Comics / Spotlight / Queer Comics

Supergirl: It Gets Better

By J. Skyler
August 16, 2012 - 12:14

While more superficial attributes such as glamor and celebrity have defined the term “gay icon” over the course of its usage, the single most important quality an iconic figure to the Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender (LGBT) community can possess is strength through adversity—and Supergirl is the strongest female in fiction to earn the designation. Kara Zor-El has over 35 years of history in publication and the Girl of Steel’s untimely demise, resurrection and sense of isolation is analogous to the painful and sometimes tragic journey out of the closet.

As I mentioned in my previous essay “Batgirl: Gay Icon?”, the lack of identifiable LGBT figures in history to look towards for hope, leadership and guidance is what led to the phenomenon of gay icons—predominately heterosexual public and historical figures whose life stories reflect the adversities faced by our community. Unsurprisingly, the world of fiction has also seen a lack of identifiable LGBT characters thanks to the now defunct Comic Code Authority banning any mention of homosexuality until 1989. Just as in the real world, LGBT readers have spent generations looking for reflections of themselves in heterosexual characters. To you give yourself over to the story and the characters that motivate it, to attempt to see the world as they do in order to share in whatever experience they may be going through, can serve as a cathartic release. In recent decades, the increased visibility of LGBT people (as well as fictional characters) has allotted more openly LGBT public figures (fictional or not) to become iconic than in previous generations, but I believe part of the appeal of having heterosexuals as gay icons is that they prove we are not so different than preachers of anti-gay rhetoric would have the rest of the world believe. While it is absolutely vital to have openly LGBT people such as Bayard Rustin and Harvey Milk or fictional characters such as Northstar and Batwoman reach the iconic status they so rightfully deserve, our straight allies continue to play a fundamental role in our fight for equality by letting the world know our struggles are no less valid than theirs. As such, Supergirl’s struggle to define herself as something other than being a refugee of an alien world and the cousin of the world’s most iconic figure, as well as carrying the burden of her family’s expectations is akin to the road to self-discovery experienced by LGBT youth.

As a public speaker, I have led classroom lectures and discussions on LGBT culture, history and experience with students of sociology, human sexuality, psychology, child development and media studies for several years at Mount San Antonio College. In examining the coming out process, I’ve often labeled it a form of “psychological suicide.” The reason being is that as our heterosexual counterparts grow up, seeking, examining and cultivating their own identities, the vast majority of LGBT youth spend a great deal of time stunting their own personal growth trapped behind closet doors. They spend nearly every waking moment asking themselves “If I speak about a particular topic, take up a certain sport, hobby or profession, or do anything to draw attention to myself, will people find out I’m gay?” Closeted LGBT people often spend their entire youth and much of their adulthood creating false personas, including adopting specific mannerisms, slang, hobbies, political and religious affiliations, all for the sake of keeping their sexual orientation or gender identity a secret. The man with a talent for playing the violin may drown himself in mechanics to keep the respect of his father and friends while the woman who wishes to enter law enforcement may choose to become a homemaker in order to fulfill her family’s expectation of marriage. Even LGBT people whose natural interests are heteronormative—such as gay or bisexual men who genuinely enjoy playing recreational or professional sports—may expend endless amounts of time and effort creating a personality that will give off a veneer of heterosexuality to dispel any suspicion of their true sexual identity. The consequence is that once the coming out process is complete, once the veil is lifted, that person they may have spent a decade or more projecting to the world is dead. Do they suddenly morph into an entirely different person altogether? No. On a very basic level they are the exact same individual they were stepping out of the closet as they were locking themselves into it. However, leading a life of intentional misdirection ironically leads right back to the question we ask ourselves in adolescence: who am I? To many, having to answer that question may seem like death itself.

