Tag: Supergirl in the Multiverse

This is not the first Supergirl I’ve covered from Earth-0 as part of Supergirl in the Multiverse, that was Kara Zor-El covered as the first entry in the series. Earth-0 is the “main” universe and has produced many such heroes that can fall under the role of Supergirl, or in this case Power Girl. I did consider labeling Power Girl II as Earth-2 due to her ties to Karen Starr, or potentially Earth-52 because of her introduction in a New 52 series, but at the end of the day, being a part of the mainstream universe (Earth-0) was the best fit.

First appearing in Huntress/Power Girl: World’s Finest #23, Tanya Spears is a fellow scientist working with Karen Starr (Power Girl) at Starr Industries. Tanya is young, but already a well renowned scientist in her own right with 2 PhDs by the age of 17. As such, Starr has taken her under her wing as a protege, and when Power Girl returned to her home of Earth-2 she had Spears take up after her in more than one way. Tanya soon finds out that she has gained some of Power Girl’s powers, namely strength and invulnerability. With her newfound powers, she seeks to make a name for herself as a superhero. Taking up the hero name her mentor left her, Power Girl would go on to join the Teen Titans, then later the Elite (where Manchester Black drugged her giving her the power to grow in size), and when last seen she was part of Deathstroke’s super hero team Defiance. Spears has not really had a great place to shine since her introduction and generally seems to make some poor choices in regards to super hero teams, but with further guidance from her mentor I feel like she could really make a name for herself.

As with all my Supergirl in the Multiverse posts, this is my own artwork. Tanya Spears, Power Girl II, is towering over a city. Surrounded by skyscrapers, Power Girl II stands as a skyscraper herself and she is supporting a toppling skyscraper from falling. A motif in the top right has a gold oval with a 0 on top of it.

Earth-D is the first of the Multiverse that I’ve covered thus far with a letter designation as opposed to a number, although universes 5 (S), 10 (X), and 26 (C) all had Letter designations before the Crisis obliterated them. Earth-D was a universe envisioned by Marv Wolfman as an intended reboot of the DC Universe with a more racially diverse cast of heroes than what was currently in comics. My understanding is that this universe was Wolfman’s pitch as to what would come after Crisis on Infinite Earths and has been compared to the jump from the Golden Age (JSA and the like) to the Silver Age (JLA and others). However, this radical change to the mainstream continuity was not implemented and it would be another decade and a half before this universe came to be seen in a published comic. Legends of the DC Universe: Crisis on Infinite Earths from 1999. This one-shot special was an additional chapter in the Crisis on Infinite Earths event and told of Barry Allen Flash winding up on this earth and helping it face the coming Crisis sweeping the Multiverse. There are minor differences from the Earth-0 we know but its fairly recognizable and well explored in the 48 pages of the special, one change is the prominent super-team is neither the JSA nor the JLA, but the JAA or the Justice Alliance of America. Aside from this one-shot, the universe has yet to show up again, but a similar universe (also called Earth-D) in the Justice League Infinity miniseries. This appearance does have some fairly major differences from the Earth-D proper and with its adjacent nature to the Timmverse, I am choosing to dub this variation Earth-12-D that I may revisit in the future.

As mentioned above, this universe’s main defining trait is its racially diverse cast. This can be seen in Supergirl and Superman’s darker complexion giving them the appearance of African Americans, although they’re not from Africa or America but rather Krypton. Another major difference is in the relationships of major heroes, Hawkman and Hawkgirl aren’t reincarnated soul-mates but rather siblings and likewise Superman and Supergirl aren’t cousins but a married couple. Superman and Supergirl are from Krypton, but they lived very full lives before the planet’s destruction and were even heroes on the planet, leading them to be the chosen representatives to be saved from the planet’s destruction. Aside from their altered origin and relationship status, they seem very similar to their Earth-0 counterparts in personality, powers, and morality.

As with all my Supergirl in the Multiverse posts, this is my own artwork. Supergirl of Earth-D is standing in the lower left corner with her hands on her hips and looking up. Behind her is the meeting table of the JAA and in the top right corner is a motif of Supergirl’s S symbol with a D on top of it.

After Cyborg accidentally unleashed a techno-virus upon Earth the world and all it’s super heroes. This virus, initially thought to just be the anti-life equation, would later be revealed to be the product of a eldritch being from an adjacent dimension who sought to destroy the universe. All that is just to say this is the zombie universe. The DC answer to Marvel vs. Zombies that came out about a decade after the pop culture zombie craze, and in my opinion it’s one of the best zombie stories I’ve read. The series was told in 3 parts and a couple spin-offs and by the end of it pretty much all the DC universe has been exposed to the virus and there are quite a lot of interesting story moments that show characters in wildly different roles than they take in the normal DC universe as well as intense stakes where characters you don’t expect to fall, fall.

