Injustice: Alternate Endings is a one-shot story set in the Injustice universe. Written by Tim Seely, with Jose Luis & Daniel HDR on pencils, Jonas Trindade & Daniel HDR on inks, and Tony Avina providing colors. This comic was not released traditionally in comic shops and was instead paired with 4 of the McFarlane Page Punchers action figures as part of the second wave of Injustice figures. I got this comic along with my Injustice Supergirl action figure but from what I can gather, the Batman, Green Arrow, and Doctor Fate figures also came with this same book. These 4 characters all appear on the cover and in the story but I would argue that the story’s main focus is on Green Arrow and Supergirl. I have not personally played either of the Injustice games so some of my facts may be inaccurate but I have done some research in regards to this story so I have done my best to avoid any errors. From what I can tell, this comic takes place after the events of Injustice 2 and features an Alternate Ending to how the game might have played out.
Before we get into alternate timelines, Green Arrow spends a page catching the reader up on the events of Injustice and Injustice 2 before we get thrust into this alternate story where Superman didn’t get banished to the Phantom Zone and convinced Supergirl to his side. We meet our 2 stars as we see Supergirl flying a handcuffed Green Arrow back to the home base where she hands off the archer to be taken into custody. Supergirl then reports this to a Superman who is wired into a computer monitoring system and Supergirl realizes that her cousin is beginning to act much more like Brainiac. Leaving Kal with the words “I always do what needs to be done”, Kara then grabs Green Arrow and escapes the Fortress after fighting through many of Superman’s goons.
Kara tells Oliver that Superman hasn’t seemed fully up to snuff recently and Oliver suggests that he’s perhaps under the influence of magic and recommends the go to Doctor Fate to help sort this out and get the universe set back to rights. At the Tower of Fate, the pair are met with a very off looking Tower and a brainwashed Batman who has been sent by Superman to take them out. Green Arrow and Batman work out some of their feelings in a fistfight/argument while Supergirl tracks down Doctor Fate.
Supergirl finds the Doctor but realizes he’s blue now and apparently under the control of Superman (seems to be a theme on this universe). Superman tries to take Supergirl on one-on-one but due to his weakened state Supergirl is able to get the upper hand. She then “undoes the knots in the threads of destiny” as Doctor Fate puts it, but basically she’s just brute forcing a bunch of magic lightning and eventually sets the universe right again.
Ollie of course wakes up to his wife uttering another woman’s name before we get a couple pages of the universe being set back to right and we close out on a really nice hero shot of the new Justice League. To close out this book there’s a couple pages of ads, first of the Injustice series of comics, then other collected editions from DC, mostly Justice League and Crisis stories, a Dwayne Johnson Black Adam jump-scare, and finally an advertisement for the DC Universe Infinite app.
From what I can gather, the canon universe that Green Arrow is trying to set right is part of the Absolute Justice ending of Injustice 2 where Batman’s team has overtaken Superman and gotten him secured in the Phantom Zone. The universe that most the story takes place in seems to be similar to the Absolute Power ending where Superman’s team wins and Superman brain washes Batman to do his bidding. In the Absolute Power ending Supergirl is shown to not take up Superman’s side however so it is a bit different in that respect. When I got the figure initially I was just expecting a reprint of one of the Injustice 2 comics so a brand new exclusive story that centers around Supergirl was quite a treat. I think Green Arrow fans would be equally as excited by this story but if someone picked up the Batman or Doctor Fate figures that also got paired with this comic I imagine they would be a tad disappointed due to the relative lack of content featuring either of those characters. I feel like this story helps reinforce Supergirl as a force for good even in a universe where Superman has used his power to rule and from what I’ve read it seems like that goodness is also present in her portrayal in the game. While I wouldn’t say this is an overly fantastic story, it is well written and it’s 20 pages of new story set in a universe that I really enjoy exploring that I got for free along with a really nice looking Supergirl figure.
Coming from a world of Injustice brought on by the Joker killing Lois Lane and the unborn child of Superman. This resulted in Superman killing the Joker and then turning the world into a police state and murdering countless other villains and anyone who opposed his rule. This created a major rift in the hero community with Batman leading a resistance against this new dictator-esque Superman. It would take 5 years for the resistance to finally overpower and imprison Superman. This storyline is that of the Injustice video game as well as the tie-in comics.
