The Daring new Blog of Supergirl

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.

Picking up right from where we left off with just a Crisis and a major status quo for the girl of steel happening since the last issue we covered, we now jump headfirst into the deep end of the Matrix Supergirl as she headlines her own title, but even by issue 2 of this mini series she’s not alone.

Supergirl (Vol. 3) #2 was part of a mini-series from 1994 that was released after the Death of Superman which made it cool and profitable to be a fan of the big S. Although the cover is full of Supergirl clones, the story barely features them. The story instead follows Supergirl as she visits Singapore and undergoes tests through the LexCorp facility stationed there. Here LexCorp, along with the reader, learns more about the upper limits of Supergirl’s powers especially in regards to her shapeshifting ability. While this is happening, Supergirl also meets Elizabeth Perske, a former wife of the first Lex Luthor, who tries to warn Supergirl about her new boyfriend Lex Luthor II. This drop of suspicion leads our hero to begin snooping in on various LexCorp employees where she learns they don’t think too fondly of her and view her merely as Luthor’s lapdog who will do whatever he says. The issue ends with Dr. Eller, who has been in charge of Supergirl’s testing, on the phone with Dr. Happersen, one of Lex Luthor’s main confidants. Happersen is shown in a room full of Supergirl Clones which he is calling “Operation: Protomatter” and urges Eller to keep Supergirl in Singapore, a task that Eller proclaims is just too easy when dealing with Lex’s Bimbo. Supergirl, in her snooping era, overhears Eller’s end of the conversation and the issue ends with Supergirl demanding to know everything Eller knows about “Operation: Protomatter”.

Moving forward again to Supergirl (Vol. 4) #30, from 1999, we are met with a rather menacing cover that features both Supergirl holding a skull, and also a shadowy Supergirl shaped figure sneaking up on her. When I was compiling this list I made a deliberate effort to not include Supergirl vs. Power Girl or Supergirl vs. Bizarro-Girl covers because those are also surprisingly frequent and as such fall into a different category than what I want to look at with these covers. With that being said, the backwards S on the shadowy Supergirl does have a bit of Bizarro in her look but she’s arguably more Supergirl than the protagonist. As I get into the story I’ll mostly gloss over the Cutter storyline since it doesn’t relate too much to the topic. Supergirl, returning to Leesburg from being out of town, is met with a city faced with a serial killer that has been dubbed the “Piranha”. Fred Danvers is caught in the clutches of this Piranha and finds out it’s none other than Matrix? Matrix is of course the protomatter Supergirl we mentioned in the last issue we discussed and the Supergirl that merged with Fred’s Daughter just 29 issues ago in this same title. So how are Matrix and Supergirl both walking around in Leesburg? The answer to this is of course because when Matrix merged with Linda not all of the protomatter was used and some got washed away into the sewers eventually reforming and growing sentience. After a brief tussle that involves a bit of introspection about which of them is the real Supergirl and if taking over Linda’s body was the morally right thing to do or a selfish conquest, Matrix seems to overtake Linda (Supergirl) Danvers. The issue is left on a cliff hanger where we see Matrix atop Fred Danvers’ car holding Supergirl’s costume in her hands as she screams “There’s just Matrix now! MAAAATRIIIIX!!!!”

Issue 73 of this same title, from a few years later in 2002, is quite similar to the last book discussed, issue 30. Here we are once again seeing our titular hero go against another possibly more true Supergirl, however the script has been flipped somewhat. Before we had Linda Danvers that had partially merged with the protomatter that was Supergirl, fighting the remainder of the protomatter. In this issue however Linda, now separated from the protomatter entirely, is facing against the Supergirl that is the earthborn angel. This is what she believes she is fighting at least. The story involves Linda, Buzz (the Demon), and Mary Marvel traveling to the point on earth where the Garden of Eden originally stood. Once they arrive a Supergirl with fiery wings attacks Linda and a battle ensues. It is however revealed that it is Bizarro Supergirl, with the help of the Demon Mother, controlling the earthborn angel. This does seem to go a bit against my rules of not including Bizarro Supergirl stories in this list but I think since there are 2 separate Supergirls shown in the story it should count on a technicality at the very least.

