Fanfic / Kara of Rokyn

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"Here, I don't have to be in Kal's shadow anymore. I really learned how to use my sexuality, and I love it! I learned how to fight, and while I don't love it as much, I do like to be able to do it. I can act, like I never did before on those Earth soaps... I can make something of myself, Nar. Not for Kal. For myself. For Kara."

— Kara

Kara of Rokyn is a Supergirl fanfiction series written by DarkMark.

In an Earth which the Crisis on Infinite Earths didn't quite reach, Kara Zor-El has given up her superheroic identity to live as a normal woman among her own kind on Rokyn, the world settled by Kryptonian survivors from Kandor. But she finds that heroism is a hard habit to break, that danger and adventure can be found even on her new homeworld, and that the Supergirl identity isn't that easy to relinquish…

Kara of Rokyn's mainline stories are:

• "Kara and the Dreamsmith": Kara enters the Dreaming, resumes her Supergirl identity, and has one chance to help her other-self defeat the Anti-Monitor, or see all perish in the Crisis.

• "The Early Stories": Subset of stories dealing with Kara's career as a wrestler on Rokyn, which she later abandoned to become an actress.
  • "Ring of Fury": Supergirl agrees to a no-powers match against an old enemy turned wrestler, and finds it takes more skill than she has to prevail.

  • "Rematch on Rokyn": Beaten by her old rival Black Flame, Supergirl returns to Rokyn, the planet colonized by survivors of Krypton, to remake herself as a wrestling warrior and face her foe in a punishing showdown match. (This story takes place just before "Kara and the Dreamsmith".)

  • "Tag-Team Terror": Kara and Kal find themselves teamed in the ring against Kara's newest enemy, the deadly Lady Jasmine, and her partner. (This story takes place after "Kara and the Dreamsmith.")

  • "Pain and Jasmine": Kara must overcome defeat and depression to make a comeback and forge a new life for herself after her latest encounter with Jasmine. But her arch-rival has struck an alliance with Black Flame that may lead to an evil fate for Supergirl.

• "Zoners": Four villains from the Phantom Zone escape to Rokyn with the intention of conquering the new Kryptonian homeworld. Standing in their path: Kara Zor-El, who must face her old enemy Faora Hu-Ul, the deadliest woman on the planet, who has sworn to kill her.

• "Last Waltz With Luthor": Superman has been missing for a month. So has Lex Luthor. Kara Zor-El must don the costume of Supergirl again and return to Earth to help that planet's heroes find the Man of Steel, in a final showdown between the Luthor family and the House of El.

• "Kal & Lyla": Kara Zor-El begins the task of retelling on screen the greatest love story of Krypton's last days, between the late actress Lyla Lerrol and the time-lost Superman.

Most of them can be read at Dark Mark's Domain, Kara's Pocket Universe and the old Legion of Super-Heroes FanFiction Archive. The Early Stories can be found here. "Kara and the Dreamsmith" is also available on FF.net.

Kara of Rokyn belongs to the Dark Mark's Fan Verse together with Hellsister Trilogy, A Very Kara Christmas, A Force of Four, Dance with the Demons, With this Ring... (Green Lantern), Funeral for a Flash, Superman of 2499: The Great Confrontation and Superman and Man. Dark Mark has also written The Vampire of Steel, The Unfantastic Adventures of Bizarro No. 1, Here There Be Monsters, A Prize for Three Empires, Devil's Diary, X-Men 1970, FIRE!, Everybody's Gotta Leave Sometime and Maybe the Last Archie Story.

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Tropes found in this work:

• Abhorrent Admirer: Jara isn't ugly at all, but Kara isn’t interested in girls, let alone someone who spent months taunting her publicly.
• Abusive Parents: After it came out Lex had attempted to murder Superboy several times, his father Jules told him they were disowning him and taking him to reform school, and they'd only take him back if he promised to give up his hate for Superboy. Lex retorted if they were siding with Superboy, then they weren't really his parents. Jules slapped him hard enough to knock him across the room.
  "Lex finally turned on his parents, then. He said that Superboy had gotten to them, too. He said that they should just go ahead and adopt Superboy, if they cared about Supes more than they did him. He said that maybe they really weren't his parents, after all. They were so dumb, and he was so smart. Arlene was yelling at Lex by then, telling him to stop it, telling him that he was still her son, but Lex said it wasn't true."
  "And Jules hit him."
  "It was an open-handed slap, not a punch. But it knocked Lex off his feet, made the inside of his mouth bleed a little bit, and bashed him up against an old grandfather clock in the front room. Both of them were looking at each other, not saying a damn word, and sure as hell not smiling. Arlene was trying to go to Lex, but Jules got her by the arm and held her back. He finally said, 'Go to your room, Lex. Whether you go on the run tonight, or we take you to reform school tomorrow, makes no difference to me.'"
• Action Film, Quiet Drama Scene: Quiet, slice-of-life scenes where Kara is talking to her parents, grooming her pet cat... are intermingled with life-changing battles where Kara triumphs against overwhelming odds.
• Action Girl: Kara, former super-hero and sometimes female wrestler, Shyla Kor-Onn…
• Act of True Love: Superman explains he kept his cousin's existence secret for a year partially because he was afraid that she would get hurt; but he knew Kara had to live a life of her choosing, so he forced himself to accept the fact that he couldn't protect her forever.
• Adaptation Relationship Overhaul: In canon, Kara Zor-El and Van-Ol are mere acquaintances. In this story they start a relationship and get engaged.
• Adaptational Sexuality: Zora Vil-Lar, a character who is canonically straight, is depicted as lesbian in a relationship with a woman.
• Affectionate Nickname: Kal calls Kara "Karaish".
• Alien Arts Are Appreciated: Rokynians like Earth movies, to the point that there're talks of an interplanetary film trade agreement.
• Alien Sky: The setting is Rokyn, a planet orbited by two small moons.
  There was coolness in the early fall night, and the light of the stars and one of Rokyn's two small-but-full moons shining through the open window of her bedroom.
• Aliens Speaking English: Everyone in planet Rokyn seems to speak English. Rokynians knowing the language is justified in what their civilization had came in contact with Earth and their two most prominent heroes -used to- live in USA.
• All-Loving Hero: Even Jara finds hard to hate Kara after the Girl of Steel talks openly and respectfully of her tribe.
• All Up to You: In "Last Waltz with Luthor", Lex has managed to capture Superman. It's up to Kara to rally the Justice League, look for and rescue her cousin.
• Alternate Universe: This story's universe diverges from Earth-1's shortly after the JLA-JSA team-up which Supergirl took part in (JLA Volume 1 #231-232).
• Alternate Universe Fic: Set in a timeline where Supergirl moved to Rokyn shortly before the Crisis.
• And I Must Scream: Luthor manages to trap Superman into a tank containing the Parasite's body, turned into a gelatinous mass of goo. Superman spends over one month immersed into living sentient jelly, unable to speak, move or feel anything except for his life force being being slowly drained off, and a hostile mind reading every thought and memory of his.
• Another Story for Another Time: When the minions of Lex Luthor are being rounded up, his niece Nasthalthia is nowhere to be found. Kara and Kal suspect they'll find her again someday. But that's "Another tale, another time".
  Nasthalthia Luthor was not found. She had gone to ground shortly after introducing Lex to the two villainesses, intending to come out if he managed to be successful this time. She stayed undercover, was fired in absentia from her job as vice president of the San Francisco TV station for which Linda Danvers used to work, and, when the authorities learned of her part in the plot, was the benefit of an APB issued to all law enforcement agencies.
  But they didn’t find her. Kal and Kara both suspected that someday, they would.
  Another tale, another time.
• Antagonist Title: The "Zoners" story arc is named after the villains from the Phantom Zone who escape to Rokyn with the intention of conquering the whole planet.
• Anthropomorphic Personification: The embodiments of Dream and Death meddle with the Crisis and save Supergirl's life.
  For the Dreamsmith was a figure familiar to Krypton's children. He was the trickster who wove puzzles to perplex young ones in their beds, the terror-maker who sent nightmare-vessels freighted from Hell, the soother of sweaty brows when the weary needed calm nights, the procurer who provided imaginary lovers that left the sheets of dreamers wet and tangled at daybreak. When they neared adolescence, of course, the children of Krypton (whose children had, in turn, settled Rokyn) gave up such beliefs, except as comforting old myths that had made their younger lives more mythic and fine.
  Now, Kara sensed that such abandonment might well have been too hasty.
  She put out her hand, touched his arm. He was substantial, cool as marble, yet fleshed. There were muscles below his fish-pale skin, and bones beneath that, or so there seemed to be. Whatever substance the Dreamsmith was made of, Kara, in her present state, seemed akin to.
• Apologetic Attacker: Inverted. After saving her friend Lena from several villains, Supergirl observes they have no issue with using super-strength on a normal woman and her little child, so... she isn't at all sorry about the beatdown she's about to deliver unto them.
  "So you feel like using super-strength on a normal woman and her child," said Supergirl. "I don't have the slightest regret about what I'm about to do."
• Arc Villain:
  • "The Early Stories": Blackflame
  • "Zoners": Faora Hu-Ul
  • "Last Waltz with Luthor": Lex Luthor
• Armored Villains, Unarmored Heroes: Lex dons his green-and-purple warsuit for his final battle with the Man of Steel, who as usual goes without armor.
• A Shared Suffering: Kal and Kara bonded in the past over the fact that they were survivors of an extinction event as well as orphans.
• Avenging the Villain: Invoked when Lex Luthor dies in the course of his final attempt to murder Superman, and one of his minions wishes Luthor's son avenges his father when he grows up.
• Babies Ever After: Lois gets pregnant with twins shortly after getting married to Clark.
• Bad Liar: Jara denies trying to intimidate Kara into sleeping with her, but her inability to stick to her own story means no one believes her.
  Kara told Hira about the incident the next day. Hira talked to Nar-Es, who talked to Vara, who talked to Jasmine. Jasmine pooh-poohed Kara's version of the facts, asserting first that there had been no incident, then saying Kara had been the one to ask her over and make the advances. Nobody believed her.
• Benevolent Boss: Ar-Rom is kind, fair, patient and incredibly tolerant with Kara's tendence to drop everything suddenly when she is needed back on Earth.
• Berserk Button:
  • Never bring up the number of times Lex Luthor lost against Superman, not even if you think Lex can’t hear you.
  • Jara's Travelling Clan was nearly exterminated in the past. Don't even think of dissing them around her.
    Zora's eyes blazed. "You're still in love with her? Are you Travelling Clan people as dumb as they say? You want to put this—"
    Jasmine sat up straight in bed, her eyes blazing. "What's that about the Clan? You want to repeat that?"
    Zora backtracked. "Hold it, hold on, Jara. Really, I'm sorry. I'm not downing the Clan, really, I'm not. That's just part of verbal motivation. I'm trying to get your back up for the match."
    "You've just about got it up for me to give you a preview of the match right here. There aren't enough of the Clan left hardly to count anymore, and you want to down them. I ought to pull your tongue out through your nostrils."
• Beware the Nice Ones: Kara is kind and compassionate enough to go out of her way to help Jara, who bullied and harassed her at a personal level, only because Kara realized she was leading a miserable life. Hurt someone else, though, and she'll pummel you to the ground. Threaten a mother and her son and she'll not even feel sorry about it.
  Supergirl: "So you feel like using super-strength on a normal woman and her child. I don't have the slightest regret about what I'm about to do."
• Big Brother Instinct: In his own words, there're few things would induce Superman to forget about his oath about not harming or killing anybody... but the mere act of hurting his little cousin is one of them.
• Blackmail Backfire: Jara tries to blackmail Kara into having sex with her. Kara reminds her that such threats may destroy her career.
  Jara: I warn you, Kara—
  Kara: Warn me? One word of this to the commission and they'll yank your license!
• Boldly Coming: Clark and Lois finally get married after the final battle against Lex Luthor, and Lois gets pregnant shortly after.
• Bonding over Missing Parents: Back when Kara was a teenager, she and her cousin bonded over the fact that they had lost their parents.
• Borrowed Biometric Bypass: Kara needs to stay in the Fortress of Solitude while she's trained by Lady Shiva. Superman isn't comfortable with the idea of leaving his depowered cousin alone with an infamous martial arts master and assassin, so he warns he's programmed the door to open to Kara's touch, and a heat-sensor will prevent any "dead hand" business. Shiva cheekily retorts there're ways around it.
  Looking at Kara, Kal said, "The door will open to your or my touch now, but to no one else's. It also has a heat-sensor, which will prevent anyone holding a dead hand to it."
  Shiva knew that bit was meant for her. "I am flattered by your trust, friend Superman. A dead hand could be warmed in a kitchen, if one was desperate to get out."
• Boxing Lessons for Superman: Kara is trained into martial arts by Lady Shiva.
• Broken Bird: Born into a poor family, Jara tried to make some money by starring in erotic films until she managed to join a wrestling circuit. No wonder that she's a bitter, mean-spirited jerkass as well as a dangerous fighter.
• Brought Down to Badass: Although Kara loses her powers when she moves to Rokyn, she learns wrestling moves and different martial art styles with which she manages to defeat a band of Kryptonian criminals led by Faora Hu-Ul, one of the deadliest enemies ever fought by Superman.
• Brought to You by the Letter "S": Reinforced. Kara wears the S-shield on her wrestling robe even though she's not Supergirl anymore (and in Pre-Crisis continuity, which this story is set in, it's not her family crest).
  Supergirl entered the wrestling ring in sandals and a robe of gold. The robe bore her proud "S" shield in red on the back.
• Brutal Honesty: Nar to Kara when the latter is deluding herself into believing her motivations for making a movie about her cousin’s love life are entirely altruistic:
  Nar: But Kal might exercise an option, Kara. He might cut you out of his life.
  Kara: He won’t do that.
  Nar: You sure?
  Kara: It’s a gift, Nar. The best gift I think I can give to Kal.
  Nar: You sure about that?
  Kara: What do you mean?
  Nar: What I mean is that it seems more like a gift to yourself. You show your acting chops, you put together a movie that’s bound to break the barriers at the box office, you make a lot of money and you’ve got a triumph. All you have to do to get it is break Kal-El’s heart.
  Kara: I can always count on you for the truth, Nar. Or a truth I don’t want to face.
• Bullying a Dragon:
  • After the Crisis, the Hellsister Trilogy's Superman decides enough is enough. He makes an unofficial visit to Lex Luthor's cell to tell his arch-nemesis his antics would no longer be tolerated. Luthor laughs at him, and Superman proceeds to beat the crap out of his old nemesis.
  • Lex first realized what kind of being he'd chosen to antagonize with when Superboy tossed a meteor back into orbit.
    Nasthalthia: But he had the beaker the antidote had been in in his hand, and he was waving it around in front of Superboy. Just kinda to tease him. Superboy just sucked in with what was left of his super-breath, and busted the thing all over his mouth and got the last drops of it. He got up, shoved Lex back, grabbed the meteor and went outside with it. Lex looked out his window and saw him haul off and throw that thing. It had to have weighed over a hundred pounds. And it didn't come down. That's when Lex really started to realize what he'd been tangling with, because it didn't come down.
• Calling the Old Man Out: During a heated argument, Kara finally tells her cousin exactly how she feels about having been dumped into an orphanage when she was fifteen by her only living relative and then forced to hide her powers for months. Kal fires back she is editing facts out to make his actions look worse than they were. At the end, Kal admits he was also afraid of her getting hurt by his enemies when her existence became public, and Kara forgives him.
• The Call Knows Where You Live: Kara yearned for a peaceful, normal life, so she abandoned her Supergirl identity and moved to Rokyn. Then she found out the hard way that her and her cousin's Rogues didn't intend to leave her alone.
• Casual Interplanetary Travel: Warp spaceports allow easy -albeit heavily restricted- travel between planet Rokyn and Earth. Hal Jordan doesn't need them thanks to his Power Ring, but he still takes a full day to cover the huge distance between both planets.
• Casual Interstellar Travel: Interstellar and interdimensional travel is easy thanks to the existence of warp spaceports. Hal Jordan doesn't need them thanks to his power ring, but he still takes a full day to cover the huge distance between Rokyn to Earth, even using space warps.
• Catapult Nightmare: In the first episode of "Last Waltz with Luthor", Lena Thorul jolts up in her bed after a premonitory dream where her brother Lex murders his wife Ardora and then kills Superman.
  Lena Thorul awoke with a start. She almost knocked the lamp off the side table grabbing for it to turn it on.