Supergirl of this universe wouldn’t show up at all until the Injustice 2 comic as well as the Injustice 2 video game. It was in the time after Superman’s prison sentence where a spaceship landed near Kahndaq. This spaceship of course brings Kara Zor-El to earth. Black Adam begins telling her about the events that transpired but did so in a way that built up Superman as a hero and Batman’s resistance as villains. She remains hidden as a secret weapon until the world is threatened by an AMAZO android and she swoops in to save the day. Supergirl would continue to fight alongside Wonder Woman and the rest of Superman’s side of the fight but would continue to prioritize saving lives.
As with all my Supergirl in the Multiverse posts, this is my own artwork. Supergirl-49 is crouched with a strained look. She is holding up a large pillar that is crumbling around her. Rubble is built up behind her. She is backlit with light rays shining through under her arm. The top right corner features a motif of Supergirl’s S symbol with a 49 on top of it.
Adventure Comics #424 was released in 1972 and was the last issue of Adventure Comics where the maid of might was the star of the comic. This story, titled “Crypt of the Frozen Graves” follows Linda much more than Supergirl as she is working at the KSF-TV station. Linda has been in contact with a Bruce Ryan who has been leaking information about his connection to the Frisco Syndicate to Supergirl (Linda’s heroic secret identity).
While Bruce had been giving Supergirl more and more information about the gang, he was starting to pull back on the information he was giving and decided to stop altogether when he gets shot at. This causes our heroine to take a different approach and talk to Bruce not as Supergirl but as Linda Danvers. As Linda she is able to play up her femininity to get close to Bruce Ryan and she notices that he is rather cowardly. His cowardice isn’t totally unwarranted and results in a grenade getting thrown at him while at dinner with Linda. Instead of trying to protect his date or get rid of the grenade, Bruce instead flees the scene leaving a live grenade in a full restaurant.
Linda thinks quickly however and throws herself on the grenade to save the other patrons at the restaurant. to protect her identity she is forced to act dead after having a grenade explode under her but she is able to slip away before the police arrive to ID her. Linda uses this encounter to try to scare Bruce straight, or at least make him a bit less cowardly. Linda, having not actually died, dresses as a ghost and pays the former gang member a visit. While Supergirl does her best to scare Bruce, the pair are met by another ghost (at least he seems like a ghost) who startles Supergirl and kills Bruce Ryan.
Back at work the next day, Linda is taken away by the Syndicate and brought right to Mr. Big himself, the leader of the Frisco Syndicate. Here she finds out that the Syndicate has been using teleportation technology to get rid of any witnesses and also how a supposed ghost broke in and shot Bruce Ryan earlier. Now with all the facts, Supergirl comes back down to earth, trashes the teleporter and gets the syndicate tied up for the appropriate authorities.
The story isn’t quite over yet however, we get 1 more page of Linda back at KSF-TV where she tells the team she’s quitting and blames the death of Bruce Ryan for her abrupt departure. Although us readers know it’s actually because of her brand new “Supergirl” title starting up that she’s leaving. That’s right, after nearly 4 years as the star feature of Adventure Comics, Supergirl is now getting her own brand new comic magazine! As such we also have to say goodbye to some of the frequent supporting cast members including my favorite, Nasty Luthor.
Unfortunately Nasty doesn’t get a whole lot to do here as she does in previous apperances. She is however still antagonistic to her co-worker Linda Danvers as they are both shooting for the same promotion at KSF-TV. It is also stated by Linda that she thinks Nasty let slip to the Frisco Syndicate about Bruce Ryan being a rat and therefore causing the death of Bruce. It’s hard to say if Nasty actually did such a thing or if Linda just lashed out at her in anger. I wouldn’t put it past Nasty to pull a stunt like this just to beat out Linda, but there isn’t much in the story itself to support it. This is also tragically the final issue where Nasty shows up and she doesn’t even get a proper send off in my opinion.
