Supergirl

In the waning days of the planet Krypton, a scientist named Zor-El worked frantically to try and protect his home of Argo City from destruction. Having learned from his brother Jor-El of the impending destruction of the planet, Zor-El with the help of the citizens of Argo City contracted a dome over the city made of a self-sealing polymer. When Krypton exploded, the inhabitants of Argo City were protected from the blast and sent into space, traveling on a piece of their now-dead planet.

In the months that followed, Zor-El and his wife Allura had their first child, a daughter they named Kara. Kara grew up on Argo City as it floated through space. The piece of Krypton on which Argo City resided went through a change becoming an element known as anti-kryptonite. Anti-kryptonite has a deadly effect on Kryptonians who have no superpowers. Zor-El and the people of Argo City again began a huge public works project, placing a thin layer of lead all around the city to keep the people from being exposed to the deadly radiation.

During this time, Zor-El became aware of the existence of Superman and that he was his nephew Kal-El. Soon afterward, Argo City experienced a meteor storm. The shield surrounding the city was breached but resealed itself. Unfortunately, the lead shielding had no such ability and the deadly radiation from the anti-kryptonite began to leak out. Realizing that the people of Argo City were doomed, Zor-El constructed a spaceship to take his teenage daughter to Earth to be with her cousin. Allura created a costume patterned after Superman's and dressed Kara in it. She was then sent to Earth.

Kara's spacecraft was discovered by Superman and she introduced herself to him as his cousin and called herself Supergirl. Superman decided that she should have a secret identity and dubbed her Linda Lee and placed her in an orphanage disguising her identity with a brown wig.

Superman began to train her to use her powers during this time and Supergirl had her own adventures. During one of her adventures, she lost her powers and it was believed that the loss was permanent.

Linda Lee was adopted by the Danvers family during the period that Kara was without powers. She eventually regained her powers and fought against the forces of evil. She graduated college and held down a number of jobs, including actress and news reporter. During this time, she was constantly in awe of her older cousin.

Where Superman had Krypto during his formative years to pal around with and play fetch with, Supergirl too had a super-powered pet. Streaky an ordinary Earth cat, gained superpowers when she was exposed to Kryptonite-X giving her all the powers of a Kryptonian under a yellow sun. Streaky was part of the Legion of Super-Pets as well.

Supergirl traveled to the future and joined the Legion of Super-Heroes. She had many adventures with them and fought with them to turn back the attempt of the evil villain Darkseid during his play for power in the future. She had a brief romance with Braniac-5 while in the future. Her presence however caused a problem as her cousin Superboy was also a member of the Legion. Since Superman discovered that he had a cousin when he was an adult, Superboy could not discover that he had a cousin. To deal with this problem Saturn Girl would wipe Superboy's memory of her existence before he would return to the future.

During the Crisis on Infinite Earths, a group of heroes traveled to the anti-matter universe to put a stop to the plans of the villain the Anti-Monitor. Because of the differing physical laws in this universe, the Kryptonians present lost their invulnerability. The Anti-Monitor engaged Superman and had nearly defeated him, when Supergirl joined the battle. Beating him and damaging the armor that contained his energies, Kara seemed to have the Anti-Monitor on the ropes, when she was distracted. The Anti-Monitor struck Kara with an energy beam that mortally wounded her and she died in the arms of her cousin.

Supergirl was reintroduced as another character after the Crisis. In a pocket universe that had been created by the Time Trapper to allow him to manipulate the Legion of Super-Heroes and Superboy for his own ends, Lex Luthor and Lana Lang were married. After the disappearance of Superboy from this dimension, the inhabitants mistakenly allowed a group of evil villains loose from the Phantom Zone. These Kryptonians, lead by General Zod, began to terrorize this dimension. Lana Lang was killed, and Luthor used his scientific genius to recreate her using a protoplasm substance of his own design, based upon her genetic code. He then sent this being who called itself Matrix garbed in a costume like Superman's to Superman's world in hopes of getting him to return to help fight the Kryptonians.

This he did which lead to an all out battle with the villains. Matrix was badly injured during this fight and the rest of the inhabitants of the pocket universe were killed. Superman executed the Kryptonian prisoners and returned to his home dimension with Matrix.

For a time, Matrix lived with Jonathan and Martha Kent, as it recovered and learned the ways of Earth. Eventually, it resumed its identity of Supergirl. Matrix had a number of powers different from Superman's Kryptonian powers. Matrix could fly, was super-strong and had a high degree of invulnerability, but she could also turn invisible, change shape, and produce a telekinetic blast. She became involved with Lex Luthor II who was actually Lex Luthor in a cloned body. Believing him to be like the Lex Luthor of her world who was selfless and kind, Supergirl worked with Lex for a number of months until she discovered a plot by Luthor to clone her. Soon after she broke all ties with him.

