raul grau
Apr 27, 2005, 03:59 pm
<img src="http://www.comixfan.com/xfan/images/logos/cfdlogo.jpg" hspace=10 align=left border=0 alt="Comics For Dummies logo">By Raul Grau, RJacknite@aol.com
Steel Maiden(s)
Last month, we looked at the many imitators of Superman (who was himself a costumed clone of Hugo Danner, but no need to go into that again), so, in the interest of gender equality, our attention now turns to the Maiden(s) of Steel. Thanks to Jeph Loeb (and his psychological compulsion to return the DC Universe to its Silver Age status), Supergirl is back again for the first time, but how will the blond bombshell fare? By my count, there have been somewhere between three and seven Supergirls (depending on which timeline you favor), so the real question becomes... why does she keep getting rebooted in the first place?
The first Supergirl is actually the most commonly forgotten one out of the entire lineage (the lineage that she began. of course)... perhaps it is the little matter of her being killed in her debut appearance, or it could be the hyphen. Super-Girl was conjured into reality by Jimmy Olsen, after he wished upon an ancient Indian totem for a companion for his pal, Superman (you have to remember that this was 1958, the same year Olsen first transformed into the stretchy sidekick, Elastic Lad, so you may need to suspend some extra helpings of disbelief). Unfortunately, she was a bit of a klutz, causing as many disasters as she averted. Fortunately for property values in Metropolis, she soon sacrificed herself to save the real hero from some deadly (and oddly omnipresent) Kryptonite. After only one adventure, Super-Girl was dead, and the fictional world would never see another like her... for almost nine months.
1959 brought the second (and hyphen-free) Supergirl, though this version is much more fondly remembered (frankly, she is remembered at all, so, by default, she trumps the first). Kara Zor-El was but a teenager when she became the last survivor of Argo City, the doomed and domed metropolis which had been ejected, decades earlier, from the doomed (but not domed) planet of Krypton. Like another Kryptonian we all know so well, Kara was rocketed to Earth, where she meets Superman, her super-cousin. Superman (well known for his love of secret identities) has Kara disguise herself with a brunette wig, and takes her to the Midvale Orphanage, where she adopts the name Linda Lee (Lois Lane, Lex Luthor, Lana Lang... I'm surprised that Superman was not named Lark Lent).
Linda Kara Lee Zor-El was soon adopted into the Danvers family, adding another surname to her already growing list. Along with Kara came her two Super-Pets- Streaky the Super-Cat (an ordinary housecat, until its exposure to X-Kryptonite) and Comet the Super-Horse (actually a Greek centaur named Biron, locked in the form of a horse, and imprisoned within the constellation Sagittarius, until he was inadvertently freed by Kara's ship... he was later able to transform himself into a human, though only under the light of a passing comet, and he would go by the human name Bronco Bill... why are you laughing?).
Despite her choice of four-legged friends, Kara managed to eke out a fairly normal high school existence, save the extracurricular hours she spent saving the planet with her cousin, or running around the Thirtieth Century with her teammates in the Legion of Super-Heroes (her and Brainiac 5 were so cute together). After thirteen years of guest starring in other series, Supergirl was finally granted her own self-titled, solo book, which lasted for ten issues... so she went right back to guest starring. This was also right around the time she acquired an amazing comb which allowed her to change her hair color, at will, on a molecular level (oh, the wonders of science).
Just as Superman had his Earth-2 equivalent (who predated him, but why quibble), an Earth-2 Supergirl was created in the form of Power Girl. Kara-L was just a Kryptonian baby when her homeworld started its inevitable countdown to annihilation. Like her cousin Kal-L (the original needed no extra e), she was rocketed to the relative safety of Earth, but her ship took the scenic route. When Kara finally touched down on terra firma, she was physically in her late teens, but nearly sixty years had passed (thank god for cryogenics), so she was greeted by a very mature cousin Clark. He helped secure her a spot on the Justice Society of America, though she did resign for a time to help found Infinity, Inc (completing the seemingly impossible task of joining every major superteam on her planet). Despite her laudable accomplishment (let's see Wolverine do that), Power Girl will forever be best known for being drawn with increasing... endowments in each subsequent issue of All-Star Comics... strangely enough, no one complained.
