Supergirl / Tropes A to B

Tropes A To B | Tropes C to D | Tropes E to F | Tropes G to H | Tropes I To J | Tropes K To L | Tropes M To N | Tropes O To P | Tropes R To S | Tropes T To U | Tropes V To W | Tropes X To Z

---

Tropes found in Supergirl

• Abhorrent Admirer:
  • Red Daughter of Krypton: Worldkiller-1 -a body-snatcher enemy which is an alien, sentient goo- is this to the titular heroine. Although it isn't interested in Supergirl romantically, it will not stop talking about wanting her body and them being made for each other, making Supergirl sick.
    Worldkiller-1: Can not you see that both of our lives have led to this union?
    Supergirl: Stop. Just stop. You make us sound like lovers, and it's turning my stomach.
  • In Elseworld's Finest: Supergirl & Batgirl, The Joker -of all people- has a crush on Batgirl. However, Batgirl can't stand him.
  • Mr. Mxyzptlk to Supergirl in Action Comics #291. She makes clear she cannot stand that stupid, reality-warping, imp-looking prankster who thinks he is funny. Mxy's reaction was popping the question◊.
    Supergirl: I'll tell you what I think! I think you're an irritating, aggravating, annoying pest! I hate you! You're the greatest creep there ever was!
    Mxyzptlk: My, but you're beautiful when angry! A strange thrill is tingling up and down my itty-bitty spine! It must be... love! Marry me, beloved!
    Supergirl: NO!! Not even if you were the last man on Earth!
• Absurdly Spacious Sewer: The sewers of National City are huge and spacious. There's enough room for Supergirl to stand up or fly around without bumping into anything.
• Abusive Alien Parents: Played with Supergirl's birth parents Zor-El and Allura In-Ze's. The original versions were decent, loving parents who puts their daughter's safety and well-being above their own. In later continuities, though, Alura is aloof and emotionally abusive or overly controlling, whereas Zor-El is prone to manipulate his daughter for her own "good". In contrast, their adoptive Earth parents, the Danvers, are always supportive and well-meaning.
• Action Fashionista: Supergirl is one of the more powerful heroes of her universe and loves buying and trying new clothes, as well as changing or tweaking her superhero costume. She's worn over thirty costumes since her first appearance in The Supergirl From Krypton (1959). Some few of them can be seen here. As of that picture's date she has added at least five new costumes.
• Action Girl: Being a member of the Super-family, she can mix it up just as well as Kal-El, sometimes even better.
• Action Girlfriend: Most of people who has dated Supergirl falls into this category. She's arguably the mightiest female hero in her universe, so any boy -who isn't related to her- will look a pushover compared to her. It isn't coincidence that her main love interest, Brainiac 5, doesn't match up to her physical power but is the greatest genius in the galaxy.
• Action Pet: Supergirl's male tabby cat named Streaky, who accidentally gained Kryptonian powers after being exposed to a piece of chemically-altered Kryptonite. Streaky was Kara's sidekick for a while during the 60's, and he still makes appearances in other media.
• Act of True Love: In Convergence: Adventures of Superman, Supergirl learns she's fated to die as saving Superman's life. She resolves to say nothing to her cousin because he'd stop her from sacrificing herself to save his life.
• Actually a Doombot:
  • Super-villain Toyman's robots look like real human beings, and they are capable of deceive even Kara's X-Ray Vision. In "Day of the Dollmaker" Kara invokes the trope when she warns Toyman that he will answer her questions lest she believes he is actually a robot and tears him apart to verify it.
    Supergirl: And how do we know you're even the real Winslow Schott? I've seen one of your robots before — no, two of them. One here in Gotham, the other on New Krypton. And that one had a part in my world's destruction. A small part, sure, but an important one. Your work is very well made. Impossible to tell apart from real, live human beings, even with my X-Ray vision. So please. Answer Ms. Grant's questions, or else another outburst like that will lead me to believe you're one of Schott's automatons... and I'll start probing to make sure you're real.
  • In Supergirl Rebirth #2, Kara fights Cyborg Superman. She wins, but she is disappointed when she discovers that it is only a drone.
    Of course... Another lie. Another fake. A drone. It exploded but... I barely touched it.
• Adaptational Nationality: Supergirl is Russian in DC Comics Bombshells.
• Adoptive Name Change:
  • Kara Zor-El was renamed as Linda Lee Danvers when she was adopted by Fred and Edna in The Unknown Supergirl. In other continuities like Supergirl (Rebirth) and Supergirl: Being Super, she is christened Kara Danvers by her adoptive parents.
  • Dick Wilson, an orphan kid who Kara used to date back in the Silver Age, changed his surname from Wilson to Malverne after being adopted.
• Affirmative-Action Legacy: Superman often regards Supergirl as his successor, and in some continuities she takes over after her cousin gets killed or retires. In the New 52 timeline Superman asks Supergirl to protect Earth after he's gone in at least two separate instances.
• Afraid of Their Own Strength: Kara is more hot-headed and more short-tempered than her cousin, but she is also frightened of her own power and she holds back most of time because she doesn't want hurt anybody.
• After the End: Every Supergirl story, perhaps especially those dealing with other survivors, such as Argo Kandor, etc., is set After the End of Krypton and the death of Argo City.
• The Ageless: In some continuities where she is allowed to grow up, Supergirl does not age at all, or she does, but at a much slower rate than humans due to her Kryptonian heritage, and usually with white hair around her temples and just a few wrinkles to show for it (as an example: Legion of Super-Heroes: Millennium).
• Age Lift: When she was introduced in Superman's Girl Friend, Lois Lane #23, Lena Thorul was a grown woman. In The Girl with the X-Ray Mind, she was a teenager who could hang around with Linda Danvers and Dick Malverne. When asked about it in a letter in issue #298, Mort Weisinger admitted Lena had been quietly deaged because they thought her character would work better as a friend to Supergirl.
• A God I Am Not: In 2000 story "Hero Worship" Supergirl has to talk the faithful of a "Church of Supergirl" out of believing her to be a divine being.
• A Good Way to Die: Supergirl dies in the Crisis on Infinite Earths protecting her cousin and saving the multiverse.
• A.I. Is a Crapshoot: Post-Flashpoint Supergirl gained the Sanctuary, a Kryptonian base at the bottom of the ocean. Unfortunately Sanctuary is programmed to eradicate any Kryptonian double in her presence. When Supergirl and her Earth 2 counterpart Power Girl enter Sanctuary in issue #19, it deems Supergirl the double and tries to eliminate her. The two Karas must destroy Sanctuary to save Supergirl. However, the A.I. survives in a robot body; hellbent on destroying Supergirl.
• Alas, Poor Yorick:
  • The Hunt for Reactron: After her father's death, Kara holds the metallic skull of one Brainiac drone which raided her city, before slamming it into the floor and heading out. Her friend Thara picks the skull and keeps staring at it as flashing back to the early days of their friendship with Kara.
  • In the cover of Supergirl (2005) # 47, Alura -Supergirl's mother- does this with Reactron's helmet.
• Alien Among Us:
  • While this is not really the case for Superman, since he was raised here, it is often the case for his cousin Supergirl, who came here as a teenager. The version that probably gets the most milage out of the concept is Supergirl: Cosmic Adventures in the 8th Grade.
  • In Many Happy Returns Linda gets Kara enrolled at her high school. Kara does her best to blend in, but she is a fifteen-year-old who cames from another planet and reality. She simply doesn't fit in, and her schoolmates think she is some kind of freak.
• Alone Among the Couples: In Action Comics #325 "Ugly Duckling Teacher of Stanhope College", Teacher Elizabeth Sparrow feels sorry during a college chaperone dance because all female teachers have gotten a dance partner...except for her, who is considered an old maid.
• An Alien Named "Bob": Justified. Supergirl is an alien female named Kara Zor-El, but after being adopted she is renamed Linda Lee Danvers, Linda Lang, Linda Lee or Kara Danvers (depending on the continuity) by her adoptive family. Also, her original first name is not exotic sounding anymore.
• Alien Non-Interference Clause: In Krypton No More, Kara tells Superman that he cannot make decisions for humanity and he cannot interfere with the mankind's evolution.
  Supergirl: And just where do you think you're going, cousin?
