Located 25 wavelengths from Earth-0 exists a world full of America’s Best Heroes, this is Earth-25. Earth-25, or Earth-ABC as it’s sometimes known, is home to the heroes originally published under the America’s Best Comics imprint like Tom Strong, Promethea, Cobweb, Johnny Future, and the subject of today’s post; Tesla Strong. America’s Best Comics began publishing in 1999 under the Wildstorm imprint and was a home for many original stories by Alan Moore like Tom Strong, Promethea, and The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen. The line would eventually end at Moore’s hand in the pages of Promethea a few years after. While the line as a whole dried up around this point, it wouldn’t be marked totally defunct until 2010 when Wildstorm shut down. DC, having acquired Wildstorm and it’s properties, then took over rights to the publishing rights of the comics and has since used Tom Strong and the Strongmen in a few stories most notably when they showed up in the pages of The Terrifics a few years back.
Tesla Strong, while youthful looking, was actually born in the 1950s and thanks to the Attabar Teru plant Goloka Root her aging has slowed dramatically allowing her to stay youthful and live longer than most humans. Aside from the extended lifespan, Tesla doesn’t have any powers but that doesn’t make her any less formidable than any other Science Hero. She is vastly intelligent and through training with the rest of the Strongmen she has peak human perfection. Her parent’s are Tom Strong, this world’s most prominent hero, and Dhalua, a native from Attabar Teru. Tesla makes her first appearance in Tom Strong #1 and continues to have many adventures alongside her Dad and by herself in the pages of that same comic. She often takes over patrolling her hometown of Millennium City when her father is off planet or otherwise preoccupied and has since settled down with a Salamander, fiery beings that thrive in hot climates, she met in a volcano named Val Var Garm.
As with all my Supergirl in the Multiverse posts this is my own artwork. This drawing depicts Tesla Strong with a jetpack strapped to her back. She is flying through the air above Millennium City shown below including cable cars and The Stronghold. There is a motif of the Strongmen’s white triangle in the top right with a number 25 on top of it.
Recently, to coincide with the release of Justice League Unlimited and the All In initiative that DC has been pushing, DC has been producing Justice League membership cards that comic book shops have been giving out as freebies. A couple weeks back a Supergirl Justice League membership card was released and I thought it would be fun to take a look at all the information on it and while we’re at it take a look at some of my other Supergirl trading cards from my collection. This is by no means an exhaustive list of all Supergirl trading cards and more just a casual peak into my personal collection.
Starting with the oldest card in my collection is this card with artwork from the cover of Supergirl (Vol. 2) #1. The first half of this series had the full title of “The Daring New Adventures of Supergirl” that you can see as part of the logo at the top. This card was bundled with a small die-cast Supergirl figure released by ERTL in 1990 along with a collection of other DC characters. I personally found this figure on a sale day at my local comic shop where it was still with its die-cast figure still in its packaging. There are some odd inconsistencies with this card and figure combo that I’d like to talk about before going too much into the specifics of the text on the back. Probably most notable to people who may pick up this figure is that the costume Supergirl is wearing on the card is not the costume she wears as a figurine. The figurine instead matches the costume Kara wears in the back half of the series after it drops the “Daring New Adventures” from it’s title. The other inconsistency is from the years listed on the back that I can only assume is a copy editing error. “She landed her own series in 1982” isn’t correct, The Daring New Adventures of Supergirl began in 1982, however Supergirl (Vol. 1) came out a decade prior in 1972. Lower down on the card it reads “Issue released November 1972” the way this is listed seems to be referring to the image on the front side of the card which is the cover to Supergirl (Vol. 2) #1 but the date listed matches the cover date to Supergirl (Vol. 1) #1. The text on the back itself gives a brief rundown of the character mentioning that she is the cousin to Superman and that she died in some ultimate battle that we know as the Crisis on Infinite Earths.
Moving forward into the 21st century is actually the most recent card I’ve added to my collection. The VS System of playing cards is a trading card game that had cards that you could collect and battle based on heroes from comics both DC and Marvel. The VS System is something I got introduced to via my Language Arts teacher in 6th grade because she knew I liked superheroes. I never got into playing the game itself and I truthfully have no idea how to, but I did pick up these cards here and there while in middle school and high school. I’ve since gotten rid of or lost most of my collection but at a pawn shop last weekend I stumbled upon a booth selling packs of 15 cards for 50 cents each so I grabbed a couple and the Last Daughter of Krypton was one of the cards in the packs. This card is from 2004 and part of the Team Superman line. The pre-flashpoint Kara Zor-El is the subject matter of the card and has art by Ian Churchill who did the artwork for the first part of Supergirl (Vol. 5). The artwork on this card seems original because the costume seems slightly different from what she would go on to wear in her title, and since the card is from 2004 maybe it’s early concept art from before the series started. Since I am unaware of the full extent of the VS trading card game I can’t really explain all the numbers and symbols associated with the card but she does seem like a fairly powerful card to play which lines up with her comic counterpart.