Back on the less robust Earth-1, Linda Kara Lee Zor-El Danvers was blessed with another solo series, entitled The Daring New Adventures of Supergirl, though her adventures were only daring enough for 23 issues. Still, she had finally reached adulthood, resigning from the teen-filled Legion, and settling upon a new costume design (headbands were considered cool then, I swear). By all rights, she should have upgraded her codename to Superwoman... and maybe she would have, were it not for a certain Crisis on Infinite Earths. When the Anti-Monitor tried to destroy the few remaining Earths (far less than the once infinite number), Kara successfully destroyed his devices, but was rewarded with a quick death (though long enough for her to deliver a touching monologue on her way out). Some heart-wrenching statements were made about her sacrifice never being forgotten... right before they all forgot about her sacrifice. In the post-Crisis DC Universe, it was retroactively decided that Supergirl had never existed, so no adventures (daringor otherwise), no Super-Pets (not even Bronco Bill), no final sacrifice... no Kara.
Ironically, her death (and subsequent utter removal from existence) was preceded by the absolute zenith of Supergirl popularity, thanks to the 1984 feature film titled (appropriately enough) Supergirl. Those who have already seen the celluloid version of Kara's life can skip the rest of this paragraph, and save yourselves the pain of reliving the time Supergirl fought, of all things, a witch. This was a slightly different version of Kara, with rebellious tendencies unseen in her print equivalent. When she accidentally loses the Omegahedron, one of the primary power sources for Argo City (whoops), Kara pursues it to Earth, only to find that it has come into the possession of Selena, a sorceress with a penchant for world domination (double whoops). Under the always-helpful yellow sun, Kara transforms into Supergirl, utilizing her new superpowers (including a convenient bit of shape shifting) to defeat Selena and save Argo City (which is located in Inner Space... as opposed to Outer Space, one would presume). Fortunately, there were no sequels, or Supergirl might have returned seeking the Alphagon, or Betagram, or some other nonsensical combination of a Greek letter and a geometric shape.
In addition to killing her and then running a steamroller over her entire life, Crisis played havoc with some of Supergirl's nearest and dearest. Power Girl somehow clung to existence, but without an Earth-2 Superman to be linked to (or even an Earth-2 to call home), she was rewritten as the next-to-last survivor of Atlantis, with false memories of Krypton... except that origin was a lie too, but she is sure to get to the truth eventually (however inexplicable that truth shall turn out to be). Over in the far future, there was suddenly a Supergirl-sized hole in Legion history, and (though it took a few years of no one mentioning the problem) she was retroactively replaced by Laurel Gand, a codename-free Daxamite (like Kryptonians, but terrified of lead). Like her blonde bombshell of a predecessor, Laurel was an interstellar ophran, raised on Earth using the pseudonym Leela Linder (Leela Linder... Linda Lee... practically interchangeable). Laurel later sacrificed herself to save a planet full of folks, just before being overwritten by Zero Hour... just because she filled in for some of Supergirl's earlier adventures did not mean that she necessarily had to copy everything about her...
Back in the twentieth century, three very long, Supergirl-less years passed following Crisis, before DC was willing to put another Maiden of Steel on the market. Once again, the feminine flyer was not of this Earth, but the third Supergirl (technically, the first, once we accept the Crisis-issued renumbering) was not of this universe either. On Pocket Earth (or PokeEarth, for the anime fans out there), the heroic Lex Luthor and his wife, Lana Lang (take that, Smallville continuity), were the last line of defense against a Krytponian invasion from the Phantom Zone (it was Superman II all over again). Lana fell, but Lex replicated her molecular matrix in the form of a shapeshifting entity, which he dubbed Supergirl (had a nice ring to it). Supergirl crossed the universal divide, and, after a bit of temporary amnesia, successfully recruited Superman to free her world from strife... which, technically, did happen, after all life was wiped out on her planet (be careful what you wish for). Superman was forced to break his Thou Shall Not Kill rule to deal with General Zod and the other two Zoners, and then returned to Earth (his Earth, the one not recently decimated) with a gravely injured Supergirl in tow. He left her (well, her protomattery form) with his adoptive parents, who were well practiced at caring for alien visitors from dead planets.
