The Daring New Blog of Supergirl

Author: Kara Lovett

  • Action Comics #252

    Action Comics #252 published in 1959 from DC Comics. At this time, Action Comics was an anthology title and contained 3 other stories, The Menace of Metallo, Little Pete, and Congo Bill Dies at Dawn. In this post I will only be discussing the 8 page story that introduced the Maiden of Might, Supergirl. The story is titled, “The Supergirl from Krypton” and was written by Otto Binder with art by Al Plastino and a cover by Curt Swan and Al Plastino.

    The story opens with a splash page featuring Superman shocked as Supergirl flies out of her rocket and expresses “Look again, Superman! It’s me… Supergirl! And I’m real!”. The story then opens to Clark Kent at the Daily planet who, with his super hearing and x-ray vision, notices a guided missile with a human trapped inside crashing to the earth. Rushing away, after changing to Superman, he witnesses the impossible, a girl exiting the missile unharmed in a costume that matches his own. The girl is Supergirl, who then tells Superman of her origin.

    As Krypton exploded, Argo City was miraculously spared and launched into space along with a bubble of atmosphere. Zor-El informs the citizens that with the air and food machine they have they can continue living indefinitely. Unfortunately his plan was thwarted later that evening as the ground radiated and turned to Kryptonite. Thankfully there was ample supply of lead that was used to protect them from radiation. Thinking he was safe he settled down with Alura In-Ze, who was unnamed at this point, and had a child named Kara Zor-El. They lived many years on Argo after this until a fateful day when asteroids hit the city disrupting the lead shielding. The city now only had a month to live and Zor-El worked tirelessly to build a rocket to send his daughter to Earth. Alura and Kara had seen Earth through a super telescope and witnessed a fellow Kryptonian who survived the explosion of their planet, Superman.

    After finishing her tale, Superman then takes her to Midvale Orphanage and helps her set up the civilian life of Linda Lee where she will acclimate to earth life and train her super powers to one day be revealed to the world as Supergirl. In the orphanage Linda is unfortunatley stuck with a rather worn down room but with the help of some of her super powers (Super Strength, Super Breath, Heat Vision, and X-ray Vision) she gets her room back in perfect shape.

    There are parts of this story that seem rather silly being read over 60 years later, like how Superman refuses to let Kara stay with him, or his somewhat odd though about the L.L. initials “Lana Lang was my girl friend when I was Superboy, and Lois Lane replaced her when I became Superman! By sheer coincidence she picked the same initials… L.L.” I also find it odd that he refuses to let Supergirl be a public figure and forces her to stay hidden even though he was active at the same age as Superboy. All that being said, this is a wonderful story that crams a lot of good storytelling into so few pages and paved the way for one of the most iconic heroes. She would continue as the backup feature in Action Comics in nearly every issue from 252-376. She has continued to have many comic appearances and headlined many of her own books including a new series starting later this year.

    This story has been reprinted many times, first in Superman Annual #1 form 1960. Also in Action Comics #344 (1966), Secret Origins #2 (1973), DC Special Series #19, The Great Superman Comic Collection (1981), DC Silver Age Classics Action Comics #252 (1992), Supergirl Archives Volume 1 (2001), Showcase Presents Superman Volume 1 (2005), Showcase Presents Supergirl Volume 1 (2008), DC Comics Graphic Novel Collection Vol. 21 Superman/Batman: Supergirl (2016), Supergirl the Silver Age Omnibus Volume 1 (2016), Supergirl the Silver Age Volume 1 (2017), Action Comics: 80 Years of Superman (2018), Superman in the Fifties, (2021), Superman the Silver Age Omnibus Volume 1 (2024), and most recently DC Finest: Supergirl – The Girl of Steel (2025).

  • Supergirl in the Multiverse Earth-3

    Earth-3 is the home of the Crime Syndicate of America. A mirror universe where the good guys are bad guys, instead of a Justice League we have a Crime Syndicate who rules over the world who’s only hero is Alexander Luthor.

    The Earth-3 Supergirl is Ultragirl. There have only been a few appearances of this character and include 2 different versions. The first version of this character shows up only briefly in issues 16 and 15 of Countdown to Final Crisis. The second version of this character showed up in issues 4, 5, and 6 of Crime Syndicate from 2021. This Ultragirl is an assistant to Alexander Luthor and eventually joins his Legion of Justice in an attempt to thwart the Crime Syndicate.

    Because she has such few appearances, her origin is relatively unknown but can be assumed it is similar to her Earth-0 counterpart up until she becomes involved with Alexander Luthor.

    As with all my Supergirl in the Multiverse posts, this is my own artwork and it depicts Ultragirl in space floating above Earth-3 and it’s moon, the sun is seen coming up from behind the Earth. A motif of the Ultragirl symbol is in the top right with a number 3 on top of it.