While none of the letters or the ads in this issue really caught my attention, there was a backup story here titled “The Invasion”. This is a brief 6-page sci-fi story following an undefeated crew of alien invaders on another mission to invade and conquer a planet called “Earth”. While the first 5 pages are all building up this crew as a major threat to our planet, there is a very well executed twist at the end where we find out that the invaders are actually quite small and are taken out by an average Joe watering his lawn. He then spots the invader’s spaceship, but due to its small size he guesses it’s a toy and discards it which of course eliminates this terrible threat before it can even be known.
The creative team on this book, Steve Skeates, Tony De Zuniga, and Bob Oksner all did brilliantly and led to an engaging story, although as Supergirl’s final adventure in Adventure Comics it felt rather underwhelming. Aside from the final page, this story could’ve easily been any other issue of the series and I would’ve much rather had Nasty Luthor play a larger role in the story to really secure her as a rival to Linda. All in all, a perfectly serviceable Supergirl story with plenty of good Supergirl and Linda Danvers moments. Join me next month for another random look at a single issue from my personal Supergirl comic collection.
This universe I feel is best described by Pariah in the pages of Crisis on Infinite Earths when he says “Such a strange world this one is — unlike most other earths. A cosmic anomaly…No duplicates here.” This of course refers to the fact that this universe doesn’t have a Batman or Superman or Wonder Woman like many of the other universes in the multiverse. This universe (originally called Earth-6 before being re-designated 48 after Convergence) hardly has any heroes actually, only 3 have ever been explored, Lady Quark, Lord Volt, and Princess Fern and up til just a few years ago Lady Quark was the only of the trio to really get any depth to her character. This is of course due to the universe being obliterated in the first Crisis with only Lady Quark surviving.
As mentioned above, this universe doesn’t have any of the heroes from earth-0 which means it doesn’t have a Supergirl. That of course hasn’t stopped me before. Princess Fern, Liana, is the daughter of Lady Quark and Lord Volt and as you may guess she has powers over plants. As we’ve done with other universes (Earths 39, 40, and 41 come to mind) taking the prominent hero of the universe (Lady Quark here) and giving them the “Superman” role would allow for their female descendants to take up the role of “Supergirl”. I mentioned that this universe was rather unexplored until recently, and by that I mean that it was featured rather prominently a few years ago in Harley Quinn (Vol. 4) in the 28-37 range. Here we see Harley looking after the 13 year old Liana as a favor to Lady Quark and Liana is shown as rather headstrong and quick to act but she still isn’t developed very far. The universe is shown to have OMACs (from earth-51?) and also large mountable dalmatians (from earth-17?) which seems odd but probably just the creative team having fun with the multiverse.
As with all my Supergirl in the Multiverse posts, this is my own artwork. Princess Fern is controlling vines and riding on top of them as she travels over the futuristic city on Earth-48. The top right features a yellow square representing Princess Fern with a 48 on top of it.
Today’s post will be rather casual, not looking too in depth at any story or anything in specific an more just a trip through my collection of Supergirl figures. As you can see from the picture above, I’ve amassed quite a few over the years. I’ll try to go mostly left to right on these figures and I’ll try to mention where and when I got each item (if I can remember). If you’ve been following, you might notice some overlap from when I covered my Supergirl Trading Cards since many of them came paired with a figure of some sort. Also this post will not include my Supergirl LEGO figures since I already covered those in my LEGO Supergirl post. Also please disregard the Nightwing figure collection creeping in on the right side this isn’t about him either.
Starting off with a Supergirl based on her appearance in Superman the Animated Series. I did find this figure boxed (I have since unboxed it along with any other toy I get boxed) where you can see it was part of the Justice League Unlimited line and it looks like it’s from 2005. I got this fairly recently and I think it was from a place in Owensboro, KY called the Consumer Mall. Nothing too special about this figure and all in all she isn’t overly exciting with only 5 points of articulation and a metal purse, but I have been wanting a Animated Series style Supergirl figure for a while and this was a nice looking one. It is weird that it’s under the banner of “Justice League Unlimited” while not using her costume from that show, but presumably this is before she showed up in Unlimited.
