Earth-5 is the home to Captain Marvel and the rest of the SHAZAM family, a group of heroes that have been bestowed upon them magical powers of SHAZAM. The wisdom of Solomon, the strength of Hercules, the stamina of Atlas, the power of Zeus, the courage of Achilles, and the speed of Mercury.
The Earth-5 Supergirl is Mary Marvel. Her civilian identity is Mary Broomfield, although she has sometimes gone by the name Mary Batson. She is the biological sister of Billy Batson, also known as Captain Marvel or SHAZAM. She first appeared in the Fawcett Comics published Captain Marvel Adventures #18 from 1942. In 1972 DC licensed, then later purchased outright, the Fawcett characters to publish in a new comic for DC SHAZAM #1 (1973). Mary Marvel and the rest of the Marvel Family have since been a part of the greater DC Multiverse as Earth-S and after Crisis on Infinite Earths would merge with a handful of other universes to become New Earth.
More recently during the Lazarus Planet event, from DC Comics in 2023, Mary loses her original SHAZAM powers and is granted new powers from Hippolyta where her new powers are all from goddesses. The agility of Selene, the strength of Hippolyta, the stamina of Artemis, the flight of Zephyrus, the invulnerability of Aurora, and the wisdom of Minerva.
As with all the Supergirl in the Multiverse posts, this is my own artwork and it depicts Mary Marvel flying through the sky. In the background on the left you can see the Rock of Eternity emitting a bolt of lightning that is striking Mary. A motif of Mary Marvel’s symbol is shown in the top right with a number 5 over it.
Earth-4 is the home of the superheroes who initially appeared in Charlton Comics such as Captain Atom, Blue Beetle, Peacemaker, and Nightshade. After Crisis on Infinite Earths this universe, as well as Earths 2, S, and X, combined with Earth 1 to create a New Earth.
The Earth-4 Supergirl is Bombshell. Captain Atom is most often seen as Earth-4’s Superman, and seeing that Amy Adams from New Earth underwent the same procedure that gave Captain Atom his powers it only makes sense for her to be Earth-4’s Supergirl. Bombshell (Amy Adams) is a member of the Teen Titans first appearing in Teen Titans #39 (2006) and had many appearances in that title until that book ended in 2011. She had a few other minor appearances but was usually only shown in team shots with the rest of the Teen Titans.
Amy Adams’ parents were part of Project Quantum and subjected her to the same Dilustel treatment that was given to both Captain Atom and Major Force. Her initial appearances showed her in an antagonistic role against the Titans. She was planted in the team as a traitor who would be revealed as such by Ravager. Later on in the Teen Titans run she would rejoin the team for real in an effort to redeem herself and attempt to become a hero.
As with all my Supergirl in the Multiverse posts, this is my own artwork and it depicts Bombshell on the left leaning against a wall with her arms crossed. In the background on the right is a computer screen reading “Project Quantum” and depicting my take on what Bombshell might have looked like if she had appeared in Charlton Comics alongside Captain Atom. A motif in the top right shows the Bombshell symbol and a 4 on top of it.
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).
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.
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.
The Daring New Blog of Supergirl 