From there, Matrix (not the film, but the protomattery Supergirl of the same name) became a regular guest star in and around the Superman titles (just like another Supergirl we can all recall). When Superman took a time out from the the planet Earth, Matrix played the role of Clark Kent (which is a lot of like the role of Superman, with an added pair of glasses). She settled upon the Supergirl look as her default form, and began a relationship with Lex Luthor II (much like Lex Luthor I, but with an Aussie accent and infinitely more hair). Of course, he was a bit more evil than the Lex she recalled from PokeEarth, and their partnership ended less than amicably, with Matrix shifting into 'bad girl' mode, and trying to kill him towards the end of her self-titled miniseries. (The 'bad girl' label is a bit of a misnomer with regard to Supergirl, because her angry look included puffy blonde hair and arm spikes, and 'bad girls' are supposed to be attractive) Soon after, she had a tour of duty with the New Titans, but (as the most powerful member of the team), they needed her much more than she needed them.
Though Supergirl was back in name and appearance (except when she went all 'ugly bad girl'), she was far from the Kryptonian roots that were synonymous with the brand name... err, I mean, character. That problem was temporarily solved by the Superman/Aliens miniseries (Superman is an alien... the Alien Aliens are aliens... the crossover made perfect sense), which introduced a teenage girl named Kara, from a little planetoid called Argo City. Thanks to those Giger creatures with acid for blood, Kara quickly became the last survivor of Argo City, which does earn her bonus points, but her lack of superpowers disqualifies from being a Supergirl. Still, she managed to make due with only her wits, a flame thrower, and Superman as a bodyguard.
Back to the only slightly extraterrestrial-filled DC universe, Matrix was adrift, lost without purpose, direction, or a solo series... enter PAD. Peter David took the shapeshifting Supergirl, and flew her out to a small town called Silver Age Nostalgia... err, I mean, Leesburg. There she met Linda Danvers (no need for a 'Lee', the town covered that part), a teenaged artist, who was busy dying at the hands of her ex-boyfriend, and local demonic cult leader, Buzz. Matrix (doing that self-sacrificing thing heroes do) merged her protomattery form with the dying Linda, which turned out to be a smart move for her character development, but not the best idea for her sense of self. The two emerged from the merge as one being, with the memories of Matrix, personality quirks of Linda, and the ability to shapeshift between the two... though only between the two, as her morphing powers and invisibility were casualties of her schizophrenic new status. She was the brunette Linda, but became the statuesque blonde Supergirl when danger came to Leesberg (as it often did)... then she found out she's an angel, and that's when things got weird (relatively speaking).
It turns out that when you sacrifice yourself selflessly to save someone who is beyond hope, you become an angel (it really is that simple... no bell-ringing required). As the Earth-born Angel of Fire, Supergirl gained wings of fire, fire vision (finally, some eye powers), and fire teleportation (well... it was just regular teleportation, but it really should have involved fire). The Angel of Love was Comet, though he was not a centaur this time around, just an odd-looking, equine-esque hero. It was also revealed that the soul of Kara Zor-El (the still quite non-existent, pre-Crisis Supergirl) had been watching over Linda for several years, which is a profoundly altruistic action, especially coming from someone who had never existed.
At around this time, the Superman: The Animated Series animated series debuted yet another incarnation of Supergirl, this one from the planet Argo (like the City, only bigger), which was thrown out of its orbit by the destruction of its neighboring world, Krypton. Kara In-Ze (El is other people) was the last survivor of her homeworld (notice the theme), and, after a cryogenic nap, took up residence on Earth. She designed a Supergirl costume... well, if you can call a tight-fitting t-shirt (minus the midsection, for maximum midriff) and short shorts a costume (kids grow up so fast these days). Her animated adventures continue in the current Justice League Unlimited series, where she had the fortune of receiving her very own evil twin, who (in a nice touch of continuity-minded irony) dressed quite a bit like Power Girl... well, Power Girl, pre-cleavage enhancements.
Back in the print world, there was a bit of a brouhaha going on in Heaven (you must have known that the 'angel' storyline would wander there eventually), and Supergirl defeated the evil Carnivore (I wonder if PAD is a vegetarian), at the expense of her fire-heavy, angel powers and the personality of Matrix. Suddenly simply solo, Linda (taking the Black Canary route) wore a blonde wig and donned a modified Supergirl costume, which looked remarkably like the animated edition, just with slightly less skimpiness. She then began a quest to find the missing Matrix (she had taken all the good powers with her), who was trapped in (of all places) the Garden of Eden. Linda managed to free her from Lilith, the mother of all demons (not to be confused with that other Lilith, the mother of all Ghost Rider crossovers). After a wave of resurrections, Twilight (bad girl turned good) became the new Angel of Fire, and Linda remained the only Supergirl... until the very next issue, when Kara Zor-El (of all people) showed up.
