Supergirl / Tropes G to H

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:

• Gendered Outfit: Trope image, and quite possibly the Trope Codifier. Every outfit Supergirl has worn has, in some way, been tailored to her femininity. While the Minidress of Power is the most frequent (and obvious) change, she's also had a low neckline, short shorts, an exposed midriff, a leotard, high heels and various combinations thereof.
• Generic Doomsday Villain: Xenon is pretty similar to Superman's Doomsday. He came out of nowhere, and nothing or almost nothing is known about his past or motivations. What is known, though, he hunts and kills "Supergirls" because he hates them. In his only appearance, he trapped, tortured and nearly killed the original Kara Zor-El, a Earth-One Kryptonian.
• Genesis Effect:
  • In The Untold Story of Argo City, Kal and Kara build a real-scale Krypton's reply.
  • In the New Krypton storyline, kryptonian scientists use Brainiac's technology to lift a newly enlarged Kandor into space and grow a planet underneath it. The Who is Superwoman?? story arc reveals, though, they don't appear to be able to terraform it.
• Genius Bruiser: Her official power list includes "Genius-Level Intellect". And in fact she's considered a genius by Kryptonian standards. Obviously most writers forgot about this.
• Gentle Giant: Kara is tall (5'7''), muscular, inhumanly strong, short-tempered... and she's also a kind-hearted, compassionate and optimistic Friend to All Children.
• Ghost Town: Kara's hometown Argo City, a Kryptonian city which survived Krypton's destruction but became a space ghost town when all Argoans -minus Superman's family- were killed by Kryptonite radiation. Every so often Kara has travelled back to her city to check it's stil a massive, silent graveyard drifting in the void of space.
• Giant Equals Invincible: Supergirl has occasionally faced up to giant monsters and robots that were tough enough to resist her attacks. In Batgirl (2009) she tells her friend Steph about it.
  Batgirl: I thought only the green stuff could hurt your... is "kind" offensive at all?
  Supergirl: Depends on which one of us you ask. And it isn't just Kryptonite. There's all kinds of little hiccups. Magic. Electricity. Sometimes robots, if they're big enough.
• Giant Flyer: In Supergirl Vol 1 #7, Zatanna fights an ice eagle several times larger than a man.
• Giant Foot of Stomping: In The Unknown Supergirl, Supergirl fights the Infinite Monster, a gigantic creature who is so large, all one can see are it's legs tromping across the land. At one point, the monster's right foot tramples on Kara.
• Girl Next Door: Kara/Linda's personality in the Silver Age.
• Girl of the Week: In her first book, Kara falls over a new guy in each episode, but she never gets the guy or they break up before the end of the issue. Regardless, the guy is never seen again.
• Girl on Girl Is Hot: It happens three times on Supergirl: Identity:
  • When Supergirl returns to her apartment, her roommate Boomer aka Captain Boomerang Jr., asks how her day was.
    Supergirl: I met a girl tonight.
    Boomer: (Double Take, then grin) Explain. And do not leave out any details.
    Supergirl: (hits him with a pillow) Idiot... Another hero in a costume.
  • When Supergirl and Wondergirl hug, with Kara's arms around Cassie's neck, and Cassie's arms around Kara's waist.
    Kid Devil: Can't talk. Committing image to memory.
    Ravager: Someone get a video camera... We'll get two billion hits on YouTube.
  • When a guy asks his girlfriend and Supergirl to hug and let him take a picture.
• Girls Behind Bars: Adventure Comics #394: Heartbreak Prison" features Supergirl and half dozen of females put behind bars in the titular alien escape-proof pen.
• Girly Bruiser: She's got Super-Strength and boobs to match.
• Giving Someone the Pointer Finger:
  • In Krypton No More Supergirl does this when she tells her cousin that he is not Kryptonian but a human mutant (long story).
  • In Action Comics #904, Supergirl points at the Cyborg-Doomsday when she shouts that he will not hurt her home◊ because he will NOT get past her.
  • In Elseworld's Finest: Supergirl And Batgirl, Kara points at Batgirl when she calls her out on being more interested in keeping a well-meaning metahuman out of Gothan than in rescuing a hostage.
• Gladiator Games: In Adventure Comics issue #412, Kara gets forced to take part in the gladiator games of an alien world to ensure that a tyrant don't become the planet's ruler.
