Supergirl
When did Supergirl first appear in comics, and what is her origin story?
Who created Supergirl?
Is Supergirl related to Superman?
Which comic book is Supergirl (2026) based on?
Who plays Supergirl in the 2026 film?
Supergirl, American comic strip superhero created for DC Comics by writer Otto Binder and artist Al Plastino. The character first appeared in Action Comics no. 252 (May 1959). Though several heroines throughout DC Comics history have taken up the Supergirl mantle, it is most commonly associated with Superman’s cousin, Kara Zor-El.
Creation in the Silver Age
When DC Comics ushered in the Silver Age of comic books in 1956 with the introduction of a new iteration of the Flash, the renewed interest in superheroes led to a flood of new characters as well as variations on established ones. Binder, who had created the hugely popular teenage girl hero Mary Marvel for Fawcett Comics in 1942, gauged public interest in a female counterpart for Superman in Superman no. 123 (August 1958). In that story, Superman’s pal Jimmy Olsen briefly wishes into existence a “Super-Girl” whose powers mirror those of Superman. Reader response was positive, and less than a year later “the Supergirl from Krypton” made her debut. Discovering a rocket that resembled the one that had carried him to Earth, Superman opened it to find an ebullient golden-haired teen named Kara, a survivor from his home world of Krypton. When that planet exploded, Kara’s entire hometown of Argo City survived, hurled to safety on a chunk of planetary debris. Soon, however, the populace of the floating city began to suffer from exposure to Kryptonite, a radioactive mineral that sickens and debilitates Kryptonians. Faced with impending doom, Kara’s father, Zor-El—brother of Superman’s biological father, Jor-El—rocketed his daughter to Earth to join her cousin.
Like her cousin, Kara Zor-El possessed a host of powers under a yellow sun, including super strength, invulnerability, super speed, heat vision, and the ability to fly. Superman concealed Kara’s existence from the world, disguising her with a brunette wig and covertly instructing her on the use of her powers. Taking the Earth name Linda Lee, Supergirl resided at an orphanage in Midvale, a suburb that was a short distance from Superman’s home in Metropolis. She became Linda Lee Danvers after she was eventually adopted by Fred and Edna Danvers—a couple cast in the same mold as Superman’s adoptive Earth parents, the Kents. Three years after her first comic book appearance, Supergirl was introduced to the world by Superman in a televised ticker-tape parade in Action Comics no. 285 (February 1962).
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Evolution of the Supergirl mythos
Throughout the 1960s Supergirl starred in the backup story in Action Comics and was sometimes featured on the book’s cover along with her top-tier cousin. Unmistakably, the character was created with the intention of attracting female readers, and while many boys shunned DC’s Wonder Woman title, they read Supergirl’s stories at least in part because they shared space in Action Comics with the immensely popular Man of Steel. Supergirl soon had a supporting cast that included boyfriend Dick Malverne, Streaky the Supercat (an Earth cat that received superpowers after being accidentally exposed to “X-Kryptonite”), and Comet the Super-Horse (a centaur from ancient Greece who had been turned into an immortal superpowered horse by the sorceress Circe). Supergirl also frequently appeared alongside the Legion of Super-Heroes, a group of superpowered teens from the 30th century, and she was romantically involved with team member Brainiac 5. Her stories were generally lighthearted, dealing with teenage heartache or a campus-based mystery. In June 1969 Supergirl assumed the lead spot in Adventure Comics before moving to the eponymous Supergirl (1972–74), but she failed to establish an audience large enough to maintain a solo title for long. Still, DC Comics kept the character in print in one fashion or another, trading on her licensing potential through a variety of products targeting young girls.