Another thing i tried to avoid doing while compiling this list was limiting storylines to a single issue to look at. In last week’s post we looked at issue 11 of The Daring New Adventures of Supergirl. That storyline also went into issue 12 of the title but I only included the first cover. So why is this different? Part of it is because of how far reaching this story, Many Happy Returns, is and part of it is because the difference in what’s happening in these 2 issues is such a major change, and part of it is because both of these are homage covers and I wanted to talk about that. Homage covers are going to become quite frequent in the remaining books as we close out this list and these 2 are homages to some of the most important moments in Kara Zor-El’s life; her arrival on earth, and her death. Supergirl (Vol. 4) #75 is an homage to Action Comics #252, the story of Supergirl first arriving on earth after being rocketed away from Argo. This issue tells a similar story, but instead of her rocket arriving on the pre-crisis earth as it should’ve, she instead lands on the post-crisis earth and meets a much different Supergirl. Their fight in this issue is quite brief and mostly boils down to a misunderstanding between the 2 gals of steel. Issue #79 is an homage to Crisis on Infinite Earths #7, part of the historic maxi-series and the issue where Supergirl meets her ultimate fate at the hands of the Anti-Monitor. The issue we’re discussing doesn’t actually feature any interaction between the 2 Supergirls and instead mostly showcases Linda’s life as she trades places and goes to where Kara should have gone. The story shows that Linda leads quite a full life on this earth that is sort of based on pre-crisis earth-1 but also has quite a few earth-2 characters. She becomes a hero to the world, has many adventures with Superman, eventually reveals to Superman she’s not who she says, and then marries him and has a daughter which then brings this issue up to 3 Supergirls. The issue ends with the Spectre telling Linda she has to go back to her own earth so that history can right itself with either Supergirl in their own universe fulfilling their own destinies.

Kara Zor-El returned to the main DC universe and got a new ongoing title in 2005 and very early on in issue 5 we get a new entry in the Supergirl vs Supergirl category. Supergirl (Vol. 5) #5 from 2006 has a cover with 2 Supergirls. One in the classic red and blue while the other has a predominantly black outfit. The issue shows a rather aggressive and brutal fight between the 2 Supergirls that takes up the majority of the issue. Through dialogue we get a better look at this Kara Zor-El’s origin that includes her father sending her to earth after Kal-El in order to kill him. Because this origin is told to us by the “evil” Supergirl its unclear whether or not what she said is true. The fight between them also briefly features a standoff with the Justice League before the duo of steel crash lands in Gotham Harbor. There is a brief bit of stalling from Batman before Superman and Wonder Woman enter the scene and the fight is finally decided after Wonder Woman lassos them both. After being compelled by the Lasso of Truth to reveal the true Kara Zor-El, the pair merges together. Kara explains that she doesn’t care what happened to her before she landed on earth, and what’s important is what she wants to do now and that is to be a hero.

Coming in just a year later we get a new Supergirl vs Supergirl story in issue #18 of the title. If this cover looks familiar, that’s because its a clear homage to the one we looked at before, issue #5. While the cover matches issue 5, the story also has some similarities to the Many Happy Returns storyline we discussed before that. In this issue Supergirl is having halucinations and struggling to fight the urges inside her to kill Superman. All while this is happening we’re introduced to a very happy-go-lucky Supergirl that once again seems to resemble the pre-crisis version. After a bit of fighting and the “perfect” Supergirl trying to convince Kara that she’s not the real Supergirl, our hero overcomes and it’s revealed that everything she’s been through has been the result of Dark Angel. Dark Angel had been sent by the Monitors to track down potential anomalies in the new post Infinite Crisis world and test them to see if they’re really supposed to be in this universe or not. Our hero does pass the test and a Monitor tells her that the information she’s come to know about her life on Krypton and what she knew of Zor-El was all fake and she wasn’t actually sent to earth to kill her cousin.

Supergirl (Vol. 6) #37 from 2015 is the next entry on our list and shows Supergirl fighting not one but three copies of herself in various familiar costumes. The story itself features very little Supergirl on Supergirl action and mostly explores the ongoing narrative of Kara in space school at Crucible. Crucible is a school for various young heroes from planets all over the galaxy to train and learn how to be better protectors of their home worlds. The issue follows Kara and her classmates – Maxima, Tsavo, and Comet – as they go through various lessons and tests in this space school. About halfway through the book we see the scene from the cover while Kara and Comet are doing an exercise somewhat like capture the flag. Supergirl seems to be easily overtaking Comet in the challenge when she’s suddenly swarmed by duplicates of herself. These duplicates are revealed to just be projections made by Comet to overpower Kara and allow him to win the challenge.

