Tag: Supergirl in the Multiverse

The initial wave of Image comics that launched in the mid 90s included titles such as Youngblood, Spawn, WildC.A.T.s, and Savage Dragon, among others. These universes formed a connected universe much like Marvel’s and DC’s respective connected universes. DC Comic’s Earth-41 is a pastiche of this universe. For this week’s Supergirl in the Multiverse I’m looking most specifically at Savage Dragon, who has a counterpart in the DC version of the universe called “Dino-Cop”. Earth-41 does have a specific Superman analogue, Kal’amity, who is an amalgamation of Kal-El and Kh’ambt, however I feel that Savage Dragon’s longevity and legacy that has lasted to this day does give it a bit of an edge. Also Savage Dragon and Superman had 2 crossover comics that came out so it seems like fair game.

The Supergirl of this universe comes in the form of Amy Dragon. The original Savage Dragon was the emperor of the Krylan alien race before losing his memory when arriving on Earth. On Earth, with amnesia, Dragon lives his life as normal. The title takes place in real time and in the 30ish years since his introduction, Dragon has had a son named Malcom who has taken up the role of Savage Dragon and has started a family of his own. Malcom and his wife, Maxine, are raising 3 kids together; Tyrone, Jackson, and Amy. Amy, after being born didn’t immediately show any signs of being Krylan but would soon grow her head fin in and turn green. Amy stands apart from other Krylans in the fact that she has 5 toes on each foot as opposed to 2 as is standard, and also she is the first female born “Chosen One” which refers to the Krylans who have regenerative abilities and enhanced strength.

As with all my Supergirl in the Multiverse posts, this is my own artwork. Amy Dragon is shown in the foreground with her hands on her hips and a large smile across her face. A large hole in a wall almost definitely caused by Amy, is behind her with rubble piled up all around her. A room with a couch can be seen through the hole. The top right features a green circle with a fin representing the Dragon family with a 41 on top of it.

Earth-39 is home to the Agents of W.O.N.D.E.R., DC’s legally distinct version of the Wally Wood creation; T.H.U.N.D.E.R. Agents. This team of agents works for the Higher United Nations tasked with handling the extra-normal and any other threats too strange for anyone else to handle. The main thing that sets this team apart from others is their powers not only come from their gear, but this gear is also unfortunately has a flaw that causes the users to die after prolonged usage. Similar to some of the last few universes we’ve covered (34, 35, and 36) the T.H.U.N.D.E.R. Agents have bounced around between a handful of publishers with DC getting volumes 3 and 4 of the series. Tower and JC Comics had the first couple runs and IDW picked it up after DC. Neither the title nor the characters have shown up in about a decade (I think) so I’m unsure who currently has the rights but the concept of heroes that can die using their powers and then new heroes being able to take up the gear and carry on the legacy is a fascinating concept that I could see having interesting potential.

This universe doesn’t have a clearly defined Supergirl, which we’ve seen a few times so far, but it does seem that Dynamo is the prominent hero and the Superman analogue. NoMan could also potentially be the Superman figure with his similarities to Doctor Manhattan (although it should be stated that NoMan came first) but I read both those figures much more like The Martian Manhunter. With the legacy aspect of these characters and how their powers are passed, it would be very interesting to see a female Dynamo and that would be a clear Supergirl analogue. We did see a similar thing happen when a female Raven took over in the 4th volume of T.H.U.N.D.E.R. Agents, but as of yet we haven’t gotten a girl Dynamo. What we do get however is Colleen Franklin who is a field leader for the current team (think Rick Flagg on the Suicide Squad). This alone doesn’t get her into the ranks of Supergirls, but her parentage is revealed throughout her story and we find out her father was Leonard Brown, the original Dynamo who settled down with a reformed Iron Maiden who he fought against with the rest of the T.H.U.N.D.E.R. Agents.

As with all my Supergirl in the Multiverse posts, this is my own artwork. Colleen Franklin is standing in the foreground in a standard T.H.U.N.D.E.R. Agent uniform holding a gun. Behind her are her parents Dynamo and Iron Maiden. The top right corner has a motif of the T.H.U.N.D.E.R. Agents thunderbolt with a 39 on top of it.

Earth-38 (or 3839 classically) is the designation for the miniseries saga by John Byrne, Superman Batman Generations. The Generations universe is told across 3 miniseries and tells of a universe where Superman and Batman enter the scene in the late 30s and age and change with the times as they would without the sliding timeline that has been common in western comics. The comics are told by showing brief vignettes of the characters lives before skipping forward decades or centuries at a time. Since the characters are able to grow and change, we get to know the children and grandchildren of these golden age heroes and see the torch pass down to new generations of heroes.