Our exploration into the psyche of Kara Zor-El and her connection to LGBT youth begins with the fact that she lives through the destruction of her home world Krypton. Though her origin varies slightly between her first publication in 1959, her reintroduction in 2004 and revamp as part of The New 52 in 2011, certain factors remain consistent: Kara Zor-El is a member of the House of El, a family whose patriarchs are her father, Zor-El and uncle Jor-El, the father of Kal-El (who would later become Superman). She and her parents resided in the City of Argo, which temporarily remained in-tact after Krypton’s explosion, but drifted through space until it too became uninhabitable. Depicted as a teenager, Kara Zor-El witnesses an apocalyptic event at a time when most young people her age are only beginning to map out their destinies. In essence, her view of the world, or rather life as she knew it, changed radically. Whatever woman she thought she would eventually become was no longer plausible because the world, culture and continuity that would have shaped that woman no longer existed. In a similar vein, LGBT youth often go through a fundamental shift in their worldview following the internal realization of their sexual or gender identity. With a general knowledge of the bigoted, hate-filled and sometimes violent reactions to homosexuality, bisexuality or transgender identity—in many cases steaming from members of their own family or wider community—they come to view their orientation as the instrument of destruction which will decimate their world if discovered. For youth who do choose to reveal themselves, or who are forcibly “outed” by friends, family members, or even other LGBT people who have long since forgotten how scarring the coming out process can be for those who are not prepared, the “end of world” becomes a grim reality.

The role family members play in affecting the self-esteem on LGBT youth are the most influential, and can range from nurturing to abusive. Parents whose homophobia may stem from religious, cultural or outdated medical and psychiatric viewpoints usually act out a sincere concern for the mental and physical health of their children and, in their own misguided way, are actively trying to save them from what they believe to be an honest threat to their child’s welfare. For the child, being caught between the desire to respect and adhere to their parents convictions versus following their own can be devastating. The child who suppresses themselves lives on to lead a life of obligation, while the child who stands up for themselves may end up becoming ostracized. Kara Zor-El literally experiences this sequence of events in the Action Comics storyline “Supergirl’s Farewell to Earth” (1959). One of the things I always found odd about her Silver Age stories is Superman’s outright bizarre behavior towards her. Rather than opting to raise his only biological relative, he sends his younger cousin to live in an orphanage and forbids her from using her abilities (and by extension revealing her identity as a Kryptonian) until he gives her permission to do so. In “Farewell to Earth”, Superman catches her playing with Krypto (the Superdog) while actively using her powers. Superman chastises her, stating that even revealing herself to a dog is unacceptable because he could follow her back to the orphanage and inadvertently reveal her identity to other people. Superman insists she must be punished and literally hurls her into space after locking her in capsule, informing her that she is to be exiled from Earth on an asteroid for a full year. Superman allows her to return after a few days, explaining her exile as a ploy to test her ability to keep her secret identity in-tact after being absent from the orphanage for an extended period of time. Nonetheless, the implication is clear: Superman has absolute authority over her which can never be questioned, even when it is explicitly abusive. Such is the fate of many LGBT youth, who are exiled from their homes for revealing themselves in defiance of their family’s wishes. Just as Kara Zor-El cannot suppress her supernatural abilities to appease her cousin, nor can LGBT youth suppress their attraction for the sake of their parents. Volume 2 of the Encyclopedia of Cross-Cultural School Psychology (2010) documents that “[p]arents, peers and school staff who engage in verbal and physical abuse towards LGBT youth promote negative outcomes including LGBT youth running away, being thrown out or forced to leave home (homelessness), substance abuse, truancy, dropping out of school, deviant behavior, isolation, depression and suicide. Suicide is the leading cause of death among LGBT youth, primarily due to the negative consequences of growing up in a homophobic society.”

Suicide among LGBT youth has been cause for alarm amongst advocates for years. Authors of LGBT Youth in America’s Schools (2012) wrote that “In 2007, the American Journal of Public Health published the results of a study of over fourteen thousand youth ages eighteen to twenty-six who participated in the federal National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent Health. Nearly 5% of youth who identified as LGB in the study reported attempting suicide, compared to the 1.6% on non-LGB youth.” Dating back to 1998, the Trevor Project (drawing its name from the short film Trevor which depicts a suicidal gay teen) became the first suicide crisis and prevention helpline for LGBT youth. Though it remains the leading helpline concerning suicide prevention, the number of high profile suicides in recent years has driven concerned citizens and celebrities alike to focus their efforts on suicide prevention, most notably by proclaiming their messages of hope and acceptance through the video-sharing It Gets Better Project.

