What, Where, and Who? Supergirl (2025) #1

Last week saw the debut of Sophie Campbell’s brand new Supergirl ongoing series that is full of references to many pre crisis characters and places both well know and obscure. While the book is perfectly fine to hop into not knowing any of these references, I wanted to take a Quick Look at all the characters, places, and things that Sophie put into the book and briefly discuss their history in the greater Supergirl mythos. This will not be a review of the story or the art but I will go out and say I quite enjoyed it and I can’t wait for next month!

Starting with What? There’s 3 items I’d like to talk about. The Yellow Ring of Nor Kann, the comb, and the hollow tree in Midvale.

The Yellow Ring of Nor Kann first appeared in Superman’s Pal Jimmy Olsen #69. Nor Kann is a Kryptonian scientist that survived the explosion of Krypton by being in Kandor when Brainiac shrunk the city down. From the bottle city, Nor Kann was a common ally of Superman and Jimmy Olsen when they had their Nightwing and Flamebird adventures in the bottle city. In the case of Jimmy Olsen #69 — The Dynamic Duo of Kandor! — Superman and Jimmy encounter a thief that has Superman’s powers and is stealing relics from all over the city. This thief is later revealed to be Nor Kann who was hypnotized by the Superman Revenge Squad. The Squad forced him into making a ring that was able to absorb the solar rays of earth’s yellow sun even in the bottle city and steal the relics. Now broken from his hypnosis, Superman entrusts Nor Kann with the ring to use in emergencies and he held onto it until his death in Action Comics #317. However, it wasn’t until Supergirl (Vol. 1) #2 that the girl of steel added this ring to her collection. This story features her taking one of her professors at Vandyre University into Kandor to attempt to cure his uncurable disease. While in the bottle city, Supergirl finds the ring and uses it to help her face the challenges she faced in a city where she had no powers.

As for Supergirl’s Chromatic Super-Comb, we look forward a few years to Supergirl (Vol. 2) #17. Through the events of the story, Supergirl has to save her boss, Dr. Metzner, after he is kidnapped and taken to a remote island. To arrive under the radar, Supergirl shows up as Linda Danvers and is brought close enough to the doctor to do a quick costume change and tell him “I just borrowed your secretary’s identity for the afternoon,” this then leads the doctor to later exclaim to Linda how striking the resemblance between her and Linda was when Supergirl had on a brunette wig. It is then revealed that Linda had just invented the comb that reacts to her hair that she has charged with color sensitive molecules making the wig no longer necessary for her civilian secret identity. As a fun fact, this is also when she decides to add the headband to her Supergirl costume.

The final entry in our “What?” category is the hollow tree in Midvale. This story features a new boy, Johnny (later revealed to have the real name Price Valzorr), arriving at the orphanage where Linda is living at the time. Through the course of the story we find out that this boy is an alien who has a power that allows him to see in the dark. This superhuman ability causes him to view Linda using her powers that would normally go unnoticed by the other orphans. Supergirl is able to return the alien prince back home and it is revealed that, to cover her absence from the orphanage, she used a Linda Lee robot to stand in for her. This is also the first time the Linda Lee robot is shown, she becomes a frequent tool that Linda uses in her time at the orphanage to help protect her secret identity.

As we move into the Where? category none of the locations seem to be overwhelmingly obscure and most fans will probably recognize the cities of Metropolis, Kandor, and Midvale.

Metropolis has been home to Superman since his initial debut back in Action Comics #1 but wasn’t named until the next year in Action Comics #16. Metropolis is often called The City of Tomorrow and has prominent locations such as The Daily Planet, Lexcorp (currently Supercorp), and Centennial Park to name a few. Metropolis has long been a home to many superheroes but most recently in Action Comics #1050, there seemed to be a large push to have the whole Superman Family operating out of Metropolis including Supergirl.

