appearances in the Legion of Super-Heroes during her series' run, and even an anniversary issue with Superman and The New Teen Titans, Supergirl again couldn't generate sufficient reader interest in her own title; and the book was eventually cancelled (during the summer of 1984).
For a time DC Comics toyed with the idea of having Supergirl and Superboy share a monthly book of adventures. Apparently these plans were scrapped following the disastrous US box office performance of SUPERGIRL, the motion picture (despite a winning star turn by actress Helen Slater, a classic case of poor marketing and conception). At the same time in 1984, plans were afoot to involve the entire DC comic book universe in a 50th anniversary event entitled "Crisis On Infinite Earths". It was a crossover story that would touch upon virtually every aspect of the DCU, as it included the streamlining of the conceptional clutter that had built up throughout several years, much of it during the Silver Age of comics. So in retrospect, it perhaps isn't too surprising that two of DC's most notable characters of the Silver Age became targeted for a drastic revamp, those characters being the Flash and Supergirl. Because of the mess that was made of both the Barry Allen and Kara Zor-El incarnations, these characters 'died' helping to save several parallel worlds during 'Crisis', thus also eliminating the excess baggage that had built up around them. At the time of the 'Crisis' mega-series, however, it seemed more like a huge tragedy for either of them to be killed, particularly in the case of Kara Zor-El. Because of this, and the subsequent non-reference to any existence of her in the DCU, there are still those fans that cry out for her return.
But it was not to be, for by the end of 1985, the 'powers that be' at DC Comics were already deciding to revamp many of their 'cornerstone' characters, and even Superman was among them. So the continuation of Supergirl's legacy would lay dormant for a few years, her memory kept alive mostly by faithful fans and a cult following built up from the 1984 movie. It should be noted, however, that DC continued to market Supergirl merchandise in the years between her Silver Age incarnation and her next one.
In 1988, John Byrne's Superman revamp was well underway, an attempt to revitalize the Man of Steel by reverting him back to his roots in the 30's and 40's, as 'The Last Son of Krypton'. Eventually Byrne began to think of a way to bring Supergirl back, but without tying the character to the needless elements which dragged her down previously.
Byrne decided on borrowing from a 'classic' Superboy story from the 50's, in which criminal genius Lex Luthor creates an artificial Superboy from a protomatter matrix. In Byrne's revision, a benevolent Lex Luthor in a 'pocket universe', creates a Supergirl from a protomatter matrix, based off of a Superboy that once existed. This benevolent Lex imprints his Supergirl creation with the memories of his world's Lana Lang (who had previously passed away), and sends her to the present DCU in order to enlist Superman's help in defeating three Kryptonian criminals bent on dominating the pocket universe Earth by means of force. With Superman's aid, the Kryptonian criminals were defeated, but not before the pocket universe's Earth was rendered lifeless. Supergirl herself was scorched horribly, and she reverted to a protomatter state of shock. As she was the last survivor of the 'pocket universe', Superman took Supergirl back to his universe's Earth, where she was cared for by Ma and Pa Kent until she recovered.
It was shortly after this that John Byrne left the Superman books, thus leaving this 'Matrix' incarnation of Supergirl in the confused hands of various writer/artist teams. At least this incarnation's powers were different from Superman's, with telekinetic blasts, invisibility, and shape shifting among her abilities. But it seemed that subsequent creative teams assigned with the character went out of their way to make this incarnation unappealing to the audience that had loved Supergirl once before. Matrix's shape shifting became so exaggerated at times until it was nearly impossible to believe in her 'preferred' gender. In fact, she impersonated Superman on more than one occasion!
And Matrix's characterization remained blandly naÅ’ve and unfocused as she drifted in and out of situations as the Superman books required. For a time, starting in 1992, the Matrix incarnation of Supergirl became enamored of Lex Luthor, who because of a genetics experiment, had taken on the appearance of the benevolent Lex this Supergirl knew from her 'pocket universe'. This lasted a couple of years until Supergirl discovered that Lex had secretly betrayed her, in trying to clone her by using a sample of her protomatter (as documented in the four-issue Supergirl mini-series of 1994).
Shortly after this relationship went sour, Supergirl joined up with The New Titans. By this time (April 1995), the Titans comic was on its creative last legs, and perhaps it was thought that having Supergirl on the team would strengthen its readership, and perhaps even give the character some focus. But it didn't work on both accounts, as The New Titans book didn't even last out the year, and Supergirl was cast adrift again, just as unfocused as before.
At this time it seemed that the Matrix incarnation of Supergirl was no better than her pre-Crisis counterpart had been from 1972-1984. Speculation mounted as to whether this incarnation would last, as the flaws of being an artificial life form with shape shifting abilities conspired to rob her of her characteristic essence. Could this character be saved?