We now get to the last book in our list, Supergirl (Vol. 7) #28 from 2019. This issue opens with Supergirl, along with the Omega Men, fighting a horde of imperfect cones of herself. Seemingly overpowered, Supergirl asks Ryand’r, a Tamaranean, to give her a solar boost which allows her to preform a clap resulting in a stunning concussive blast. While only meaning to stun these monstrous clones, they instead perish due to the unstable nature of the cloning process done by Harry Hokum. After confronting Harry Hokum, Kara finds a new clue in her search for more clarification of the destruction of Krypton as Hokum points her towards The Circle before quickly teleporting away.

And with that we have completed looking at a bunch of comics that all feature Supergirl fighting herself in one way or another. As we left off last week we had 2 imposter stories, 1 alternate universe story, and 1 clone story. Surprisingly, we don’t have any more imposter stories to add to the list but we do have a new category in the form of split personalities which we saw in Supergirl (Vol. 4) issues 30 and 73 and Supergirl (Vol. 5) issue 5 giving us a total of 3 for that category. Vol. 4 issues 75 and 79 along with Vol. 5’s issue 18 gives us 3 more to add to the alternate universe category, since all 3 of those issues feature a pseudo pre-Crisis Supergirl which brings that total up to 4. and to close out our list we add Supergirl (Vol. 3) #2 and Supergirl (Vol. 7) #28 to the clone category leaving it with a total of 3. I’m unsure where exactly to categorize Supergirl (Vol. 6) #37 since it’s revealed to be just a projection but it seems most like the new split personality category so that can be bumped up to a total of 4.

Supergirl (vol. 8) #2 has come out now and it is unfortunately not Ellie Leeds in the role of the fake Supergirl, and is in fact Lesla-Lar. The direction of the story does seem very interesting and I’m excited to see how Sophie Campbell handles Lesla-Lar because she is one of my favorite Supergirl villains and she hasn’t seen much of the spotlight so far. As a whole I think the Supergirl vs Supergirl trope was a lot of fun to look at and explore and I think Supergirl is a great character to look at fighting herself. Supergirl has had a lot of identity issues trying to adjust to life as a human when she spent so much time on Krypton or the Matrix having trouble viewing herself as more than just a science experiment. So these broader ideas really help open the character up to fighting a physical manifestation of herself while also allowing introspection about who the real Supergirl is.

I hope you enjoyed reading this extensive look at Supergirl vs Supergirl and I hope you stick around for many more posts about the girl of steel. If you have and thought or suggestions feel free to email me at blogofsupergirl@gmail.com.

A surprisingly common trope in Supergirl comics is our titular hero battling herself. Sometimes it’s an imposter dressed as Supergirl, sometimes it’s a clone, and sometimes it’s a Supergirl from another universe. This is not a definitive list of every time Supergirl has faced off against herself, but I did go through my personal collection and found over a dozen examples of this peculiar face off. Because of the surprisingly large quantity of these covers, I’m splitting this post into 2 parts. I’m going to start with a book that has not come out yet but will hit shelves next week, Supergirl (Vol. 8) #2. Since the book hasn’t come out yet and we’re still very early on in this new title, there’s not a good way to determine what kind of fake this Supergirl is but if you stick around til the end I’ll give some predictions after we go through all the other stories in part one of my list. It is, however, important to note that this cover is an homage to another book on my list, Super DC Giant S-24.

Super DC Giant S-24 is the oldest book I’ve pulled that fits the Supergirl vs. Supergirl theme and it very well might be the first instance of this trope at all. Super DC Giant S-24 is a compilation book from June 1971 that collects Supergirl stories from 4 issues of Action Comics when Supergirl had a backup feature. The collected issues are 295-298 from the end of 1962. This is a storyline that featured Lena Thorul dressing as Supergirl for a costume party, Lesla-Lar once again enlarging herself to get super powers, and Lex Luthor gaining powers to help Supergirl fight the Phantom Zone villains. While Lena does wear a Supergirl costume in this story, she never fights Supergirl (unless you count them competing for the affection of Dick Malverne). And when Lesla-Lar comes to terrorize earth she doesn’t don a Supergirl costume and instead wears a brand new black and red outfit. So the cover may not be totally reflective of the inside story but it is rather striking.