While Kara Zor-El has never expressed suicidal tendencies, her tragic death and funeral in the eerily but coincidentally titled Crisis on Infinite Earths (1985) mirrors the crisis of suicide among LGBT youth. Dick Giordano: Changing Comics, One Day at a Time (2003) notes that by the early 1980s, Marvel Comics dominated the industry and DC was desperate to revitalize sales. Marv Wolfman pitched his idea for the now-historic Crisis (which aimed to simplify the DC universe’s convoluted history) to executive editor Dick Giordano. At the time, sales of both Supergirl and Superman were down, thus one of the stipulations of putting the story in print was that Supergirl would be included in the “death list” of characters that would be killed off during the course of the story. According to Giordano, “Supergirl is Superman with boobs. She has no reason for being there.” Thus, Superman would return to being the sole survivor of Krypton, making him a “unique” character. The rational is sexist to say the least. As a female, Supergirl is deemed expendable and since it would enhance Superman’s status by having no living relatives, the viable option was to put her to death. The tendency to blame the victim, as expressed by radically social conservatives who defile the memories of deceased LGBT youth by accusing them of bringing their deaths upon themselves, is reminiscent of the attitudes of the powers that be at DC Comics when they conspired to kill Supergirl: you are not acceptable as you are, therefore you’re better off dead. Though Supergirl dies saving the life of Superman and ultimately saving the universe itself, her existence and all memory of it is erased from continuity in order to reestablish Superman as “The Last Son of Krypton.”

In the documentary film The Celluloid Closet (1995), writer Susie Bright states that the lack of LGBT representation in mainstream film and television makes “you feel invisible… you feel like a ghost and a ghost nobody believes in.” In 1989, four years after the death of Supergirl (and after her existence has been retroactively erased), she briefly appears in issue #2 of Christmas with the Super-Heroes “Should Auld Acquaintance Be Forgot” where she has a conversation with Deadman about the true nature of heroism. She states: “We do it because it needs to be done. Because if we don’t no one else will. And we do it even if no one knows what we’ve done. Even if no one knows we exist. Even if no one remembers we ever existed.” When Deadman asks who she is, she replies “My name is Kara. Though I doubt that’ll mean anything to you.” For suicidal LGBT youth, the sense of being that ghost no one sees, that no one believes in—that no one wants to believe in—is enough to consider taking their own life. It may seem like a small constellation, but Kara Zor-El offers an important lesson here: even if the world chooses to ignore us, we are still capable of doing great works… and we have a moral obligation to be the better person.

Eventually, the requirement that Superman be the sole survivor of Krypton weakened, rendering the death of Supergirl senseless and unnecessary. Post-Crisis, a number of different characters were written as Supergirl, but as writer Peter David acknowledged, there were still those of us “who didn’t accept any Supergirl save Kara.” Ironically, the post-Crisis Supergirl character had become as convoluted as the pre-Crisis Superman. DC executive editor Dan DiDio and Superman editor Eddie Berganza saw only one option: revive Kara Zor-El. Thus, in the 2004 storyline “The Supergirl from Krypton”, Kara Zor-El makes her triumphant return from comic book limbo. The modern Kara Zor-El emerged as a deep reservoir of teenage angst, filled with internal conflict as well as rebellion against the people in her life (including her cousin) all attempting to control and define her. No different than the LGBT youth struggling to come to terms with themselves, Loeb stated that in Kara Zor-El we see “an icon like Supergirl trying to find her way and, at the same time, at a power level that we haven't even begun to explore.”

Seven years later, she is revamped once again as part of The New 52 by writers Michael Green and Mike Johnson, who expressed that they want “longtime fans of Kara to enjoy this new incarnation of such a beloved and iconic character.” Part of what makes her so compelling as that in spite of her fears, doubts and reservations, in spite of losing everything—literally everything—she somehow musters the strength of character to do what is right. At the conclusion of “The Last Daughter of Krypton”, after preventing a group of super villains called the Worldkillers from conquering Earth, she says to herself, “I didn’t think I could. But I beat them back. I saved this place. Mother, father… just for today… I WON.” Kara Zor-El proves that no matter how lost we may feel, no matter who we are or where we come from, we are still capable of making a difference—of claiming some form of victory for ourselves and others, no matter how large or small, as long as we are willing to make the effort. For the LGBT youth of America and around the world, take it from Supergirl: It Gets Better.

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Last Updated: August 31, 2023 - 08:12