This Kara was revealed to be from an alternate Earth, which was quite like the Silver Age DCU, though it could not have really been Earth-1, because that world no longer exists (no matter how much certain writers would like it to). Linda took the place of Kara in that highly familiar plane, where she lived a blissfully happy existence, until they were forced to switch back, and Linda returned to the hellhole we call modern DC. With that, her series was cancelled, after a remarkable 80 issue run (remarkable, at least, for a Supergirl solo series). The now disillusioned Linda hung up her costume (she did not need much by way of closet space), and left Leesburg behind to find her place in the world. Hmmm... a disillusioned brunette with superstrength, limited invulnerability, loss of angelic stature, and from Leesburg... you know, that sort of reminds me of Lee, the antagonistic protagonist of Fallen Angel, which, by coincidence is also written by Peter David... but, no, Fallen Angel is creator-owned, so they cannot possibly be the same character.
A few days passed without a Supergirl (how the world survived remains a mystery), when a Ten Cent Adventure introduced yet another teenage girl willing to accept the mantle. This, however, was a very different kind of Supergirl... not only was she a natural brunette, but she was unapologetic enough about her hair color to go into action without a blonde wig. Cir-El (as she called herself) did share one commonality with the many Kryptonian Kara's- a familial relationship to Superman. She claimed to be the time-traveling daughter of Lois and Clark, which was an obvious lie... who would ever believe that two beings with completely dissimilar genetic structures would even have the same anatomical reproductive organs, let alone be capable of mating... (Spock, who?). Cir-El turned out to be a (non-time-traveling, non-Superman related) homeless girl, who had been brainwashed to take part in an insane world domination scheme, involving nanotechnology and coffee. Greatly disturbed (more by her inadvertent compliance, than the ridiculousness of her life), Cir-El launched herself into the timestream, in an effort to undo her own origin... if only more annoying heroes were willing to did that.
At roughly the same time (depending on temporal anomalies and delayed release schedules), the most recent Supergirl made her debut (filling the Supergirl void), in the pages of Superman/Batman (filling both the Superman and Batman voids). This Supergirl (like so many before her) is Kara Zor-El, another last survivor of Krypton, rocketed to Earth to join her cousin in his neverending quest for truth, justice, and franchise opportunities. However, this Kara is not the doe-eyed president of the Superman fan club that her direct ancestor was. She was trained in combat by Amazonians, brainwashed by Darkseid, and faked her own death... all in her first arc. Plus, this Maid of Steel has Abs of Steel, which she is not afraid to display (this will likely sell a few more copies of her upcoming solo book).
So, assuming that she can learn to steer clear of temporal wackiness, will this newest Supergirl fare better than her many predecessors? Probably not. Granted, Supergirl is a concept that has survived (in one form or another) for nearly fifty years, but that is the funny thing about nostalgia... you tend to remember the good, while glossing over the bad. Yes, Kara Zor-El has a long history, but a long history as a supporting character. Whenever she stepped into the spotlight, fame (and sales) were denied to her. The only Supergirl solo series to last for longer than two years was (despite some Silver Age in-jokes) about as far removed from the core concept of Kara Zor-El as you can get, without permanently transforming her into a man (and even that might be closer than fire wings).
At the moment, Jeph Loeb and his Steel Maiden are both hot commodities, so this new series will certainly sell well (even better than well, as long as she keeps her midriff exposed), but the original Kara was unable to sustain a substantial sales spot, even with a few hundred thousand extra people reading comic books at the time. The current Kara is still under the blanket of positivity that comes with sticking close to Superman, but if she steps away for a moment... well, you remember Superboy and Steel.
Of course, I could be wrong (it has been known to happen on occasion), and if I am, may a sorceress steal my Omegahedron.
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Raul Grau still has some qualms about Supergirl finding out that she's an angel. He believes that these things happen to other people... they don't happen at all, in fact.