Kara Kent is the Supergirl of this universe and is the daughter of Clark (Superman) Kent and Lois Lane. Born in 1953, Kara would be given a necklace that emitted red solar radiation to help keep her powers in check until she was more prepared to use them for heroic deeds. It would be 1964 where she – alongside other young heroes; Bruce (Robin) Wayne Jr., Wally (Kid Flash) West, and Stephanie (Wonder Girl) Trevor – would join together as a brand new heroic team called the Justice League. Kara and Bruce Wayne Jr., having grown up together, would become romantically involved and get married in 1979 but their wedding would be unfortunately short-lived due to the villainous hands of Lex Luthor. The main thing that sets this Supergirl apart from other universe variants of the character is her wearing a wig when preforming heroics as Supergirl, opposite to the classical Linda Danvers wig that was quite common in the pre-Crisis era.

As with all my Supergirl in the Multiverse posts this is my own artwork. A short comic strip shows Kara Kent changing from her civilian identity to her super-heroic identity. Starting in the bottom left with Kara Kent ripping her shirt open to reveal her S-shield, 6 panels show the various steps of changing into her costume, and Supergirl flies off into the top right. A motif in the top right has Supergirl’s symbol with a 38 on top of it.

Earth-37 was originally called Earth-61 and is often associated with the Thrillkiller Elseworlds stories. Thrillkiller, and its sequel Thrillkiller ’62 were written by Howard Chaykin and depicted a Gotham in the 1960s that featured that all so common, at the time, 90s gritty realism. Barbara Gordon, and her partner Dick Grayson, patrol the streets of Gotham as Batgirl and Robin and are up against corrupt police and fiendish foes and a Gotham far removed from its normal 60s representations. Earth-37 however, also includes one of Chaykin’s other DC works Twilight. Twilight, much like Thrillkiller, represents more DC Characters in a gritty 90s realistic way but this time its classic DC Sci-Fi characters. Twilight has charachters like Tommy Tomorrow, Ironwolf, and (most important to this week’s post) The Star Rovers.

Karel Sorensen was a member of the Star Rovers and first appeared in Mystery in Space #66. The Star Rovers were a team of space adventurers and mystery solvers. In Twilight, they are working on finding the secret to immortality and are on the trail of the Methusoloids when Karel is caught in an atomic blast that would have normally killed anyone else. Instead, Karel survives and gains godlike powers and becomes a deity as mankind unlocks the secrets of immortality. She would gain an immense galaxywide following and the space museum would become her base of operations and church.

As with all my Supergirl in the Multiverse posts, this is my own artwork. Karel Sorensen, former Star Rover, is depicted in the center of the page in her deity garb with lots of golds and whites. To the left you can see the Space Museum that would come to be her base of operations, on the right is Sorensen in her Star Rover uniform and a depiction of her getting caught in the atomic blast that gave her her powers. The top right shows a motif of a star (for her time as a Star Rover) with a 37 on top of it.

Rounding up our little trilogy of homage universes we come to Earth-36. Earth-36 is a bit more fleshed out in the proper DC multiverse unlike the previous Earths-34 and 35, but it’s still fairly bare bones. Thankfully, the universe is analogous to Big Bang Comics. Big Bang Comics was a series that was published by Caliber Comics and later Image and the series tried to recapture Golden and Silver age concepts and vibes in their comics. Each issue would be an anthology with a rotating cast of characters like Ultiman, The Knight Watchman, Thunder Girl, and many others. While generally when looking into these characters, their first appearances are often listed as Big Bang #1 but nearly all of these characters have their roots in earlier books. Heck, Dr. Weird dates all the way back to the 60s!

Ultiman (Chris Kelly) is of course the Superman analog for this universe and his daughter, Christine (Ultragirl) Kelly is the Supergirl analogue. Both these characters, along with Youngblood surprisingly, first show up in the very short lived Megaton Comics. Ultragirl gets her origin in issue 1 where we see that she is the daughter of a well known superhero “Ultraman” (this would change to Ultiman in the shift over to Big Bang). Ultraman had been an astronaut exposed to some radiation and, in classic superhero fashion, got super powers instead of dying. Unfortunately for young Christine, her father became addicted to the super-heroics and would have to preform more and more dangerous experiments to recharge his irradiated cells. It was during one of these experiments that Christine came into the room and was flooded with radiation that gave her the same powers as her father and seemingly killed Ultraman. Christine would go on to be a hero as Ultragirl, team up with Megaton, and once making her way over to Big Bang Comics she would be part of a future team called the Pantheon of Heroes.

As with all my Supergirl in the Multiverse posts, this is my own artwork. This drawing is an homage to Superman #1 and shows Ultragirl flying above a city with her right arm angled down. The top right shows a motif of Ultragirl’s U symbol with a 36 on top of it.