  She drew in deep breaths to calm herself, and thought, wildly, about scenes in movies where someone wakes up in fright and has a cigarette to calm themselves down.
• Cat Fight: Sometimes, Kara and her rival wrestlers resort to biting, scratching and hair-pulling.
  When she faced Kara, Jasmine was all business. “I'm gonna knock you outta your panties, babe,” she snarled as they circled.
  “Glad somebody reminded you to wear yours,” retorted Kara. That got to Jas. They closed and started pulling hair.
  The catfight tactics turned the audience on, and the howls and foot-stomping were never higher. The girls rolled around on the mat, Jasmine trying to bite and scratch. Kara elbowed her hard under the chin. Jasmine fell back, grabbing at the place where she'd been hit.
• Child of Two Worlds: It's been five centuries since two Kryptonian heroes arrived in Earth, but their descendants can't forget about their alien heritage due to their powers. Katherine describes living in Earth like "trying to run through a room carpeted with eggs, and trying not to break anything". On Rokyn, another world inhabited by people of Kryptonian descent, they have no powers so they don't need to hold back, but it isn't their home either because they haven't been raised there.
• Chronic Hero Syndrome: Subverted. After spending fifteen years helping whoever she ran into, Supergirl decides she can't keep dealing with the pressures of a hero's life for longer, so she moves to another world where she can't use her powers. Even so, she ends up helping people anyway because she can't help her all-loving hero impulses.
• Chuck Cunningham Syndrome: Jara, whose rivalry with the main character had driven the first story arc's plot forward, disappears after the end of "Pain and Jasmine", and she only makes two cameo appearances at the end of the story, twenty chapters later.
• Clones Are People, Too: Kara's clone Linda is definitely her own person with her own personality and life goals, and she is treated like such by Kara and her parents, who take Linda in and treat her as their second daughter.
• Comic-Book Time: Downplayed. Characters get older, but they age more slowly than in the real world. Kara is fifteen in 1959, yet still she is twenty-nine in 1986.
• The Commissioner Gordon: In "Last Waltz with Luthor", Inspector Bill Henderson, member of Metropolis Police Department, assists the heroes while they're looking for Superman and Luthor, who have gone missing suspiciously simultaneously.
• Complexity Addiction: During their climatic final fight, Luthor bitterly ponders he had over one month to kill Superman quickly instead of dumping him in a pod and syphoning his power off.
  He kicked out angrily at Superman, dislodging him, and damned himself for not killing him during the month and days he had him helpless, damned himself for trying to eke the last bit of power from his body for its usefulness.
• Continuity Creep: The Early stories of the Fan Verse were short one-shot fics set in the same loose continuity. Then the first multi-part story came out, and the entire thing ballooned in size until becoming comprised of several tightly inter-connected multi-part multi-arc series.
• Continuity Porn: This story is filled with continuity nods and references to Pre-Crisis Superman's lore. Old characters like the first "Supergirl" Lucy of Borgonia -who made her sole appearance in Superboy #5 (1949)-, Lyla Lerrol -from Superman's Return to Krypton and For the Man Who Has Everything fame-, Nasthalthia Luthor, the clone of Linda Danvers or Captain Strong are referenced or make cameo appearances.
• Conveniently Close Planet: Subverted. Hal Jordan's ring allows its bearer to travel faster-than-light, but even so Hal needs to go through wormholes to get anywhere in time.
• The Coup: Faora Hu-Ul rallies the Phantom Zoners and stages a coup against the Science Council in order to take over the planet.
• Covered in Gunge: It happens to Superman when he gets dunked by Luthor in a tank full of a gluey purple gunk which used to be the Parasite's body.
• CPR: Clean, Pretty, Reliable: Subverted. Power Girl tries to restart Supergirl's heart, who is dying after fighting the Anti-Monitor, but CPR is useless to cure Kara's injuries, Raven has to use her healing magic to save her.
• Cruel to Be Kind: Subverted. Zora claims her disses and slurs aimed at Jara are intended to push her beyond her limits, but in reality she just despises her partner.
  Zora: You're still in love with her? Are you Travelling Clan people as dumb as they say? You want to put this—
  Jara: What's that about the Clan? You want to repeat that?
  Zora: Hold it, hold on, Jara. Really, I'm sorry. I'm not downing the Clan, really, I'm not. That's just part of verbal motivation. I'm trying to get your back up for the match.
  Jara: You've just about got it up for me to give you a preview of the match right here. There aren't enough of the Clan left hardly to count anymore, and you want to down them. I ought to pull your tongue out through your nostrils.
  Zora: Jara. Don't you remember how I talked to you when we were sparring? And didn't that work, to get you going?
  Jara: It sure did. You said if I couldn't do better than that, I might as well go back to making a living on my back. I damned near pulled your arm off for that one.
  Zora: Exactly! I had to say something like that to get you mad. Without the rage, you don't have a chance against her. Put it together, Jara.
• Crystal Spires and Togas: The setting of the story is Rokyn, a planet settled by Pre-Crisis Kryptonian survivors who brought with them their civilization's trappings: Kandor is a city of shiny, polished glass buildings where everyone wears space clothes.
• Curse Cut Short: Jara barely stops herself from calling Kara a bitch in public.
  Jara: This belt is now in the hands of its rightful owner. It never really belonged to that— to her.
• Cut His Heart Out with a Spoon: Jara's threats when Black Flame insults her tribe are… creative.
  Jara: You've just about got it up for me to give you a preview of the match right here. There aren't enough of the Clan left hardly to count anymore, and you want to down them. I ought to pull your tongue out through your nostrils.
• Dark Action Girl: Faora Hur-Ul is the most lethal Kryptonian woman alive. In addition to her Kryptonian powerset she is a powerful martial artist as well as a telepath and fulgurkinetic.
• Death Glare:
  • Jara hurls an absolutely murderous glare at Kara after being rejected.
    The woman looked at Kara with the air of a butcher wondering which part of a carcass to start on.
  • Clark to his cousin when he finds out she has made a movie about his and Lyla's relationship without his consent.
    Kal fixed her with a look of absolute winter. Then he turned towards the hologram.
• Dedication: The final story arc is dedicated to Superman's creator Jerry Siegel.
  This one's for Jerry Siegel, who created both Kal and Lyla. You won't be forgotten, either, pal.
• Defeat Means Friendship:
  • After defeating Jara for good, Kara begins to build a tentative friendship with her ex-rival wrestler.
  • Shyla Kor-Onn, who used to be her enemy, becomes Supergirl’s ally.
• Determinator: Superman endured Parasite's power drain for one whole month.
  Superman: It’s been... so long in there.
  Supergirl: I know. I can’t imagine... Great Rao, Kal. How did you survive?
  Superman: I’m still not sure. I just... didn’t want to give up. Luthor was out there. I had to survive so that I could stop him. But... that wasn’t all of it. There were people like Lois out there. And Jimmy, Bruce, Perry... all my friends. And you. Even though you were half a galaxy away. I knew I’d never see you again, if I gave up and died. But there was more to it than that. I’m Superman, Kara. And if I made a habit of giving up... well, I wouldn’t be much of a Superman, would I?
• Disappeared Dad: Subverted. Kara thought her parents died together when she was fifteen. Several years later she found out they survived her hometown's destruction, but until then she often cried to herself to sleep. And as an adult woman, the memory of losing them still hurts her.
  Superman: "Who was it who held you in his arms and rocked you to sleep when you cried over your parents and your friends in Argo City when you thought they were all dead?"
• Distracted by the Sexy: Kara reveals she had a secret weapon to protect her secret identity from her high-school sweetheart Dick Malverne: "[She]'d have stripped naked and he would've lost his mind."
• Domestic Abuse:
  • Parasite abused one of his girlfriends in the past.
    <I've seen your record, Max. You slapped one around pretty badly one time. Got hauled into court, paid a fine, got a restraining order put on you, violated it, and went to jail for a few weeks.>
  • Not only does Zora put Jara down constantly, but she also takes advantage of her loneliness to emotionally blackmail her into murder.
  • Implied during a flashback scene. Jules Luthor isn't shown hitting or shouting at his wife Arlene, but she doesn't dare to disagree with him or acting against his wishes even when she clearly wants to.
• Doorstopper: It sits at 274,020 words spread over 51 chapters.
• Double Standard: Abuse, Female on Male: Averted. Superman makes very clear that abuse is never okay, no matter who or what the perpetrator may be.
  <Geez, tough times. I never had that problem with my women.>
  <I've seen your record, Max. You slapped one around pretty badly one time. Got hauled into court, paid a fine, got a restraining order put on you, violated it, and went to jail for a few weeks.>
  <Well, yeah, there was that one.>
  <Well, then?>
  <Well, she deserved it. She—>
  <Max. Women never deserve anything like that. Neither do men. Do you understand?>
• Double Standard: Rape, Female on Female: Averted when rival female wrestler Jara tries to intimidate Kara into having sex with her, ensuring Kara would never want anything to do with her and all but destroying her own wrestling career.
• Dream Within a Dream: In "Kara and the Dreamsmith", Kara falls asleep and then finds herself floating, and staring straight at her own self lying in her bed. She guess she's dreaming that she's dreaming for some strange reason.
  Kara Zor-El was dreaming.
  She was dreaming that she was dreaming.
  Yes, that was the answer. For there she was, clad in her green nightdress, below the quilt her mother had made for her years ago, in the comfortable four-poster bed she'd had built on Rokyn to resemble the one in which she'd slept on Earth.
  [...]
  She was looking at herself lying in the bed.
  Yes, it was a dream.
  But why would she dream of herself dreaming? Most curious.
• Dreaming of Things to Come: In the first episode of the "Last Waltz with Luthor", Lena Thorul -who has had psychic powers since she was a child- has a premonitory dream in which her brother Lex Luthor murders his wife Ardora and then kills Superman. Her vision almost comes to pass at the climax of the story.
  She sat on the side of her bed for a few seconds and composed herself. Then she opened a drawer from the night stand, took a cassette recorder from it, turned it on, and began to speak.
  "This is August 17th. Another entry in my dream journal. I think this one might be a prophecy. It's been a long time since I've had one... but this one seemed intense enough to be. I just hope it isn't.
  "I saw my brother Lex. His wife Ardora was alive, and he was killing her.
  "And then he was killing Superman."
• Dress Hits Floor: Subverted. After lounging in a spa, Kara walks in the dressing room wearing nothing but a towel, finds her rival Jasmine waiting for her, and drops her towel... in shock and embarassment, not in acceptance and eagerness as Jasmine wants to interpret.
  Kara entered the dressing room, and found that she was not alone.
  Jasmine was there, clad only in a short robe. She was looking straight at Kara.
  Kara Zor-El dropped her towel and her jaw at the same time.
• Dying Moment of Awesome: When Earth-Two Superman is told Supergirl’s life was spared thanks to his death he smiles broadly. Being perfectly okay with both dying in Kara’s place and Lois outliving him, he follows Death with no regrets.
• Entertainingly Wrong: After hearing about Clark Kent’s strange habit of going to the restroom just before a newscast, a detective investigating his disappearance wonders if Kent might be doing drugs. Understandable mistake since he can't know Clark needs to change into Superman.
• Equivalent Exchange: In order to save Supergirl, Dream convinces Death to take Earth-Two Superman instead.
  "I said, the woman will not be taken." There was real menace in his voice. "She is under my protection. To touch her, sister, you must touch me first."
  The girl swore.
  "All right, all right. You know the rules. Somebody else has to go. Who?"
• Even Evil Can Be Loved: Lex Luthor's family mourns his death, even though he had just attempted to murder them on the grounds of "betraying him" (i. e., not supporting his murderous goals), and his wife Ardora remembers that he used his scientific acumen to improve her subjects' lives before he let his hatred towards Superman consume him again.
• Even Evil Has Loved Ones: Subverted. Lex Luthor used to love his family, but after so many years obsessed with killing Superman he can only to hate those who aren’t automatically on his side.
• Even Bad Men Love Their Mamas: Lex Luthor hates a lot of things and a lot of people, but he never hated his mother, not even after becoming a criminal disowned by his family.
  Nasthalthia Luthor: "I think Arlene might have come up to his room that night, and maybe had a talk with Lex. I'm not sure of that, but Lex told me that, no matter what, he never hated his mother. And he didn't think his mother ever hated him."
• Everytown, America: Kara's adoptive parents live in a small, nondescript Midwestern town named Midvale. Although she moved out long ago, Kara still visits the town every so often.
• Evil Cannot Comprehend Good: Nasthalthia Luthor believes Supergirl saved her uncle's life in The Death of Luthor because she is a stupid, little miss goody two-shoes, when the truth is that she didn't want Lex to escape his life imprisonment via a quick death.
• Evil Is Cool: In-Universe. Jara is a "heel" because she likes going wild on her adversaries, and her audience likes her seeing heroes getting beaten up.
  Jasmine stood up, smiled, and preened herself for the crowd. There were boos, but, satisfyingly, a few cheers. Lots of guys like to see the heroines take a beating, she reflected, and that's what I'm here for.
• Evil Plan: In "Last Waltz with Luthor", Luthor captures Superman, intending to transfer his powers to selected subordinates who would help him take over the world.