The answer became yes with the inception of a new Supergirl monthly series in the summer of 1996, written by Peter David. Suddenly, characterization and personality became re-emphasized, with intensity not known since Supergirl's Adventure Comics years in the early 70's. The flaws were 'fixed' in a compelling manner, by having the artificial life form sacrifice herself to a dying Linda Danvers, a young woman who could relate to Supergirl in a personal way, but who fell from grace to be caught up in the doings of a satanic cult. The two beings became one, and now Linda Danvers IS Supergirl, the Maid of Might who fights for truth, justice and hope, in order to atone for the sins of the past.
With the change in incarnation came some other changes as well. The shape shifting and invisibility went away, except for when Supergirl changes into Linda and vice versa. And new powers have developed, abilities that are more organic to Supergirl's inner being than in the past. As a more literal 'guardian angel' (a descriptive phrase that Supergirl first used back in Action #252), the Maid of Steel now sports wings of fire that can sense evil and which can teleport herself and others she's with when in need. Another new ability is flame vision from her eyes, which usually manifests whenever she feels a passionate rage welling inside her.
Since Supergirl has become Linda Danvers, her strongest supporting cast ever now surrounds her. In addition to Mr. & Mrs. Danvers, Dick Malverne has returned as Supergirl's main love interest. Linda's longtime best friend is Mattie Harcourt, who has helped to heal rifts between Linda and her parents. Mattie Harcourt also has a romantic interest in Cutter Sharp, a former reporter for the Leesburg Tribune who now acts as Supergirl's public relations manager (due to the controversy that the Maid of Might's arrival has engendered). There's also a new version of Comet, but this time he's not a horse. He's a genetic experiment that merged with the dying Andy Jones, a stand-up comic who was Cutter's ex-wife, thus becoming an angel as well. And then there's Wally, a kid with a baseball bat who claims to be God. He tends to show up around the outskirts of Supergirl's life unexpectedly.
A hallmark of many classic Supergirl stories of the past has been the solving of mysteries, and this series is also chock full of them. Chief among the mysteries is the concept of the 'Earth-born angel', a sub-genre of angel created under very rare circumstances, at which 'there are three at any given time'. Supergirl has discovered through Wally that she has become the Earth-born angel of fire, and has deduced that Comet has become the angel overseeing love. The third Earth-born angel has yet to be discovered, as well as the overriding purpose of these angels. So the mysteries continue to grow.
The setting for Supergirl's new adventures is the small town of Leesburg (partially based on Leesburg, Virginia, but also is an homage to Supergirl's orphanage years, when her secret identity was Linda Lee). Leesburg has a unique surrealistic atmosphere, where often nothing is quite as it seems; and the town's very nature continues to provide a strong challenge to the Girl of Steel's stamina.
Supergirl's latest self-titled book has already outlasted her two previous solo titles combined. The character has also been given her most distinctive artist teams since the early 70's, beginning with Gary Frank and Cam Smith, and continuing on with Leonard Kirk and Robin Riggs. As of this writing, the current Supergirl series shows no sign of slowing down!
But the resurgence of Supergirl-mania doesn't end here. Recently there's been ANOTHER incarnation of Supergirl, courtesy of WB's 'Superman Adventures' animated television show. This Supergirl is Kara In-Ze, the last survivor of Krypton's sister planet Argo, thrown out of orbit when Krypton exploded. Kara survived through a cryogenic sleep chamber designed by her late mother, which was discovered by Superman while on a space mission one day. The Man of Steel takes Kara back to Earth, where she learns to adapt to Earth's customs with the help of Ma and Pa Kent. Yet Kara also develops super-powers under Earth's yellow sun, so she yearns to have adventures like her big city 'cousin' Clark. So she secretly designs a homemade costume, and sometimes while she's visiting Metropolis, she helps out Clark in the fight against evil as the latest incarnation of Supergirl!
While this Kara can get in over her head sometimes, her intentions are always true. And as she continues to learn how to use her newfound 'gifts', perhaps we'll see even more adventures of Supergirl on the small screen in the future. The future seems bright for the Maid of Might!


A Good Source for Superman-related Information:
MediaGeekPlace.com is largely made up of audio content and they've recently posted four Superman-related interviews. They are:
1) Screenwriters David and Leslie Newman discuss the writing of the first three Christopher Reeve films.
2) Ben Affleck discusses playing George Reeves in Hollywoodland
3) Executive producer Al Gough previews season six of Smallville
4) Indie filmmaker Brad Ricca discusses his Jerry Siegel/Joe Shuster documentary "Last Son"
Check-out the Superman audio files are located on the "Voices From Krypton" page at MediaGeekPlace.com.