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Beginning in Action Comics #309 and the back-up story titled “The Untold Story of Argo City” Supergirl finds out that her Kryptonian parents are not dead as she previously thought but have been safely alive in the Survival Zone. The return of Kara’s Kryptonian parents was not a one and done story, their survival and presence in Supergirl’s life and career was part of Supergirl’s life up until Crisis on Infinite Earths when that version of Supergirl died. Unlike a previously covered Supergirl storyline told across issues of Action Comics, Supergirl Revealed, the story of Lesla-Lar, Zor-El and Allura’s return wasn’t told all at once. There are 5 issues that tell the story spread out across the backups in Action Comics from issue 309 to 316.

All of these stories are written by Leo Dorfman with art by Jim Mooney. Issue 309, “The Untold Story of Argo City”, kicks off this saga with Dick Malverne taking Linda on a date to a reunion at the Midvale Orphanage where they both lived before their adoption. At this reunion Linda expertly rides Comet the Super-Horse, who was also attending the event, before fumbling off the horse to prevent Dick from finding out that she’s secretly Supergirl.

The event ends with a fellow orphan revealing to Linda and Dick that his biological parents found him after loosing him in a flood years before. This exchange leads Linda to remember the tragic fate of Kryptonite poisoning that befell her parents. After this point Linda starts having dreams and visions of her birth parents flooding her mind which leads the maid of might to seek answers in the Phantom Zone. The main Phantom Zone criminals only sought to torment the young girl but one resident, Jem-El, tries to tell her about Argo and informing her that he knows where her parents are before the other fiends block his thoughts and Supergirl is sent out of the Zone without any answers.

This interaction did have Kara take a look at the Chronoscope in the Fortress to view the events of the past of Argo City where she found out about Argo briefly orbiting a yellow star which gave all the residents super-powers briefly and also informed Supergirl of an experiment Zor-El and Allura tried in an attempt to survive the impending doom of Argo. The pair attempt to enter a zone parallel to the Phantom Zone called the Survival Zone. It doesn’t seem to have worked however and the scientists give up on the endeavor. Later, after they launch their daughter into the vast ocean of space, they suddenly vanish into the Survival Zone. This issue ends with Supergirl knowing her parents are alive and out there somewhere but with no idea how to reach them.

Action 310, “Supergirl’s Rival Parents”, shows Zor-El and Allura coming to earth for real. After a quick intro of Edna Danvers telling Fred and Linda that their life is wonderful since their foster daughter is Supergirl. Supergirl then flies to the Fortress and recaps the former issue to the Science Council who point her towards New Krypton to find further answers. New Krypton, as presented here, was an abandoned planet that Supergirl and Superman rebuilt to be an exact replica of Krypton populated by androids. The Zor-El and Allura androids help Supergirl in Zor-El’s laboratory, and a thought casting helmet finally lets Supergirl talk properly with her parents in the Survival Zone.

Zor-El is able to instruct Supergirl on how to construct a portal to allow them to come into the real world and after many years of believing she was an orphan, Supergirl is finally reunited with her parents. Zor-El and Allura move into the Danvers home and everything seems to be going smoothly, but it is soon revealed that the Danvers’ and the El’s are both terrified of loosing their daughter to the other set of parents. The Danvers’ feel like Linda should be with her super-powered biological parents, but the El’s are unable to morally take their daughter away from such loving foster parents. Zor-El tries to take matters into his own hands with some gold Kryptonite (that would take away his powers) but Fred Danvers convinces him not to do so and instead the 2 pairs of parents figure out solution where the Danvers would stay on earth as Kara’s human parents, and the El’s would live in the bottle city of Kandor as Kara’s Kryptonian parents.

The Supergirl stories would continue on for the next few issues without much mention of Supergirl’s Kryptonian Parents up until “Supergirl’s Tragic Ordeal” from issue 314. This issue would be a 3 part story that gives a bit more closure to the El/Danvers feud. Allura is bed-ridden in Kandor without any signs of disease. The Kandorians eventually come to the conclusion that Allura is heartbroken from being away from her daughter. Her heartbreak comes to a head when she kidnaps a young girl’s android doll that looks just like Kara did as a child and this event sends Allura’s doctor into action and he contacts the girl of steel.

However, since Supergirl is off on patrol, the message is received by a Supergirl robot and the Danvers intercept the message before their foster daughter gets home. Instead of relaying the message to Linda, the Danvers instead act like they’re mad at their daughter to send her away and back to her Kryptonian parents, this only saddened their foster daughter and eventually Edna tells Linda her and Fred were only being mean so that Linda would go to her Kandorian parents instead. Supergirl then rushes off to the Fortress and Allura’s doctor encourages Supergirl to use the exchange ray to have the Danvers and the Els trade places.