  Now, the full power of the scourge from Krypton could be instilled in several bodies, by a combination of transference and a sort of "power-cloning".
  Starfire, Cyber, and others who proved themselves worthy (and trustworthy, though he trusted the two women very little), would be equipped with the power to break the governments of Earth, to place the planet under his control. Should they rebel, he would remove their powers and destroy them.
  The irony of conquering the world with the Kryptonian's powers was not lost on Luthor, but it was nothing that obsessed him. After all, he was not the gloating Joker. It was a means to an end.
• Experienced Protagonist: Subverted. Kara has been a superhero for more than one decade, but she has no previous experience in wrestling, so she must be trained in order to fight in matches.
• Face Death with Dignity: The original Superman remains completely calm while facing Death of the Endless when he dies during the Crisis and she comes to collect his soul. Other than quiet acceptance, the only emotions he expresses are happiness and relief when told his sacrifice saved his cousin's life and his wife still has many years left
• Facial Markings: Kara's cat White Star has a star-shaped mark between his eyes.
• Fantasy Counterpart Culture: Jara Vor-Tonn's Travelling Clan are a Kryptonian nomadic ethnic group who faced discrimination and persecution in the past, not unlike the Jews or Romani of real life Earth.
• Faster-Than-Light Travel: Kara, Kal and several more characters have this power.Hal Jordan's Power Ring allows interstellar travel between Rokyn and Earth without being bothered by Rokyn's spaceport's customs officers.
• Fight Magnet: Kara moves to another planet to lead a normal life, free of conflict and battles. Then she finds her old enemies have moved to her new home, too, to fight her again.
• Final Battle: In "Last Walz with Luthor", the Justice League come together to fight Lex Luthor and his super-powered cronies for Superman's life. At the end, Lex dies while attempting to kill Superman, and Superman notes sadly their endless dance has finally concluded.
  Superman: Lex and I, we've done a strange dance for thirty years or so. I'm not sure who was leading, most of the time. We always wondered how long the dance would last. Now, I know. Lex Luthor and I... we've just had our last waltz, Lois.
• Fix Fic: After the events of "Kara and the Dreamsmith", the Pre-Crisis Earths still continue to exist together with the Post-Crisis universe.
• Follow in My Footsteps: Superman is disappointed when his cousin chooses to retire and move to Rokyn after he trained her to be a hero who would continue his work. He tries to get over it, though.
• For Want Of A Nail: Dark Mark's DC Fan Verse gets started when the original Supergirl moves out of the planet after the events of Justice League of America #231-232, giving birth to this split timeline. Dream of the Endless then gets her to interfere with the Crisis Of Infinite Earths'' and save The Multiverse, creating several more different timelines.
• Freudian Excuse: Lex Luthor sees himself as the victim of an alien who betrayed him and ruined his life when they were teenagers, leading to being branded as a criminal and his father kicking him out.
• Friendship Moment: In the last chapter, Jara asks to meet with Kara to spar and talk for a bit. Later on, Jara admits she wanted to see Kara because, in spite of her old animosity, she's the only person she can call "friend".
  Jara: Oh, it's not that, anymore, Kara. It's just... Does it make any sense if I say I'm depressed, and I wanted to see you?
  Kara: You don't have any friends?
  Jara: None like you. You've been where I've been for awhile, Kara. I can talk to you.
• Gendered Outfit: In "Tag-Team Terror", Kara complains that her suit is a version of her cousin's, except with a skirt instead of long pants.
  "You wanted me to be your good little heroine, to do what you did with your life. My dad put me out there in that copy of your suit, with a skirt. I got the same name as you, except for the last four letters."
• Get Out!: Kara's reaction when Jara slips in a dressing room to seduce her.
  "I don't believe in subtlety, Kara," purred Jasmine. "I go after what I want. And I've wanted you ever since I saw you fight. What about it?" She doffed her robe, letting it drop to the floor behind her, and stood naked before the blonde. "Want a little new experience? I won't tell."
  Kara finally found her voice. "Get out."
• Ghost Town: During "Kal & Lyla", Kara returns to her abandoned hometown Argo City and finds it's still a silent, cold place littered with corpses and drifting in the void of space.
• Girl on Girl Is Hot: As watching Kara and Jara sparring, Van-Ol ponders the sight is... interesting.
  To see her pitting her strength and skills against another woman, both of them clad only in bikinis, was, he had to admit... stimulating.
• Giving Someone the Pointer Finger: Nar-Es thrusts a forefinger at Kara when he reminds her he is her manager and trainer, therefore she must listen to him on health matters.
  He thrust a forefinger at her. "Then let me manage! You get dressed. I'm taking you home. I'm going to give you a sleep-treatment. I'm going to get you a force-ray massage. When you wake up, you will eat, and eat what I order for you. If you disobey me in any of this, you will have to get another manager. Clear?"
• Gondor Calls for Aid: In Last Waltz with Luthor, both Superman and Luthor have been missing for over one month. Sensing that her cousin is in mortal danger, Supergirl calls in the whole Justice League to look for and rescue Superman.
• Good Is Boring: Nasthalthia is a villain because she finds honest life incredibly boring.
  Nasthalthia: I guess I got a little of what Lex was infected with, genetically. Not any of the science stuff, but— You know how straights are, and how straight life is. Soooo boring. I found out about guys, cycles, drugs, and privilege in short order. Got off drugs. Got myself a real cycle gang while I was in college, Nasty's Nasties. Dad ‘n' Mom didn't approve, but I didn't give a damn as long as they kept the money coming. Then they cut it off.
• Good Is Not Soft: Supergirl goes against Faora Hu-Ul, the deadliest Kryptonian female alive, and beats the crap out of her.
• Good Morning, Crono: "Kara and the Dreamsmith", the chapter which kicks off the proper Fan Verse, begins when Dream of the Endless wakes Kara Zor-El up.
• Good Parents: Zor-El and Alura do their best to support their daughter.
  Zor-El: No man likes to see his daughter taking a pounding. Even though Kara's done her fair share of pounding, and more, I assure you. But I've come to accept it, and she needs our support. So she's got it, from myself and Allura. And we'll be there for her next match— and as many as we can make afterward.
• Go Through Me: During "Kara and the Dreamsmith", Dream stands between Death and Kara and warns her sister will have to go through him. Both of them know Death can easily do so, but she doesn't want to, and she indeed relents.
  Dream: I said, the woman will not be taken. She is under my protection. To touch her, sister, you must touch me first.
• The Greatest Story Never Told: Kara helps to save her mainstream counterpart as well as the Multiverse during the Crisis, ensuring the survival of realities where she doesn't get killed, Barbara Gordon doesn't get shot through her spine, Hal Jordan doesn't go nuts... but no one will ever know about it. Not even her, because the memory of events is erased from her mind right afterwards.
• Groin Attack: Jara uses this tactic on Kara during a tag-team match.
  Unwinding her legs, Jasmine pulled Kara up, her hands under the blonde's chin, and extended one knee, then dropped Kara so that her crotch contacted Jasmine's knee. A horrible groan sprang from her lips at the impact. Supergirl clutched herself as she writhed on the mat.
• Guns Are Worthless: Kara can be killed off by any firearm while on Kandor. When on Earth, though… Lex Luthor manages to transfer Superman's powers to Starfire and Cyber, and it’s stated that thermonuclear weapons would not even scratch them.
• Happy-Ending Massage: Kara gets one from Van-Ol after she finally has a talk with her cousin over her movie.
• Healing Hands: Raven cures Supergirl’s life-threatening injuries resulting from her battle against the Anti-Monitor by laying her hands upon her.
• Heel–Face Turn:
  • Jara –whose wrestling person, "Lady Jasmine", is an actual heel- turns on Blackflame after getting defeated by Kara.
  • Shyla Kor-Onn used to be Supergirl's enemy. Here, she allies herself with Kara during "Last Waltz with Luthor".
  • Parasite isn't feeling overly loyal after getting manipulated by Luthor, so he takes Superman up on his offer to get his normal body back in exchange for reforming.
• He Knows Too Much: After Lex Luthor shows to them what he has done to Superman, villains Cyber and Starfire realize Luthor will kill them if he believes they might reveal his secret.
• Heroes Love Dogs: As narrating the Superboy/Lex feud, Nasthalthia states Superboy forgave Lex's attempts on his life until his ex-friend involved Krypto.
  Nasthalthia: Okay. So Lex and Superboy were enemies, now. Lex wasn't in trouble with the law yet, but that wouldn't take long. Lex tried to kill Blue Boy and his stupid dog with some living-Kryptonite thingies he'd created, and got close as dammit to doing it. It took one of those Legion kids to save Supes's backside in that one.
  Starfire: Did he take Lex to jail after that?
  Nasthalia: No. Believe it or not, he was still willing to give Lex another chance. He just wrecked his equipment and gave him a warning. It was more like, 'Three strikes and you're out.' But Lex was never much into baseball. So he pulled another job, when that Robin kid was visiting from the future. That was the third strike. After that, Superboy up and took him to jail, pushed charges against him, and got him sentenced to reform school. I guess it was a bad idea for Lex to involve the dog in that Kryptonite caper. The kid liked that dog.
• Heroic BSoD: Kara plunges into depression after getting trounced by Jasmine. She locks herself in her apartment and shuts everyone out until her parents get through to her.
• Heroic Dog: In the backstory, Krypto joined Superboy in his adventures and saved the life of the Teen of Steel dozens of times.
• Heroic RRoD: Kara almost rips herself apart while battling Faora Hu-Ul.
• Heroic Willpower: Superman endures Parasite's life-drain for over one month. Parasite wonders how Kal-El can be still alive.
• Holding Hands: Clark and Lois hold hands after Superman has been saved from Lex's trap.
• Hopeless Suitor: Jara's a crush on Kara, who is straight and not even is particularly fond of Jara.
• Hypocritical Humor: In the "Last Waltz with Luthor" story arc, Lex Luthor derides Superman's entire Rogues Gallery as losers donning stupid costumes and carrying out stupid schemes in the name of killing Superman. Then he hastily adds he's completely different from them because... because he had good reason. And because he's the original Superman-hater.
  All he had done was dress up in an absurd three-colored costume and beat up on crooks. Worse yet, he had inspired a generation of crooks to don such costumes, gain or simulate other superhuman powers, and litter the landscape with their fallen crime-schemes. All in the name of conquering Superman.
  Well, he was not immune to that, of course. But he had good reason. Prior claim, as it were.
• I Control My Minions Through...: Lex Luthor controls his goons and crooks through fear-induced loyalty. They're well aware that he can and will dispose of them at any time if they betray him or incur his displeasure or anger.
• I Did What I Had to Do: Lex Luthor's young nephew Val Colby stops his uncle's heart telekinetically in order to save Superman's life as well as other people's. Supergirl is the only who knows, but since she thinks the clearly remorseful boy had no choice, she decides to keep quiet if Val promises to not use his powers to kill again.
  Kara: Val, the act of killing is the gravest act of man. Both on Krypton, and on Earth. Once upon a time, Lex died, and I brought him back to life. This time... I didn't do it. So we both have something to bear away from this one. We both have each other’s secret. Your action was basically justified. You kept him from killing Kal and Ardora. Maybe he would have killed you and Lena afterward. There’s no telling. If a cop had come in there with a gun, he probably would have used it on Lex, as well. He might have had to yell 'Freeze!' beforehand, and he’d have to face a review board afterward. But Lex was about to commit murder again. He’d already done it once, today. And you— saw it. So you did what you had to do. You reached out with that PK power and stopped his heart. Lex Luthor is dead, now, and neither Kal nor I are responsible, except maybe in a secondary way. As I say, Val, you did what you had to do.
• I Have Many Names: Dream of the Endless has been called more names than the embodiment of a cosmic principle can even remember, one for each culture and probably one for each sentient being in the universe.
  Kara: "Who are you? What does your— Dreaming— need me to do?"
  Dream: "There are more names for me than I can even remember. Perhaps all who dream know me by a name unique to them. But I have been called Kaickul, L'zoril, Shaper, Morpheus—"
  Kara: (covering her mouth) "The Dreamsmith!"
• I Know Karate: Kara is quite extensively trained by Lady Shiva.
• Important Hair Accessory: Kara adds a headband to her costume to make "an equality statement, since men were traditionally only headband wearers", but after a while she decides it just looks stupid and ditches the headband.
• Incestuous Casting: In-Universe. Van-Zee and his cousin Kara are cast as the lead couple in the romance movie "Kal & Lyla". Both are more than a little disturbed about the situation, but Kara tries to not think about it and focus on make their on-screen relationship believable.
• Incompatible Orientation: Jara (lesbian) likes Kara (straight). She doesn't take rejection well at all, but at the end she accepts the fact that they can only be friends.
• In Space, Everyone Can See Your Face: Kara and Matter Master's faces are visible through their spacesuits when they travel to Argo City into deep space.
• In Spite of a Nail: Parodied. Although the Crisis is averted and the subsequent multiversal upheaval affects the Watchmen Earth deeply, some deaths were impossible to prevent. Like John Lennon's: "The Comedian died, as did the original Nite Owl. So did John Lennon. Nobody could do anything about those."