Next up we have a card for Supergirl based on her appearance in Injustice 2. This card came bundled with a 7″ action figure and a comic as part of the Page Punchers line from McFarlane toys. The front of the card matches the cover of the included comic from the Injustice series of comics. This story, titled Alternate Endings, came out in 2022 and it seems to be an original comic that only got printed alongside the figure. The backside of the card gives a brief synopsis of of the Injustice Supergirl including her Kryptonian origin that seems to share many similarities to her Earth-0 counterpart but goes on to mention more specifically her cousin being imprisoned to match his status at the beginning of Injustice 2 when she makes her debut.
Next up, released in 2023 alongside The Flash movie, comes another card that came paired with a 7” figure both of which match Supergirl’s appearance from the movie. The artwork on the front of the card doesn’t seem to have any artist listed but it depicts Sasha Calle’s Supergirl. The back of the card once again gives a brief rundown of the character mentioning her imprisonment in a military base and her uncertainty in becoming a superhero.
As we close out our list we take a look at the card that gave me the idea for this post. Supergirl’s Justice League membership card includes some stats about her power level and heroic status. Some of the specifics are pretty obvious like “Status: Active”, “Metahuman Designate: Hero”, and to match her current ongoing title “Base: Midvale”. “Tier: Alpha” seems to imply she’s a rather important member of the league matching status with heroes like Superman, Batman, and Wonder Woman. “Access: Global” seems to imply she has worldwide access to Watchtower teleported and JL embassies, putting her above heroes like Green Arrow with “Restricted Provisional” but under heroes like Superman who have “Universal” access. “Power Level: S-95” puts her tied for second place in terms of power lever alongside Wonder Woman and only behind Superman’s S-100 level. Supergirl’s profile picture is taken from Sophie Campbell’s cover to Supergirl (Vol. 8) #1. The backside of all these cards seems to have the same printing along with a QR code that links to the dc website’s page related to the All In initiative.
I had a great time taking a look at all these cards and I’d love to do a follow up after getting some more in my collection. The VS System alone has no less than 5 different Supergirl cards so I’m sure I can find plenty more to talk about. If you enjoyed this and have any suggestions for future posts feel free to send an email to blogofsupergirl@gmail.com.
A world in the midst of a war, overrun by Nazis and monsters. This world is Earth-24 and the heroes of this universe are The Bombshells. A heroic team formed by Amanda Waller in the late 1930s to help stop the continuing threats brought about by World War II. The Bombshells are all female heroes from many nations and at least 2 alien worlds that first appeared as a DC Direct series of figures in the mid 2010s before launching as a digital first series in 2015.
Supergirl first appeared in the Bombshells universe in digital chapter 3 which would later be included in issue 1 of the print run of the series. Kara Starikov landed in Russia and was raised alongside Kortni Duginovna as sisters. Kara was born on Krypton and has the same powers generally associated with Kryptonians but the Krypton on this universe isn’t show much at all. What we do see is Kara and Kortni as young girls in Russia training alongside the Night Witches before Kara’s powers are revealed in an attempt to save her sister. The Russian government, after seeing this display, enlist the two sisters as Supergirl and Star Girl and use them as propaganda for the Russian military. On a mission, Kara realizes that a supposed Nazi encampment they are set to destroy is actually home to Russian citizens. Kara and Kortni then desert the Night Witches and the Russian government and in the process of fleeing they end up on an American ship and meet Amanda Waller who enlists them into the Bombshells.
As with all my Supergirl in the Multiverse posts, this is my own artwork. It is a digital drawing that depicts Bombshells Supergirl flying while shooting her heat vision into the lower right of the page. The background is full of explosions and fire. A motif in the top right has Supergirl’s S symbol and a number of ”24”.
DC Pride: Through the Years is an anthology book collecting 3 stories of queer characters from DC’s history; The Flash (vol. 2) #53, Detective Comics #854, and Supergirl (Vol. 7) #19. Alongside these 3 historic stories there is also a brand new Alan Scott Green Lantern story at the end of this 80 page giant. While the whole book is good, for this post I’ll only be focusing on the story featuring Supergirl and Lee Serrano. Supergirl (Vol. 7) #19 was written by Steve Orlando and Vita Ayala with art by Jamal Campbell and lettering done by Carlos M. Mangual. The story is titled “One Life” and while it does have references to some of the larger story arcs Steve Orlando had been building upon, the story is for the most part a standalone. The story puts our main hero in more of a supporting role and instead follows Ben Rubel, a friend of Kara Danvers’ from CatCo, as he is interviewing someone who has become friends with Supergirl.
Lee Serrano is a brand new character introduced in this issue and is based somewhat on co-writer Vita Ayala’s life. Like Vita, Lee is non-binary and uses they/them/their pronouns and is Afro-Puerto Rican. As we learn about Lee’s life throughout this issue we fine out that they’re not out currently but their peers in school already bully them for their looks and how they present themself. One day as Lee is out in National City, the city is attacked and Lee is saved by Supergirl who promises Lee that she’ll be around if they need her. A promise that Lee initially takes as an empty one that any superhero would say to anyone that gets saved. Lee is soon proven wrong as they once again run into the Girl of Steel who not only remembers Lee but remembers to check in on their wellbeing.