  Superman: Supergirl! Glad you're here! You can help me! This ship is a danger to all mankind — So we have to—
  Supergirl: Wrong! We aren't doing anything! We have no right to interfere!
• Aliens Made Them Do It: In Action Comics #260, Superman and Supergirl pretend they are getting married to prevent an alien fleet from destroying Earth.
• All for Nothing: In Adventure Comics #408, Supergirl captures a man that murdered his family to inherit their money and property. Though he was afraid of being found, so he never left the house or spent his money.
  Stanley: All that money — and it was all for nothing! NOTHING! Nothing! FORTY YEARS — And it was for nothing!
• All Girls Like Ponies: Kara's pony Comet could fly! He was secretly a cursed centaur.
• All Girls Want Bad Boys: Supergirl tends to fall for dark, troubled, moody guys who often turn out to be abusive or outright villainous. Finally, in a story Kara declares she's sick of bad boys and wants a real relationship with someone nice and dependable.
• Alliance of Alternates: In Superman/Batman issue #25, the Supergirls from Earth-One, Earth-Two and New Earth team up to pry off Superman from the Source Wall -the edge surrounding the universe- where he had been nailed into by Darkseid.
• All Up to You:
  • In Convergence: Adventures of Superman, the Man of Steel has been ambushed and captured by a gang of Kryptonian criminals as travelling across the Phantom Zone, and it's up to Supergirl to rescue him and get both of them out of the Zone before the dimensional portal shuts off.
  • At the climax of Legion of Super-Heroes storyline The Great Darkness Saga, Darkseid has defeated almost all Legionnaires, and Superboy and Supergirl are the only ones who can still fight him. Then Superboy falls first, and Supergirl is the only who can keep fighting.
• Alpha Bitch:
  • Silver Age Supergirl had to deal with a few of them when she attended classes in Stanhope College. Donna Storm was "Miss Big" on the campus until Linda Danvers showed up, so she began a campaign to restore the prior status quo in Action Comics #319 which included cheating, cheating and framing Linda for stealing. However Linda managed to expose her, and Donna was expelled. Nasthalthia 'Nasty' Luthor -who was rich, arrogant, mean-spirited and a Luthor- first showed up in Adventure Comics #397, began a bullying campaign to terrorize students and spent a long while bullying and trying to humiliate Linda Danvers.
  • Linda Lee in Supergirl: Cosmic Adventures in the 8th Grade is her school's geeky girl, so her bizarro counterpart, Belinda Zee, is an Alpha Bitch.
• Alternate Company Equivalent: Carol Danvers, Captain Marvel's Distaff Counterpart is Marvel's Supergirl.
• Always Someone Better:
  • In the Silver and Bronze Ages, Supergirl was this to her best friend Barbara Gordon, the original Batgirl. Babs envied Kara because she was a baseline, non-powered human, whereas her friend was virtually a Physical God. Several times Barbara thought that Kara was very lucky because she could do almost anything. However she complained about it loudly once, and Supergirl told her that having powers isn't what defines a hero.
  • In The Attack of the Annihilator, several times Barbara ponders bitterly she looks useless standing next to Kara. Ironically, Supergirl cannot stop gushing over how much she loves teaming up with her incredibly cool and smart friend.
  • Post-Crisis Supergirl is this to her friend Stephanie Brown, who always failed to measure up to other superheroes and was constantly told to stop trying, improved in almost all areas of crimefighting after she assumed the mantle of Batgirl from Cassandra Cain. However, in one issue of her own ongoing series Kara stops by for a night together and outshines Stephanie in every way. Not only does she have natural superpowers, but she is also able to understand the Techno Babble explanation for why they are fighting Dracula, and in their civilian identities Supergirl has a much greater zeal for college life than Stephanie did. Stephanie, however, never resented Supergirl for any of this, and liked her even more because of how awesome she was.
• Amazonian Beauty: Supergirl in Elseworld's Finest: Supergirl & Batgirl looks more like a female version of Superman◊ than the one in the main DC universe. Like him she's tall, very muscular, and treated like a goddess by the public.
• Amicable Exes: Linda Danvers and Dick Malverne dated for a while in their high school years. They drifted apart when Linda moved out, but they remained friends.
  Supergirl: We dated for years, all through college. Were were good together. [...] I guess we grew apart... grew up. We stayed friends, but I hadn't seen him in years.
• Anatomy of the Soul: Several Supergirl's enemies are pieces of her soul, her spirit or emotions given physical shape by magic or Kryptonite: Nightflame is the embodiment of her death wish and Dark Supergirl is born from her self-loathing and Survivor Guilt.
• And Here He Comes Now: Supergirl and the Legion of Super-Heroes #20 features a conversation about how uneasy Supergirl makes everyone. Unfortunately, Supergirl has superhearing. Dream Boy attempts to warn everyone else but is ignored for long enough that this overlaps with Right Behind Me.
• And I Must Scream:
  • In the post-Crisis universe, Kara spent thirty years in suspended animation, curled-up in a tiny pod and trapped in Kryptonite which hurt her and poisoned her mind.
  • In the New 52, after capturing Kara, Tycho held her in a stasis beam near from a chunk of kryptonite. She was in incredible pain but she couldn't scream or even move.
    Kara: Kryptonyte. a radioactive element lethal to the touch. Just being close to it — like I'm being held now — can be fatal. I'm screaming, but no sound comes out. I'm crying, but there are no tears. My skin is burning off, but there are no flames. All there is... All I am now... is the pain.
  • In the final issue of Supergirl: Cosmic Adventures In The Eight Grade, Belinda Zee is turned into a crystal statue. She cannot talk or move but she is fully sentient and -worst of all- she can feel pain.
• And Then John Was a Zombie: It nearly happens to Kara in Superman: Doomed. Superman defeats Doomsday and is infected with a virus that turns him into a Doomsday-like beast. Brainiac warns that Supergirl will Cyborg Superman and her cousin and then will become infected by the sports, turning into Doomsday. However she decides to not kill Cyborg Superman.
• And You Were There: Subverted in the second issue of American Honda Presents DC Comics Supergirl. Jack -a children whom Linda is babysitting- falls asleep and dreams he has been transported to a strange car-obsessed universe where he runs into reimaginations of children tales' characters and is rescued by Linda-as-Supergirl, but he does not recognize her. When he wakes up, Jack notes his sister and their dog were in his dream, and he finds Linda's absence strange.
• Animal Superheroes: In the Silver Age, Supergirl's pet cat and member of the Legion of Super-Pets Streaky gained temporary powers upon exposure to a rare type of Kryptonite. Streaky lost his powers as a side-effect of all Kryptonite on Earth being turned into iron in Kryptonite Nevermore, and he was retconned out of continuity in 1986. However Streaky made cameo appearances in the 00's and was properly reintroduced in Super Sons.
• Animorphism: Comet, Supergirl's sapient horse with magical powers. As he described to her telepathically, he was originally a centaur in ancient Greece named Biron. The witch Circe gave him a potion to turn him fully human after he prevented an evil sorcerer poisoning her water, but by mistake made him fully horse instead due to the Sorcerer. Later, after meeting Supergirl, he went on a mission with her to the planet Zerox, where a magic spell was cast that turned him into a human, but only while a comet passes through the solar system he is in. As a human, he adopted the identity of "Bronco" Bill Starr, a rodeo trick-rider.
• Anti-Hero Substitute:
  • The original Supergirl -a classic Cape- was killed in the Crisis on Infinite Earths and replaced with Matrix, a shape-shifter mass of protoplasmic matter who took shape of a blond woman wearing a female version of Superman's costume for unexplained reasons. Matrix was unpredictable, prone to sudden outbursts of violence, and wore a Stripperific, spiky version of her costume for a while. To sum up, DC replaced Kara Zor-El◊ with this◊.
  • Later on, Matrix merged with a troubled human girl named Linda Danvers. Linda◊ was also replaced with Cir-El◊, a black-wearing, angry, angsty edgy teenager with a dark and troubled past. Cir-El was very unpopular, and she was soon replaced with a modern version of Kara Zor-El, inverting the trope.
• Anti-True Sight: Supergirl cannot use her X-Ray Vision to see through objects covered in lead or sufficiently dense materials.
• A Planet Named Zok:
  • Krypton, her home world.