• Interspecies Adoption: Kara was adopted and raised by human parents: Fred and Edna Danvers. Later on, they also adopt her clone.
• Interspecies Friendship: Kara and her beloved pet cat White Star. White Star was given to her as a present when she was feeling down, and looking after him helped her get over her depression.
• Interspecies Romance: Clark Kent (Kryptonian) and Lois Lane (human) get married after the final battle between Superman and Lex Luthor. At the end of the fic, they are expecting a baby.
• Irony: After over fifteen years struggling to become a respected super-hero and fit among Earth people, Kara realizes that isn't what she wanted at all, and she can only feel at home living like a normal woman among her kin in Rokyn.
• I Shall Taunt You: A common tactic used by Kara during her wrestling stint, albeit sometimes it backfires.
  When she faced Kara, Jasmine was all business. "I'm gonna knock you outta your panties, babe," she snarled as they circled.
  "Glad somebody reminded you to wear yours," retorted Kara. That got to Jas. They closed and started pulling hair.
• It's Personal: Lex Luthor blames Superman for everything bad has happened to him, which includes: his lab burning down back when they were teenagers and destroying his greatest discovery as well as his hair; his parents disowning him; his wife and son dying. The fact that Superman wasn't responsible for or had nothing to do with those tragedies matters nothing to Luthor.
• I Was Quite a Fashion Victim: Kara thinks her former costume, which included a 80's-style headband, looked ridiculous (which it is because she ditched it after a while):
  She also wore a version of her old Supergirl outfit, blue skirt and all. The headband from her last outfit had been abandoned long ago. It might have been intended as an equality statement, since men were traditionally only headband wearers, but after a while she just thought it looked stupid.
• I Was Young and Needed the Money: Jara starred in porno videos before becoming a wrestler. They were relatively softcore -and she really needed the income-, but she isn't pleased to hear they might hurt her chances of making the leap into legitimate acting.
• Jaw Drop: Kara's reaction when she bumps into a scantily-clad Jara.
  Kara entered the dressing room, and found that she was not alone.
  Jasmine was there, clad only in a short robe. She was looking straight at Kara.
  Kara Zor-El dropped her towel and her jaw at the same time.
• Jerk with a Heart of Jerk: Blackflame, who has always been a manipulative jerkass, befriends Jara and claims to be trying to help her become a best wrestler, but it's soon made clear she is trying to manipulate her into killing Kara.
• Joker Immunity: Discussed and subverted in Last Waltz with Luthor. After Luthor's latest plan has almost succeeded in killing Superman and taking over the world, Lois complains that he'll be thrown into a cell, which he will break out of time whenever he wants, and then he will start the cycle over again. Then she is told Luthor has passed away.
  Lois: And all that'll happen to him is that he'll go back to jail.
  Superman: Lois.
  Lois: All that'll happen, after all this, almost killing you a hundred times, almost conquering the world, is that he'll go back to a nice, comfortable cell that he can break out of, anytime he wants, and–
  Superman: Lois. Lex Luthor won't be going anywhere.
  Lois: What? What are you saying?
  Superman: Lex and I, we've done a strange dance for thirty years or so. I'm not sure who was leading, most of the time. We always wondered how long the dance would last. Now, I know. Lex Luthor and I... we've just had our last waltz, Lois.
• Karma Houdini: Nasthalthia, who bullied and schemed against Supergirl repeatedly when they were in their early twenties, and aided her uncle Lex’s final scheme, gets away scot free.
• Kayfabe: Played with. Jara is obviously not evil but a heel that plays an act, but her real person is pretty mean-spirited.
• Killed Off for Real: Lex Luthor dies of a heart attack. Kara believes she is capable of bringing him back to life, but she decides against it.
• Kindhearted Cat Lover: No matter how much Kara has changed since her permanent move, her love for cats remains constant.
  A little orange cat looked out at her. He had a white star-like mark between his eyes.
  "We always knew how you liked cats, dear," said Allura. "It isn't good for you to be so alone. He isn't Streaky, but he should do."
  Kara smiled. Streaky was off someplace, or dead. She hadn't seen him in years. But Mom was right, she did love cats. She unhooked the cage door and let the cat curl up in her arms.
  "Hey, White Star," she said, cuddling it to her shoulder. "How you doing? Do you like me?" The cat nuzzled its head against her shoulder and purred. He knew how to con a good meal with the best of them.
• Kissing Cousins:
  • Averted. Playing love scenes with Kara disturbs Van-Zee, although Kara reassures him she isn't on incest.
  • Alluded when Kara tells her family about her cousin's first crush on a girl nicknamed "Supergirl" (Lucy of Borgonia), but she avoids mentioning Kal complaining about inter-cousin marriage not being legal.
    Kara Zor-El said, "Would you believe that Kal once told me that one of the first girls he ever fell for in his life was named Supergirl?"
    The others at the dinner party reacted with shock, laughter, surprise, disbelief, curiosity, amusement, or a combination of the above.
    "How's this, Kara?" asked Van-Zee, cautiously. "You don't mean he fell for you, do you?"
    She smiled an I-know-something-you-don't smile at him.
• Klingons Love Shakespeare: Rokynians have a fondness for Earth's flicks and movies.
• Knight Templar Big Brother: Killing Kara is one of the few things that might make Superman drop his "No Killing" rule.
  Superman: That crazy Lex Luthor, if he really had hurt you, I don't know if I could keep that oath about not harming anybody.
• Kryptonite-Proof Suit: Kryptonian scientist and reformed villain Shyla Kor-Onn develops an armored space suit which filters specific waves of radiation, letting Kryptonians retain their powers in red star systems.
  About her, she wore a clear skin-tight armor that filtered out certain waves of radiation and let others through. It was something Shyla Kor-Onn had developed, and Kara was mighty glad she had. Because she saw the star which was the center of the system she was headed for, and its hue was red.
  If she wasn’t wearing the armor, she’d have been powerless and dead within seconds.
• Lack of Empathy: Lex Luthor has become utterly incapable of understanding or caring for other people after decades spent hating Superman. Whoever isn't on his side simply deserves to die, and he refuses to admit it's him who has systematically pushed everybody away.
• Last-Second Chance: Superman offers Parasite help him be normal again if he reforms. Parasite actually considers and ends taking up his offer.
  <I can't even get close to a woman without her running away now, Supes. They don't dig the tall, strong, and purple type. If I bought and paid for one, I might suck the life out of her while we were together. You understand?>
  <Perhaps, Max. And perhaps you'd be better if we could find a cure for your condition.>
  <Yeah, well, I'll settle for getting back my old bod, if and when. If and when.>
  <So why did you throw in with Luthor?>
  <Because he offered me a good deal. Said he'd get rid of you forever, and kick in a lotta dough at the same time. My two primary motivations.>
  <If we got you your body back, Max, and if we removed your Parasite powers, would you reform? Would you even consider it?>
  More hesitation. Then, <I don't know.>
• The Law of Diminishing Defensive Effort: Starfire is given Kryptonian powers and she quickly becomes cocky and overconfident, allowing enemies to hit her invulnerable body... until Supergirl, a real Kryptonian, jumps into battle all of sudden and punches her into orbit.
• Living MacGuffin: "Last Waltz with Luthor" storyline puts Superman of all people in this role. The Man of Steel went missing shortly after Lex Luthor fell off the radar. Nobody buys both events are unrelated, so Supergirl rallies the whole super-heroic community to find and rescue her cousin.
• Losing Is Worse Than Death: Supergirl thinks facing Darkseid on her own is more benign of a prospect than the possibility of her movie flopping.
• Lots of Luggage: Kara has to head back to Earth to help search her disappeared cousin, so she takes over 100 pounds of clothes with her.
  She had two fairly bulky suitcases in her hands and didn't want to set them down yet, even if Hal had negated their weight to make them liftable. One of them held over 100 pounds of clothes.
• Love Confession: At the end of "Last Waltz with Luthor", Kara confesses to Van-Ol:
  Van: So. You want to go over these lines again, and see if you get ‘em right? Or do you feel like playing script doctor again?
  Kara: ‘What would you think of me if you knew that you’re wearing the soul I’ve been looking for all my life to find?’
  Van: Oh, come on, KZ. That is not in my script. That’s Lyla’s line from Scarlet Song.
  Kara: I know. But what was the line her leading man gave her after that?
  Van: ‘I’d say that one of us is probably crazier than the other. But I’m not sure which.’
  Kara: (smiling) Yeah.
  Van: Uh, KZ. I don’t know... that is, I’m not sure...
  Kara: Don’t get your hopes up too much yet, VO. But I think I like you, too.
  Van: You mean, you know I li–
  Kara: Women can tell, Van.
  Van: Stop finishing my sentences.
  Kara: (kissing him) Who wants to talk?
  Van: Holy sun and Mother Moon. Fade to black.
• Magnetic Hero: When it's suspected that Luthor is Superman's sudden and unexplained disappearance, Supergirl quickly and easily rallies together all kind of heroes and normal people and gets all of them absolutely on board with her mission to find and save Superman, not only out of loyalty or gratitude towards her cousin, but also because she's just so charismatic, energetic and determined.
• Making Love in All the Wrong Places: The final scene has Kara and her boyfriend Van-Ol spend the night fooling around on a beach.
• Mama Didn't Raise No Criminal: At the beginning, Lex Luthor's parents refused to believe their smart little boy was an unrepentant murderer, and they believed Lex when he declared Superboy had framed him out of jealousy; but then Lex went after the Boy of Steel again, and they couldn't deny the facts anymore.
  Nasthalthia: "Lex's folks, Jules and Arlene, didn't want to think their brilliant sonnyboy was capable of stuff like that. At first, I think they believed Lex when he told them it was all a frame, that the Superkid was jealous of him. But when he got released on a good-behavior bit, and went back after Superboy again, they knew the stories were true."
• Manipulative Bastard: Zora Vi-Lar seduces female wrestler Jara, who had just been turned down by Kara Zor-El, and preys on her resentment and fear to loneliness in hopes of driving her to beat Kara to death.
• Man of Steel, Woman of Kleenex: Subverted. Clark and Lois are able to have sex safely, but when Lois gets pregnant Superman still has to devise something so she doesn't get killed by the baby.
• Mistaken for Junkie: At the beginnig of "Last Waltz with Lex Luthor", a detective wonders if Clark Kent is doing drugs due to his strange habit of going to the restroom right before a newscast.
• Mistreatment-Induced Betrayal: Luthor tricked Parasite into working for him and then turned him into a pile of goo stuck to Superman. As a result of it, Parasite has no qualms about turning against Luthor.
• Modesty Towel: After spending one hour swimming in a spa's pool, Kara wraps one towel around her naked body, even though she's reasonably certain that there're no employees or customers on the premises, enters the dressing room and bumps into Jasmine, who was waiting for her to try to seduce her.
• Mr. Exposition: Being a Luthor herself who has clashed with one of the Super-cousins in the past, Nasthalthia is the perfect person to narrate the History of the Superman/Lex Luthor feud.
• Ms. Fanservice: Jara is a female heel wrestler who loves showing off her body and wearing tight outfits in and out of the ring.
• Mook–Face Turn: Parasite turns on Luthor when the latter’s anti-Superman plan almost gets him killed.
• Murder by Inaction: Subverted in what it happens after the villain has passed away. After Lex Luthor has just died, Supergirl recalls she managed to bring him back once. For a brief second she considers to attempt to relive him… and then she decides against it. Luthor already got, and utterly squandered, his second chance.
  She turned and flew to the tube chamber, to begin releasing the superheroes from their imprisonment. As she did, her mind flashed back to another time, in which Luthor had died by accident and she brought him back to life with a device built along Kryptonian lines.
  It might be possible to restore his life in the next two minutes, if she could manage to put such a thing together again. There was probably enough stuff in Luthor’s labs from which she could cannibalize it.
  But–
  He had almost killed Kal, this time. He had come very near to killing him with Virus X, another time. And there were–great Rao, there were so many other times when he had tried to kill her cousin, or even her, and had gotten too close to that goal all too often.
  She also remembered Kal saying that Luthor just periodically had to break jail so he could destroy something, anything.
  There were only so many times mercy could be shown.
  Sometimes, it was a greater mercy to withhold it.
  With an unpleasant chill in her heart, Supergirl began tearing the metallic tubes open.
• The Multiverse: A central theme. The Supergirl of Earth-1.5 -Kara of Rokyn- alters the outcome of the Crisis, a deed which saves the infinite parallel universes and spawns new parallel dimensions, Earth-1.75 -Hellsister Trilogy- and Earth-2.5 -A Force of Four- among them, whose heroes every so often interact with each other.
• Mythology Gag:
  • Kara references her cousin's meeting with Lucy of Borgonia (Superboy (1949) issue #4) and her failed attempts at matchmaking (Action Comics #289).
  • Nasty's recounting of her uncle's story references a lot of Pre-Crisis stories like "How Luthor Met Superboy", "The Super Dog from Krypton", "The Death of Luthor", "The Girl with the X-Ray Mind", "Luthor Unleashed"...
  • Clark can't believe yet he finally got married to Lois.
    Kara smiled. "Not a dream, robot, hoax, or imaginary story, Clark. It's for real."