This change is played out over the next couple issues and seems like it will stick as the new status quo for the girl of steel. The new family of Superheroes starts off their heroic career by building a secret fortress on the side of a cliff and then quickly going into action to take on a race of fire being that are trying to invade Earth. All the while, the Danvers are settling into their new Kandorian life and even start fostering a young Kryptonian girl named Dar-Lin who looks very similar to Supergirl’s Linda identity.

There is a story where Edna has a similar arc of missing her daughter that Allura had before, however this time instead of staying bed-ridden, she gets poked by a Srang which turns her evil and she tries to kil the Els while supposing the identity of Bira. This issue (#315) also has the first instance of Allura’s name being spelled as “Alura” although since it is also written as “Allura” later it’s likely just a typo. “Alura” would become the standard spelling for Supergirl’s mother in the post-crisis era.

The final story of this saga would be in issue #316 titled “Supergirl’s Choice of Doom”. This story has the new Super Family taking a look at their Kryptonian Super-Computer to see what their future might hold. These events include moving an Egyptian pyramid, saving moon-prospectors, and building a glass tunnel so humans can see the majesty of Atlantis. At the end of the tape is a monstrous alien named Zygor that will come to Earth to get his revenge on Zor-El.

We get some backstory of Zor-El vanquishing the monster back on Argo City and the fiend swearing he will take his revenge on Zor-El. The viewing tape showing what the future might hold ends with Zygor on Earth forcing Supergirl to kill either her father or Superman. Supergirl can’t stand watching anymore and destroys the computer. Zor-El tells Kara that the computer was only predicting what would happen if Zor-El and Allura stayed on Earth and if they go back to Kandor this future can never come to pass.

The Danvers and the Els once again trade places and everything goes back to as it was with Supergirl in Midvale with Linda partying with Dick Malverne and Lena Thorul. After Zor-El and Allura return to Kandor, they reveal to the reader that the prediction that the Zygor would come to Earth could never happen since Zygor was defeated when Zor-El sent it to the Phantom Zone. Zor-El fabricated the story so that his daughter would be able to live with the Danvers and have a happy life.

This story did have further repercussions, Zor-El and Allura would continue having a supporting role in Supergirl’s life for the rest of the Silver and Bronze ages and would show up from time to time whenever Supergirl would visit Kandor. They would even be visited by Superman after Supergirls death in Crisis to put her body to rest.

Action Comics #326, in a story titled “The Secret of Supergirl’s Suitor” would reveal a 3rd survivor of the Survival Zone in a man named Al Mintor. Al Mintor is introduced to the reader as a thief and a criminal, but he is undeniably in love with Linda “Supergirl” Danvers and the feelings are mutual. It is later revealed that Al Mintor was actually a living android that was made on Argo City for Zor-El to use in testing his Survival Zone Ray. The android was created by the same scientist who had made a living doll for young Kara Zor-El to play with. The similarities between Kara’s childhood doll and Al Mintor are what drew the 2 together and made them fall in love, and the only reason Mintor was committing crimes was to get money together so he could get back to Kara. Tragically the story ends with him perishing.

I’ve been reading through the 2nd Supergirl in the Silver Age Omnibus recently in an effort to try to read through all the major Supergirl stories I’ve not read yet. While I don’t care as much for Dorfman’s work when compared to Otto Binder, there are still some good stories in this omnibus and I’ve been having a great time, I just wish Comet wasn’t so heavily featured in them. I wish we would’ve gotten more stories on Zor-El, Allura, and Kara being a Super Family on Earth and the Danvers raising the young Kandorian Dar-Lin, but I do think Kara living as the adoptive daughter of the Danvers feels like a better fit for Supergirl stories.

Superman Day has been celebrated since 2013 and is generally celebrated by comic shops by giving out a handful of free comics to patrons. Historically however, the day has been celebrated in June as opposed to the event taking place on April 18th this year. I’m not entirely sure why the change has pushed it April but I do think both days are meant to celebrate the release of Action Comics #1. These comics are generally reprints of earlier storylines or previews of upcoming original graphic novels. Sometimes shops will also have sales or meet and greets with comics creators and it is an event that helps comic shops get more foot traffic. This year is a bit different though, Supergirl has taken over the day to tie into the upcoming movie coming out in June.

