The Girl of Steel has arrived!
As we all know, Superman arrived on Earth in a space rocket long ago, when he was Superbaby! The Man of Steel has always thought he was the sole survivor of the tragic catastrophe that destroyed his home world Krypton! But fate has many strange twists! And the happiest event in Superman's lonely life occurs one day, which will astound and delight all fans of Superman too! For this is not an ordinary tale of Superman, But the launching of a new member of our "Super Family." So, without further ado, we take pride in introducing... THE SUPERGIRL FROM KRYPTON!
— the opening narration
The Supergirl from Krypton was a story published in Action Comics #252, which came out on March 31st, 1959 (with a cover date of "May 1959"). This issue marks the first appearance and origin story of Superman's cousin Kara Zor-El, aka Supergirl.
The story begins with Clark Kent picking up a strange sound far from Metropolis. He soon sees, with his telescopic vision, that it's a guided missile with a human passenger inside, and it is about to crash. He changes to Superman and flies off to investigate. As the Man of Steel attempts to save the passenger, he is soon surprised to see that not only is the passenger, a young, blonde-haired girl, miraculously unhurt, but is wearing an costume similar to his! What's more, the girl instantly recognizes Superman and tells him that she hails from the planet Krypton.
The girl, revealed to be named Kara, tells Superman that, when Krypton exploded, a huge chunk of the planet was hurled away intact, with people on it no less. Zor-El, Kara's father, was a scientist who was among the survivors. He soon noticed that the ground was glowing green and began severely weakening the populace, learning that the nuclear explosion converted their shattered planet into Kryptonite and it will irradiate and kill them all over time. Fortunately, Zor-El had a roll of sheet metal made of lead and it kept the surviving Kryptonians safe from their world's radiation. They enjoyed a nice, long peace and, soon, Kara was born. Sadly, the peace did not last and, as Kara grew older, a meteor shower smashed holes into the shield, releasing the radiation. Knowing that they were doomed, Zor-El decided to send his daughter to another world — specifically Earth, where he and his family had learned is where Superman, a fellow Kryptonian, lives. Thus, handing their daughter a suit similar to Superman's, Zor-El and his wife send Kara away on a rocket targeted to Earth, leaving her an orphan.
Superman mentions how Kara's circumstances are quite similar to his, he too being sent to Earth in a rocket by his father Jor-El. Kara recognizes the name and reveals that her father was Jor-El's brother, thus making Superman her cousin. Knowing that she now has family in her new world, Kara embraces Superman and asks if she could live with him. Superman rejects her offer and decides to develop a secret identity for her. The two fly to Midvale and tells his cousin that she will begin her superheroic career as "Super-Girl, the Girl of Steel!" When Kara wonders if she could start now, Superman tells her that she needs further training before she's ready and then sends her to an orphanage, where she will reside. Putting on a brunette wig and a dress, Kara creates her Earth identity of "Linda Lee" and, when Superman returns, he places her under the orphanage's care. Superman does tell her that, someday, the world will learn of Supergirl's existence but for now, she must live as an "ordinary girl" until she gets used to her new home. The story ends with Kara putting on her Supergirl costume and flying around Midvale, wondering whether or not she'll do as good being a hero in her town.
Tropes pertaining to The Supergirl from Krypton
- Aliens in Cardiff: After landing on Earth, Kara settles in Midvale, a sleepy Midwestern town which suddenly becomes a magnet for aliens, time-travellers, supernatural creatures and all sorts of weirdness.
- Aliens Speaking English: Justified. Allura learned and taught her daughter English before sending her to Earth to meet with Superman (who lived in the USA).
- Alliterative Name: When Kara picks "Linda Lee" as her civilian name, Superman wonders why he keeps running into people with the initials "L.L.".Supergirl: While you were gone, I used my super-hearing and heard many Earth-girls' names! I thought of a good one for myself... Linda Lee! How's that?
Superman: Er... As good as any! (thinking) Lana Lang was my girlfriend when I was Superboy, and Lois Lane replaced her when I became Superman! By sheer coincidence, she picked the same initials... L. L.! - The Apprentice: After meeting Kara, Superman starts training her to use her powers properly until she is ready to become a public hero.
- Art Imitates Art: The cover (with Supergirl flying out of her rocketship before the shocked stare of Superman) are frequently homaged by both DC and other companies to introduce a Superman Substitute or a "new chapter" in the hero's life.
- Came from the Sky: Clark spots a rocket crashing down to Earth and heads towards the landing site to investigate. Inside the rocket he finds Kara, a teenager girl who is dressed like him and happens to be his cousin.
- Captain Obvious: After learning that Kara is his uncle's daughter, Superman voices aloud an astonishing deduction:Superman: As a baby, I was also shot away in a space rocket by my father, Jor-El!