  • Supergirl in the Multiverse: Earth-2

    Earth-2 is the home of the JSA and other golden age heroes of DC Comics. First being shown as an alternate reality in Flash #123 where the golden age Flash comes to Earth-1. Earth-2 would get many other appearances after this including a handful of series including the book that was this character’s first appearance.

    The Earth-2 Supergirl is Power Girl. She first appeared in All-Star Comics #58 which was also the return of the JSA in their own comic after only making guest appearances since the change of All-Star Comics in 1951 to All-Star Western.

    Power Girl shares similarities to her Earth-0 counterpart, she too came from Krypton and is the cousin of her Earth’s Superman. However, she does differ, her name is instead Kara Zor-L and instead of being launched from Krypton as a teenager, she left the planet as a baby and her Symbioship kept her in stasis as she took her long journey to earth and as she was in stasis she learned of Kryptonian life from a virtual reality program built into the ship.

    As with all my Supergirl in the Multiverse posts, this is my own artwork and it depicts Power Girl standing in the foreground. A city scape is shown in the background including Starrware Industries at sunset. In the top right a motif of the Supergirl symbol is shown with white and a tan circle to depict the iconless costume she wears. A number 2 is on top of the symbol.

  • Supergirl (2025) By Sophie Campbell

    DC solicitations for May 2025 were released yesterday, February 20th. A continuation of the Summer of Superman initiative includes many new titles, but this announcement is by far my favorite. The synopsis that is shown in DC Connect issue #58 reads

    “Kara Zor-El has been a key member of the Super-Family in Metropolis, but what happens when she strikes out on her own? Follow Kara as she returns to her roots in Midvale…home of Supergirl! But how could this be?! Our hero has not been back home in years, and the protector of that town has been saving the day for weeks. Can Supergirl stop the imposter before they steal her fresh start and life?”

    This book makes me very excited for a number of reasons. It is the first new Supergirl book in over 3 years and the first new ongoing since 2020 and I have personally been very desperate for new Supergirl stories. I also really like the idea of Supergirl returning to Midvale, Metroplis has gotten very crowded over the last couple years since Clark came back from Warworld. At one point it seemed like there were 8 people living in Lois and Clark’s apartment, so letting at least some of those characters move out into their own homes and cities makes a lot of sense to me. In addition, having read a lot of those early appearances of Supergirl in Action Comics, I’ve grown quite fond of the town of Midvale and the stories that were told there. All that being said, I think the part of this title that has me most excited for is the creative team.

    Sophie Campbell is writing and doing art for this book, she has worked on a number of comics for many different publishers including TMNT and Jem and the Holograms for IDW, and Wet Moon for Oni Press. I have not read much of her work aside from a handful of issues of Jem, but she seems very talented and I’m excited that she is coming to work for DC on my favorite character, Supergirl. In addition to Sophie, colorist Tamra Bonvillain is working on the book. I am much more familiar with her work since she’s done work on Batman Superman World’s Finest and the 2019 Captain Marvel comics. While these 2 creators are extremely talented, I’m mostly excited because they’re both trans women. As a trans woman myself, I love to see myself represented in a media that I love. It brings me a similar joy that I felt when Nicole Maines was cast in season 4 of Supergirl and the stories she helped tell of her character Dreamer both on screen and as she continues to appear in comics. I look forward to reading this book and I’m so excited to see what these creators bring to the character.

  • Supergirl in the Multiverse: Earth-1

    Earth-1, also sometimes written as Earth One. Earth One was a collection of OGN (Original Graphic Novels) that DC published from 2010 to 2021. There are a total of 13 OGN including 3 based on Supergirl. This universe was mostly based around creating new, more modern versions of DC Comics characters.

    The Earth-1 Supergirl is not a character that was introduced as part of the series. Because of this, I have taken some aspects of the stories and characters as presented in the Earth One stories and created my own backstory and character design.

    This Supergirl is Kara Zod-El, daughter of Zod-El who was depicted as Superman’s uncle in this universe. Zod-El was part of a group of Kryptonians that were exploring space to colonize other planets. My idea for a backstory involves her being born on one of these colonies on a planet called Argo. Either because Argo is going to be destroyed, or because she hears of her father’s death, she is rocketed to earth to meet her cousin. The plot would center around Kal trying to teach her the ways of Earth and her trying to hunt down her father’s killer to take revenge.

    As with all of my Supergirl in the Multiverse posts, this is my own artwork and it depicts Supergirl of Earth-1 in a costume designed with elements of Kal-El and Zod-El’s costumes and also depicts some of Earth One’s Metropolis in the background. In the top right there is a motif of the Supergirl S and a white 1 on top of it.