The Superman day logo has been modified to change “man” to “girl” in a crude manor similar to the Supergirl (2026) movie poster that took the “Look Up” design from Superman (2025) and crossed out “Up” to replace it with “Out” to then read “Look Out”. As mentioned above, there are a handful of free books coming out this for the holiday. Supergirl hasn’t entirely overwhelmed Superman this year since we still get 2 Superman free books but Supergirl really pulled through with 4 promotional comics.

Starting off with the Superman books, we have Superman: Time and Time Again Special Edition #1 and Superman #1. The Time and Time Again book reprints Phase One of the Time and Time Again storyline that ran through the Superman books in 1991. This story was collected alongside the rest of the 7 part storyline and even some of the issues both before and after this storyline. Superman #1 is a reprint of Superman #1 from 2023 which was the kickoff to the current ongoing Superman comic and does a decent job of letting new readers know what the new status quo is for the Man of Steel, although going from that to the series as it is now with Superboy Prime taking center stage may be a bit tricky to wrap your head around. Both of the Superman books have a one page ad for the currently availabe collected editions of the Superman title (Vol. 1-5) and the Time and Time Again book also has a few pages advertising the whole of the DC Finest line of collected editions.

I think the choices for Supergirl books are all great and each serves as a great point of entry for all kinds of new Supergirl readers. As an added bonus I’ve already covered 3 of the 4 stories that are presented here and the only reason I’ve not covered the 4th is because it has yet to come out. Supergirl’s Zoo-Per Heroes – Krypto’s Big Break of course previews the children’s original graphic of the same name. The first couple chapters of the story by Rob Justus is presented here along with a preview of Superman’s Good Guy Gang which is another story by Justus. This story is great for younger readers and you can learn more about it in my full post on the story here.

Next up is the reprint of Supergirl #1 by Sophie Campbell and Tamara Bonvillain. This series just started last year and has been going pretty strong with issue 12 coming out just a couple weeks ago. The series has a sort of silver age vibe to it with Kara moving back to midvale and getting up to some particularly wacky and usually one-and-done stories. Supergirl tackles with Princess Shark, Lar-On, and even an imposter Supergirl in this issue. The first collected edition of this series recently came out (that I covered here) and in my post about it I called it a “Supergirl story for everyone”. There is also a shorter excerpt of the Krypto mini-series at the back of this issue for all you Krypto fans out there. The back of this book features the same ad from the Misadventures in Midvale collected edition showing off the Woman of Tomorrow, Being Super, and DC Finest Supergirl books.

A full reprint of the first issue of Supergirl: Woman of Tomorrow is up next and it’s a great story to put out for this event. The upcoming Supergirl movie is based on this story and the series has become insanely popular with the original printing of issue 1 skyrocketing in price since release. So being able to scoop up this story for free is a steal. I did cover the whole of Woman of Tomorrow a few months back (read it here) and while I don’t necessarily think it’s the best entry point for new Supergirl readers it is an exciting read and it has brilliant art. The back of the book has an ad showing the 3 different versions of the comic in collected format (hardcover, trade paperback, and DC Compact Comic) that are all currently available. We also get a 4 page preview of the upcoming Wonder Woman 31, which is Tom King’s currently releasing comic.

Last up is the preview book of Supergirl The World which is all new content and previews 2 of the 15 stories that will be part of the Supergirl The World book coming out in June. DC has released a handful of these The World books and they’re anthology books with each story being presented by creators from nations around the world. The 2 stories in this preview book are from the Spain team and the Germany team. The Spain story, by Aneke with letters by David Carro, shows Supergirl visiting Spain and encountering a supernatural ageless witch or something but it was a really cool story with great art. The Germany story, by Yann Krehl and Marie Sann, has Supergirl heading to Germany to track down an alien signal which turns out belongs to a lost alien child. Supergirl of course saves the day and the story has some really cute art and a really nice Supergirl costume. I will cover Supergirl The World as a whole later this year so stay on the lookout. At the back we have 4 pages of advertisements promoting the DC Finest line, Krypto the Last Dog of Krypton, DC Superhero Girls High School Reunion, and Supergirl’s Family Vacation.

Along with the free books, there are a handful of re-prints and Facsimiles coming out for the holiday. Action Comics #1 (Superman’s first appearance) and Action #252 (Supergirl’s first appearance), along with the Post-Crisis re-imagining of Superman with The Man of Steel #1 and World’s Finest #195. There is also a foil variant of the Supergirl Woman of Tomorrow issue that I mentioned earlier if you want something a little fancier. Don’t take my word for it though, go out to your local comic shop and take a gander at what they have in store to celebrate the Man of Steel and the Maiden of Might!