The character of Supergirl has existed in DC Comics for almost 70 years, and in that time, the character has had several different iterations of her backstory. Far more than her cousin Kal-El, whose origin story has remained fairly consistent for nearly nine decades. But which origin story is the DCU version of Kara Zor-El, played by Milly Alcock, using as its basis? Director Craig Gillespie went back to the very beginning in Supergirl. And they ignored many of the changes made in the more modern iterations.
Supergirl’s Silver Age Origin Has Her Born After Krypton’s Destruction
Supergirl’s first appearance was in Action Comics #252, back in 1959. In this story, Kara explained her backstory to Superman when she landed on Earth. She explained to her cousin that she hailed from Argo City, a domed city that survived the destruction of Krypton. Zor-El’s intention with the dome was to keep Argonians healthier by breathing the purified air of the city. In a very Silver Age convention, we learned that when Krypton exploded, the chunk of the planet with Argo City on it just floated away, containing thousands of Kryptonian survivors alive, thanks to the dome.
Eventually, Zor-El and his wife, Alura, gave birth to a daughter on Argo, named Kara. She grew up there, but the Argonian society began to collapse once Zor-El discovered that the bedrock underneath Argo was becoming Kryptonite. This was during the time Kara hit her teens. Slowly, the Kryptonite in the soil began to poison the population. Zor-El and Alura, to protect their daughter, decided to send her to Earth to survive this second destruction. The 15-year-old Kara rocketed to Earth, where her superpowered older cousin Kal-El welcomed her, and she became the heroine Supergirl.
New Supergirls, New Origin Stories
Supergirl famously died in the event series Crisis on Infinite Earths, back in 1985. And she remained dead for almost two decades. In that time, another heroine took on the name Supergirl. But she wasn’t a version of Kara, but an artificial lifeform from another dimension. Superman: The Animated Series introduced a version of Kara where she was Superman’s spiritual cousin, but not his literal one. In the DCAU, Argo wasn’t a chunk of Krypton, but a neighboring world that died when Krypton blew up. Kara was its sole survivor, whom Kal-El adopted as his cousin. But soon, the true Kara Zor-El would return to mainstream DC continuity, with a twist to her origin.
Supergirl’s 21st Century Origin Revision: Now Superman’s Older Cousin
In 2004, DC reintroduced Kara, once again Superman’s teenage cousin. But this time, with a twist. This version of Kara was not born on Argo City after Krypton’s destruction. She was born on Krypton before its death, and knew her cousin Kal as a baby. Her father sent her to Earth to protect and raise her baby cousin when she was a teenager. But a meteor shower knocked her ship off course, and she didn’t arrive until her baby cousin was the adult hero Superman. This is the version introduced in 2004 by Jeph Loeb and Michael Turner, in the Batman/Superman story “The Supergirl from Krypton.” Smallville used a version of this origin, and later, the CW Arrowverse Supergirl series used a variation of it as well.
When DC rebooted its universe in the 2011 series Flashpoint, it resulted in the New 52 universe. And Kara’s origin changed yet again. She was still sent to Earth to raise her baby cousin, but she landed in Siberia of all places. The 2023 Flash movie went with a version of this Kara Zor-El, even keeping her landing in Russia and being kept prisoner. But this new wrinkle was short-lived. In 2021, a high-profile new comic book would shine a light on the classic origin once more.
Supergirl: Woman of Tomorrow Restores the Classic Origin
The 2021 graphic novel Supergirl: Woman of Tomorrow, by Tom King and Bilquis Evely, restored the classic 1959 version of her origin. Which is what the new DCU version is going with. However, this series is not in continuity with the mainline DC Universe. According to the recent New History of the DC Universe by Mark Waid, Kara was a teenager when Kal was born, sent to Earth to raise him, but became stuck in a time warp. That’s the current canon in 2026. But with the DCU version restoring Kara’s classic 1959 origin story, it’s probably only a matter of time before it becomes canon in the comics again as well.