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The opinions expressed in this column are solely those of the writer, and are not reflective of Comixfan or its other staff in general.
Steel Maiden(s)
Last month, we looked at the many imitators of Superman (who was himself a costumed clone of Hugo Danner, but no need to go into that again), so, in the interest of gender equality, our attention now turns to the Maiden(s) of Steel. Thanks to Jeph Loeb (and his psychological compulsion to return the DC Universe to its Silver Age status), Supergirl is back again for the first time, but how will the blond bombshell fare? By my count, there have been somewhere between three and seven Supergirls (depending on which timeline you favor), so the real question becomes... why does she keep getting rebooted in the first place?
The first Supergirl is actually the most commonly forgotten one out of the entire lineage (the lineage that she began. of course)... perhaps it is the little matter of her being killed in her debut appearance, or it could be the hyphen. Super-Girl was conjured into reality by Jimmy Olsen, after he wished upon an ancient Indian totem for a companion for his pal, Superman (you have to remember that this was 1958, the same year Olsen first transformed into the stretchy sidekick, Elastic Lad, so you may need to suspend some extra helpings of disbelief). Unfortunately, she was a bit of a klutz, causing as many disasters as she averted. Fortunately for property values in Metropolis, she soon sacrificed herself to save the real hero from some deadly (and oddly omnipresent) Kryptonite. After only one adventure, Super-Girl was dead, and the fictional world would never see another like her... for almost nine months.
1959 brought the second (and hyphen-free) Supergirl, though this version is much more fondly remembered (frankly, she is remembered at all, so, by default, she trumps the first). Kara Zor-El was but a teenager when she became the last survivor of Argo City, the doomed and domed metropolis which had been ejected, decades earlier, from the doomed (but not domed) planet of Krypton. Like another Kryptonian we all know so well, Kara was rocketed to Earth, where she meets Superman, her super-cousin. Superman (well known for his love of secret identities) has Kara disguise herself with a brunette wig, and takes her to the Midvale Orphanage, where she adopts the name Linda Lee (Lois Lane, Lex Luthor, Lana Lang... I'm surprised that Superman was not named Lark Lent).
Linda Kara Lee Zor-El was soon adopted into the Danvers family, adding another surname to her already growing list. Along with Kara came her two Super-Pets- Streaky the Super-Cat (an ordinary housecat, until its exposure to X-Kryptonite) and Comet the Super-Horse (actually a Greek centaur named Biron, locked in the form of a horse, and imprisoned within the constellation Sagittarius, until he was inadvertently freed by Kara's ship... he was later able to transform himself into a human, though only under the light of a passing comet, and he would go by the human name Bronco Bill... why are you laughing?).
Despite her choice of four-legged friends, Kara managed to eke out a fairly normal high school existence, save the extracurricular hours she spent saving the planet with her cousin, or running around the Thirtieth Century with her teammates in the Legion of Super-Heroes (her and Brainiac 5 were so cute together). After thirteen years of guest starring in other series, Supergirl was finally granted her own self-titled, solo book, which lasted for ten issues... so she went right back to guest starring. This was also right around the time she acquired an amazing comb which allowed her to change her hair color, at will, on a molecular level (oh, the wonders of science).
Just as Superman had his Earth-2 equivalent (who predated him, but why quibble), an Earth-2 Supergirl was created in the form of Power Girl. Kara-L was just a Kryptonian baby when her homeworld started its inevitable countdown to annihilation. Like her cousin Kal-L (the original needed no extra e), she was rocketed to the relative safety of Earth, but her ship took the scenic route. When Kara finally touched down on terra firma, she was physically in her late teens, but nearly sixty years had passed (thank god for cryogenics), so she was greeted by a very mature cousin Clark. He helped secure her a spot on the Justice Society of America, though she did resign for a time to help found Infinity, Inc (completing the seemingly impossible task of joining every major superteam on her planet). Despite her laudable accomplishment (let's see Wolverine do that), Power Girl will forever be best known for being drawn with increasing... endowments in each subsequent issue of All-Star Comics... strangely enough, no one complained.