  • She has also visited some weirdly-named world such like Ysmault (during her Red Lantern phase), Grax or Primeen.
  • In Krypton No More, Superman and Supergirl have to protect Xonn (a planet located in Cygni-Gi system) from an Alien Invasion.
  • In the Pre-Crisis universe, the survivors of Krypton settled in a world they called Rokyn (meaning "Rao's gift").
• A Rare Sentence: In Batgirl 2009 #14, Kara and Steph are about to fight a sobbing Dracula (long story).
  Batgirl: Nothing sadder than a crying Dracula.
  Supergirl: If I had a nickel for every time I've heard that...
  Batgirl: You'd have a nickel?
  Supergirl: I'd have a nickel.
• Apron Matron: Miss Hart, Midvale Orphanage's headmistress, was doting and headstrong. Miss Ida Berkowitz, Linda Danvers' landlady.
• Apocalyptic Log:
  • During Bizarrogirl, Jimmy Olsen's camera auto-uploads to the server of Daily Planet pictures of Jimmy being dragged for someone wearing an S-shield and disappearing in a smoke cloud.
  • In Last Daughter of Krypton, Kara is watching a recording of Zor-El's last words (essentially: "Our world and all of us are about to die, but I hope you survive, my dear daughter—"), when her father is suddenly shot in his chest by some off-screen attacker. Zor-El lets out a shout of pain… and the recording abruptly ends.
  • The Killers of Krypton: During one of his journeys across the galaxy, Z'ndr Kol finds the ruins of a ravaged Kryptonian outpost. As exploring, he stumbles upon a record where one of the settlers is sending a distress signal which ends up with the woman getting speared to death.
    I am Revell-Tor of the Kryptonian outpost on Idieg Prime! We are under attack! Please! They are butchering us! They are— here. AAIIIEEEE!!
  • In The Untold Story of Argo City, a volunteer working in a nuclear shelter notices the shielding has been cracked by another meteor shower. Realizing that Kryptonite radiation is leaking into the building and killing him and everybody else, he sends his final report before dying.
    "More meteors breaking through the shielding! The radiation is affecting everyone! This is my last report! Good luck!"
• Apologetic Attacker: In Bizarrogirl, Supergirl apologizes to Jimmy Olsen after blowing him away, and to Dr. Light before knocking her out and making off with her Bizarro clone.

  Supergirl: Dr. Light, I think you're going to be really mad at me later. And I'm really sorry.
  Dr. Light: "Sorry"? What for —
  Supergirl knocks her out with one uppercut.

• Appendage Assimilation: In Supergirl (2011) #23, Cyborg Superman assimilates Kara’s whole body to rebuild his (She gets better).
  Cyborg Superman: I need you to fuse your consciousness with the I'noxian Collective. To become I'noxian.
  Supergirl: Oh. Why is that, exactly?
  Cyborg Superman: Your body. I need your flesh to reconstitute my own.
  Supergirl: (grimacing) You want to say that again? I couldn't hear you through all the creepiness coming out of your mouth!
• The Apprentice: When Supergirl crash-lands on Earth in The Supergirl From Krypton (1959), Superman does not adopt her but he starts training her to use her powers properly until she was ready to become a public hero.
• Arbitrary Skepticism: In Adventure Comics issue #396, Kara declares that magic is "superstitious nonsense", despite dealing with magical creatures on a daily basis, and magic being one of the few things that can hurt her.
• Arch-Enemy:
  • In the Silver Age Kara's Arch-Enemy was evil Kandorian scientist Lesla-Lar who specialised in stealing powers and/or bodies and tried to replace Kara with herself more than once (she also decide she should kill Lex Luthor after milking their villainous partnership for as much as possible).
  • Post-Crisis it was Reactron and Superwoman (Lucy Lane).
  • In the New 52 it is evil billionaire Simon Tycho.
• Arc Welding: In a Superman Family issue, Jack C. Harris revealed that most of criminals and Villains-Of-The-Month had bedeviled the titular heroine during his run were controlled by Lesla-Lar, Supergirl's first villain whom she defeated in a story written twenty years prior.
• Arrow Catch: Vandal Savage does the same thing with one of Arsenal's arrows in DC One Million. He then tosses it at Supergirl, instantly disabling her.
• The Artifact:
  • In The Silver Age of Comic Books Superman gained a lot of spin-off characters like Supergirl and Krypto the Superdog, and odd powers like Super-ventriloquism. Throughout the Bronze Age Superman's derivative characters, weird powers, and even aspects of the lore such like the Phantom Zone, Bizarro World and the different colors of Kryptonite became perceived as severely outdated, which led to their removal when Superman was rebooted in 1986. Nonetheless, DC spent the whole Dark Age trying and failing to replace them adequately, and after one decade and half they were again regarded as fresh and valuable additions, so they were reintroduced.
  • Similarly, Supergirl wears a skirt because the costumes of female heroes like Mary Marvel were inspired by female ice-skaters early on. As this influence began fading, skirt-wearing heroines became increasingly uncommon, but Supergirl goes on wearing one because it's become her iconic look.
• Aside Glance: Several Silver Age Supergirl stories ended with Kara Zor-El glancing to the reader and winking.
• A Tragedy of Impulsiveness: During the events of the reviled Amazons Attack! storyline, in where the Amazons went to war against the US, Supergirl and Wonder Girl suddenly come up with a "brilliant" plan to end the war: kidnapping the President and bringing him to Queen Hyppolita to engage in peace talks with her. Predictably, their plan went awry: the Amazons shot the Air Force One down and almost killed the President, and Kara and Cassie's reputations suffered a severe blow. After fending an Amazon squad off, Kara flies to New York to help, although Cassie points out that acting without thinking got them into that mess.
  Wonder Girl: But we were only trying to—
  Supergirl: Doesn't matter. I have to make up for this somehow, before it's too late. I have to balance the scales.
  Wonder Girl: How? By flying off half-cocked again, after what we just did...?
  Supergirl: I can't do nothing, Cassie!
• Attack of the 50-Foot Whatever: In The Unknown Supergirl, Kara fights the Infinite Monster, a scaly humanoid red monster from a parallel dimension. It's so colossal that his head hits the upper atmosphere.
• Attention Deficit... Ooh, Shiny!: In the Lego DC Comics Super Heroes: Justice League: Cosmic Clash animated film, Supergirl exhibits this trait when a cute kitten makes her distracted while fighting an army of robots: "Focused? Oh, they don't come much more focused than me, Cyborg. Oh, look, a kitten."
• Attractive Bent Species: "The Super-Steed of Steel" introduces Comet, a centaur transformed into a sapient superpowerful horse. After finding a way to turn himself back into human temporarily, Comet finds job as rodeo star "Bronco Bill", and he has the chance to share one kiss with Supergirl (who is unaware of "Bronco"'s real identity).
• Audience Surrogate: Kara filled this role during her first adventures in the Silver Age: she was Superman's plucky, young sidekick who helped him out as she discovered his world.
• Awe-Inspiring Dinosaur Shot: In Action Comics #259: "The Cave-Girl of Steel" (1959), Supergirl travels to the prehistoric age to find dinosaurs, and becomes fascinated by the ferocious countenance of a looming Ceratosaurus and the sheer size of a Brontosaurus.
• The Baby Trap: In the DCU Infinite Holiday Special issue #1, Supergirl must reunite a little girl with her father, a jerkass drunk who thinks his ex-wife got pregnant to force him into a marriage.
  Fred: Probably because we don't want her to know that her father's a screw-up.
  Supergirl: Come on, Fred. She won't care—
  Fred: That he fooled around with his partner's wife and lost the business. Or that when he isn't drunk he isn't awake—! Or that he never would have married that witch if she hadn't skipped her pill on purpose—!
• Back-to-Back Badasses: Supergirl and her cousin have been doing this for decades. In War World they take on Mongul and his humongous weapon-satellite. And in Supergirl (1982) # 21 Kara and Kal do this when they fight Kryptonite-Man.
• Badass Adorable: While she may be one of the strongest beings in the galaxy, Kara is a cute-as-a-pie, sweet, innocent, smiling fifteen-year-old girl.
• Badass Arm-Fold: Supergirl does this every so often.
