Supergirl/Headscratchers


 * So... according to modern continuity, Kara Zor-El was Kal-El's older cousin, who was sent to Earth to watch over him, and was delayed in stasis. If she was supposed to be his babysitter/surrogate mother, why didn't they send them in the same spaceship?
 * Security in numbers? The more spaceships you fire, the more likely one is going to make it.
 * Wasn't Kara's actual purpose revealed to have been to kill Kal-El, as part of some deranged family vendetta? Or have they retconned that retcon back out again?
 * Retconned back out again, thankfully.
 * Maybe there wasn't room in just one spaceship? (Is the John Byrne "birthing matrix" stuff still canon?)
 * Nope. Kind of. The birthing matrix doesn't exist as the reason fetus!Superman could be born in America and be a candidate for President, but it's presence is still felt in that Cyborg Superman's origin rests so heavily on it, taking it away would cause a Continuity Snarl the likes of which could may match Hawkman's.
 * Who knows? Linda Danvers as Supergirl is still canon, but Matrix might be retconned out. They're both canon, but are no longer relevant.
 * Here's your answer: which Supergirl?
 * Better answer: Zor-El thought his brother's "let's send my infant son off to another planet without any protectors" idea was a little bit flawed and also wanted to save his child, so he built a ship for Kara to kill two birds with one stone. As for the lack of coordination... blame the impending apocalypse.
 * Close, Kal-El was sent off first as Krypton was self-destructing. At the same time, Argo City reversed-engineered Brainiac's technology to create a shield to protect it. After Krypton blew up, Zor-El decided that Kal-El needed someone to watch over him/raise him so he sent his daughter. After that, Brainiac came back, shrunk Argo City, and folded it into Kandor. Simple, no?

"Random Guy: "Oh, look! That bus full of nuns and children are being held hostage by Metallo! Someone needs to help!" Supergirl: "No. You asses killed my people. Let Corben do whatever he wants. I'M GOING TO OA TO HANG WITH ARISIA!!1""
 * Why doesn't she wear pants? Does she want everyone in town looking up her skirt?
 * ...yes.
 * No more or less than any figure skater or cheerleader does. I've always been under the impression that she wears a leotard of some sort; we're not looking at her "underwear."
 * Actually, Joe Kelly would seem to agree based on his characterization of her during her thankfully brief Super-Britney phase. They've reverted her closer to her traditional characterization since then.
 * The current Supergirl (Kara Zor-El) does indeed wear short-pants beneath her skirt. Well-hidden when she's standing still, but at the right angle during flight or when thrown aside by a villain, the surprisingly conservative attire reveals itself.
 * Why am I significantly more confused now after reading her page than I was when I simply didn't know what her origin was? This is some kind of unholy abomination of conflicting continuities, and I think it just snarled at me. I didn't even know I was supposed to be confused about Power Girl as well.
 * Oh, please... If Supergirl makes you confused, then you should stay far away from Hawkman. You're probably overthinking too much (personally, I don't see it as being that confusing, but to each his own...). But... yeah, I can understand; this is what happens when DC wants to reset the status quo of it's most famous character, but doesn't want to give up another.
 * Power Girl is Supergirl. Just from another of the no-longer-Infinite Earths. So, just file it under Supergirl confusion and throw it in the bin.
 * Supergirl is mostly confusing because there were several different Supergirl characters, with absurdly complicated backgrounds. If you consider only the current one, who is just Superman's cousin, it's not complicated. Power Girl is confusing because DC kept trying to rewrite her origin. They're back to her original origin (that she's the Supergirl of Earth-2) so that's no longer complicated either.
 * Just to sum up for you.
 * 1959: Kara Zor-El, Superman's cousin is Supergirl.
 * 1976: DC choose to give Earth-2 a Supergirl equivelent, Kara Zor-L, aka Power Girl.
 * 1985: The Crisis happens and DC gets rid of all other Kryptonians to keep Superman as the Last Son of Krypton. Power Girl is kept with a new origin.
 * 1988: DC bring in Matrix, a gooey shapeshifter who turns herself into a female Superman for shits and gigles.
 * 1996: A girl named Linda Danvers gets fatally wounded and Matrix tries to save her by plugging the wounds, instead the two end up fusing. I'm not sure WHY DC did this, but they did.
 * 2003: DC introduce Cir-El, the future daughter of Lois and Superman, she's not very popular and is quickly gotten rid of.
 * 2005: DC finally say "fuck it" and bring back Kara Zor-El, the cousin of Kal-El. Power Girl is now said to be the original Power Girl from Earth-2, having survived the Crisis, so just ignore anything else to do with her okay.
 * Why does Kara Zor-El (current) stay on Earth? You know,home planet of the Complete Monsters and their accomplices who murdered basically her entire species?
 * I think Jor-El's speech from Superman Returns sums it up quite nicely.
 * You might as well ask, why does Superman? Besides, where else is she going to go?
 * To be fair, Clark was raised here, and is just as much human as he is Kryptonian, in spirit if not in blood. Kara, on the other hand, got here after most of her formative years were over. As for where... I hear Rann is lovely this time of year.
 * Hah, which one? The one that was destroyed or the new one that's under threat of Tamaranian invasion? Anyways, back on topic: Kara knows that not everyone is like Lex Luthor or Sam Lane. If she writes off all of Earth like that, it's just like Kyle Rayner abandoning Earth because his gay friend was gay-bashed all over again.
 * Kyle Rayner left Earth because John Stewart was going to be in Justice League, so Kyle had to be shooed out of the JLA so that John could be the Green Lantern in the comic book version. The gay bashing thing was just a poorly-conceived excuse. Similar to why Young Justice was canceled and some of the members shifted to the new Teen Titans right before the Teen Titans cartoon started. (Well, that and Dan DiDio hates fun.)
 * First, Young Justice was terribly overrated (can't say the same for the rest of Peter David's works, because I haven't really read any). Second, the Justice League thing notwithstanding, the official in-universe excuse for Kyle leaving Earth was the gay-bashing (amongst other things). Third, Didio-bashing doesn't really have it's place in this argument. And finally, it would be an incredible wall banger for Kara to write off the entire human race for something that a relatively small group of government assholes did.