• Glasses-and-Ponytail Coverup: Supergirl dons the ponytail-and-glasses disguise in several continuities. In Supergirl (Rebirth), she improves the disguises with an holographic device which changes her hair color.
• The Glasses Come Off: Post-Crisis and Post-Flashpoint Supergirl wears glasses and adopts a geeky if snarky behavior when she is being Linda Lang/Kara Danvers, and she takes them off when she has to perform her hero duty.
• Glowing Eyes of Doom:
  • When Kara's eyes glow or -God forbids- flare it's a very scary sign that she's getting really pissed off, and someone is about to be pummelled and/or blasted.
  • After discovering her family is gone in Last Daughter of Krypton, Kara has a breakdown during which she starts tearing Argo City down until she stumbled upon Reign. Believing the unknown woman responsible for her father's death, Kara's eyes glow red before she charges Reign.
• God Is Good: Rao is the God of Krypton, and Flamebird and Nightwing are His Children in the Post-Crisis continuity. In the New Krypton storyline, Supergirl isn't feeling particularly pious after her father's murder, and deems her friend Thara -who claims Flamebird is bonded with her- a nutjob. Yet still Kara is saved by literal divine intervention in The Hunt for Reactron when Flamebird manifests through Thara and stomps Reactron. Later Kara apologizes and confides to Thara that she's feeling hopeful now because if the gods are real, it means her deceased father is in a better place.
• Goggles Do Something Unusual: In Supergirl (Rebirth), Kara Danvers wears glasses with a hidden holographic projector to change her hair color and protect her secret identity.
• Gondor Calls for Aid: In The Great Darkness Saga, the Legion of Super-Heroes have ascertained they are facing Darkseid, plus an army of billions of brainwashed Daxamites. So Dream Girl calls in every person who was ever a Legionnaire: active members, reservists, the Legion of Substitutes... even Supergirl, who resigned several years ago, travels to the 30th century to join the battle.
• Good Is Not Soft: Kara's kind-hearted, caring and compassionate. This causes plenty villains to underestimate her. Then they learn the hard way that she's also a short-tempered, fierce, vicious fighter with power to crush mountains and little patience for evil guys.
• Good Is Old-Fashioned: Defied by Batman in The Supergirl from Krypton (2004). According Bruce, people who think Superman is an outdated boy-scout are unable to see him for the hero he is.
• Good Parents: Pre-Crisis Supergirl has both her birth parents Zor-El and Allura In-Ze as well as her adoptive parents Fred and Edna Danvers, who really go out of their way to make sure that Kara isn't unhappy. Subverted in later continuities, though, in which Allura is emotionally abusive or Zor-El is manipulative.

  Edna Danvers: To others, she's the world's greatest heroine, but she's more than that to us! She's the daughter we dearly love!

• Gotta Get Your Head Together:
  • In Supergirl (1982), an amnesiac Supergirl clone does this when the original Kara reveals her true nature. And in the last issue, Supergirl clutches her head, screaming "Get out of my head!" when a telepathic super-villain attempts to mind-rape her.
  • In Supergirl: Cosmic Adventures in the 8th Grade, Linda Lee accidentally breaks a wall and clutches her head as wondering how she can fix it before someone stumbles upon the mess.
  • Last Daughter of Krypton: When Supergirl is getting overwhelmed by a sensory overload shortly after arriving on Earth, she clutches her head with both hands, falls on her knees and screams.
  • In Strangers at the Heart's Core, Linda Danvers clutches her head in pain when Lesla-Lar's spirit invades her mind.
  • In The Attack of the Annihilator, villain Kenneth Anderson clutches his head in pain as his body is being bathed by mutating alien energies.
• Grandfather Clause: New female heroes hardly wear a Minidress of Power, but Mary Marvel and Supergirl keep wearing skirts because they made and codified the trope, respectively. Supergirl's skirt costume is iconic, and attempts to replace it with pants or a Leotard of Power have been short-lived and seldom well-received.
• Grand Theft Me: Insect Queen did this to Lana Lang in the fifth volume of Supergirl.
• Grave-Marking Scene:
  • The Supergirl from Krypton (2004): After being rescued from Darkseid, Kara visits Harbinger's grave.