  • In the Red Daughter Of Krypton arc, in which she was a Kryptonian Red Lantern (one of the most obscenely overpowered possible combinations in The DCU), she folded their arms several times. One of those times happened during a battle: she flew in the battlefield, punched an enemy across the city, folded her arms and glared.
  • In Convergence #6, pre-Crisis Kara folds her arms as she stares down at the enemy army◊.
  • In Many Happy Returns, Kara folds her arms across her chest and stares Rebel down after warning that if he attacks her, she will hurt him.
• Badass Boast:
  • Supergirl's Breaking Speech to Rebel in Many Happy Returns. Accompanied by Glowing Eyes of Doom and Dramatic Thunder that she might have summoned:
    Kara: Look — here's the problem. You've done some bad things, but I'm really, really upset right now. So much so that, honestly, I don't trust myself. And if you attack me or I attack you... I will hurt you. I will hurt you worse than you've ever been hurt in your whole life. I can carve you up by looking at you. I can break you, boil you, freeze you. I can do things you can't imagine. Things I can't imagine, until I have to, and then I'll improvise. Part of me is hoping that you will attack. And part of me is praying — for your sake and my own peace of mind — that you don't. It's up to you. Oh... And, Rebel... I have eyes that can see through solid matter. I have ears that can hear your slightest word, your heartbeat, your breathing. You do anything that hurts others... I will find you. And you won't like it. Do we have an understanding?
  • In Red Daughter of Krypton, Atrocitus' veiled and blatant threats don't impress Guy Gardner. He's heard worse things from stronger beings:
    Atrocitus: Oh, the things I have planned for you, Guy Gardner. You and anyone who stands with you.
    Guy Gardner: Get in line, pal. You ain't the first, and I guarantee you won't be the last. Worse than you have tried to take Guy Gardner down! And you know what? You know what? I'm still here, you bastard! I'm still here!
  • In Supergirl: Cosmic Adventures in the 8th Grade, Kara gives one during the final battle.
    Mr. Mxyzptlk: I'm Mxyzptlk! Holder of the five keys that unlock the fifty-two layers of Hyper-reality! My mind has become one with all ten possible dimensions! Who are you to challenge me?!
    Supergirl: I'm Supergirl! Defender of Earth!
  • In Good-Looking Corpse some kind of portal opens up in front of Kara, and Parasite, Silver Banshee, Metallo and the Kryptonite Man step through it. Kara's reaction?
    Supergirl: I hope you don't think you're going to win.
  • In Trinity (2008), Supergirl delivers one when she saves a group of pilgrims from a band of highwaymen:
    Supergirl: It's called heat-vision, troll-boy. Like it? Now back off, and stand down. Or be taken down.
  • In Supergirl (2011) #24, Kara gives a real badass boast after getting -temporarily- killed off by Cyborg Superman and getting her soul thrown into a Mind Hive:
    Supergirl: Cyborg Superman, show yourself! You stole my flesh, but in so doing made me anew! Do you see? Fists with the mass of moons, legs that burn with the heat of suns! I have the power of Creation at my fingertips and I will not stop until I have forged you a world of misery! Come to me, Cyborg Superman, and feel the wrath of what you have birthed!
  • In Bizarrogirl, to a giant critter who has just eaten someone alive.
    Supergirl: Cough up that Bizarro Luthor right now, monster... or else I'll cut him out of you.
  • In Who is Superwoman?, Kara delivers one before taking off for Kandor...
    Lana Lang: Kara, take care of yourself over there. And don't let your mother push you around. Don't forget. You're Supergirl. Strongest girl on the planet.
    Supergirl: Pfft. More like both planets.
    Lana Lang: Ha. Don't push your luck, kiddo.
  • In The Supergirl from Krypton (2004), when Superman sees that Darkseid has kidnapped his cousin, he growls:
    Superman: I'm going to Apokolips... AND TAKING KARA BACK!
  • In Crucible storyline, Kara delivers one when Roho chooses to taunt her and put her friends down.
    Roho: It's a shame you're gonna die here, girl. You never belonged at Crucible in the first place. Just like my idiot brother Tsavo. Just like all of the poor saps Amata recruited.
    Supergirl: [eyes flaring up] You're talking about my friends. And if you're any indication of who really belongs at Crucible— [unleashing eye beams] I'LL BURN IT ALL DOWN!
  • Last Daughter of Krypton: Reign delivers one at the end of her first fight with Supergirl.
    Reign: "How do I know so much about the Worldkillers? Because I am one. Born to fight. Born to slaughter. Born to conquer. The desire burns in me like a million suns."
  • The Killers of Krypton: When she decides to interrogate a bar full of aliens, Kara burns Rogol Zaar's insignia into the floor and calmly states:
    Supergirl: If anyone here knows Zaar, speak now or I'll make you myself. Your choice. Either works for me.
  • In Strangers at the Heart's Core, a criminal trio called the Visitors have just shot Supergirl's adoptive father and think they can threaten her and her mother.
    Supergirl: "Shut up, you contemptible cowards— You think I can't dispose of garbage like you? If you've killed [my father] the best man on this planet, then there's no place in the universe you can hide from my wrath!"
  • Superman vs. Shazam!: When Karmang warns Supergirl they will be dragged to the Limbo if she presses one button, Kara replies she will not be trapped because she is faster than light.
    Karmang: Not the black button! That one will send us all into Limbo!
    Supergirl: Maybe you, Karmang— But this woman can move at the speed of light— and by the time the doorway to Limbo opens— [Mary Marvel] and I will be long gone!
  • Supergirl: Woman of Tomorrow: Before beating Krem and his goon up, Supergirl declares she does not care about their dumb weapons.
  Supergirl: Swords and arrows? Don't you even know who I am? I'm Supergirl. Do you think I give a $#%% about swords and arrows?!
  • Way of the World: Even though she is suffering from the first stages of Kryptonite poisoning, Supergirl is still able to deliver one to Dolok.
    Supergirl: You'd better jump back real far this time, Dolok. Give yourself some time to contemplate your defeat.
• Badass Bookworm: Supergirl's different Secret Identities (pre-Crisis Linda Lee, post-Crisis Linda Lang, Rebirth Kara Danvers...) always look like a glass-wearing, small, physically unimposing, highly smart nerdy girl... who can lift millions of tons with ease.
• Badass Cape: All versions of Supergirl wear a flowing, awesome cape. Even her Red Lantern uniform in Red Daughter of Krypton included a badass, red-and-black cape. In Supergirl (Rebirth), her cape is so badass than she uses it to deflect burning rocks.
• Badass Family: She is a member of the Super-Family, which includes her cousin Superman, her foster parents Jeremiah and Eliza (who are Government veteran agents in Supergirl Rebirth), her Alternate Universe self, Power Girl, her cousin's clone, Kon-El (Superboy), her cousin's adopted son, Chris Kent (who is Nightwing), her cousin's son, Jonathan Kent (who is a ten-year-old Superboy), and the family DOG, Krypto. And if you want to count best friends and family of same, well... then you have to count the whole Bat-Family.
• Badass Fingersnap: In Escape from the Phantom Zone, Supergirl defeats Magog by causing a shockwave which knocks him down with a snap of her fingers.
• Badass Normal: Kara is usually a virtual Physical God. However, when she is depowered, her enemies find out two facts about her: she practices some style of Kryptonian martial arts (Torquasm Rao and Torquasm Vo in the pre-Crisis universe; Klurkor in the post-Crisis continuity); and post-Crisis Kara was trained by both Batman and Wonder Woman.
• Badasses Wear Bandanas: Pre-Crisis Supergirl started wearing a red headband in her 80's book. She still wore it when she nearly killed the Multiverse-eater Anti-Monitor in Crisis on Infinite Earths.
• Bad Boss:
  • Who is Superwoman?: Alura is Kandor's harsh, cold and unforgiving leader who threatens with punishments or dismissals at the slightest screw-up. She frequently puts her own security chief down until Thara quits, and abuses Kara emotionally for not being "good enough of a soldier".
  • In Starfire's Revenge, crimelord Starfire is willing to kill her subordinates -even those like Derek Ames who carried out their tasks successfully- if she percieves they have outlived their usefulness or become a liability.
• Bad Guy Bar: Supergirl has visited some seedy bars through her career:
  • In The Brave and the Bold story arc The Lords of Luck, Kara needs to hire Lobo to take her to Rann, and her "guide" insists on stopping by every seedy bar he knows along the way.