Supergirl’s death in Crisis on Infinite Earths—and later revival
Supergirl was featured prominently in the Superman Family anthology series (1974–82) and once again headlined her own series from 1982 to 1984. However, writer Marv Wolfman suggested that the character could be killed in his 12-issue comic book opus Crisis on Infinite Earths (1985–86), to give more emotional weight to the continuity-reshaping series. Dick Giordano, DC’s vice president and executive editor, also pushed for her to be killed off. Some company executives balked at the idea, as Supergirl was about to make her Hollywood debut in the wake of a trio of successful Superman films. However, the theatrical Supergirl (1984), featuring Helen Slater in the title role and Faye Dunaway as the scenery-chewing antagonist, flopped at the box office, possibly sealing Supergirl’s fate. In Crisis on Infinite Earths no. 7 (October 1985), Supergirl valiantly sacrificed herself to save Superman, succumbing to a blast from the Anti-Monitor. By the end of that series, Kara Zor-El had been removed from DC’s relaunched mythology; she would not appear again until 2004.
In 1986 writer and artist John Byrne offered a fresh perspective on the Superman mythos in his six-issue Man of Steel series, and by 1988 a new Supergirl had been introduced. Genetically engineered by a heroic Lex Luthor from an alternate universe, that Supergirl, originally called Matrix, was dispatched to Metropolis to recruit Superman’s aid in battling a trio of rogue Kryptonians. Making Earth her adopted planet, the new Supergirl found her career fraught with change. She later merged her body with that of the dying Linda Danvers (a human girl with the same first and last name as Kara Zor-El’s secret identity), became an angel with fiery wings, was separated from Danvers, and battled an assortment of supernatural foes in the relaunched Supergirl (1996–2003) comic.
In Supergirl no. 75 (2002), a parallel universe version of the Kryptonian Supergirl briefly appeared, and in Superman: The 10-Cent Adventure (2003), yet another Supergirl—this one claiming to be the daughter of Superman and Lois Lane—surfaced, going by the name Cir-El. The latter was eventually revealed to be a creation of perennial Superman villain Brainiac. Those frequent reinventions made the character’s backstory so confusing that it was inaccessible even for a dedicated reader. That may be why, in May 2004, DC brought back a contemporary version of the “real” Kara Zor-El in issue no. 8 of the hit Superman/Batman series. That storyline, by writer Jeph Loeb and artist Michael Turner, reintroduced Kara into official continuity and was adapted into the direct-to-video animated film Superman/Batman: Apocalypse (2010). The retelling tweaked Kara Zor-El’s origin story, casting her as her cousin’s protector and explaining that she had been in suspended animation during her journey to Earth. A new Supergirl comic series began in 2005 and ran until 2011, when DC rebooted its entire comic line.
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Supergirl relaunched under DC’s “New 52” banner, this time introducing a Kara Zor-El who struggles to come to grips with the loss of her home planet. The title was canceled in 2015 as part of the company’s “Convergence” crossover. From 2016 to 2020 a new line of Supergirl comics under the “DC Rebirth” continuity saw her face off against a twisted cyborg version of her father and later briefly become infected by a virus that turns her evil. An eight-issue miniseries titled Supergirl: Woman of Tomorrow (2021–22) had Supergirl travel across the cosmos with a young alien girl to exact revenge on a ruthless murderer. In 2025 a new Supergirl series debuted, bringing some of the character’s Silver Age history back into the fold.
In other media
Although Supergirl historically had mixed success with headlining her own comic, she frequently appeared in other media. In 1998 a version of Supergirl was introduced on television in Superman: The Animated Series (1996–2000). The DC Comics editorial policy at that time dictated that Superman was the only survivor of Krypton, so that Supergirl, named Kara In-Ze, was not Superman’s cousin but came from Argo, a neighboring planet. That Supergirl also appeared in the animated Justice League Unlimited (2001–06). Laura Vandervoort portrayed the original Kara Zor-El in numerous episodes of the live-action TV series Smallville from 2007 to 2011. Melissa Benoist played the character in the live-action Supergirl CBS television series, which ran from 2015 to 2021. The Flash (2023) cast Sasha Calle as a Kara Zor-El from an alternate timeline in which she lands in Siberia and is imprisoned in a weakened state by mercenaries. Kiana Madeira voiced the character in the animated My Adventures with Superman (2023– ). As part of the James Gunn-led DC Universe cinematic franchise, a film based on the Woman of Tomorrow storyline was set to be released in June 2026, starring Milly Alcock in the title role.