The Bottle City of Kandor is a prominent piece in Superman’s collection in his arctic Fortress of Solitude. This is a living city from Krypton snatched away from the planet before its destruction by Brainiac. Kandor has been seen in a few different forms since its initial appearance in Action Comics #242. Most recently, staring in the New 52 era of DC Comics, Kandor was show as the bottled city as it normally is. However, instead of the classic living city, this Kandor was full of Kryptonians locked in suspended animation. Most recently, during the events of Absolute Power, the Kandorians had woken from their suspended animation. In the Action Comics Weekly story Phantoms Superman has gone against the wishes of the Kandorian Science Council and has been banished from the city.

Midvale is the Silver Age home of Linda (Supergirl) Lee. It appears along with her in Action Comics #252 and would continue to be her base of operations until she enrolled in Stanhope College near the end of Supergirl’s time as a backup feature in Action Comics. While being depicted in both Supergirl (1984) and the Supergirl television show, Midvale was relatively absent from the comics since Crisis on Infinite Earths until Mariko Tamaki’s Being Super which takes place mostly in the town.

The final question to ask is Who? For this, I’d like to cover 9 characters that appear in this story. In order, as they appear in Sophie’s issue #1; Princess Shark, Krypto, Streaky, Lar-On, Lesla-Lar, Eliza Danvers, Jeremiah Danvers, Dick Malverne, and Clarissa Giltedge.

Princess Shark is a brand new character introduced in this issue but seems to be based on the Superboy villain of King Shark, who first appeared in Superboy (Vol. 4) #0. Princess Shark as she is shown seems villainous but maybe just misguided currently and maybe she can be set on a path to a more heroic life.

The Super-Dog himself, Krypto! A longtime companion of Superman from his boyhood first showing up in Adventure comics #210. Krypto is also a refugee from Krypton and is most often associated with Kara’s big cousin Kal, but she has been adventuring with him quite frequently in recent years especially in the miniseries Supergirl: Woman of Tomorrow.

Looking quite mischievous as he appears here is Streaky the Super-Cat. First appearing in Action Comics #261. As opposed to Krypto, Streaky is a regular house cat that accidentally gets superpowers after being exposed to X-Kryptonite. Streaky has most recently appeared as a common companion to Power Girl in her comic series that started in 2023.

Lar-On is also a refugee from Krypton, but unlike his fellow Kryptonians, Lar-On is a bright pink Werewolf. While not showing up frequently, Lar-On did make quite a few appearances alongside Supergirl in her comic run from 2016 where Supergirl helps him through one of his lycanthropic rampages.

Lesla-Lar, although not named here, is very recognizable by wearing the same green outfit she wears in her first appearance in Action Comics #279 when she concocts a plan to steal Supergirl’s powers and also her role as the Maid of Might. Lesla-Lar is a Kandorian scientist turned criminal who seems obsessed with Supergirl.

Along with Lesla-Lar, the Danvers first appeared in Action Comics #279. The Danvers are the adoptive parents of Supergirl in all their iterations aside from the Supergirl series from the 90’s where Fred and Sylvia Danvers are the biological parents of Linda. While the Danvers have been a constant in Supergirl’s life, it wasn’t until the television series when they would be named as Jeremiah and Eliza. Jeremiah and Eliza would make the jump into the comics around the same time in Superman/Wonder Woman #29 from 2016.

The long time companion and love interest of Supergirl is Dick Malverne. He has shown up in many different forms and shown up quite frequently outside of main continuity that you can read about more in my Dick Malverne blog post. His passing that Kara mentions in this issue is in reference to Dick’s death in Solo #1 from 2004.

The most absurd reference that Sophie seems to pull in is Clarissa Giltedge, who makes just one appearance, in Action Comics #296, where she isn’t even the main focus. The story instead revolves around Dick Malverne thinking that Lena Thorul is secretly Supergirl and trying everything he can to prove it, while also becoming quite infatuated with her much to Linda’s displeasure. Clarissa mostly just serves to wear a set of jewels that sets the plot in motion when robbers break into the costume party – that Dick, Linda, and Lena are attending – to steal them. It’s honestly impressive that Linda recognizes her.

Hopefully you are all a bit more versed in the lore of some of these odd people, places, and things that show up in Supergirl #1. If you noticed any errors or missinformation or have any other thoughts that you’d like to share, feel free to leave a comment or send me an email at daringnewblog@gmail.com.