Kara Zor-El

Kara Zor-El first appeared in Action Comics #252 (May 1959), in a story called “The Supergirl From Krypton!” written by Otto Binder, who would go on to pen a number of Supergirl stories, and drawn by Al Plastino (although Jim Mooney would become the artist most associated with the early Supergirl).

The story begins with Superman spotting a rocket crashing to Earth with his telescopic vision. He expects the inhabitant to be dead when he reaches the rocket, but to his surprise, the perky blonde teenager inside is not only very much alive, she’s wearing a costume like his and appears to know all about him. Her story, as she tells it, goes like this:

When Krypton exploded, a large chunk containing Argo City drifted into space, surrounded by a bubble of air (later changed to a protective dome so as to be slightly more plausible). When the ground turned to kryptonite, as every piece of the doomed planet eventually does, scientist Zor-El (brother to Jor-El, Superman’s father) laid down a sheet of lead to protect the survivors. Years passed, and Zor-El and his wife Allura² had a baby, named Kara Zor-El in the patriarchal, vaguely Russian Kryptonian tradition.

When Kara was fifteen, a meteor shower pierced holes in the protective lead covering and exposed the Argonauts³ to deadly kryptonite radiation. Thinking fast, Zor-El and Allura used their telescopes to discover the whereabouts of their nephew Kal-El, then sewed Kara a costume resembling Superman’s and placed her in a rocket, which they sent to Earth in the nick of time.

Immediately poor Kara is subjected to the first in a string of disappointments lasting several years. Clark won’t let her come live with him because it might compromise his secret identity (which, incidentally, he doesn’t tell her), so he drops her off at Midvale Orphanage as “Linda Lee.”⁴ She can’t show her powers, because Superman wants to keep her in reserve as his “secret weapon.” She can’t let herself be adopted, because it would be too difficult to hide her superpowers from parents. She’s invited to join the Legion of Super-heroes, but disqualified on a technicality when red kryptonite temporarily ages her to womanhood (the Legion only takes teenagers).⁵ Her first kiss (with a merboy named Jerro) ends in humiliation.⁶ Superman even sends her into exile in space for a year for playing with Krypto!⁷ (Of course, he relents after a few days.)

Finally, in Action Comics #285 (February 1962)⁸, Superman decides that Kara’s waited long enough, and the world is now ready for Supergirl. He ushers her into the public eye with great fanfare, and the world immediately takes Supergirl into their hearts – as did the reading public. Kara had great success as the backup story in Action Comics until June 1969, when she swapped places with Superboy and the Legion of Super-Heroes and got the cover-featured starring gig in Adventure Comics, which in turn was so successful that she got her own series, Supergirl,⁹ in November 1972. Unfortunately, here the Supergirl juggernaut petered out a bit. The series only lasted ten issues before it got folded into Superman Family¹⁰ along with Lois Lane and Jimmy Olsen.

Kara had another go at a solo series a decade later in November 1982 with The Daring New Adventures of Supergirl,¹¹ and had a slightly better run – 23 issues this time. (Maybe the title helped?) More notably, she did something between 1962 and 1985 that very few DCU young ‘uns were permitted to do at the time – she grew up. Though Clark stayed 29, Kara made her way through high school and college, outstripping Robin and catching up with her good friend Batgirl, and took a string of jobs (and a string of reader-suggested costumes – how very Betty and Veronica of her!). She dabbled in television journalism, acting, and education. She even starred in a movie (1984’s Supergirl, with Helen Slater in the eponymous role).
 

Then there came a Crisis.

Crisis on Infinite Earths¹² was intended, among other things, to give the writers a means to reboot some characters who were getting too unwieldy, most notably Superman. The Man of Steel got a full makeover post-Crisis – a makeover which included him truly being the last survivor of Krypton. That meant no Krypto the Superdog, no criminals in the Phantom Zone, no Bottle City of Kandor – and no Supergirl.

And so Kara Zor-El gave her life heroically in Crisis on Infinite Earths #7 (October 1985), saving the day, allowing for the eventual victory of the heroes, and dying in her cousin’s arms with a few poetic last words.

Of course, the tears shed over Kara were all moot. Since Superman was the only survivor of the post-Crisis Krypton, Supergirl had not only died in the Crisis, she had never existed. She was erased from continuity, and from the memories of everyone who loved her (but not those of the readers, many of whom were furious at her death). Exit Supergirl, stage left.

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2. Allura's last name was In-Ze, which became the last name of the Supergirl from Superman: The Animated Series.
3. That's a little classics humor for you, folks.
4. This was eventually changed to Linda Danvers when Kara was finally adopted by Fred and Edna Danvers.
5. "The Three Super-Heroes," Action Comics #267 (August 1960), Binder and Mooney.
6. "Supergirl's First Romance," Action Comics #269 (October 1960), Jerry Siegel and Mooney.
7. "Supergirl's Farewell to Earth," Action Comics #258 (November 1959), Binder and Mooney.
8. "The World's Greatest Heroine!" Siegel and Mooney.
9. Edited by Dorothy Woolfolk, then Bob Kanigher.
10. Much of Kara's life here was developed by writer Elliot S! Maggin and artist Artie Saaf.
11. Writer: Paul Kupperberg. Artist: Carmine Infantino.
12. Writer: Marv Wolfman. Artist: George Perez.

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