Back on the less robust Earth-1, Linda Kara Lee Zor-El Danvers was blessed with another solo series, entitled The Daring New Adventures of Supergirl, though her adventures were only daring enough for 23 issues. Still, she had finally reached adulthood, resigning from the teen-filled Legion, and settling upon a new costume design (headbands were considered cool then, I swear). By all rights, she should have upgraded her codename to Superwoman... and maybe she would have, were it not for a certain Crisis on Infinite Earths. When the Anti-Monitor tried to destroy the few remaining Earths (far less than the once infinite number), Kara successfully destroyed his devices, but was rewarded with a quick death (though long enough for her to deliver a touching monologue on her way out). Some heart-wrenching statements were made about her sacrifice never being forgotten... right before they all forgot about her sacrifice. In the post-Crisis DC Universe, it was retroactively decided that Supergirl had never existed, so no adventures (daringor otherwise), no Super-Pets (not even Bronco Bill), no final sacrifice... no Kara.
Ironically, her death (and subsequent utter removal from existence) was preceded by the absolute zenith of Supergirl popularity, thanks to the 1984 feature film titled (appropriately enough) Supergirl. Those who have already seen the celluloid version of Kara's life can skip the rest of this paragraph, and save yourselves the pain of reliving the time Supergirl fought, of all things, a witch. This was a slightly different version of Kara, with rebellious tendencies unseen in her print equivalent. When she accidentally loses the Omegahedron, one of the primary power sources for Argo City (whoops), Kara pursues it to Earth, only to find that it has come into the possession of Selena, a sorceress with a penchant for world domination (double whoops). Under the always-helpful yellow sun, Kara transforms into Supergirl, utilizing her new superpowers (including a convenient bit of shape shifting) to defeat Selena and save Argo City (which is located in Inner Space... as opposed to Outer Space, one would presume). Fortunately, there were no sequels, or Supergirl might have returned seeking the Alphagon, or Betagram, or some other nonsensical combination of a Greek letter and a geometric shape.
In addition to killing her and then running a steamroller over her entire life, Crisis played havoc with some of Supergirl's nearest and dearest. Power Girl somehow clung to existence, but without an Earth-2 Superman to be linked to (or even an Earth-2 to call home), she was rewritten as the next-to-last survivor of Atlantis, with false memories of Krypton... except that origin was a lie too, but she is sure to get to the truth eventually (however inexplicable that truth shall turn out to be). Over in the far future, there was suddenly a Supergirl-sized hole in Legion history, and (though it took a few years of no one mentioning the problem) she was retroactively replaced by Laurel Gand, a codename-free Daxamite (like Kryptonians, but terrified of lead). Like her blonde bombshell of a predecessor, Laurel was an interstellar ophran, raised on Earth using the pseudonym Leela Linder (Leela Linder... Linda Lee... practically interchangeable). Laurel later sacrificed herself to save a planet full of folks, just before being overwritten by Zero Hour... just because she filled in for some of Supergirl's earlier adventures did not mean that she necessarily had to copy everything about her...
Back in the twentieth century, three very long, Supergirl-less years passed following Crisis, before DC was willing to put another Maiden of Steel on the market. Once again, the feminine flyer was not of this Earth, but the third Supergirl (technically, the first, once we accept the Crisis-issued renumbering) was not of this universe either. On Pocket Earth (or PokeEarth, for the anime fans out there), the heroic Lex Luthor and his wife, Lana Lang (take that, Smallville continuity), were the last line of defense against a Krytponian invasion from the Phantom Zone (it was Superman II all over again). Lana fell, but Lex replicated her molecular matrix in the form of a shapeshifting entity, which he dubbed Supergirl (had a nice ring to it). Supergirl crossed the universal divide, and, after a bit of temporary amnesia, successfully recruited Superman to free her world from strife... which, technically, did happen, after all life was wiped out on her planet (be careful what you wish for). Superman was forced to break his Thou Shall Not Kill rule to deal with General Zod and the other two Zoners, and then returned to Earth (his Earth, the one not recently decimated) with a gravely injured Supergirl in tow. He left her (well, her protomattery form) with his adoptive parents, who were well practiced at caring for alien visitors from dead planets.