Next up is a tiny die-cast figure of the New 52 era Supergirl. I’m not positive, but I’m pretty sure I picked this up at a Half Price Books store for like a dollar. I really like these figures, they’re small and have a nice weight to them, I’ve got another die-cast figure coming up soon. I’m not really sure when this figure was released or if there are more like it. I feel like I’ve seen packs of like 20 similar dicast figures before at like Wal-Mart or Target so perhaps she came bundled in one of those before making her way to me. The paint seems really nice on it too and the red has a metallic sheen to it.
Another 4″ figure like the Justice League Unlimited figure is up next. This one is also from the early 200s although now part of the “DC Universe Infinite Heroes” line that I believe was supposed to tie into and promote the Infinite Crisis event. This figure pretty accurately depicts Supergirl as she’s seen in the comics at the time with her blue skirt and blue crop top. The hair and face sculpt feel a bit weird though but it was a pretty small figure so I’m sure there just wasn’t a lot of room to work. I found this loose in a peddlers mall or some other sort of flea market or second hand shop and it was loose in a baggie. While I didn’t find it new, when it did come out it seems to have been in a 3-pack along with Wonder Girl and Bizarro.
What is perhaps the smallest figure in my collection, the Funko Pop mini that came paired with a Kinder Joy. This promotion was sometime last year I believe and I am ashamed at just how many Kinder Joys I bought just to get the Supergirl. I opened up many and there were quite a few Harley Quinns (4 I think) that always gave me a bit of false hope when I saw the blonde hair. Somehow I did manage to get Supergirl though and I think she’s a perfectly fine addition to my collection. I’m not particularly fond of the Funko Pop look and I don’t have any others aside from this one and I probably wouldn’t have bothered if they weren’t cheap. I think this figure is also meant to be a phone stand with Supergirl posed like she’s holding up your phone, but I haven’t used her like that so I can’t confirm.
The aforementioned other die-cast figure is this ERTL figure from 1990. I talked about it briefly in my Trading Card post. She is sporting her 80s look with the headband. I picked this up on a sale day at my local comic shop, The Destination. Once again we have a nice weighty figure that sits nice on a shelf and seems to be in great shape for being over 30 years old.
One of my 2 Sasha Calle Supergirl figures. This one was purchased on clearance I believe, well after the Flash movie’s release. I did buy it new, she came with heat vision attachments and a piece of Kryptonite. This paired with a cloth cape and a decent amount of points of articulation (9 I think) makes it a really solid deal for what I think was only a $8 retail price. I’m not particularly fond of the heat vision or the Kryptonite accessories so neither are out with my figure, but I do still think it adds to the play value and makes for a great deal.
This figure is another New 52 Supergirl figure that I don’t really know anything about and I may have also gotten in from some sort of grab bag for very cheap. This one is all plastic though and kind of looks like it may be from Imaginext but I’m not positive. The paint on it has shown some serious wear so hopefully she had plenty of play time before joining the ranks of my Supergirl shelf.
I’m detouring slightly from my left to right to finish out all the small figures before going into my 6 and 7 inch figures. This little blue Supergirl was bought at a pawn shop across the street from my job that my coworker showed me. The pawn shop didn’t have much in the way of Superhero stuff but I of course zeroed in on this item which was a box that came with a Wendy’s kids meal. This toy also came with a Superman and a Lex Luthor along with character cards of all three and I do plan to cover the Supergirl card when I do another Supergirl Trading Card post.
The last of my little Supergirls is this Imaginext figure I picked up in Metropolis. For those unaware, there is a small town in Illinois called Metropolis that was turned into a Superman tourist spot a few decades ago and I made my way out there last month and checked out the Superman Museum there and found this figure (and a few other things) at the gift shop attached to the museum. I’ve been wanting to get an Imaginex Supergirl for a while since DC seems to have a pretty expansive partnership with them. Before now I had only seen Imaginext Supergirl figures in large playsets or used along with dozens of other figures in a collection. This figure however was packaged by itself and it has some sort of light up feature when paired with some Imaginext playsets which could be cool to check out if I ever end up getting one of big playsets.