  • Helen Slater makes a brief cameo. It appears that Supergirl (1984) was a successful movie in this universe.
• Name From Another Species: Although Kara Zor-El has barely used her human name since she moved to Rokyn, she still goes by "Linda Danvers" when she travels to Earth.
• Narrative Filigree: The narration often goes out of its way in order to describe architecture, technology and cultural quirks of Rokyn.
• Never My Fault: As Nasthaltia tells the origin of the feud between Superboy and Lex, it soon becomes obvious that Lex always came up with absurd rationalizations to blame Superman for his own actions.
  "Lex got to thinking that maybe he was a lamebrain for leaving that door open and not looking after Lena any better than he had. But when he thought harder, he said, he thought Superboy was a lamebrain himself for giving him that alien thing, even after he'd asked him to. He thought Superboy should have had better sense than that. What can I say?"
  Starfire thought she might say that her cousin was a guilt-transferring jerk, but she kept her peace.
• Nice Guy: Kara's kind-hearted and caring to a fault. She even tries to help people whom she has good reason to hate like Jara, who beat Kara up because she turned her advances down.
  Jasmine blinked back tears. Damn it, why did Kara Zor-El have to be so good? Why did she have to be so kind, so damnably noble?
• Nigh-Invulnerability: Luthor finds a way to transfer Superman's powers to Starfire and Cyber, making both women able to tank nukes.
  "Quite right. We could hit those women with thermonuclear missiles. So could you. But if their powers really are on a level with Superman's, we wouldn't be doing much more than throwing beer cans at them."
• No Antagonist: The final story arc "Kal & Lyla" has no bad guy, as it's about Kara making a movie.
• Non-Indicative Name: Kara isn't from planet Rokyn.
• Noodle Incident: As narrating her uncle's history, Nasthalthia mentions in passing Lex Luthor once accidentally kept Superboy from saving Lincoln... and she quickly adds she doesn't want to talk about it right now.
  Nasthalthia Luthor: "But what the hell. You can't go back in time and get Jesus off the cross, or get Oswald out of that book depository. I mean, Lex found that out when he accidentally kept Superkid from saving Abe Lincoln... don't ask me about that right now."
• No-Sell: Invoked when Reagan and Gorbachev discuss how to deal with the two villainesses who have stolen Superman's powers.
  We could hit those women with themonuclear missiles. So could you. But if their powers really are on a level with Superman's, we wouldn't be doing much more than throwing beer cans at them.
• No-Holds-Barred Beatdown: Jara mercilessly beats Kara up during a match after being turned down by her.
• No Social Skills: Superman. Both Kal and Kara note several times that most of his personal problems stem from his inability to open up to and empathize with someone on a personal level. Helping total strangers, he can and will do. Being honest with his civilian friends, baring his soul to his life's love or reaching his cousin out, he cannot do.
• Not Good with Rejection: Jara, a rival wrestler, hit on Kara figuratively. When Kara turned her down, Jara wanted to hit her literally.
• Now, Let Me Carry You: As soon as she hears Superman and Luthor have been completely missing for over one month, Supergirl drops everything right away and travels back to Earth in order to lead a search-and-rescue operation. When her behavior is questioned by her boss, Kara replies her cousin did the same thing for her, and now it's her turn to save him.
• Oblivious to Love: Subverted. Van-Ol believes Kara is oblivious to his feelings, but Kara was aware of them because "women can tell".
• Obstructive Bureaucrat: Supergirl and Green Lantern need to head off to Earth, but the emigration officer will not let them leave Rokyn because Hal needs an official authorization. So what if they need to save Superman? Hal has no travel permit, and that's it.
  Green Lantern was being hassled at the War Port entrance by the emigration officer. "I'm sorry, sir, but you need official authorization to use the ‘Port to Earth," said the man, a balding, mustached type in a brown outfit. "We just can't authorize passage to non-K worlds without it."
  Hal had dealt with planetary bureaucrats before. He held up his ring hand and let the power ring display an aura of green energy. "This is my authorization, officer. I'm a deputized member of the Green Lanterns of the Universe. My authority comes from the Guardians, and I am recognized on every world in my space-sector, which is 2814. And I am a native of Earth."
  Kara, behind him, said, "I'll vouch for him, tanth. We both need to get to Earth. It's very important. It involves Superman."
  The officer was standing fast, blocking the passageway to the teleportation device a hundred yards distant. Armed guards were on hand, and so was an attendant, and none of them looked like they wanted to be there.
  Nonetheless, the officer had just been promoted a few months ago, and he was going to live up to his responsibility. That was the lesson his mother had drummed into him, and by the sun he was going to exercise it.
  "It well may involve Tanth El, Tynth Zor-El," said the officer. "But until the gentleman before me produces some government documents, I cannot allow him to ‘port to Earth. You may do so, however, with my blessings."
  "This is ridiculous," said Kara. "What's your name, officer? I want to mention it to the Drygur Moliom next time I talk to him." She had two fairly bulky suitcases in her hands and didn't want to set them down yet, even if Hal had negated their weight to make them liftable. One of them held over 100 pounds of clothes.
  "You may do so, Tynth Zor-El," he said. "My name is Di-Marr. You may obtain my address from the Central Directory. But unless the Drygur himself authorizes it, I may not allow the gentleman to use the ‘Port. Now, please either both of you leave, or let the Lantern leave and you, tynth, use the ‘Port. But as it is, we're holding up traffic."
• Official Couple: Nas-Er and Hira -Kara's manager and personal trainer, respectively- end up tying the knot.
• Official Kiss: Between Kara Zor-El and Van-Ol after her love confession in the end of "Last Waltz With Luthor".
• Oh, My Gods!: Utterances such like "Oh, Rao" and "Father Sun and Mother Moon" are everyday Rokynian swears.
• One-Man Army: Both Kara and the Phantom Zoners are capable of tearing down an army single-handedly.
• Orcus on His Throne: Lex Luthor stands out of the way for most of the story while his minions fight the heroes for him.
• Parental Substitute: Kal used to be like a father to Kara.
  Supergirl: From my fifteenth year on up to... somewhen... Kal was like a parent. Or he thought he was. I’ve told him about this, probably haven’t told you. Sheol, back then I needed a parent, or a big brother, or whatever. I thought my mom and dad were dead, and I hadn’t been adopted. I cried, Nar. Cried a lot. But Kal was always there for me, always buoying me up, always guiding me on a path he thought was best for me.
• Passing the Torch: Subverted. Superman expected Supergirl to take over eventually, but she grew tired of hero's life.
• People Jars: Superman is kept by Lex Luthor inside a vat full with Parasite's shapeless body.
• Planet Destroyer: Supergirl and Superman are bona fide planet busters. Also, Hal Jordan can move or even wreck a planet using his ring's power.
• Porn Creator Going Mainstream: Jara starred in porno videos before becoming a wrestler. They were relatively softcore—and she really needed the income—but she isn't pleased to hear they might hurt her chances of making the leap into legitimate acting.
• Power Parasite: Lex Luthor exploits Parasite's ability to drain Superman's powers and transfer them to his minions, Starfire and Cyber.
• The Power of Hate: Hatred is the only thing has kept Lex going on through decades of defeats and humiliations. He hates Superman, loathes his cousin and will not let him "win".
• The Power of the Sun: Yellow sunlight powers Kara and her cousin when on Earth.
• Powers as Programs: Lex Luthor uses a device and Parasite's -unwilling- assistance to transfer Superman's powers to his two henchmen.
• Power-Up Food: Captain Strong eats alien seaweed Sauncha to get super-strong. It also makes him crazy.
• Powered Armor:
  • Lex Luthor wears his green-and-purple warsuit during his final confrontation with Superman.
  • Later on, Kara uses a high-tech armor suit which lets her keep her powers under a red sun.
• Pre Ass Kicking One Liner:: In "Last Waltz with Luthor", Supergirl finds Lex Luthor's crooks right when they're about to harm Lena and Val, and she isn't amused.
  Supergirl: "So you feel like using super-strength on a normal woman and her child. I don't have the slightest regret about what I'm about to do."
• Primary-Color Champion: Late in the story, Kara replaces her red skirt with a blue one, but keeps her red cape and boots.
  The girl in blue and red was backing up in space, then coming forward like a rocket sled.
  ...Supergirl...
  The five knuckles that impacted on Starfire's jaw finished her conscious thinking for hours.
• Prison Dimension: The Phantom Zoners' revolt ends up with them getting sent back into the Twilight Dimension.
• Privileged Rival: Kara to Jara. Kara is high-born and their world's mightiest and most popular hero. Jara is low-born and takes their rivalry very personally, despite Kara insisting she isn't her enemy.
• Psychic Dreams for Everyone: In the first episode of the "Last Waltz with Luthor", Lena Thorul has a dream of her brother Lex murdering his wife Ardora and killing Superman afterwards, and she fears it is one of her prophetic dreams. Later, Lex indeed attempts to murder both his wife and his hated archenemy.
• Psychic Link: Superman and Parasite develop one during their time "together".
• Psycho Lesbian: Subverted. Jara threatens to beat the crap out of the main character during their upcoming wrestling match if Kara refuses to sleep with her. Kara refuses, so Jara beats her up. However, it's made clear that Jara's jerkassery has nothing to do with her sexuality and everything to do with her crappy childhood, fear of solitude and zero social skills. Kara herself doesn't think of her rival as evil but merely an asshole, and later she helps Jara out and makes peace with her when she finds out what kind of life her rival has led. The next time Jara makes an appearance, she's a far more pleasant person who unapologetically likes women.
• Psycho Supporter: Cyber and Starfire are two nutjobs who believe Lex Luthor is some kind of misunderstood and mistreated genius and do his bidding slavishly.
• Put Their Heads Together: Captain Strong finishes two Lex Luthor's goons off via smashing their heads together.
  Both of his fists pistoned back and forth into their faces repeatedly like a jackhammer. When he got tired of that he crossed his arms and treated each face to the other fist. He walloped them several times under the chin. He bopped them several times on top of their noggins. He crossed his arms and cracked them smartly on the sides of their faces that faced each other, knocking their heads apart. Then he grabbed both of their heads and banged them together again.
• Ready for Lovemaking: In "Pain and Jasmine", Kara walks in a dressing room wearing nothing but a towel, and runs into Jasmine, who is wearing nothing but a short robe and a hungry look on her face.
  Kara entered the dressing room, and found that she was not alone.
  Jasmine was there, clad only in a short robe. She was looking straight at Kara.
  Kara Zor-El dropped her towel and her jaw at the same time.
• Reed Richards Is Useless: In "Last Waltz with Luthor", Lex Luthor grumbles about Superman squandering his godlike powers, knowledge and futuristic tech in endless battles against petty costumed criminals instead of changing the world for the better... and then he conveniently hands waves the fact that he has squandered his prodigious intelligence in endless battles against costumed heroes instead of changing the world for the better.
  "Superman". He loathed the term. When Nietsche and Shaw used the term a century ago, certainly they did not conceive of this specimen now at his mercy. Not a being who could move a planet, fly faster than light, pierce the barrier of time, see across space, shout loudly enough to shatter stone, and hear the falling of a flower petal on another planet. No. Those powers were the merest accident of being born on another world, under different environmental conditions. A body adapted to Kryptonian life, transplanted to a much smaller, yellow-sun world.
  And what had the idiot done with his great powers? Had he taken over the planet, ended the stupidity of mobocracy or Communism or fascism? Had he unified the world under a common rule, ended war, hunger, and poverty?
  Hell, no!
  All he had done was dress up in an absurd three-colored costume and beat up on crooks. Worse yet, he had inspired a generation of crooks to don such costumes, gain or simulate other superhuman powers, and litter the landscape with their fallen crime-schemes. All in the name of conquering Superman.
  Well, he was not immune to that, of course. But he had good reason. Prior claim, as it were.
• Reformed, but Rejected: Jara was an abusive jerkass who beat up and humiliated Kara because the young heroine wouldn't sleep with her. Eventually Jara loses a wrestling match to Kara and decides to turn over a new leaf and become a better person. She is forgiven by her ex-rival but not by her family and friends, who don't want her anywhere near from Kara.
• The Resenter: Jara resents Kara because she's popular, beloved and well off, whereas Jara had to scrape for a living. It doesn't help that Kara turned Jara's advances down.
• Retired Badass: Kara moves to Rokyn in order to lead a normal life. Unfortunately, danger and fights are determined to find her, no matter what.
• Revenge: Nearly every arc features someone driven by their hatred towards Supergirl and her family. The second-to-last arc "Last Waltz with Lex Luthor" delves into Lex Luthor, the origins of his grudge against Superman, and how his obsession with killing the Man of Steel, whom he blamed for all of his misfortunes, overwhelmed Lex until he was unable to feel anything other than hatred towards everyone and everything.
• The Reveal Prompts Romance: Clark Kent and Lois Lane get married after the former finally comes clean about his secret identity.
• Revenge Myopia: Luthor wants to kill Superman, among other reasons, to avenge the deaths of his wife and son. Never mind the fact that Superman is in no way responsible for it since their deaths were due to a planetary hecatomb caused by Luthor himself.