Kara: Jor-El? Why, my father's name was Zor-El, your father's brother!
Superman: Great Scott! Then you're my-— COUSIN! - Clark Kenting: Advised by her cousin, Kara starts wearing a brown wig, a blouse and a long skirt to create her "Linda Lee" identity.Superman: There! That wig of pigtails makes you look like a different girl entirely who was born on Earth!
- Cry into Chest: Kara hugs Superman and cries into his chest when she finds out that he is her only family left.
- Death by Origin Story: Zor-El and Allura are killed off by Kryptonite radiation after sending their daughter to Earth, where she would become a super-hero; however, The Untold Story of Argo City retconned their deaths out.
- Disappeared Dad: Kara's father Zor-El dies after seeing to Kara being sent to Earth safely.
- Domed Hometown: Subverted. Argo City was surrounded by an air bubble, formed completely by accident in the moment of Krypton's explosion. Later it was retconned that Zor-El built a force-field around the city.
- Doomed Hometown: Argo City becomes a radioactive ghost town when a meteor storm smashes holes in the lead plating covering the city's Kryptonite bedrock.
- Early-Installment Weirdness:
- Supergirl being younger than Superman is bound to surprise comic fans accustomed to the modern versions who were born fifteen years before Kal-El, whom they regard as their "baby cousin".
- Kara's name is... Kara, plainly. She would not be given a surname until Action Comics #288, which came out three years later. Similarly, her mother was not named in this story. Later she was named "Allura", which eventually morphed into "Alura In-Ze".
- Kara's birthplace was "a street of homes" which survived Krypton's explosion -and retained a bubble of air- by sheer and unexplainable luck. After several retellings it became Argo City, which survived Krypton's destruction because it was protected by a force dome.
- Neither Zor-El nor Alura know anything about Earth or Superman, other than the former being a livable world and the latter being another Kryptonian survivor. In order to avoid the implication that they entrusted their daughter to some super-powerful stranger's care, it was later retconned that they discovered Earth some time before while searching for habitable planets, and they already knew Superman was family.
- Superman throws his only living family member in an orphanage right after meeting her, in contrast with future incarnations who at the very least want to take her in but are prevented from doing so by external factors.
- Earth-Shattering Kaboom: A flashback shows Krypton's explosion.
- Escape Pod: When Kryptonite radiation starts killing the people of Argo City, Zor-El saves his daughter by building an individual rocketship
◊ and blasting her into space. - Exact Words: While registering his cousin in Midvale Orphanage, Superman tells she "lost her parents in a big disaster that wiped out her whole community", omitting everything about Krypton.
- Fling a Light into the Future: As Zor-El built a space rocket, his wife Alura searched for an inhabitable world where their daughter Kara, the last child of Argo City, was able to survive.Zor-El: We have a month before kryptonite radiations slowly poison the air! But before that fatal hour, this rocket will send our daughter to another world!
Alura: But which world? I'll use the super-space telescope to find some civilized world where Kara can grow up safely! - Future Food Is Artificial: Argoans were forced to subsist on food replicators because Argo's bedrock was radioactive, uncultivable soil.
- Ghost Town: Argo City became a massive ghost city, drifting in the void of space, when all Argoans were killed by Kryptonite radiation.
- Harmful to Minors: Kara is barely fifteen when she sees everyone in her hometown getting sick and suffering gruesome deaths.
- I Believe I Can Fly: Kara tests her flying power shortly after landing.
- It's Not You, It's My Enemies: Although Kara hopes Kal will adopt her, Superman sends her to an orphanage because he fears that she will be targeted by his enemies if they found out about their relation.
- The Joy of First Flight: Kara sports a radiant smile when she takes off and soars through the skies for the first time.
- Just Before the End: Zor-El and Alura build a rocket to send Kara to Earth as their fellow Argoans are dying.
- Kid Hero: As stated by later stories, Kara is fifteen when she arrives on Earth and decides to become Supergirl.
- Kryptonite Is Everywhere: Argo City's bedrock gets turned into Kryptonite when Krypton explodes. Argoans resolved the problem by covering the ground with lead plating, but eventually a meteor storm smashed holes in the shield, and Kryptonite radiation started killing everybody.
- Long-Lost Relative: After spending nearly thirty years believing he is his biological family's only survivor, Superman meets his long-lost first cousin Kara Zor-El when her rocket crashes on Earth.
- Luckily, My Powers Will Protect Me: As he's studying the newly arrived spacecraft, Superman reminds readers that he survived his rocket's landing thanks to his Kryptonian invulnerability.
- Made of Indestructium: Alura made her daughter's super-hero costume before Kara left Argo because it would be indestructible on Earth.
- Missing Mom: Alura dies after sending her fifteen-year-old daughter to safety.