Next on our list we go to a couple issues of Superman Family. Issue 203 is from the Fall of 1980. The Supergirls on the cover of this issue have different costumes, helping tell them apart, but we’re still met with the question of who is the real Supergirl? In the story titled “The Supergirl from Earth” we are introduced to Ellie Leeds, a young girl who fell into a coma the same day Kara Zor-El came to earth in her rocket. One day, years later Linda (Supergirl) Danvers is returning to Midvale for a much needed vacation and is met with someone else claiming to be Supergirl and wearing the same Supergirl costume Kara wore when she first arrived on earth. This mystery Supergirl is revealed to be Ellie Leeds who witnessed Kara crash to earth and was exposed to X-Kryptonite giving her the miraculous powers of Supergirl. Thankfully the story ends with the X-Kryptonite being destroyed so we no longer have to worry about an extra Supergirl flying around.

As we continue movie forward, Superman Family #215 from early 1982 has a cover featuring the Supergirl of the Future attacking our maiden of might. Throughout the story it is revealed that this is a Supergirl from the 5020th century that has come to the past to assist in the capture of one of her villains (also from the future) named Tal Belok and his 20th century companion Toxus. The antagonistic nature of this future girl of steel that is shown on the cover is only due to confusion and the pair quickly work together. However, by the end of the story after the villains are subdued once more, our present day heroine must be hypnotized lest her knowledge of the future cause turmoil to the present.

Moving forward, we now see a Supergirl fighting not just one, but 9 other Supergirls! The Daring New Adventures of Supergirl #11 starts with Supergirl in the clutches of the Council after she is thought dead at the hands of Reactron. While the Council had her captured, Professor Drake was able to make 6 (almost) perfect replicant clones of Supergirl the only issue is they’re only 12 inches tall. Nevertheless, they still have all the powers of the Last Daughter of Krypton and those powers are soon put to use as they track a weakened and escaped Supergirl back to the fortress of solitude. After a dangerous battle that nearly cost Supergirl her life, she is eventually able to overpower and then depower the 6 mini Supergirl clones. This cover isn’t totally a lie, Supergirl is in fact overpowered by small clones of herself but at no point does she face 9 clones. There are only ever 6 clones present.

We’ve now gone through and looked at all the pre-crisis Supergirl vs. Supergirl covers which feels like a nice place to break and discuss the various duplicate Supergirls so far. The first 2 stories both feature imposter Supergirls, first with Lena Thorul and then Ellie Leeds. We also saw a future Supergirl from 500,000 years in the future, which for our purposes we’ll sort under the “Supergirl from another universe” category. We then close out the list with clones. My prediction for this mystery Supergirl that’s shown up in Midvale in Sophie Campbell’s new book is that we’re dealing with an imposter. While Lesla-Lar seems to be the obvious choice for someone dressing as Supergirl, she loves to do so as shown in her first appearance that I talked about here. She has also been confirmed to show up in the book where she’s shown briefly in Kandor and she is mentioned in some future solicits. With all this pointing towards Lesla, I don’t think she’s the culprit. I think we should look, instead, to Ellie Leeds, the star of Superman Family 203. This is a character that knows about Kara’s history and is shown with Supergirl’s powers. Maybe she’s stumbled upon a new piece of X-Kryptonite and taken up saving the day in Supergirl’s absence. Ellie Leeds being the “Fake” Supergirl would also explain why she’s in the classic Supergirl costume from her first appearance and also why her body type is different from “Real” Supergirl in a way that wouldn’t really work if it was Lesla-Lar in the red and blue. The set up for the story is very similar too, in both cases we have Supergirl coming home from her heroic life in the big city only to be met with another Supergirl already there. While Ellie Leeds is my first guess for this potential new Supergirl, I think a relatively untapped well of double Supergirl stories lies in the form of robots. Supergirl, and Linda, robots were a huge part of Supergirl’s life in Midvale and a major presence in Silver Age comics which would be a fresh and exciting new take on the Supergirl vs Supergirl trope.

I’m looking forward to cracking open Supergirl #2 when it hits shelves next week and I hope you are too! Join me next Friday as I finish up the list of Supergirl vs Supergirl and maybe bring in an updated insight for our new mystery Supergirl. Thanks as always for reading and feel free to send me an email with any thoughts or suggestions at blogofsupergirl@gmail.com.