• The Rival: Kara and Jasmine during the former's wrestling career. Jasmine wants to prove she's stronger and pay Kara back for turning her down. Kara wants to beat Jasmine so she can get on with her life and change her career.
• Rogues Gallery: Lampshaded by Superman himself:
  Superman: I'd been operating in public, man and boy, for over ten years when you popped out of that rocket in that blue-and-red outfit. I'd made so many enemies I couldn't even count 'em on a computer. And every one of 'em was trying to find a sure-fire way to kill me. A lot of 'em got really close.
• Rule of Three: In the second main story, Lex Luthor is aided by three female villains: his niece Nasthalthia, old Supergirl enemy Starfire -nothing to do with Teen Titan Starfire- and Wonder Woman villain Cyber.
• Sacrificial Lion: Death of the Endless takes Kal-L's soul to spare Supergirl’s life. Although he wasn't asked beforehand, the original Superman is perfectly right with it.
• Sanity Slippage: According to Nasthalthia's story, her uncle Lex used to be a hopeful, awkward, brilliant kid before running into Superboy. Lex initially befriended Superboy, but then he started blaming him for everything that went wrong in his life. At the beginning Lex merely wanted to show Superboy off, but as his obsession grew Lex gradually became madder, more irrational and more twisted, and quite soon he was plotting ways to murder his ex-buddy. When the proper story begins, Luthor has lost any redeeming qualities and is nothing but a ruthless, cold psychopath overwhelmed by inexhaustible hatred.
• Screw Destiny: Dream of the Endless prevents his future demise by averting Supergirl's fate of dying in the Crisis.
• Screw Your Ultimatum!: When the Phantom Zoners are ordered to return a stolen biological weapon and turn themselves in, or deadly force will be used, Zod eloquently retorts they can shove it.
  Tog: "General Dru-Zod, Professor Va-Kox, and Jax-Ur, you are hereby notified of arrest by the New Kandor Justice Department. We are authorized to use deadly force if met with resistance. What say you?"
  Zod: (disdainfully) "I say, frab you. You have guns, I have the Virus. And my arm may get tired."
• Second Love: Van-Ol is this for Kara, who formerly was in a relationship with Brainiac 5.
• Secret-Identity Identity: After spending a decade and a half trying to juggle two different identities, the main character decides she's neither Supergirl nor Linda Danvers but Kara Zor-El; and she's sick of pretending she isn't someone she's not. So she moves to Rokyn -a planet settled by other Kryptonian survivors- where she can be herself without the pressures of being a hero or pretending she's a normal Earthwoman.
• Secret-Keeper: Fred and Edna Danvers know their daughter Linda Danvers and her cousin Clark Kent are respectively Supergirl and Superman. Lois also becomes privy to Clark and Linda's secret identities before her wedding to the former.
• Secret Secret-Keeper:
  • Kara is certain that Van-Zee and Ak-Var are the heroes Nightwing and Flamebird, but she keeps her suspicions to herself:
    "Kids," said Van, and both subsided for the moment. Kara studied his jaw for a second. She was pretty sure that he was Nightwing, the Batman of Kandor, and that his friend Ak-Var, who was married to Van's niece, was Flamebird. Both of them had helped bring down the Zoners in her last adventure. But she'd had a secret identity, too, and there was one cardinal rule among super-heroes: don't pry.
  • Both Lois and Jimmy figured out Superman's secret identity at some point, but they chose to not let on.
• Settling the Frontier: After moving to Rokyn, the last surviving Kryptonians have rebuilt Kandor and begun exploring their new world, expanding into new lands and starting new settlements.
• Shout-Out: At one point, Ronald Reagan and Mikhail Gorbachev debate over Lex Luthor’s latest scheme.
• Show Within a Show: Kara is the lead actress in the "Kal & Lyla" film, whose shooting is the final arc's central plot.
• So Proud of You: Said by Kal to his younger cousin before her final duel with Jasmine.
  Superman: Prayers and luck accompany you back home. Show Jasmine what it's like to go up against the brand- new Kara! We both know that you've got what it takes... and you should know I'm very proud of you.
• Socially Awkward Hero: Both Kara and her cousin are pretty lousy at personal relationships. Battling beings who can literally punch worlds out of existence? Been done. Interpersonal relationships? Forget it. Kal believes maybe he'd not be so bad at understanding women if the two of them had grown up together.
  "But I, I just couldn't do it. You had to learn how to live. You had to grow up. I couldn't keep you in a bell jar forever. I had to let you get out there and take some lumps, and learn how to deal with things. I—Kara. Do you know I always wanted a sister? I've always been lonely. A brother would have been nice. But do you think..." He was choking back his own tears. "Do you think that... I would've stayed single this long... if I'd grown up with a sister? Somebody who... could teach me about women...? Do you..."
  And now she was holding him against her breast for the first time, and rocking him. "It's okay, Kal. It's okay. I do understand. I do..."
• Sore Loser:
  • Blackflame can't stand to lose.
  • The whole Kara/Jara grudge got started only because Kara beat Jara during a no-stakes preliminary match.
• Spanner in the Works: Lex Luthor's plan to kidnap his sister Lena and his nephew fails because his enforcers accidentally stumble on Captain Strong, who looks like a regular old guy but is in fact a vicious, super-strong street brawler. Knowing nothing about him, they underestimate him and are brutally beaten up.
  Luthor's enforcers had learned to respect superheroes and never take a foe for granted. Chances are, the old guy facing them was tough, a brawler, but they could handle that. They were also three or four to one, depending on how you counted the Siamese twins, Pluto and Plato Statler.
  The problem was, nobody had ever briefed them on Captain Strong.
• Spared by the Adaptation: Kara's decision to move to Rokyn creates a split timeline where the original Supergirl doesn't get killed off by the Anti-Monitor in the Crisis.
• Stalker with a Crush: Jara is unhealthily obsessed with the main character, and she doesn't react well when she is rejected. Eventually she mellows down and accepts she and Kara can only be friends.
• Stripperiffic: Female wrestlers like Kara and Jasmine wear skimpy, skintight bodysuits which are definitely appreciated by their male followers.
• Strong and Skilled: Kara not only won the Superpower Lottery but also learns wrestling moves and martial arts, becoming even more dangerous.
• Stunned Silence: When Kara walks into a dressing room and bumps into her scantily-clad rival wrestler, fully intent on seducing her, her jaw drops and she needs several seconds to find her voice.
• Superheroes in Space: Supergirl moves her base of operations to planet Rokyn.
• Superheroes Wear Capes: In the course of the story, Kara makes some modifications to her super-hero costume suck like removing her headband and swapping her red skirt with a blue one, but she never considers to ditch her red cape.
• Superpower Lottery: It's revealed that the reason Lex Luthor got fixated on Superboy to begin with was Superboy defying the laws of physics in a daily basis. In a world where superhumans had been previously unknown to the general public, a teenager that could relocate the Moon stuck out like a sore thumb.
  Nasthalthia Luthor: When Superboy first showed up, in 1955, Lex was fascinated by him. He was like a phenomena that all his science couldn't explain. Strength that could move a planet, speed that made light move like a turtle, eyes that could see across the universe, and a body that couldn't be hurt by anything except Kryptonite or magic.
• Super-Senses: As soon as Kara returns to Earth and gets her super-senses back, she uses her super-vision to check on her family and friends all across America.
  Kara shifted on her knees and used her telescopic vision. It was so fine to experience super-powers again, especially the super-senses. They were so convienient.
  She picked out some familiar landmarks. First, Midvale, where her parents still lived. Then Metropolis. Then Gotham City. Finally, Chicago. She didn't use her x-ray vision to see within the houses yet. That would wait till after she was on Earth herself, and could investigate things directly.
• Sure, Let's Go with That: In "Kara and the Dreamsmith" Kara falls asleep, and suddenly she's floating and looking straight at herself lying in the bed. Then Dream of the Endless shows up out of nowhere to ask for her help, prompting Kara to ask if she's dreaming. Dream pauses and answers "Yes, let's say that you're dreaming". And since she's in the dream, she can be hurt by other dream things, hence she must treat them as if they were real dangers.
  Dream: "I am no enemy, Kara Zor-El. I am not Death. I am no ghost. But I need your help. The Dreaming needs your help."
  Kara: "Then this is a dream?"
  Dream: (tilting head) "Let us agree that it is. Yet, you must agree that if it is a dream, then you, in this form, are also a dream. In this dream, you may be endangered by the things of a dream. They must be treated as realities. Do you understand?"
• Take That!:
  • In "Kara and the Dreamsmith", Dream of the Endless sets in motion a plan to save The Multiverse -and prevent his own demise- by altering the outcome of the Crisis on Infinite Earths. The Anti-Monitor got killed off, Dream's sister Death claimed the Superman of Earth-Two instead of the Supergirl of Earth-One and all infinite worlds continued to exist… including a particularly awful reality.
    There was, of course, another reality in which terrible things happened. In that realm, Kara Zor-El never existed. Barbara Gordon was shot in the spine by the Joker, and lost the use of her legs. The Joker went on to beat the second Robin with a pipe, and then blow him and his mother up with a bomb. The Batman would have his back broken by a hulking villain, have to be replaced for a time, and then have his spine reconstructed so that he, impossibly enough, could go back to crime-fighting. Nightwing's and Starfire's wedding would be polluted by a Raven gone demonic. The noblest Green Lantern, Hal Jordan, would go crazy and kill his best friends, try to take on a role like unto that of the Anti-Monitor, and mold his Truth's destiny into a different shape. Superman would die, and not be taken by Death, and would return to life. Millions of others, in Coast City, were not so lucky.
    And the Dreamsmith of that realm died, too.
    Nightmares.
  • There’s a "Take That!" aimed at the fan misconception that Pre-Crisis Lex Luthor hated Superman because of his alopecia:
    Starfire: So your cousin essentially wanted to conquer the world, and kill Superman, and kept at it all these years, just because he lost his hair?
    Nastalthia: It's not just that. It's losing that early life-form he made, too, but it's not just that. I think it's like... scratch that, I know what it is. It's a competition. Lex is showing that he's as great as the most powerful guy on Earth, and he's doing it just with the power of his mind. But there's more to it, now, even than that. Want me to go on?"
  • A subtle one to The '80s style headband which Supergirl started wearing at the movie's makers' request.
    She also wore a version of her old Supergirl outfit, blue skirt and all. The headband from her last outfit had been abandoned long ago. It might have been intended as an equality statement, since men were traditionally only headband wearers, but after a while she just thought it looked stupid.
• Talking in Bed: Kara and Van-Ol have several bedsheet talks during the production of "Kal and Lyla", usually discussing Kal-El's probable mindset.
• Tears of Remorse: Val Colby cries after being forced to kill his uncle Lex to save a lot of people, including Superman.
  He began to cry. "I didn’t wanna kill him."
  "I know," she said. "I don’t think you had any choice. You did the best thing you could, given the circumstances. Does it make you feel bad?"
  He nodded, the tears running down his face.
• Techno Babble: The action is set in another planet, settled by an alien civilization, so technobabble comes up every so often, like when Kara is discussing "holovids" or bumping into "farming servobots".
• Tender Tears: Kara cries with joy and happiness after coming back -for first time in fifteen years- and cleaning up her hometown Argo City, which had become contaminated by Kryptonite radiation.
  Tears came to Kara's eyes and evaporated instantly into the void. She floated them nearer, and then brought them both to a flat-footed landing on one of the main streets of Argo. <This is my hometown,> she said. <This is where I grew up.>
• Terraform: Efforts to make Rokyn inhabitable are progressing neatly. Kandor has expanded, more cities are being built and there're large tracts of cultivable land being farmed.
• These Hands Have Killed: Val Colby stops his uncle Lex's heart telekinetically. Lex's hatred and madness had run out of control, to the point he was threatening his family's lives -something he previously always refused to do-, and he was about to murder Superman. It was definitely in self-defence, and as Supergirl points out, Lex would never stop until getting himself killed or forcing Superman or herself to kill him. However, Val is a little kid who never wanted to kill anybody, let alone his uncle, so he feels horrible about it.
• Thou Shalt Not Kill: Blackflame does her best to talk Jara into killing Kara. Still yet Jara doesn't want to, out of personal reasons (she's not a killer) and practical ones (she doesn’t want to kill her career together with Kara)
  Jara: I want to fight her, sure. I wouldn't mind even sending her to the med-center for a few days. But I'm a wrestler, not a killer, Zora. If I really hurt her, there goes my license and a shot at the movies.
• Thrown Down a Well: After her final stunt, Blackflame is arrested and banished to the Phantom Zone forever.
• Title Drop: In the chapter seventeenth of "Last Waltz with Luthor":
  Superman: Lex and I, we’ve done a strange dance for thirty years or so. I’m not sure who was leading, most of the time. We always wondered how long the dance would last. Now, I know. Lex Luthor and I... we’ve just had our last waltz, Lois.
• Tokyo Is the Center of the Universe: All and battles happen in Rokyn's Kandor or Earth's Metropolis where Kara and her cousin live, respectively. Justified in the former's case, since Rokyn is its world's only big city, so it makes sense the baddies' efforts are focused on it.