- Moses in the Bulrushes: Subverted. Kara was rocketed from a dying Argo City when she was fifteen, nearly three decades after Krypton's destruction, and her parents expected her cousin to find her and look after her. Superman did so...by putting her in an orphanage where she lived until she was adopted by the Danvers in The Unknown Supergirl.
- Mundane Utility: After being dumped in the Midvale Orphanage, Linda is assigned one single bedroom. Unfortunately, it is a messy, dusty room. Fortunately, she can tidy it up quickly thanks to her powers: She bends her cot's twisted iron leg straight, blows the dust bunnies out of her window and even fixes her broken mirror by using her heat vision to fuse the cracks into a smooth surface.Linda: Super-Breath is handy, too, to dust out my room in one big blow!
- Mysterious Protector: Kara is not supposed to reveal her existence to the world until her hero training is done, so she decides to patrol Midvale secretly at night, trying not to get caught while she stops crimes and saves people. Midvale locals rumored that they were protected by a "guardian angel".Supergirl: Maybe I can still do super-deeds for worthy people without being seen, like a sort of guardian angel!"
- My Suit Is Also Super: As she's making her daughter's costume, Alura remarks that it will become indestructible super-cloth on Earth.
- Never Be a Hero: After meeting Kara, Kal insists that his cousin must keep her existence a secret for the duration of her training, and she is not to operate openly until he gives his say-so. Somewhat justified, since she was a recently-orphaned super-powerful teenager who needed some stability as she got used to her new life and her new godlike powers (and in Superman's defense, when he finally reveals her existence to the world in The Unknown Supergirl, he makes clear that she is not a sidekick but his partner). Also, several stories (The Death of Superman (1961), The Supergirl from Krypton (2004)...) showed that Kara keeping a low profile until she was ready was a prudent decision.
- No Antagonist: The story is about Kara arriving on Earth and adapting to her new life in the orphanage.
- Origins Episode: This issue details Supergirl's, from her being born to being sent to Earth.
- Orphanage of Love: Subverted. Midvale Orphanage looks like a nice place right off the bat, but several years later Kara confessed she hated it.
- Parental Abandonment: Kara loses her parents when they send her to Earth to save her from Argo City's destruction.
- The Pollyanna: Kara sees her entire civilization dying, loses her parents, becomes stranded on an alien planet, is dumped into an orphanage by her only living relative... and even so, she tries to think positively.
- Poorly Disguised Pilot: DC Comics occasionally tried out the idea of a character before going forward with the real thing. Superman (1939) #123: "The Girl of Steel" (1958), where Jimmy Olsen uses a magic totem to wish for a "Super-Girl" who would be a companion and helpmate for Superman, was clearly a dry run for the concept of Supergirl. Reaction was positive enough that DC introduced Kara Zor-El in this story, one year later.
- Scene Cover: The cover◊ featuring Supergirl flying out of her rocketship before the shocked stare of Superman is one of the most iconic covers in Action Comics.
- Security Cling: After finding out he is her cousin, Supergirl hugs Superman tightly.
- Show Within a Show: As she's flying over Midvale, Supergirl notices a Superboy movie is being shown in a theater.
- Superhero Sobriquets: Superman brings his many names up before giving Kara her first heroic nickname:Superman: In my youth in Smallville, I was honored as Superboy! You too can gain fame as Supergirl, the Girl of Steel!
- Tears of Joy: Kara cries in happiness when she meets her cousin and only surviving relative after landing on Earth.
- Tempting Fate: While watching his baby daughter, Zor-El states that "[Kara] can grow up safely as long as the leaden shield under our community wards off those Kryptonite radiations". Several years later, a meteor shower smashed holes in said shield.
- Tender Tears: Kara weeps quietly after narrating the annihilation of Argo City and the death of her parents.
- There Is Another: After spending almost thirty years believing he was the only Kryptonian survivor, Superman finds a surviving relative.Superman: Great Scott, a young girl unharmed! But... But that means you're invulnerable like me!
Supergirl: Why not, Superman? I'm also from the planet Krypton!
Superman: That's impossible! I was the only survivor when Krypton exploded long ago! - Translator Microbes: Supergirl's parents own a device able to decipher alien languages. Kara and her mother use it to learn English.
- Trauma Conga Line: Kara, a fifteen year old girl, sees an entire city of people getting sick from radiation and dying. Then she gets shoved into a rocket and blasted into space by her parents, whom she does not expect to see alive ever again. She lands in an alien world and is greeted by her cousin, who promptly dumps her in an orphanage because she would endanger his secret identity. And that is only the beginning...
- Undead Tax Exemption: Justified. After helping her create her "Linda Lee" identity, Superman sends his cousin to the Midvale Orphanage, claiming all her records were destroyed by the same disaster which killed her family and wiped out her whole community.