  • In Justice League United #5, four Leaguers -Green Arrow, Supergirl, Stargirl and Animal Man- barge in Block-C20, a derelict space station turned into a bar for bounty hunters who take exception to the presence of several Earth heroes. Chaos ensues.
• Bad Present
  • In Whatever Happened to the Man of Tomorrow?, when the Legion of Super-Heroes visits Superman just before what is likely to be his last battle, they bring Supergirl with them. Since the story is set post-Crisis (but before the new continuity kicked in), Supergirl is dead in the "present", and Superman tells this version of Supergirl that his Supergirl "is in the past," without specifying that it's not on a mission as the visitor thinks.
  • In Convergence: The Adventures of Superman, Superman and Supergirl are (like several other groups from different eras) trapped in a domed city and trying to escape. However, the two of them learn that even if they do escape, Supergirl is fated to die in Crisis on Infinite Earths.
• Ballroom Blitz: In ''Superman (1939) #149: The Death of Superman (1961)", Luthor is throwing a party to celebrate he's finally killed off the Man of Steel for good, when Supergirl smashes through a wall, grabs Luthor and takes him away to be trialed, as warning the crooks attending the crashed party that they are next.
• Bar Full of Aliens:
  • In The Brave and the Bold story arc The Lords of Luck, Kara needs to hire Lobo to take her to Rann, and her "guide" insists on stopping by every seedy bar he knows along the way.
  • In Justice League United #5, four Leaguers -Green Arrow, Supergirl, Stargirl and Animal Man- barge in Block-C20, a derelict space station turned into a bar for bounty hunters who take exception to the presence of several Earth heroes. Chaos ensues.
• Bash Brothers: Since her creation, Supergirl and Superman have been partners and fought together constantly.
  • In Legion of Super-Heroes classic Story Arc The Great Darkness Saga, both Superboy and Supergirl take on◊ Darkseid. And although Superboy is taken out quickly, Supergirl lays a good whupping on Darkseid.Reviewed here.
• Batman Can Breathe in Space: Kara can do this due to her Kryptonian physiology. Reasons vary according to the writer: Silver Age Kryptonians can do anything, she can hold her breath for absurd lengths of time... as of the New 52, Kryptonians do not have to breathe, as long as their bodies have enough stored sunlight. Kara discovers this when she gets surprised and gasps while swimming.
• Batman Gambit:
  • A double subversion occurs in Action Comics #304. Supergirl encounters Black Flame, a woman who seems to be a super-powered Kryptonian, in the process of some rather destructive vandalism. The villainess claims she's from the distant future of the year 4000, and "invites" Supergirl to view her time using a computerized exhibition device. It shows the heroine a terrible future where Black Flame extorts wealth from thousands of worlds (as in, she can blow them to little pieces if they don't comply). Worst part: she's Supergirl’s direct descendent, "Supergirl XXV", and the citizens of this distant future despise the first one just as much for starting this hated family line. Supergirl is naturally very upset, and after pursuing numerous leads (she senses something fishy here) including visiting the bottled city of Kandor, and eventually decides to unearth a chuck of gold kryptonite, and use it to erase her own powers, eliminating the possibility she could pass them down to a descendant, in effect, making Black Flame Ret-Gone. Then Black Flame appears with a cruel laugh, revealing her true identity, that of an assistant of a criminal from the Kandor who was interred in the Phantom Zone. Black Flame had set up the plan out of revenge, leaving Kandor and using something called Red-K to increase her size, then pulled the ruse hoping Supergirl would depower herself. After listening to the powerless heroine her beg a little, she shoves Supergirl into a pit of quicksand and watches her drown. Or so it seems. Black Flame gets a big surprise as the Red-K wears off, shrinking herself to normal size, because Supergirl actually figured the plan out, and was outgambitting her with her own Batman Gambit; now that she's shrunk, Supergirl grabs her, showing her the - fake - chuck of gold kryptonite and shoving her inside a make-up compact that holds a few minute grains of real gold kryptonite. As she ships the criminal back to Kandor, the last panel of the story shows the one flaw in Black Flame's plan - a cavity in her teeth with a dental filling that Supergirl noticed while investigating records in a Kandor dental clinic, something a superpowered descendant would not have.
  • In the Red Daughter of Krypton storyline, two villains tried to pull off separate Batman Gambits to defeat Supergirl:
    • Lobo tries to use Supergirl's rage against her by taunting her into not holding back. As such, Dr. Veritas teleports them out of the Block to prevent their fight from damaging it. Once outside, Lobo calls his ship and flies to Supergirl's old apartment in New York, hoping to calm her down. He then tries to be friendly to her offering to mentor her so she can learn to control her rage. Big mistake. Supergirl has had it with people trying to manipulate her and gives him a No-Holds-Barred Beatdown.
    • Worldkiller-1 had taken over the body of an alien warlord and wanted to steal Supergirl's body. However he couldn't destroy his host body. So he goaded Supergirl to use her Eye Beams on him until she reduced his body to ashes involuntarily.
• Batman Grabs a Gun: Supergirl usually follows the Thou Shalt Not Kill rule, but she threw it out of the window when she fought the Anti-Monitor. As she put it, she'd always considered life the greatest of all gifts, and he was a blasphemy of life, so she fully intended to kill him.
• Battle Boomerang: Used by Boomer during the Joe Kelly's run.
• Battle Couple:
  • Supergirl and Brainiac-5 in the Silver Age. After bringing Kara back in the post-Crisis universe, most of writers teased a relationship between them.
  • Kara's foster parents Jeremiah and Eliza Danvers. They are a couple of Government agents trained to deal with and neutralize alien threats.
• Battle in the Center of the Mind:
  • In Adventure Comics #421, Supergirl and one-time villain Nightflame fight into Supergirl's mind an illusory, hellish psychic landscape called Innerverse that represents Supergirl's dark side.
  • In Superman Family #206: Strangers at the Heart's Core, Kara fights her old nemesis Lesla-Lar, who is trying to take over her mind. The battle takes place in Supergirl's head.
  • During the Red Daughter of Krypton storyline, an enemy called Sheko invaded Supergirl’s mind to read her memories and judge her, but a memory of Supergirl's mother Alura stopped her and forced her out of her daughter's mind.
• Battle of Wits:
  • During the Silver and Bronze Comic-Book Ages (approx. 1955-1985), Supergirl was so powerful that the writers had to constantly create villains who couldn't be physically beaten, forcing her to come up with creative ways to win by outwitting and tricking her enemies. A recurring strategy was making them believe they had won so they lowered their guards and made a mistake.
  • Red Daughter of Krypton: Supergirl cannot beat or shake off a parasitic lifeform called Worldkiller-1, nor stopping it from taking over innocent people to coerce her into being its host. Kara then says she will agree to become its new body if it releases its current hostage. Wordkiller-1 starts bonding with her... and Supergirl uses her Red Power Ring to teleport into the Sun. She then pulls her Ring out (an automatic death sentence for a Red Lantern like herself) before it can take over. Annoyed, Worldkiller-1 releases her body and leaves her for dead...before realizing the influx of solar power has restarted her heart and is healing her wounds and amping her powers up. As she beats Worldkiller-1 for good, Supergirl ponders it was a risky gambit...but it paid off.
• Beast with a Human Face: Supergirl (2005) #12: "Rock On!" has the Empathousaur, an underground giant reptile who turns its head into Supergirl's father's to upset her during one fight.
• Beautiful All Along: In her Linda Lee Danvers/Linda Lang/Kara Danvers Secret Identity, Kara dyes and braids her hair and wears glasses in order to look like an incospicuous, average, geeky brunette instead of a stunningly beautiful blonde with an athletic build.
• Become a Real Boy: Comet the Super-Horse was originally a centaur called Biron who wanted to be fully human; unfortunately Circe's transforming potion was sabotaged and made him fully horse instead. The reason he has superpowers is because the spell couldn't be reversed, so Circe gave him superpowers to try and make up for it.