 * Yes, that was the official in-universe excuse, but the point is that it didn't matter what any of the writers wanted to do with Kyle at the time, the decision to get him out of the Justice League to make room for John Stewart was made by the editors to make the comic closer to the animated universe. Whether you personally liked Young Justice or not, it was ended for the same reason. Just like Superman's history in the comic book was changed to match with Smallville. It would be a wallbanger for Supergirl to leave because of what a few people did (just like it was when that was the poorly conceived excuse used for Kyle), but it wouldn't matter if some higher-up told the writer that they want her to join the Legion of Super-Heroes, to go to Earth-12, or that they were going to bring Cir-El back and didn't want to confuse the audience. And at that point you would probably write a jab or two aimed at DiDido out of the pure frustration of someone other than the creative team making decisions that impact a character that you like. I guess what I am trying to say is that editors should spend more time checking continuity and less time bullying writers, and if corporate executives want to dictate what goes on in comics (or TV, movies, etc) they should try their hand at writing them.
 * Right,because Earth is the only planet in the universe where there are people in need of saving,evil to fight or anything like that and no filthy alien is worthy of Supergirl's time when there are Americans to save.That's why there are only 2 Green Lanterns and they are both assigned to Earth.And it's completely illogical to draw any conclusions about humans in general from the actions of those humans democratically elected representitives and widespread support for the racist pogrom that blew up your planet,and certainly no conclusions can be drawn from that pogrom being directed from the human's largest military base in their capital city.
 * So what you are saying is that the JLA doesn't help anyone outside of America? That Superman doesn't help with the occasional giant robot attacks in Tokyo? That Wonder Woman doesn't help evacuate nearby cities when there is an erupting volcano in the Pacific? That when Green Lantern saves the planet from alien invasion, it's only for America? ...Are you that old black person that said that Hal Jordan didn't help black people at the start of the O'Neil/Adams run? Do you think that Superman is the biggest dick in the world since he mainly helps EARTH instead of patrolling that big giant thing that we live in... what's it called... THE UNIVERSE? I guess that aliens are helpless... wait. Aren't there Darkstars, R.E.B.E.L.S., GLC, and other alien police groups? There are? Huh, well blow me down. And I guess that the Kryptonian government was all perfect and SOOO much better than any of Earth's... except for the horrible classism, xenophobia against anyone NOT Kryptonian, and the military sleeper cells that were placed all over Earth to invade on Zod's command. Yes, let's let children die in an earthquake in France or let the armed robbers shoot everyone dead in Macon, Georgia JUST because of a rouge military cell (who by the way, wasn't elected, becaue they are the MILITARY. The president was, but he was fed doctored information.). And even if you just can't get rid of the fact that the cell was American, remember this: AMERICA DOES NOT EQUAL THE ENTIRE PLANET. That is a real nice representative of the entire human freaking race. Finally, SPELL CHECK. USE IT.
 * Superman and Supergirl take the fact that their species has become extinct pretty well, it seems. Superman cares more that humans died during his absence and thinks he should have left Kandor in Brainiac's ship. Supergirl not only stays on Earth, but thinks about rejecting her Kryptonian roots. And neither of them tries to go after Lex Luthor, who took the part in the genocide of their people, even though he is public figure again. Regarding the above argument: Supergirl abandoning Earth WOULD NOT BE THE SAME THING as when Kyle Rayner did it, simply because it's not her native planet, she spent only a few years here, so from her perspective it would be just leaving one alien world for another.
 * If Supergirl and Power Girl had...relations...would it be considered masturbation? Incest?
 * Incest. Power Girl is physically different to Supergirl, this leads me to believe that she is biologically different too. Making her more like a sister to her than a straight parallel universe equivalent.
 * Why is her name Kara Zor-El? Isn't her dad's name Zor El? And if Kryptonian children have their father's names as last names, wouldn't Superman be Kal Jor-El? Does this only apply to daughters? And why does her mother have a name that sounds more earth-like than Kryptonian, with no last name?
 * Yeah, daughters on Krypton get their father's whole name as a surname; Kal-El's mother was named Lara Lor-Van, after her father Lor-Van, for instance. As for the mother... she probably just went by her first name.
 * That clears things up, thanks. By the way, did you know that El in ancient Hebrew means God? Think about that.