This figure and the next one are probably the 2 I’ve had the longest. This is a Supergirl figure from the first wave of DC Super Hero Girls that I bought new in probably 2016 if I had to guess. I really liked that in the gen-1 era of Super Hero Girls how thorough they pushed toys and to such a wide demographic. There were action figures like this, and there were also dolls, and a series of LEGO sets (learn about those here). I think it was a great way to get these heroes into the minds of so many young people.
I will always have a soft spot for the CBS/CW Supergirl show and Melissa Benoist’s performance, so picking up this figure was a no-brainer. Like I said, I also bought this figure new and this was the first time I was able to get a complete series of figures to get the build-a-figure of Doomsday. This series also had a few characters from Dark Knight Returns that also interested me so getting those and Supergirl got me to 4 out of 6 so picking up Superman Doomed and BvS Lex Luthor wasn’t too much to ask at that point. I’ve since gotten rid of some of those figures but I still have Supergirl, Carrie Kelley Robin, and the Doomsday build-a-figure.
Another Super Hero Girls Supergirl, this one is more doll like than action figure since she’s got the brushable hair. Looks like this one is also from 2016 and was one of the “girl toy” options for McDonalds Happy Meal toys alongside some Justice League Action toys for the boys. I did not however get this one new, instead a friend found it for me and she mentioned she bought it for “an inconsequential amount” of money if I recall correctly so cheap figures seems to be a bit of a theme.
This figure was part of the Crisis on Infinite Earths line from 2005. I bought it from a comic shop in Lexington called A+ Comics. I will say that the legs feel fairly unsubstantial and she doesn’t stand up very well on her own, but thankfully the figure comes with a really nice looking Crisis on Infinite Earths logo stand.
This next figure was bought on the same day at the Crisis one at a different store called Toy Headquarters. I think I was in the middle of reading through the New 52 Supergirl run when I picked it up so it was good timing finding it. In the past decade since the costume first showed up, I’ve come to enjoy it a bit and there’s a few elements I really enjoy especially the cape, although it really could use a skirt or something. This figure however does bear a bit of an unfortunate resemblance to Allison Mack.
These next two I’d like to discuss together since they are very obviously the same mold with different colors. I think I purchased both individually and the joints on the black and red version are very worn down. The figure came out in 2006 and it seems like the black variant was just that, a variant, possibly a chase figure but I’m not positive. These figures were also paired with a comic when they came out, specifically Supergirl (Vol. 4) #5 which I covered as my first Supergirl Surprise. Oddly however the costume Supergirl is wearing for the figure is a costume she didn’t start wearing until issue #51 so it’s odd that issue #5 is paired with it.
Here is my second of two Sasha Calle Supergirl figures. This one I’m pretty sure I bought at retail price and most likely before I even saw Flash. I do really like her look as Supergirl and I thought she did great in the movie. There is also a doll figure from Barbie I think that I would also like to pick up for the collection. I also like that this figure was paired with a stand so you could display her flying which I’ve consistently used since picking her up.
I don’t have too much to say about this DCeased Supergirl figure, but it was released by DC Direct and its a really nice figure. I’m not particularly fond of zombies or zombie stories but I really enjoy the DCeased series of stories by Tom Taylor.
Injustice is a fighting game series that I’ve not played much of because I’m not particularly good at fighting games and I don’t think I would enjoy it much. I do however really enjoy the tie-in comics for the games (also partially written by Tom Taylor). Supergirl doesn’t show up in the franchise until the second game and she has a killer design, I like the sleeveless look, the boots, the S, the gold bands on her thighs, it’s honestly just a great design. This figure also came with a comic like the one from earlier. This comic however seems to be an original story which I might cover as a blog post at some point so stay tuned.
Last up is this absolute mystery of a stuffed toy. It’s an odd little orb shaped stuffed Supergirl with a Hallmark tag on it. I have no idea how long I’ve had it nor where it came from but I think someone gave it to me and I’ve kept it on my shelf with the rest for what feels like years at this point.
I hope you enjoyed a look through my Supergirl figures, and if you did let me know which was your favorite! If I get many more I’ll definitely do an updated list. I have gotten quite a few more Supergirl cards added to my collection so if you read my original Supergirl Trading Card post and enjoyed it be on the lookout for a part 2 coming soon!