• Becoming the Mask: In Action Comics #303, a con man called Biff Rigger masquerades as Fred and Edna Danvers' long-lost son Jan in order to steal Jan's grandfather's savings. Upon discovering Jan's adoptive sister is Supergirl, Biff tricks her into giving him temporary powers; yet still, he ends up using those powers to save her, at the cost of his own life. Before dying, Biff reveals he liked him having a family, and begs Supergirl to not tell the Danvers he wasn't their real son.
• Beneath Notice:
  • In The Supergirl from Krypton (2004), Kara wonders why nobody recognizes her cousin, until she sees a Superman statue, whereupon she realizes the Earth people regard him as their larger-than-life champion. Even if someone did manage to catch the resemblance, they would never assume that a Physical God with every superpower known to man would ever choose to live as a mundane, mild-mannered reporter.
  • In Supergirl (Rebirth), Kara Danvers behaves as a lonely, clumsy, geeky girl so nobody suspects she is Supergirl.
• Beneath the Earth: In Action Comics #272, Supergirl visits an alien planet called Terra and discovers its center was inhabited by a humanoid civilization.
• The Berserker: During her Red Lantern phase, she genuinely enjoyed finding evil jerkasses and pummelling them.
  Kara: The Red Ring on my fist chose me. It made me part of a team. We seek out injustice and we punch it in the teeth. And it feels good.
• Best Friend: Supergirl has been consistently treated as Batgirl's best friend since the latter's creation. Even though they weren't often seen together during the Pre-Crisis period, Barbara Gordon was the one to give the eulogy at the Kara Zor-El's funeral, saying she "was often my confidant and always my friend"
• Be Careful What You Wish For:
  • This happened to Kara in The Death of Superman (1961). Back then she was Superman's secret emergency-weapon until her cousin decided she was well-trained enough and ready to operate openly. Kara was dying to reveal her existence to the world... until Superman got murdered by Lex Luthor. She arrested and punished Luthor, revealed herself and took over for her cousin, becoming a beloved hero, but she wasn't happy at all.
    Bystander: Good luck! We miss Superman, but we're glad you're taking over for him!
    Supergirl: ... I never thought it would turn out this way... All the time I was Superman's secret emergency-weapon, I eagerly looked forward to the day when I could operate openly! Now that it's finally happened, I — I feel no happiness at the "glory" that's now... mine...
  • In Superman (1939) #282, Supergirl is considering giving up her Supergirl identity. To illustrate she might regret that decision, Superman tells her a tale about a Kryptonian who wanted to live forever and managed to make himself immortal, only to find out that he would be alone forever.
    Superman: So you see, Kara... Sometimes, when we get the things we think we want most... they turn out to be a curse rather than a blessing!
• Bee Afraid: In Action Comics #291, Mr. Mxyzptlk makes a swarm of bees huge◊, hoping they'll frighten people. Supergirl deals with them by creating a giant vat of nectar to distract them.
• Being Good Sucks: Kara was a normal, fifteen-year-old girl until she arrived on Earth. She remembers having a normal life and she just wants to be a normal girl again◊, free from the pressure and the burdens of having super-powers. And she often feels she isn't good or worthy enough for being a hero. Several times she has wanted to give up her Supergirl identity but she can not stop herself from helping people.
• Best Friends-in-Law: In alternate universe story Superman's Pal, Jimmy Olsen #57, Jimmy Olsen get married to Kara, resulting in this for Clark and Jimmy.
• Between My Legs: In Justice League Unlimited, Galatea gets this a few times during her appearance in "Panic in the Sky".
• Beware the Nice Ones: Much like her cousin, she's usually a nice, compassionate, friendly person. Unlike her cousin, she's headstrong and a little short-tempered and Hot-Blooded. When she gets real angry, it isn't pretty.
  • During the Crisis on Infinite Earths, the Anti-Monitor -a being who eats whole universes- almost kills Superman. Enraged, Supergirl attacked him, broke his supposedly indestructible armor and nearly killed him.
  • In Way of the World, Kara flew Clayface up to the edge of the atmosphere and dropped him after he got her pissed off.
  • In Red Daughter of Krypton, Lobo pressed Supergirl's berserk buttons over and over again until she exploded and pummelled him.
• Big Applesauce: Kara moved to New York City, where she worked as a soap opera actress, in the early 80's Superman Family comics.
• Big Brother Mentor:
  • Superman was this to his cousin in the Silver Age. He took care of her and trained her until she was ready to go solo.
  • Subverted post-Crisis. Kara was actually older than Superman, and she expected to take care of her baby cousin, but after her ship launched it was stuck in a Kryptonite debris field for 30 years, during which she was in a coma. Although she eventually reached Earth, her cousin was now older, and wanting to be her mentor and caretaker.
  • Subverted in the New 52. Superman thinks he must help and guide his teen cousin. Everyone thinks she would be better off with him... but Supergirl, who protests that she doesn't need or want any help.
  • In Red Daughter of Krypton Superman has to tell Guy Gardner he can't keep his cousin with him if she doesn't want to stay. So Guy became one to Kara, helping her find herself and manage her anger.
• Big Dumb Body:
  • In Supergirl (1972) #8, Medusa’s ghost wants to take over the titular heroine's body specifically because of her superhuman powers and not because of her brains.
  • Wordkiller-1 -an alien, body-surfing symbiote- subverted this when he transferred his soul into the body of Supergirl because he thought she was a crazy powerful, inmensely strong, stupid girl. By the time he realized she wasn't dumb at all and she had outsmarted him to force him out of her body and kill him, it was too late.
• Big Eater: Kara became a big eater in the comics after the live-action show added this personality trait to the character. In a 2017 comic she wants to eat again just after having lunch with her cousin.
• Big Little Brother: In the Post-Crisis universe, Supergirl is -technically- fifteen years older than Superman, but he towers over her. Even if she had not been several decades in suspended animation, her cousin would have probably outgrown her anyways.
• Birthday Episode: In Action Comics #270, Supergirl turns sixteen, and she is thrown a surprise party◊ by her cousin -who baked a giant birthday cake-, Batman, Robin and several more friends.
• Bit Part Bad Guys: In Escape from the Phantom Zone, eco-terrorist villain Red Spur shows up in the two first pages and is chased away by Batgirl and Supergirl before the beginning of the main plot.
• Bizarre Alien Senses: Supergirl's Kryptonian senses don't care for puny laws of physics. She has at least half-dozen of kinds of super-vision (telescopic, microscopic, X-Ray...) as well as super-hearing.
  • In Supergirl Rebirth, Kara hears what is happening on Earth in real time while she is standing on the surface of the Sun. And she uses her microscopic vision on Lar-On to observe his genes and determine that his genetic makeup has been completely mangled by Red-K poisoning.
    Supergirl: I can see his genes.
• Blackmail: In the New 52 issues, Tycho tried to blackmail Kara: he'd give her pod's crystal back in exchange for a drop of her blood. It was a bad, bad idea...
• Blackmail Backfire: In the New 52, Tycho tried to blackmail Kara. She blew his space station up and retrieved her pod's crystal.
• Blessed with Suck: Supergirl often sees her powers as a burden. Pre-Crisis Kara came to a point where she was tired of being Supergirl constantly instead of being her own person and she actually felt guilty for wanting to lead a normal life. Post-Crisis, a lot of people tried to manipulate her or take advantage of her because she was so powerful, to the point she calls her formidable powers a curse in the Red Daughter of Krypton arc:
  Supergirl: This strength, this power — It's been like a curse. But I refuse to be a victim anymore!
• Blonde, Brunette, Redhead: The three main characters in Supergirl: Cosmic Adventures In The 8th Grade, Linda Lee -the eponymous blond heroine-, her red-haired best friend Lena Thorul and her dark-haired arch-enemy and bully Belinda Zee.
• Blood Knight:
  • Supergirl is quick-tempered, fierce and proactive, and several writers have interpreted her hotbloodedness as passion for fighting. In Justice League United, the team runs into a band of bounty hunters and Kara is giddy because she has to punch them.
    Green Arrow: Sardath said this space station was a bit rough... be ready for anything. Supergirl, I hear voices through that door, can you see through it with your X-Ray vision?
    Supergirl: Oh... This is going to be fun!
    Green Arrow: Hmmm... What is it, Supergirl? A few alien thugs?
    Supergirl: (smiling) No. Much better than that... Bounty hunters. Lots of them.
    Animal Man: ... Oh Crapballs.