From there, Matrix (not the film, but the protomattery Supergirl of the same name) became a regular guest star in and around the Superman titles (just like another Supergirl we can all recall). When Superman took a time out from the the planet Earth, Matrix played the role of Clark Kent (which is a lot of like the role of Superman, with an added pair of glasses). She settled upon the Supergirl look as her default form, and began a relationship with Lex Luthor II (much like Lex Luthor I, but with an Aussie accent and infinitely more hair). Of course, he was a bit more evil than the Lex she recalled from PokeEarth, and their partnership ended less than amicably, with Matrix shifting into 'bad girl' mode, and trying to kill him towards the end of her self-titled miniseries. (The 'bad girl' label is a bit of a misnomer with regard to Supergirl, because her angry look included puffy blonde hair and arm spikes, and 'bad girls' are supposed to be attractive) Soon after, she had a tour of duty with the New Titans, but (as the most powerful member of the team), they needed her much more than she needed them.
Though Supergirl was back in name and appearance (except when she went all 'ugly bad girl'), she was far from the Kryptonian roots that were synonymous with the brand name... err, I mean, character. That problem was temporarily solved by the Superman/Aliens miniseries (Superman is an alien... the Alien Aliens are aliens... the crossover made perfect sense), which introduced a teenage girl named Kara, from a little planetoid called Argo City. Thanks to those Giger creatures with acid for blood, Kara quickly became the last survivor of Argo City, which does earn her bonus points, but her lack of superpowers disqualifies from being a Supergirl. Still, she managed to make due with only her wits, a flame thrower, and Superman as a bodyguard.
Back to the only slightly extraterrestrial-filled DC universe, Matrix was adrift, lost without purpose, direction, or a solo series... enter PAD. Peter David took the shapeshifting Supergirl, and flew her out to a small town called Silver Age Nostalgia... err, I mean, Leesburg. There she met Linda Danvers (no need for a 'Lee', the town covered that part), a teenaged artist, who was busy dying at the hands of her ex-boyfriend, and local demonic cult leader, Buzz. Matrix (doing that self-sacrificing thing heroes do) merged her protomattery form with the dying Linda, which turned out to be a smart move for her character development, but not the best idea for her sense of self. The two emerged from the merge as one being, with the memories of Matrix, personality quirks of Linda, and the ability to shapeshift between the two... though only between the two, as her morphing powers and invisibility were casualties of her schizophrenic new status. She was the brunette Linda, but became the statuesque blonde Supergirl when danger came to Leesberg (as it often did)... then she found out she's an angel, and that's when things got weird (relatively speaking).
It turns out that when you sacrifice yourself selflessly to save someone who is beyond hope, you become an angel (it really is that simple... no bell-ringing required). As the Earth-born Angel of Fire, Supergirl gained wings of fire, fire vision (finally, some eye powers), and fire teleportation (well... it was just regular teleportation, but it really should have involved fire). The Angel of Love was Comet, though he was not a centaur this time around, just an odd-looking, equine-esque hero. It was also revealed that the soul of Kara Zor-El (the still quite non-existent, pre-Crisis Supergirl) had been watching over Linda for several years, which is a profoundly altruistic action, especially coming from someone who had never existed.
At around this time, the Superman: The Animated Series animated series debuted yet another incarnation of Supergirl, this one from the planet Argo (like the City, only bigger), which was thrown out of its orbit by the destruction of its neighboring world, Krypton. Kara In-Ze (El is other people) was the last survivor of her homeworld (notice the theme), and, after a cryogenic nap, took up residence on Earth. She designed a Supergirl costume... well, if you can call a tight-fitting t-shirt (minus the midsection, for maximum midriff) and short shorts a costume (kids grow up so fast these days). Her animated adventures continue in the current Justice League Unlimited series, where she had the fortune of receiving her very own evil twin, who (in a nice touch of continuity-minded irony) dressed quite a bit like Power Girl... well, Power Girl, pre-cleavage enhancements.
Back in the print world, there was a bit of a brouhaha going on in Heaven (you must have known that the 'angel' storyline would wander there eventually), and Supergirl defeated the evil Carnivore (I wonder if PAD is a vegetarian), at the expense of her fire-heavy, angel powers and the personality of Matrix. Suddenly simply solo, Linda (taking the Black Canary route) wore a blonde wig and donned a modified Supergirl costume, which looked remarkably like the animated edition, just with slightly less skimpiness. She then began a quest to find the missing Matrix (she had taken all the good powers with her), who was trapped in (of all places) the Garden of Eden. Linda managed to free her from Lilith, the mother of all demons (not to be confused with that other Lilith, the mother of all Ghost Rider crossovers). After a wave of resurrections, Twilight (bad girl turned good) became the new Angel of Fire, and Linda remained the only Supergirl... until the very next issue, when Kara Zor-El (of all people) showed up.
