Tag: Supergirl in the Multiverse

Continuing on in the DC Super Hero Girls month, we land on the YouTube shorts version of the series or what is sometimes referred to as G1 (Generation 1). The G1 version of Super Hero Girls was an entire brand, consisting of toys (I have a few that were seen in my Supergirl Figures post), comics, LEGO sets (I covered these a while ago here), movies (I covered the 2nd movie Intergalactic Games), and the aforementioned YouTube series. In short, this brand line showed the female super heroines of the DC Universe – as well as some boy characters – in high school learning how to use their super powers and getting up to normal teenage shenanigans.

Supergirl herself didn’t actually enter the cast right away, she would join in the first movie Hero of the Year and the second season of the YouTube series as a recent arrival to earth and she spends a lot of that season acclimating to life on earth. She is room-mates with Barbara Gordon/Batgirl who also jumped to hero status in season 2, although she was present in season 1 as IT for the school. This version of Supergirl is Kara Zor-El, cousin to Superman and is often seen visiting the Kents implying that they possibly adopted her after her arrival or at least have some guardianship over the young hero. This Supergirl costume is one of my all time favorites, I like the bracelets and the crystal necklace and the short sleeve collared shirt has a fun school-girl vibe to it that has always appealed to me.

As with all my Supergirl in the Multiverse posts, this is my own artwork. A giant robot is taking up the left foreground and Supergirl is firing off her heat vision to stop it. Supergirl is holding a coffee and a handful of books. In the background you can see a few buildings including the Capes & Cowls coffee shop and in the far background is Super Hero High School. The top right features a motif of Supergirl’s S symbol with a 96.1 on top of it.

This week out begins my month-long look at the DC Super Hero Girls universe as a way to get excited for the series’ return to comics at the beginning of June with DC Super Hero Girls: High School Reunion. To start off, we’re actually going to take a look a bit earlier with Super Best Friends Forever. Super Best Friends Forever was a (very) short lived DC Nation series of shorts from 2012 centering around Supergirl, Batgirl, and Wonder Girl and their friendship. Throughout the 5 shorts we get to see the trio of besties get into some shenanigans but we don’t get too much in the way of development past them being girl best friends. The reason I’m including and starting out with Super Best Friends Forever is because both this show and the later Super Hero Girls were both created by Lauren Faust, and both have a similar style of goofy storytelling with teen girl heroes. SBFF is generally considered a predecessor to the Super Hero Girls line of products which is why I have designated it as 96.0, 96 is the designation for DC Super Hero Girls as a whole (including both versions of the show) so I figured why not also list SBFF along with it.

Supergirl herself is never named as such but it does seem like this is the Kara Zor-El version of the character. Most of her character exploration is done through the episode Grounded where we see Supergirl being grounded by Superman for some unshown reason and she has been grounded from super-heroing and forced to stay on the Kent farm. This information does point towards this version of Supergirl being related to Superman both because of her being on the Kent farm as well as taking his grounding seriously. Potentially, since it is the Kents and not the Danvers that she’s staying with could point to this Supergirl having been adopted by the Kents, but it’s not clearly stated. One of the main stylistic choices done in this series was giving the SBFF all different body types and with that we get Supergirl being a bit bigger and I personally think it’s a great look. Otherwise the costume is fairly standard with the blue shirt and red skirt, but her sleeves are at the 3/4 length which I’m a big fan of.

As with all my Supergirl in the Multiverse posts, this is my own artwork. The Super Best Friends Forever Supergirl is standing in the foreground and flexing her arm. Behind her you can see the night sky and a city skyline. A spotlight shines down on her from the top right. The top right also features a motif of Supergirl’s S symbol with a 96.0 on it.

Archie comics have a long history of being slice-of-life teen drama or comedy stories featuring a handful of students that are all enrolled at Riverdale High. However, there are some stories with the Archie characters that see them taking up heroic identities and becoming superheroes. Pureheart the Powerful (the heroic form of Archie Andrews) first shows up in Life with Archie #42, and he would later be joined by his friends Jughead (under the name Captain Hero) and Betty Cooper as Superteen. These heroes would have various adventures throughout the years and in 1996 a miniseries called Archie’s Super Teens would come out and 2019 would have a 2 part series called Archie’s Superteens vs Crusaders which pitted the Riverdale heroes up against the Crusaders which were the more traditional comic book heroes that also made their starts in Archie comics. As far as my research could come up with, this universe does not have a specific designation, so I used the prefix “A” for Archie Comics (just in case I find any other Supergirls from Archie Comics) and the 42 coming from Pureheart’s first appearance in Life with Archie #42.