For the most part, many hero’s share their origins with their respective earth-0 counterparts and this Elseworld’s tale seems to present this as a story spinning out from the current day earth-0. Supergirl is a bit different however, not showing up until part 3: War of the Undead Gods, we see that Kara Zor-El wasn’t sent to earth but instead sent to New Genesis. Zor-El, Alura, and Kara all lived in Kandor and when the planet was meeting with destruction Zor-El had a similar idea to his brother but instead of sending his child to live with Earth primitives, he chose to send his child to live with other powerful beings on the planet of the New Gods. Unfortunately for Kara, when she landed on New Genesis it had already fallen to the techno-virus and she soon fell as well and became a fierce foe with both Kryptonian powers and zombie rage. I will also mention that a Supergirl shows up in issue 5 of the original miniseries but because of the origin shown in War of the Undead Gods this could not have been the same Supergirl. More than likely this was an editorial oversight since she just showed up in an wider hero shot, but it could be read as that was the Matrix Supergirl who perhaps fell in the initial zombie attack and that’s why she never showed up again in later stories.

As with all my Supergirl in the Multiverse posts, this is my own artwork. The zombified Supergirl of Earth-55 is reaching towards the viewer witha crazed look on her face. The overall design has rough and aggressive pencil lines throughout. The top right features a motif of the Supergirl S with a 55 on it.

The space faring adventurer by the name of Tommy Tomorrow is a member of the Planeteers in the far off future of 2054. The Planeteers are a peace keeping operation that travels the galaxy helping those in need. Colonel Thomas Tomorrow and his compatriot Captain Brent Wood travel in their spaceship called the Space Ace. Tommy Tomorrow had many adventures as a backup feature in Action Comics starting with Action Comics #149. Tommy Tomorrow has shown up in various forms across different continuities but him being a part of DC ‘s science fiction corner and being a Planeteer is pretty consistent.

I was not able to read the entirety of Tommy Tomorrow’s appearances, but in what I could read (the stories collected in DC Finest: Science Fiction) the only Planeteers shown were Tommy, Brent and their un-named commander. It was implied that the Planeteers were a fairly wide organization and it’s safe to assume there are plenty other Planeteers. My idea for this additional Planeteer, Tori Tomorrow, is someone who looks up to Tommy, possibly a niece or cousin of either Tommy or Brent, who later in life joins the Planeteers and takes up the moniker of Tori Tomorrow after her idol.

As with all my Supergirl in the Multiverse posts, this is my own artwork. Tori Tomorrow is on the left side of the panel with a ray-gun held aloft. The bottom part of the panel has text reading “Join the Planeteers” in front of and behind Tori’s legs. The background features a space scene including space ships (one being the Space Ace). The top right corner has a purple and yellow circle representing the Planeteers with a 54 on top of it.

Earth-53 has made a few brief appearances in the recent DC Comics lore in comics like The Green Lantern #11 and Dark Crisis: The Dark Army #1 where we have met a universe that seems much like our own but slightly different with all of mankind being apes. When this universe first showed up it was referred to as “Earth-53” but is most often referred to as “The 53rd Earth”. More recent mentions of the universe have taken to calling it Earth-52, although I think Earth-52 is much better represented as a continuation of the New 52 as I mentioned last week in my Supergirl in the Multiverse post (found here). As I was reading the DC Finest Science Fiction collection for unrelated research I came across a story initially published in Strange Adventures #45 titled “The Gorilla World” that had humans Albert and Cora Dawson transported to an adjacent world where the inhabitants were all gorillas. It is stated here that Gorillas evolved to be the dominate species as opposed to Humans who remained savages and eventually went extinct. I don’t think this story is followed up on ever and I don’t believe it served as inspiration for the later Earth-53, but it was a cool coincidence that I wanted to mention.

Earth-53 is home to the Primate Legion which is only shown to include Ape versions of Superman, Batman, Wonder Woman, Atom, and Aquaman, but the idea of instead of humans we have apes can easily be applied to any resident of the DC Universe. Super-Ape is named as Titano the Super-Ape, obviously a reference to the Superman foe (who is currently mini sized and showing up in the current Supergirl comic). Continuing on with this theme, I’m going to call this universe’s Supergirl Tee-Nah the Super-Ape after Tee-Nah the new gorilla staff member at the Daily Planet that first appeared in Superman Unlimited #2. With this universe being fairly unmapped, it’s hard to say exactly how the super-heroes differ from their Earth-0 counterparts but until it is more defined I will just assume Tee-Nah is from a very ape-like Krypton and shares the same origin as Supergirl but if she was instead an ape.

As with all my Supergirl in the Multiverse posts, this is my own artwork. Tee-Nah the Super-Ape is diving down towards the viewer. Tee-Nah is a blonde ape wearing a Supergirl costume. There are a few buildings shown behind her and a building that looks like a version of Lex-Corp has a shattered window that it seems the Super-Ape is jumping out of. The top right corner features a motif of Super-Ape’s symbol with a 53 on top of it.