• Took a Level in Badass: Kara undergoes several training courses to hone and refine her fighting skills.
• Took a Level in Kindness:
  • Jara starts off as a mean-spirited jerkass driven by jealousy and bitterness, and later becomes a calmer, friendlier person who is able to be friends with Kara instead of hating her for turning her down.
  • Jasmine is introduced as an unpleasant, arrogant asshole who is perfectly willing to beat people up for turning her down. Through the first story arc, and as her dark and troubled past is revealed, Kara comes to pity her and want to reach her out. Jasmine starts to soften gradually, and at the end of the story she's a nicer and more understanding person.
• Tranquil Fury:
  • Jasmine gives Kara the choice of sleeping with her or getting brutalized during their upcoming match. When the Maid of Might tells her to get out, Jasmine states in a scarily quiet, matter-of-factly tone that Kara'll regret her choice before leaving.
    The woman looked at Kara with the air of a butcher wondering which part of a carcass to start on. Then she turned, stooped, and picked her robe off the floor tiles. She slid it back on, did up the sash, and then looked up.
    "You will regret this day," said Jasmine, without due emphasis.
    Kara found that the scariest part of their encounter.
  • During "Last Walt With Luthor", Supergirl stops several super-villains from damaging Lena and her son, and she calmly declares she'll pummel them to the ground.
  And another instant after that, in the midst of the four villains stood a woman in blue, red, and yellow, arms folded, looking out at them with a deadly calm.
  "So you feel like using super-strength on a normal woman and her child," said Supergirl. "I don't have the slightest regret about what I'm about to do."
• Translation Convention: The main setting is Rokyn, a world settled by Kryptonian refugees. And still their speech is always rendered in English.
• Trash Talk: Routinely used by Kara and her opponents during her professional wrestler stint.
  Jasmine: I'm gonna knock you outta your panties, babe.
  Kara: Glad somebody reminded you to wear yours.
• Trespassing to Talk: At one point, Kara enters a dressing room and finds Jara has slipped in to seduce her.
  Kara entered the dressing room, and found that she was not alone.
  Jasmine was there, clad only in a short robe. She was looking straight at Kara.
• True Companions: The Superman Family. When Superman and Luthor go missing at the same time, Supergirl, Lois and Jimmy come together to find them and save Superman, gathering as many allies as they can think of.
• Uncertain Doom: Barry Allen disappears during the Crisis, and nobody knows whether he died or survived by time-travelling to the far future.
• Underestimating Badassery: Superman can hardly believe it when he hears his cousin has defeated Faora Hu-Ul.
• Underwear of Power: Parodied by Zor-El when he states he'd "look stupid in a pair of trunks."
• Ungrateful Bastard: As narrating the history of the Superman/Luthor's enmity, Nasthalthia reveals Supergirl brought Lex back to life, which resulted in Lex hating her too. Dr. Cyber muses Wonder Woman might do the same thing for her... but the Amazon better not hope to be shown gratitude.
  Nasthalthia: He met Supergirl for the first time when he got killed, believe it or not. Lex was being chased by her after a job, and tried to hit her with a death-ray that had Kryptonite in it. Only thing was, he was trying to drive at the same time, went off the road, and hit himself with his own ray. And he died.
  Starfire: Died?
  Nasthalthia: Clinically dead, yes. But Supergirl, out of the goodness of her widdle heart, went off and came back with some kind of radiation cocoon that brought Lex back to life. As soon as he woke up, he showed her his gratitude by grabbing a tommy gun from one of the cops and opening up on her. She shrugged off the bullets like they were jelly beans. I honestly think he hated her for bringing him back. When he was dead, he didn't have to worry about beating his head against a wall called Superman anymore. Now that he was alive again, he had to go ahead and try and kill Supes again and again, and he'd have to do something about Blondie, too. Plus the fact that it was Supes's cousin that'd brought him back to life. That really, really rankled him.
  Dr. Cyber: Wonder Woman might do the same for me, if I died. But I hope she wouldn't count on my gratitude.
• Unsportsmanlike Gloating: Jara can’t help gloating over and again after defeating Kara for first time.
  Jara: This belt is now in the hands of its rightful owner. It never really belonged to that—to her. I have made her suffer in equal combat, and I have beaten her. She was never my equal, and never will be. From here on, the title belongs to a true woman, a real woman, a superior woman to this cringing mess beneath us all...it belongs to Jasmine. And it always will, till the day I willingly pass it on! It will NEVER return to the hands of Kara Zor-El!"
• Victorious Loser: Jara realizes she may hold the title after defeating Kara but the Girl of Steel is the real champion.
  Even though Jasmine held the belt, Kara was the champion.
• Villain: Exit, Stage Left: Blackflame tries to make her escape when her scheme to manipulate Kara's rival wrestler into killing her during a match fails, but she gets caught and thrown in the Phantom Zone.
• Vomit Discretion Shot: In the eleventh chapter of "Last Waltz with Luthor", Steve Lombard looks sick as riding in a super-fast flying car. He's given a paper bag and the narration notes he "makes use of it".
  With that, the Whiz Wagon rose a hundred feet inside of ten seconds, then shot forward like a comet.
  Steve Lombard looked green. Gabby pulled out a paper bag from a slot. "Use this," he said.
  Lombard did.
• Was Once a Man: Parasite used to be a normal man named Max Jensen until exposure to alien biohazard waste turned him into a purple, life-leeching eyeless humanoid. By the time the story starts out, his body has fallen apart and he has become a shapeless mass of purple, sentient goo. Desperate, Parasite makes a deal with the heroes to give up crime in exchange for being turned back to non-powered human.
• Weaksauce Weakness: In "Last Waltz with Lex Luthor", Nasthalthia the history of the feud between her uncle and the Kryptonian hero. Unsurprisingly, Lex devised every imaginable Kryptonite-based weapon in order to destroy Kal-El, including Kryptonite living beings.
• Wedding Finale: In the final chapter of "Last Waltz with Luthor", the whole super-hero community -including their Earth-Two dopplegangers- attend the wedding of Clark and Lois. Clark is so shocked that they finally got married after so long he fears at any time he'll wake up, or Lois will turn out to be a robot, or he'll turn out to be a robot...
  A week after that, Clark Kent and Lois Lane tied the knot in a ceremony attended by the Lane family, many relatives of the Kent family, Mr. and Mrs. Danvers, and a good number of super-heroes from three Earths, all in their civilian identities. The last category included a couple from Earth-Two, both of whom had changed their hair color to attend, both of whom were quite a bit older than the marrying couple, and both of whom were told, several times, that they looked a lot like the people getting married.
  Clark Kent of Earth-Two usually smiled and changed the subject.
• Weddings for Everyone: Kara and the Dreamsmith's epilogue mentions that several of the surviving heroes get married in the aftermath of the Crisis, albeit their actual weddings are featured in other fics set in that same universe. So, Hellsister Trilogy features Superman and Lois Lane's wedding, as well as Supergirl and Dev-Em's. Dance With The Demons has a doble wedding, with Batman and Nightwing getting married to Catwoman and Starfire, respectively. With This Ring concludes with another double ceremony: Hal Jordan and Carol Ferris tie the knot simultaneously with Green Arrow and Black Canary.
  There were many marriages that year among the heroic community, and some complained that they might as well have rented a tux for the whole twelve months. They were vets home from the war, and, like earlier vets, they were thinking of settling down, or at least of having families.
• We Used to Be Friends: Superboy and Lex. They were friends until Lex started blaming Superboy for anything bad happened to him. After several attempts on his life, Superboy broke their friendship off. Even so, he still endeavored to reach Lex out several times to no avail.
  Nasthalthia: Superboy stomps back in, and he doesn't look pleased. Lex figured either he's going to get hit, or taken to jail, or both. But Blue Boy doesn't do either thing. He said that, since Lex saved his life once, he was going to give him a break and not take him in. He said that squared the debt between them. But he also said that he would never trust him again, that he could never see Lex as a friend again, and, believe it or not, that hurt Lex. Don't ask me or him why, but he said it did hurt.
• What Happened to the Mouse?: After recruiting Starfire and Cyber and narrating the origin of the Superman/Luthor feud, Nasthalthia disappears.
  Nasthalia Luthor was not found. She had gone to ground shortly after introducing Lex to the two villainesses, intending to come out if he managed to be successful this time. She stayed undercover, was fired in absentia from her job as vice president of the San Francisco TV station for which Linda Danvers used to work, and, when the authorities learned of her part in the plot, was the benefit of an APB issued to all law enforcement agencies.
  But they didn’t find her. Kal and Kara both suspected that someday, they would.
• Woman Scorned: Jara’s reaction to be turned down by Kara is to beat her to a bloody pulp.
  "I'm offering you a choice. If you take me, I'll go easy on you in the ring. If you don't—" She gave Kara as venomous a look as she'd ever seen, and the heroine replayed all the cliches she'd heard about a woman scorned.
• Would Be Rude to Say "Genocide": Jara is member of the Travelling Clan, a nomad tribe which was persecuted and nearly wiped out in the Kryptonian past. Although no Kandorian condones those actions, it's still a touchy issue.
• Wrestler in All of Us: Being a wrestler, Kara learns dozens of moves which she uses on her enemies like Faora Hu-Ul.
• Yandere: Turning Jara down will get you savagely beaten up.
  "I'm offering you a choice. If you take me, I'll go easy on you in the ring. If you don't—" She gave Kara as venomous a look as she'd ever seen, and the heroine replayed all the cliches she'd heard about a woman scorned. "If you don't, I promise you twenty- five minutes of sheer hell. And you know I can deliver. Now, what'll it be? Ecstasy— or agony?"
• You Are Better Than You Think You Are: When Kara is disheartened and discouraged after her defeat at Jasmine's hands, it's her parents who help her get her fighting spirit back.
  Kara: I guess Jasmine is the broken tooth. But I failed, Daddy.
  Zor-El: You did not fail! You got beaten. The only way you fail is if you let this beat you. Kara, life is a lot tougher than some wrestling match. And you're old enough now that I shouldn't have to be doing this. So what next? Do you want to get back in that ring?
  Kara: (hesitating) I'm scared of her.
  Zor-El: I didn't ask if you were scared of her. Do you want to get back in that ring and get back at her? Say it, Kara. I won't say it for you. Do you want to get back in the ring?
  Kara: Yes! Yes, yes, yes, I do! I want to get back at her and show her up and get that stupid belt back, and then give it up. That's what I want, Daddy. That's what I want. But how do I do it? How... do... I...
  Allura: With our help, honey. That's how you do it. With both of us by your side, all the way. But most of all, with you on your side. Are you ready to start facing life, instead of just making right turns to it?
  Kara: I guess so. Yes.
  Zor-El: Say it again. Yes, what?
  Kara: Yes, I'm ready to face up to life. (pause) It's going to be hard, Daddy.
  Zor-El: It always is, Karaish.
  Kara: You really think I can do this thing?
  Zor-El: Do you think you can do it?
  Kara: I really think I can tr—
  Zor-El: Stop it! (Covering her mouth) Now, I'm going to let you repeat the first part of that sentence. If you say the wrong thing, this hand is going over that mouth again. Now what?
  Kara: I really think I can.
  Zor-El: (smiling) I really know you can. But you have to face up to her. And I can't do that for you.
• You Are Not Alone: When Kara is depressed and unwilling to go out and face her rival Jasmine again, her parents remind her that she isn't alone.
  Zor-El: I didn't ask if you were scared of her. Do you want to get back in that ring and get back at her? Say it, Kara. I won't say it for you. Do you want to get back in the ring?
  Kara: Yes! Yes, yes, yes, I do! I want to get back at her and show her up and get that stupid belt back, and then give it up. That's what I want, Daddy. That's what I want. But how do I do it? How... do... I...
  Allura: With our help, honey. That's how you do it. With both of us by your side, all the way. But most of all, with you on your side.
• You Can't Go Home Again: When Kara goes back to Earth for first time in months, she goes over her adoptive parents' house and finds her clone is already staying with them. Both her parents and the second "Linda" mean well, but Kara can't help but feel displaced.
  Kara sighed and took her "sister's" hand. You can't go home again, she told herself. Especially if another you comes back home first.
• You Could Have Used Your Powers for Good!: In the "Last Walz with Luthor" arc, Lex Luthor -quite hypocritically and myopically- criticizes Superman for squandering his power in battles with costumed super-beings instead of challenging the status quo and bringing about real world-wide change (and then Lex completely dismisses the fact that's exactly what Lex himself has done all along).
  And what had the idiot done with his great powers? Had he taken over the planet, ended the stupidity of mobocracy or Communism or fascism? Had he unified the world under a common rule, ended war, hunger, and poverty?
  Hell, no!
  All he had done was dress up in an absurd three-colored costume and beat up on crooks.
• You Wouldn't Like Me When I'm Angry!: Kara's very forgiving towards people who hurts her. Hurt someone else, though, and you'll be pummelled to the ground. Abuse a woman and her little child and she'll not even feel sorry about the beatdown she'll deliver unto you.