Comics / Spotlight

Supergirl: Crash and Burn

By J. Skyler
November 13, 2006 - 20:39

Although, many long time fans were overjoyed at the return of Kara Zor-El as the newly canonized and once again only Supergirl, the majority also have distaste for her modernized personality. I am not one of them.

            Kara Zor-El’s pre-Crisis counterpart, much like the pre-crisis Superman was the pinnacle of human virtue compassion and more importantly, innocence. It was Kara’s innocence more than anything else that seemed to keep her fan-base. She was literally a super-girl. “Super,” in the since that she possessed all the powers of a goddess while still being your average girl next door. She was always kind and never quick to anger and she was a role model for women everywhere. This image of ‘perfection’ was not limited to Supergirl; it was a common thread among all silver age superheroes. And while this ‘image’ painted a beautiful picture, it was highly unrealistic even for comic book standards.

            Post-Crisis, nearly every superhero in the DC comic universe had their origin myths drastically rewritten. Superman was a prime example. Although he retained the good hearted qualities that his name embodied, it was evident his virtue did not appear out of think air; they were qualities that took time to grow into. Pre-crisis, Superman had been depicted as a Superboy in his youth. “…Superboy was simply Superman as an adolescent, acting as a superhero in his hometown of Smallville. The character was featured in several series from the 1940s until the 1980s and developed a mythos and supporting cast of his own, including parents Ma and Pa Kent, love interest Lana Lang and the time traveling allies the Legion of Super-Heroes….in 1985, Superman’s history was changed so that he never took a costumed identity until adulthood, erasing Superboy…” This may or may not have seemed like a drastic change to Superman’s character to fans that grew up with the pre-crisis Superman, but it was a logical one.

            You are a typical male teenager. You live in the grand old United States of America, raised by two loving parents who took you in when you were abandoned as a baby. You go to school, you work on the farm and you even have a crush on the girl next door. Then, without any warning, you discover you are not human, you are the sole survivor of an alien race and you are developing strange and dangerous abilities that could easily kill a normal human being. Would you honestly be eager to throw on a cape and save the world from danger? Knowing that you, yourself could be the greatest danger the world has ever seen? The afore mentioned realizations, along with your average teen-age angst would be enough to drive a person insane. It took Clark Kent (oh wait, that’s not his real name! He’s isn’t human remember? His name is Kal-El) years to work through the emotional trauma he suffered in his adolescence in order to become the embodiment of Superman.

            Unlike Superman, Kara watched helplessly as everything she knew was destroyed. She grew into a young woman on Krypton. Good or bad, all of her life experiences made her whole. After Krypton’s destruction, she lived on a fragmented piece of her once beloved home; she watched a second home die and this time from the very beginning. Kara lost everything, literally everything. Are we to honestly believe that Kara Zor-El, after living on her home world and watching it die before her very eyes- would simply throw on a cape and become the world’s greatest heroine? I think not. Kara Zor-El’s modern day incarnation has been cursed for having realistic flaws and fears for a teenage girl in an unrealistic situation.

Kara’s only hope, her last change to have a purpose in life was to find her younger cousin and raise him; a purpose that could never be fulfilled. Kara arrived on earth not only to find her infant cousin not only an adult, but the greatest hero the world has ever seen. Her only living relative and three other people instantly wanted to take her very life out of her hands; one of them being the darkest evil in the universe. Darkside captured her. Tortured her. Manipulated her. He turned her into a living weapon. Not a person, a weapon.

            Shortly after being saved from herself, by the very person she was supposed to protect, Kara is given the role of Supergirl; a role which embodies perfection. We truly to believe after everything she had been through- everything she is going through- that she can instantly become Supergirl? Will Kara ever be able to resemble her pre-crisis counterpart? Of course she will. But she can’t do it without time and understanding. She is still a child and one that has had more to deal with in her short life than anyone should ever have to deal with in any lifetime. I’m sure she lies awake at night thinking “I’m Supergirl, I’m here to save the world…but I want to know who’s going to save me?”

            I don’t care whether Kara Zor-El is the ‘girl next door’ or the ‘girl with an identity crisis.’ She is still Kara. And she will always have a fan in me. And hey, if she needs to crash and burn…she’s not alone.

Last Updated: August 31, 2023 - 08:12