For a time, Supergirl wandered aimlessly until she discovered a young woman named Linda Danvers, dying from a knife wound. Supergirl gave her own life, merging with Danvers and the two became one person. Linda Danvers was now Supergirl. Of late, Supergirl's career has taken an odd turn, taking up the mantle of an angel, with wings of fire and flaming eyes.

Supergirl has been portrayed in a major motion picture of the same name by Helen Slater.

Supergirl's sartorial ways

Supergirl: apart from the fact that DC loves re-interpreting this superheroine almost as much as Marvel loves re-interpreting the Phoenix, they also really love revising her wardrobe, though most of her incarnations share in common with other super-females a preference for dressing like a table dancer. At least she has avoided the standard super-feature of breasts the size of her head.

Supergirl, created by Otto Binder, started her life as Kara Zor-El, Superman's cousin. She originally lived in Argo City, a segment of the planet Krypton that had temporarily survived Krypton's destruction thanks to completely implausible circumstances, even by comic book standards. Her original outfit looked like Superman's costume modified to resemble a girl's ice-skating outfit, circa 1959.

In 1970, the Mightiest Girl on Earth appeared on the cover of Adventure Comics looking at alternate costumes and very much the blonde cheerleader saying, "the readers have sent in so many great ideas for a new costume, that I just don’t know which one to pick!"

In fact, she picked an already somewhat dated look: go-go boots, beady belt, and micro mini-skirt. That costume did not last long, and she (or rather, her artists) then experimented with a range of reader’s designs, including a backless version of her original outfit and a practical jumpsuit, this latter number leaps and bounds away from the usual garb of female superheroes. The Girl of Steel finally finished the 70s in the Disco Hooker outfit, complete with short shorts, plunging neckline, and the big red "s" over one of her breasts.

The 1980s saw her wearing an aerobics-inspired cheerleader outfit, complete with headband and pleated miniskirt. She permed her hair, and modified the costume’s insignia to look slightly different than Superman’s. She was wearing that one when she died.

Then she retroactively never existed, thanks to a post Crisis on Infinite Earths retcon based on the notion that Superman should be the last and only survivor of Krypton.

Later, she was re-introduced anyway, as the alien Matrix Supergirl from another universe. That version of the character wore a modified cross between the original and the 80s outfit, though she occasionally took on a more Xena-inspired butch look and once, while under some generic evil influence, leather fetish gear. This version of Supergirl also died.

Fortunately, death rarely takes in comic books, and so her spirit fused with a fifteen year old girl named Linda Lee Danvers, which had been the secret identity of the original Supergirl, Kara Zor-El. This version dressed like Britney Spears, with a super blue micro-skirt and a white belly top. The outfit also appeared on an animated variation of the character (a survivor of Krypton's hitherto unknown sister-world) who featured in a television cartoon.

The turn-of-the-millennium Supergirl comic book ended its run in 2003 with issue #80. A drawn-out conflict involving various supernatural beings left the Maid of Might depressed over her failure to save the life of the original Supergirl (the doomed character who never existed. Don’t ask). Linda Danvers chose to disappear, sending her most valuable possessions to Clark Kent and Lois Lane.

Around the same time, another version of the character turned up in the DC universe, in Superman: 10 Cent Adventure. She claimed to be the timewarped future daughter of Clark Kent and Lois Lane. Fans were unimpressed with "Cir-El," and many saw her as a pretender who would not last long. They were correct; possibly in response to fan feelings, DC revealed that she was not Superman's daughter, after all. In any case, she wore the standard "bathing suit as costume," but in black, reflecting less mainstream fashion than the gothic outfits worn by many contemporaneous super-doers, such as the heroes of The Matrix and Angel.

With Cir-El's established as a fraud and dispatched, the poptart Supergirl presumably still alive, and occasional hints that Power Girl confirmed as a Kryptonian after all, yet another Girl of Steel showed up in Superman/Batman #8 (2004), claiming to be Superman's cousin. Since that series was dedicated to re-establishing as much of the Silver Age mythos as possible, this Supergirl turned out to be who she claimed. She adopted a belly-top variation of the original blue outfit. The low-slung skirt, belly top, and anorexic look had brief widespread popularity in the early 2000s among teen girls. Supergirl carried the look long after it vanished from the mainstream.

In September 2011, DC once again rebooted their universe, even setting all issues back to #1. The revamped Supergirl went with a designer-looking "S" and the "no-pants" look trendy among pop stars such as Victoria Beckham, Lady Gaga, and Katie Perry. Whatever becomes of this incarnation, we can be reasonably certain that a Supergirl of some description will be around for some time, battling crime, trendily dressed.