  • Reign, a member of Supergirl's Rogues Gallery, loves to fight and she's very good at it.
  • In Reign of Doomsday, Supergirl actually enjoys engaging Doomsday because she can cut loose and fight without restrain for once.
• Blow You Away: In Demon Spawn, Supergirl spins around at Super Speed to create a whirlwind and put out a fire burning a building down.
• Blue Is Heroic: Most of the time she wears a blue super-hero costume.
• Body Surf: Alien invader Worldkiller-1 transferred his soul from a body to other the whole time, looking for a perfect host. In the Red Daughter Of Krypton arc, as Supergirl was fighting the leader of an alien race, Worldkiller-1 emerged through the Diasporan's damaged body and tried to snatch Kara's body. She forced him out, though, so he transferred his spirit into the bodies of random bystanders -who were burn out nearly instantly- until Kara agreed to let him surf into her body.
• Boldly Coming: Supergirl's been known to have interspecies relationships with humans and other alien races (of course, her only another option is cousin incest, so...). In Kingdom Come it's speculated that a blonde-haired, green-skinned alien woman wearing a "S"-Chest Insignia and related to Brainiac 5 is her daughter.
• Bonding over Missing Parents: In the original Pre-Crisis comics, Superman and Supergirl bonded over their lost parents as soon as they met in The Supergirl From Krypton (1959).
• Bookends: Sterling Gates started and ended his run by using a Cat Grant news piece. In the first issue, Cat wrote an article titled: "Why the World Doesn't Need a Supergirl". In the final issue, she wrote a kind of reluctant recantation: "The world needs a Supergirl".
• Boots of Toughness: In the early 70's Supergirl wore slippers. Then she changed her costume and replaced the slippers with knee-length red boots made of a fabric just as invulnerable as herself.
• Born as an Adult: In Adventure Comics #313, Satan Girl, a full-grown -and evil- Supergirl's duplicate, is created as an adult woman.
• Bound and Gagged: In the Red Daughter of Krypton storyline, in order to transport a mad Supergirl safely, a group of Green Lanterns gagged and chained Kara with solid light constructs and placed her inside a containment cell.
• Boxing Lessons for Superman:
  • Not only does she have all the powers of her cousin, she has had training in both unarmed and armed combat. By Wonder Woman and the Amazons. Unfortunately, most writers tend to forget this.
  • In the New 52, while her training with the Amazons has been retconned away, Supergirl has been taught martial arts as part of her schooling on Krypton, although she's far from an expert.
• Boyish Short Hair: New 52 Kara -who is a short-tempered, hot-blooded brawler and not feminine in the least- wears her hair this way◊.
• Brainy Brunette: Kara Zor-El's Secret Identity (Linda Lee Danvers, Linda Lang, Kara Danvers...) is always a brown-haired, nerdy girl.
• Brainwashed and Crazy: In Superman/Batman #77, Scarecrow's fear toxin makes Supergirl believe that Robin is her parents' killer Reactron and attack him.
• Break His Heart to Save Him: In Action Comics #317, Supergirl thinks her friend Lena's boyfriend is an enemy spy so she sets to break them up and save Lena from a future heartbreak, even if she ruins their friendship.
• Breaking the Bonds:
  • In Girl Power, Cassie Sandsmark binds Supergirl with her magic, unbreakable lasso. Supergirl shrugs it off.
  • In Supergirl (2011) #17, Wonder Woman binds Supergirl◊. After a few moments, though, Kara uses a burst of sunlight◊ to free herself.
  • Kara does this in the cover◊ of Supergirl (2011) #37, which harkens back to Superman (1939) #223.
  • Supergirl breaks her bonds in this fan video.
• Break the Cutie:
  • Kara Zor-El always goes through this, not matter the universe. She is a genuinely nice, sweet teen girl who loses her family and her whole world when her parents launch her off Argo City to save her life. She crash-lands into a strange, alien, primitive world where she doesn't blend in and strangers want to kill her or capture her and examine her.
  • In the Pre-Crisis universe, Superman -her only living relative- sent Kara to an orphanage because he feared that his enemies would do if they found out about her, telling her to keep her existence a secret while he trained her. Kara hated the Midvale Orphanage but she had to live there during her training, performing heroic deeds anonymously and avoiding to be adopted. Finally her cousin is about to make her -Supergirl's- existence public when she loses her powers.
  • Post-Crisis Kara was getting used to live on Earth when Superman retrieves the Bottle City of Kandor -in which were imprisoned her parents and several thousands of Kryptonians- from Brainiac. However, one of her villains -Reactron- kills her parents and blows New Krypton up, exterminating the last survivors of Krypton. So she lost her family and world twice.
  • Post-Flashpoint Kara didn't trust her cousin, felt lonely and stranded in a strange world and was manipulated by most of people until she flew off the handle.
  • Elseworld's Finest: Supergirl & Batgirl. Two examples: Kara Zor-El -Supergirl- was an nice, innocent, naive woman. Then she found out that her father figure -someone who she thought was a very good person- murdered her baby cousin several years before, and was manipulating her all along. Barbara Gordon -Batgirl- was a sweet, smiling child until she saw her parents being murdered by a punk with a gun. She became a harsh, cynical, paranoid person.
• Break Them by Talking:
  • When Rebel tries to harass Kara, Supergirl proceeds to tell him that he is a pathetic, insignificant nuisance with delusions of grandeur and she is a very busy and very angry Physical God. He runs away.
    Rebel: So whattaya say we just finish this off with one final dance?
    Supergirl: Don't you get it, Rebel? You're not important! You never were! You were just — something to do! Something for Supergirl and me to bounce off of for a while until people and events of real consequence came along! Look — Here's the problem. You've done some bad things, but I'm really, really upset right now. So much so that, honestly, I don't trust myself. And if you attack me or I attack you... I will hurt you. I'll hurt you worse than you've ever been hurt in your whole life. I can carve you up as soon as look at you. I can break you, boil you, freeze you. I can do things you can't imagine. Things I can't imagine, until I have to. And then I'll improvise. Part of me is hoping you will attack. And part of me is praying — for your sake, and my own peace of mind — that you don't. It's up to you.
    Rebel: You doing that? Causing a storm to roll in?
    Supergirl: Maybe.
  • Sakki, The Hate Furnace, delivered one to Supergirl. He mistakenly believed that she was Superman's daughter and picked at her shame at failing to live up to Superman's example. Sakki and his partner, Gakidou, were also emotion eaters, so Supergirl's despair and other negative emotions served to make them stronger. Unfortunately for them, she became so angry that they nearly overloaded, and they found out the hard way that their extra strength isn't nearly enough to deal with a Kryptonian.
• Breath Weapon: Kara has freezing breath, hurricane breath, heat vision, and during her Red Lantern phase, she could spew corrosive plasma.
• Bridal Carry: Kara often carries people she loves like her best friend Batgirl (in Detective Comics issue #508) or her cousin Superman (in Convergence: Adventures of Superman issue #1) in her arms.
• Bring My Brown Pants: In New 52 Superman #6, Supergirl saves an obnoxious reporter from falling out of the sky. When she brings him to the ground, Jimmy Olsen and the other reporters complain and order in a change of pants for him.
• Broad Strokes:
  • Silver Age stories referencing Kara's "The Supergirl From Krypton (1959)" first appearance and origin story tended to change and add new details (such like her hometown's name). "The Untold Story of Argo City" was written in 1964 to clear up inconsistencies, giving her a fixed origin which was respected up to 1985. Even so, several retellings took some liberties and added new details to her canon backstory, like Kara's rocket accidentally breaking Comet free from his asteroid-prison.
  • Superman's 1986 reboot wreaked havoc with other characters. According to the new canon, Superman was never Superboy, and Supergirl never existed...but the old Legion of Super-Heroes stories featuring both Kryptonians were still canon, so that DC came up with pocket universes, alternate timelines, swapping Kal and Kara with Mon-El and Andromeda in retellings...before throwing their hands up and rebooting the Legion. Also, Kara Zor-El officially didn't exist in the Post-Crisis universe, but her team-ups with Batgirl were still canon. DC "solved" this by claiming that Batgirl teamed up with Power Girl instead.
