Streaky the Supercat is a longtime friend, companion, and fellow superhero of Supergirl. He dates all the way back to Supergirl’s first year of publishing in Action Comics #261. Streaky, unlike Krypto, is a normal earthborn cat that only gained his powers from a stray piece of X-Kryptonite. X-Kryptonite was a substance Linda (Supergirl) Lee created when she was trying to create a way for her and her cousin to become immune to Kryptonite. X-Kryptonite was seen as a failure to Linda so she tossed it out her window which then got tangled up in a ball of yarn. Streaky, named by Linda for the iconic white streak in his fur, was a stray cat that turned up at Midvale Orphanage and immediately took a liking to Linda. One day Streaky found a ball of yarn and began playing with it not knowing it was the same ball of yarn that contained the X-Kryptonite which then gave Streaky super powers.
Streaky had many super powered adventures with Supergirl during this time and up until the Crisis when the universe got reset. This version of Streaky only had powers for a limited time and would have to be exposed to the X-Kryptonite, never-the-less he was still able to save the day along with Supergirl and the Legion of Super-Pets. Streaky was also always able to tell who his owner was whether she was dressed as Linda or as Supergirl.
Streaky is one of the most consistent supporting characters to Supergirl appearing in many iterations alongside Supergirl. In the post crisis universe there were a couple non powered versions of Streaky. During the Volume 4 Supergirl title a cat named Streaky appears twice and is a cat Supergirl saves from trying to fly. Later on once the post crisis Kara Zor-El shows up, she gets an orange and white tabby cat named Streaky that lives with her in her apartment. More recently, Streaky has shown back up again with his super powers back intact. Most recently he has been shown living with Power Girl and Omen in Power Girl’s current ongoing title, he does not seem to have to re-up his powers with X-Kryptonite every time he wants to use them anymore and instead just always has powers. While mainly living with Power Girl, he still goes out and has adventures on his own or with the Super-Pets.
Outside of main continuity, Streaky has also shown up in elseworlds titles like Tiny Titans and Cosmic Adventures in the 8th Grade. He also shows up quite often in TV shows such as Krypto the Superdog, Superman: The Animated Series, Justice League Action, and even showed up in an episode of the CW Supergirl show in his only appearance as a cat that isn’t orange (a black cat in this version).
I have often seen Streaky referred to as a girl cat, I assume because of his association with Supergirl. In my research I have only found two instances where Streaky has been depicted as a girl cat though. The first appearance of Streaky in the post-Flashpoint universe was in the first annual of Super Sons from 2017. Streaky is referred to with feminine pronouns and has a bit of a love triangle between Krypto, her, and Ace the Bat-Hound. The second was a bit more recently in the 2024 Super-Pets Special: Bitedentity Crisis. Once again Streaky is referred to with feminine pronouns and is saved by Bitewing along with the other Super-pets. Because of the timing of these two books along with the current ongoing Power Girl series we can either assume that there are 2 Streakys currently running around the DC universe with super powers, or more likely, the writers may not have checked if Streaky was a boy cat or a girl cat when they wrote these silly Super-Pets stories. A third possibility, which is my favorite, is that the Super-Pets of modern comics (including Detective Chimp) don’t realize that Streaky is a boy and assume that since she is the pet of Supergirl, Streaky is also a girl.
I am aware there are other appearances of Streaky that I didn’t mention and perhaps my research overlooked other instances where he was depicted as a girl, but I hope you enjoy this brief look at my favorite member of the Super-Pets.
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