It is at this point when Lee comes out to Supergirl as being non-binary and the pair have a good conversation about parents and how parents don’t always do what their children want. Supergirl discusses her own life and she knows her parents put her in the rocket to earth to save her but she still wishes she had more time on Krypton. She has a particularly good line at this point “Yes, parents can protect you. They can also hurt you deeper than anyone else. Both are rooted in love.” The story continues on as we see Lee suffer more bullying and as they spend more time venting to Supergirl and Supergirl continues to listen and give advice while still being entirely truthful to Lee that things wouldn’t suddenly be okay once they came out. At this point we get some dialogue from Supergirl that ties into the title of the story “You only get this one life, and no one but you should get to decide how to live it.” The scene then shifts to Lee at a coffee shop with their parents a few weeks later.
The scene is told rather naturally and serves both as a coming out story for Lee, as well as really explaining what being non-binary means to readers that may not be familiar with the term. While this scene does have a very happy ending with Lee’s parents saying they will always love their child, it does still feel like a natural coming out story and one that isn’t overly sugar coated. Coming out isn’t this easy for everyone and Lee seems to have particularly supportive parents, but something that seems almost universal is the fear that Lee has going into this as they come out and the text reflects this fear when Lee says “I have to be honest, I have to… Even if you hate me too.” This scene also has a familiar face in the background of the scene (Kara Danvers) that shows Supergirl has continued to keep her promise of being around if Lee needs her.
While this could very well be a happy ending to a pleasant coming out story, the story is over just yet. Lee once again encounters their school bully, Chuck, who has Lee cornered. Just before Chuck could take out his anger on Lee for not being heteronormative, Supergirl steps in. Instead of pummeling Chuck and his cronies, she merely takes a backpack to the head and allows Lee to stick up for themself. Lee stands their ground and calls out Chuck for only picking on them because his dad came out as gay and is divorcing his mom. Chuck, now feeling less in the mood for picking on Lee, walks away but not before Lee offers a listening ear just as Supergirl did when they needed it. Chuck, being the pinnacle of masculinity, of course denies that he needs any help as he punches his crony for making a remark about Chuck being gay and walks away.
The story closes out with Ben finalizing his questions for his article about Lee for CatCo and the pair part ways. The story ends as been sees his article “Supergirl: An Indestructible Shoulder” is shown advertised on a large screen out in the city.
As a trans person myself, seeing trans representation, or any queer representation, in a Supergirl story really makes me happy. Steve Orlando and Vita Ayala write a compelling and believable story that has a happy end while also showing Lee go through real struggles. Coming out isn’t always as easy as it was shown with Lee coming out to their parents but it shared a lot of similarities to when I came out to my parents so it can happen. Also sometimes it’s nice to read a story about queer people where they can have happy endings. I will say that Chuck being a bully to Lee because his dad is gay feels a little tropey and, to me, felt a bit on the nose. I do like seeing the parallels of Supergirl being there for Lee and then Lee being there for Chuck and how differently each character approached that. The story also does a great job of bringing Lee’s struggles up to the level of Supergirl’s struggles and showing that, while mundane, Lee’s problems in life are just as important and scary as when Supergirl has to fight space robots. All in all, this is a wonderful story with fantastic art by Jamal Campbell that is really worth reading and should be fairly easy to get a hold of. The issue is available on the DC Universe app, and aside from it’s initial print release, it has also been collected in Supergirl: Plain Sight that collected issues 15-20 of the series. The story was also bundled in the DC Pride: Through the Years as I mentioned at the start of this post.
Thanks for reading! If you made it this far and have any other thoughts, comments, or suggestions feel free to email me at blogofsupergirl.com!
Earth-23 is most well known for it’s iteration of Superman. Calvin Ellis first appeared in the last issue of Final Crisis from 2009. Calvin, when he isn’t Superman, is the black president of the United States on Earth-23. The Superman of Earth-23 has continued to show up fairly often and he is currently part of the multiverse spanning team of Justice Incarnate.
While there isn’t a Supergirl of this universe at this time, Kelel’s (Calvin’s Kryptonian name) Krypton seems to share similarities to the Earth-0 counterpart. Because of these similarities, there is a possibility for the introduction of a Supergirl which may have similar origins to the Earth-0 version. Based on the altered Kryptonian naming schemes, Karel seems to be a good choice for this Supergirl and I have the thought of her crashing to earth on the White House lawn. This could present an interesting story for President Ellis to deal with and would be a good way to have Supergirl interact with both of his identities.
As with all my Supergirl in the Multiverse posts, this is my own artwork. A digital drawing that shows the Supergirl of Earth-23 flying up towards the camera with her arms outstretched. Clouds form in circles around her and a city is show far below. The top right corner has a motif of Supergirl’s S Shield with a 23 on top of it.
The Daring New Blog of Supergirl 