  • Although Kara Zor-El was declared persona non grata, DC still needed a Supergirl character, so that Clark's cousin was replaced with many short-lived substitutes: a parallel dimension artificial lifeform, a Daxamite alien, still another non-Kryptonian alien, a Satanist who turned out to be an Earthborn angel, Superman's alleged but ultimately fake daughter...who were retconned out of every retelling and continuity nod when Kara was finally reintroduced in "The Supergirl from Krypton (2004)".
  • After 1986, Power Girl couldn't be Earth-Two's Superman Kryptonian cousin anymore, so that she was retconned into being an Atlantean. However her previous adventures were still canon, so that it was told her Kryptonian origin a lie to save her life, and her previous appearances were quietly altered or retconned out. After "Power Trip (2005)" restored her original backstory, everybody in-universe forgot that she had believed to be Atlantean for a while.
  • Supergirl (Rebirth) is supposed to be a sequel to Supergirl (2011), but ignores most of events of the former book (such like Argo City getting destroyed in "Last Daughter of Krypton") while referencing other ones (Kara alludes to "Red Daughter of Krypton" at one point).
  • Legion of Super-Heroes/Bugs Bunny Special is supposed to evoke the Legion's classic continuity, what with to references to Pre-Crisis stories and whatnot, but the details don't quite fit into that continuity: Supergirl gets sick as fighting Mordru (whom she never faced in classic continuity) and wears her 70's costume, but Superboy/Super Bugs wear the high-collared, trunkless 2016 Superman suit, Lightning Lass gets her lightning powers (which she did not get back until 1984), Night Girl is a full-fledged Legionnaire (which she became in 2007)...
  • The long string of events going from DC Rebirth to Dark Nights: Death Metal upended DC's history several times over, making everything potentially canon. Supergirl is supposed to be still Post-Flashpoint Supergirl, but her -mostly unchanged- Silver Age origin has been put back in place, which should invalidate almost all her former stories (perhaps not coincidentally, she never mentions any event between her arrival on Earth and her moving to Metropolis).
• Broken Tears:
  • In Elseworld's Finest: Supergirl & Batgirl, Supergirl weeps when she discovers the corpse of her murdered baby cousin, and she cries again while she buries him.
  • In Many Happy Returns, Kara sheds them twice: when everyone is treating her -an orphan who has just lost her home and landed in another world where everyone is a jerk to her and her only living relative turns her down because he doesn know who she is- as a dumb, crazy girl; and when she is told she has to return to her own timeline... where she will eventually die.
• Broke Your Arm Punching Out Cthulhu:
  • Once in the Pre-Crisis universe Supergirl and Superboy attempted to punch Darkseid. They were amped up by Highfather to insane amounts and let's remember they could pull an entire galaxy's worth of planets without said power up. None of their punches even hurt Darkseid and barely even catches his attention.
  • Supergirl trashed the Anti-Monitor during the Crisis on Infinite Earths, but he took her out. She died and her existence was erased from the memory collective of the universe... for a while.
• Brooding Boy, Gentle Girl: The Legion of Super-Heroes has Brainiac-5, a brooding genius with no social skills, and his Love Interest Supergirl, a cheerful and gentle girl who is one of the few persons who brighten up his day (and put up with his foul moods for longer than five minutes).
• Brother–Sister Team: Supergirl and Superman teamed up during the Silver Age and after her re-introduction in the Post-Crisis universe.
• Brought Down to Badass: In Action Comics #337, Supergirl gets stranded in an unknown planet where she's rendered powerless by its green sun. Even so, Kara uses her own smarts and resourcefulness to overcome every danger while finding a way to fix her ship.
• Brought Down to Normal:
  • In the Pre-Crisis universe, Mad Scientist Lesla-Lar took away Kara's powers as part of a scheme to replace her. While in her powerless state, Kara finally found adoptive parents. She nearly abandoned her career as Supergirl, until Mr. Mxyzptlk granted her all the abilities of Superman, plus a (temporary) invulnerability to green kryptonite.
  • In Demon Spawn, Linda gets stripped from her powers temporarily when she is brought to the Innerverse. She feels even weaker than an ordinary human.
  • In the Post-Flashpoint universe, right after the Crucible story arc, Kara was depowered due to the manipulations of Vandal Savage. DEO agent Cameron Chase, offered to help her get her powers back if she joined the Department of Extra-normal Operations.
• Brought to You by the Letter "S": All of her costumes -but her Red Lantern uniform- have the S-shield symbol.
• Brutal Honesty: In Superman (1939) #176, Kal and Kara celebrate a Kryptonian holyday called the Day of Truth in where Kryptonians honor the memory of an hero by speaking nothing but the truth, not matter the cost. The thing is, both cousins may be incredibly, astonishingly, rudely blunt. So, when Supergirl's fan club gives Kara a lunch:
  Girl 1: Supergirl! How'd you like the food? We cooked it all ourselves!
  Supergirl: Er... You meant well, kids! But frankly, the salad tasted like moldy hay, and the chicken wasn't fried... It was burned!
  Girl 2: (sobbing) How could you say such cruel things, Supergirl? We've never been so humiliated!
  Girl 1: And we called her our heroine!
  Supergirl: But, girls... You asked for the truth... and you got it!
• Bullet Catch:
  • In Supergirl (2005) #11, Kara shoots at a pirate mook and catches the bullet before it hits his face.
  • In the World of New Krypton storyline, Kara catches a sniper's bullet before the projectile hits its intended victim.
  • In Injustice 2 issue #26, a death squad is about to gun down innocent civilians. Kara flies in the way and catches all the bullets.
• Bully Hunter: In Adventure Comics #397, Nasthalthia 'Nasty' Luthor begins a campaign of bullying students, hoping to lure Supergirl out. Supergirl gives her and her bully friends a very wild, very fast aerial ride before dumping them into a fountain and warning them that if she ever hears of them terrorizing anyone again... she will get mean.
  Supergirl: Now hear this! If I ever hear of you terrorizing anyone again — you'll find out you haven't seen anything yet!
• Bullying a Dragon: Since her creation, Supergirl has run into many idiots who thought it was a good idea annoying Superman's cousin:
  • Back in the Silver Age, 'Nasty' Luthor tried to bully Linda when both girls attended classes in Stanhope College, and was constantly putting her down and trying to humilate her when both worked as junior photographers for San Francisco station K-SFTV. And she knows that Linda is Supergirl... and short-tempered.
  • In a post-Crisis comics, Batman's villain Clayface challenged and taunted Supergirl. Someone who is essentially a shape-shifting mud-man taunted a girl who can punch moons. Great idea.
  • In the New 52, Tycho has seen what Supergirl is capable of... and he tries to capture her, blackmail her, hit her... and it never ends up well for him.
  • Later on, Lobo picks a fight with Supergirl. Knowing he can't go toe-to-toe with her, he mocks her, taunts her, presses her Berserk Buttons... so she gets angry and fights more sloppily. She certainly got angry. And then she proceeded to pummel him savagely.
  • In the Supergirl (1984) movie, Supergirl runs into two truck drivers shortly after reaching Earth. She quickly identifies herself as Superman's cousin... and the pair of hicks decides to harass her. Then she proves she has Kryptonian powers... and the idiot duo attacks her.
  • In The Strange Revenge of Lena Luthor, the Super-Crime Task Force's gaslighting scheme involves kidnapping Supergirl, dumping her into a death trap and gaslighting her into believing she has lost her powers as they drive Lena insane. As soon as Supergirl sees past their rudimentary tricks, though, they are done, and their only defense is trying to run away.
• The Bus Came Back: Nasthalthia "Nasty" bedeviled the Girl of Steel during her "Adventure Comics" run and then faded into comic limbo until Morrison brought her back for All-Star Superman after thirty-four years.
• Bus Full of Innocents:
  • At the last chapter of The Unknown Supergirl, Linda saves a couple whose car was careening down a precipice.
  • 2011 storyline "This Is Not My Life", begins with Supergirl saving a tram full of innocents which was being attacked by Ivo Amazo's flying robots.
  • In Last Daughter of Krypton, Deimax hurls a subway car full of innocent passengers at Kara, who has to pick it and put it on the ground carefully.
• But What About the Astronauts?: Supergirl saved her life because she was in space when Argo City died/Krypton exploded and then ended up on Earth. Subverted because she was deliberately sent into space to avoid being killed.

---