This Kara was revealed to be from an alternate Earth, which was quite like the Silver Age DCU, though it could not have really been Earth-1, because that world no longer exists (no matter how much certain writers would like it to). Linda took the place of Kara in that highly familiar plane, where she lived a blissfully happy existence, until they were forced to switch back, and Linda returned to the hellhole we call modern DC. With that, her series was cancelled, after a remarkable 80 issue run (remarkable, at least, for a Supergirl solo series). The now disillusioned Linda hung up her costume (she did not need much by way of closet space), and left Leesburg behind to find her place in the world. Hmmm... a disillusioned brunette with superstrength, limited invulnerability, loss of angelic stature, and from Leesburg... you know, that sort of reminds me of Lee, the antagonistic protagonist of Fallen Angel, which, by coincidence is also written by Peter David... but, no, Fallen Angel is creator-owned, so they cannot possibly be the same character.
A few days passed without a Supergirl (how the world survived remains a mystery), when a Ten Cent Adventure introduced yet another teenage girl willing to accept the mantle. This, however, was a very different kind of Supergirl... not only was she a natural brunette, but she was unapologetic enough about her hair color to go into action without a blonde wig. Cir-El (as she called herself) did share one commonality with the many Kryptonian Kara's- a familial relationship to Superman. She claimed to be the time-traveling daughter of Lois and Clark, which was an obvious lie... who would ever believe that two beings with completely dissimilar genetic structures would even have the same anatomical reproductive organs, let alone be capable of mating... (Spock, who?). Cir-El turned out to be a (non-time-traveling, non-Superman related) homeless girl, who had been brainwashed to take part in an insane world domination scheme, involving nanotechnology and coffee. Greatly disturbed (more by her inadvertent compliance, than the ridiculousness of her life), Cir-El launched herself into the timestream, in an effort to undo her own origin... if only more annoying heroes were willing to did that.
At roughly the same time (depending on temporal anomalies and delayed release schedules), the most recent Supergirl made her debut (filling the Supergirl void), in the pages of Superman/Batman (filling both the Superman and Batman voids). This Supergirl (like so many before her) is Kara Zor-El, another last survivor of Krypton, rocketed to Earth to join her cousin in his neverending quest for truth, justice, and franchise opportunities. However, this Kara is not the doe-eyed president of the Superman fan club that her direct ancestor was. She was trained in combat by Amazonians, brainwashed by Darkseid, and faked her own death... all in her first arc. Plus, this Maid of Steel has Abs of Steel, which she is not afraid to display (this will likely sell a few more copies of her upcoming solo book).
So, assuming that she can learn to steer clear of temporal wackiness, will this newest Supergirl fare better than her many predecessors? Probably not. Granted, Supergirl is a concept that has survived (in one form or another) for nearly fifty years, but that is the funny thing about nostalgia... you tend to remember the good, while glossing over the bad. Yes, Kara Zor-El has a long history, but a long history as a supporting character. Whenever she stepped into the spotlight, fame (and sales) were denied to her. The only Supergirl solo series to last for longer than two years was (despite some Silver Age in-jokes) about as far removed from the core concept of Kara Zor-El as you can get, without permanently transforming her into a man (and even that might be closer than fire wings).
At the moment, Jeph Loeb and his Steel Maiden are both hot commodities, so this new series will certainly sell well (even better than well, as long as she keeps her midriff exposed), but the original Kara was unable to sustain a substantial sales spot, even with a few hundred thousand extra people reading comic books at the time. The current Kara is still under the blanket of positivity that comes with sticking close to Superman, but if she steps away for a moment... well, you remember Superboy and Steel.
Of course, I could be wrong (it has been known to happen on occasion), and if I am, may a sorceress steal my Omegahedron.
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Raul Grau still has some qualms about Supergirl finding out that she's an angel. He believes that these things happen to other people... they don't happen at all, in fact.
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The opinions expressed in this column are solely those of the writer, and are not reflective of Comixfan or its other staff in general.