Superteen (Sometimes Super Teen) first appears in Archie’s Girl’s Betty and Veronica #118. In this story Betty Cooper is shown reminiscing about what it would be like if she had super-powers and what she would use them for (mostly keeping Archie away from Veronica it seems). The next issue #119 would take a slightly different approach, with Mr. Weatherbee getting assaulted by a monster called the Consumer who is terrorizing the school. The teacher calls for Superteen to come save the day and we see Betty Cooper jump into action as the Superteen! It does end up being Jughead saving the day however by beating the fiend at an eating contest. Superteen, much like Supergirl, has had many different costumes since her debut and for the most part I’ve stayed true to her earliest appearances (red and blue with short sleeves) however I have added the cape that she didn’t have at first and also used the heart shaped logo as opposed to the shied logo she has at first.

As with all my Supergirl in the Multiverse posts, this is my own artwork. Superteen is in the foreground leaping slightly with her fist raised in front of Riverdale High School. The clock on Riverdale High is reading the time of 1:18. The top right corner has a motif of Superteen’s symbol with “A42” on top of it.

Originally appearing in Superman’s Girl Friend Lois Lane #91 in the aptly named imaginary universe of Earth-91 was Superlass, Lisa Lane. The imaginary story told in this issue sees Lois Lane blinded while trying to save Superman from a ray-gun. This of course makes Superman feel pity for the intrepid reporter as he immediately asks her to marry him. The pair settle down into a custom super-built beach home and have a daughter named Lisa who almost immediately shows signs of super-powers she received from her father. Unfortunately the universe is not filled with happy endings as Superman is caught in a Kryptonite infused explosion and presumed dead. Lois never loses her love for the man of steel and visits his grave on a weekly basis, one of these visits is where we encounter Superlass for the first time.

Superlass is a teen-aged super-heroine who seems to have all the same powers as any other Kryptonian under a yellow sun. It is possible, since she is only half-Kryptonan, that she doesn’t have the full power levels as a pure-blooded Kryptonian but this is not relevant to the story. Her costume bears similarities to Supergirl’s costume of the time but her belt has a slightly different design with vertical lines as opposed to a circular buckle. Most strikingly though, Superlass has the same black hair as her mother, and while her eye color isn’t explicitly shown in Lois Lane issue 91, I do like the idea of her having the same purple eyes as her mother (although Lois having purple eyes is only a very modern interpretation). Supergirl (presumably Linda “Kara Zor-El” Danvers) is also mentioned in this story as an active hero, which is why Lisa uses the name Superlass instead. Throughout the story of Lois Lane #91, Lisa helps some aliens which give her a device to cure her mother’s blindness. Oh also there’s a hideous monster man who is in love with Lois and it’s revealed that that monster man was Superman who was horribly disfigured after the K-bomb. Lois, after having her vision restored, is disgusted by the monstrous man and her disgust leaves Superman to flee the planet.

As with all my Supergirl in the Multiverse posts, this is my own artwork. Superlass is joyously floating in the sky. Behind the teen-aged hero is a view of the ocean and a beach house. There are 3 palm trees scattered about the beach and the sun is shining in from the top right. The top right corner also has a motif of Superlass’s S symbol with a 91 on top of it.

Much like the previous Earth-43, Earth-63 is a universe where vampires are real. On Earth-63, which is told through the Elseworlds titles under the DC vs. Vampires umbrella, the queen of the vampires Mary Seward has recently been killed which pushes the vampires into turmoil as they search for a new leader. This void is filled by a member of the superheroic community and instead of maintaining the balance that humanity and vampires had, a war is started. The new vampire community seeks to block out the sun and take the world back from humans and become the dominant race.

The universe has been told through 3 main miniseries and a few tie ins. Supergirl comes in about halfway through DC vs. Vampires (the first series) with a 1-panel cameo in issue 6 before becoming a major player on the side of the humans against the vampiric threat. Supergirl is referred to as the last hope for humanity after Superman got turned very early on in the series. Most of the back half of the first series shows Kara working with the rest of the remaining human heroes to get the sun back and overthrow the new vampire leader. As you can tell by the multiple series that exist in this universe, this is not the end of the story. Supergirl will continue on for the remaining tales told in the universe without ever getting turned and would, at the end of the final issue of DC vs. Vampires: World War V, eliminate most of the remaining vampires.

As with all my Supergirl in the Multiverse posts, this is my own artwork. Supergirl is stood in the center of the artwork with a growing horde of vampires surrounding her. Supergirl is blasting a large heat vision burst off the lefthand side of the page. The top right has a motif of Supergirl’s S symbol with a 63 on top of it.