Tag: Supergirl in the Multiverse

The events of Superman/Batman #51-51 feature a collection of small heroes with large heads called “Little Leaguers”. This concept would be revisited for the Multiverse in the New 52 as Earth-42. The universe features characters that are small in stature with exagerated features and large heads and in a word are very cute. These heroes have an almost cartoon quality to them and even mention as such when they’re stuck on Earth-0, although they also have some similarities to the imps from the 5th dimension. Along with the cute look of the Little Leaguers, they also have alternate backstories to those of the heroes we know and love. Batman for instance, took up the cape and cowl in order to bring justice to Gotham after witnessing his parents get pushed over and Superman has been rocketed to Earth to save him from the rain that has covered Krypton. It can be assumed that all the heroes of this universe have similarly altered origin stories that remove any sort of major tragedy.

Supergirl does show up in the aforementioned Little Leaguers story, however her origin isn’t revealed. From Superman’s origin, we do know that Krypton suffered a terrible catastrophe of never ending rain. It is safe to say that similar to his brother, Zor-El may have also wanted to save those close to him. Perhaps he would’ve encased the entire city of Argo under a protective bubble that saves them from the ongoing rainstorms around them. And while Zor-El and his wife Alura settle into their new dome life they have a daughter named Kara. The family lives together for many years until suddenly the rain threatens the city. Zor-El gets to work on getting the city into the Survival Zone, but doesn’t want to risk his daughter and uses the same rocket design his brother used many years before to rocket Kara to earth to become Supergirl.

As with all my Supergirl in the Multiverse posts, this is my own artwork. This drawing depicts the Fortress of Solitude from Earth-43 with the Supergirl of this universe joyusly flying through it. In the background we can see common trophies from the Fortress including the bottle city of Kandor, the Titanic, a piece of Kryptonite, and Superman’s Rocket. The top right features a motif with Supergirl-42’s S symbol with a 42 on top of it.

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.