Supergirl’s career trajectory has been one of constant ebbs and flows. It
just so happens that, right now, she’s in a serious flow (see
related story).

Otto Binder penned the very first Supergirl
story, “The Supergirl from Krypton,” in May 1959’s Action Comics #252. Binder
was already pretty well-versed in the formula of creating female counterparts to
popular superheroes, as he’d already had a hand in the debut of Mary Marvel in
1942.

Several versions of Supergirl have cropped up over time, but more often
than not, her origin remains the same: she is Kara Zor-El, cousin to Superman,
sent to earth just before the destruction of Krypton. In the 1980s, she briefly
departed from that formula in Superman v.2 #16, where Supergirl was a
protoplasmic creation of Lex Luthor’s in a parallel Earth.

All in all, Supergirl hasn’t really gotten a fair shake as a superheroine.
In the ’50s, Jimmy Olsen wished her into existence, then decided to wish her out
of existence after it appeared that she was “getting in Superman’s
way.”

That storyline seemed to be a meta-statement on the problems of the
character, as Supergirl seemed to crop up sporadically each decade, adopted by
Fred and Edna Danvers and taking the name Linda Danvers in the ’60s, attending
college in the early ’70s, receiving her own title in 1972 (and seeing it end
just ten issues later), and having more attention paid to the changing of her
costume design than to her heroic feats.

In 1984, camp reached its height for Supergirl when Helen Slater played her
in the critically panned Supergirl feature film. In it, the trend of
prioritizing Linda’s girlishness over her superheroics (giving her a love
interest she’s preoccupied with rescuing and pitting her against another woman
as the chief villain) continued.

In 1985, the continuity-altering series Crisis on Infinite
Earths promised “Worlds will live. Worlds will die. And things will
never be the same.” This was nowhere more evident than in the life of
Supergirl. Late in the series, a group of DC’s most powerful heroes, including
Supergirl and her more famous cousin, go off on a dangerous mission to save the
universe. On this mission, Supergirl died a heroic death saving the universe and
artist George Perez created what is arguably the most memorable cover of the
series, with Superman and the heroes of the DCU mourning her loss.

Fortunately, after the ’80s, Supergirl’s purpose was re-examined. During
the mid-90s, Supergirl appeared in the animated series, Superman
Adventures, and in the accompanying print run of Superman Adventures
presents Supergirl Adventures. In 1996, Peter David resurrected Supergirl,
as a protoplasmic “Earth Angel of Fire” fused with a human girl named Linda
Danvers. Supergirl faced off against the vampiric Carnivore and eventually
succumbed, leaving Linda Danvers to act on her behalf. In 2002, she briefly
appeared again in Supergirl #75. But last year’s Superman/Batman #18
reintroduced her as Kara Zor-El–the Supergirl Silver Age canonists knew and
loved, and today she’s experiencing all the popularity that a successful return
to a primary origin story promises.