  • Elseworld's Finest: Supergirl & Batgirl: It happens twice. After exposing Lex Luthor's crimes, Kara visits her cousin's grave. Also, a flashback shows Barbara Gordon visiting her parents' grave before becoming Batgirl.
  • In Supergirl (2005) story arc Way of the World, Supergirl visits the graves of the parents of a little child she was unable to save.
• Gravity Master: In Strangers at the Heart's Core, Gravitron Man's disruptor backpack and Gravity Lord's gravitronic ray gun can affect and alter the fields of gravitational force around any physical body, including Earth.
  Gravity Lord: "My Gravitronic Ray may have destroyed my original lab— but only because it was even more efficient and powerful than I dared dream! With it, I can alter the fields of gravitational force around any physical body— including the Earth!"
• The Greatest Story Never Told: In Crisis On Infinite Earths, Kara fought the Anti-Monitor when he was trying to devour what little was left of The Multiverse. She was killed by him, but she hurt him, shattered his armor and destroyed his reality-eating machines, buying the surviving heroes a little time to regroup and defeat him. However, when the new universe was rebooted, Kara Zor-El and all memory of her was erased from existence. She saved the universe but no one remembered it. In Should Auld Acquaintance Be Forgot her ghost meets and encourages Deadman, even though he does not know who she is:
  Supergirl: "We don't do it for the glory. We don't do it for the recognition... We do it because it needs to be done. Because if we don't, no one else will. And we do it even if no one knows what we've done. Even if no one knows we exist. Even if no one remembers we ever existed."
• Green and Mean:
  • Pre-Crisis Mad Scientist Lesla-Lar◊ who tried to steal Supergirl's life, wore green.
  • One-time enemy Nightflame◊ dresses a full-body, tight, green suit. She is a Flaming Sword-wielding warrior and sorceress.
• Green-Eyed Monster:
  • Lesla-Lar, an accomplished Kandorian scientist, began antagonizing Kara because she was jealous of the praise that people of Earth gave Supergirl.
    Lesla-Lar: I envy and hate her! The honors that I, Lesla-Lar, have earned in Kandor as a scientific genius are as nothing compared to the acclaim the people of Earth will give Supergirl when they learn of her existence!
  • In Demon Spawn, 'Nasty' Luthor glares and fumes when Linda and Geoff kiss.
  • In Supergirl Vol 1 #7, Supergirl and Zatanna spend a while seeking out a man called Tony -whom they have a crush on- and struggling to save him. As soon as both women learn that he has a fiancée, they refuse to speak to him.
  • In Supergirl Vol 2 #20 Linda's friend Joan is jealous of Linda when she finds out that her friend is meeting Clark Kent, nationally famous newscaster. Her jealousy goes away when Linda explains Clark is her cousin.
• Grievous Harm with a Body:
  • In Red Daughter of Krypton, Supergirl grabs the tail of a Diasporan alien invader and swings him around, hitting a bunch of enemies with him.
  • In ''another Supergirl issue, Linda has to rescue a man from two giant octopi and a giant manta. Linda grabs manta's left flipper and slams it into both cephalopods, wielding it like a flail.
• Ground-Shattering Landing: In the cover of Supergirl Vol 5 #12, Kara performs a ground-cracking landing (combined with a Three-Point Landing for greater effect).
• Guile Hero: At the start of her career, Supergirl had to act as Superman's secret weapon. In order to do good deeds, help people and punish criminals and bullies without being seen, Kara constantly came up with new and creative ways to use her powers, and became very good at tricking and outthink opponents she couldn't simply overpower. She's capable of pretending she's killed herself to get rid of a parasitic lifeform and building a shrinking ray to defeat a monster so massive it doesn't even notice her attempts to fight it physically.
• Hair of Gold, Heart of Gold: All versions of Supergirl -including Power Girl- have a single thing in common: they're kind-hearted, blonde girls who don't want to see anybody getting hurt and use their huge powers to help and protect people. Kara Zor-El may be short-tempered, angsty, have anger issues... but she'll always be a good person deep-down:
  • Pre-Crisis Kara was an absolutely sweet, innocent child. She stopped being gullible when she grew up, and her adult self had quite the temper, but she always was a nice, selfless person.
  • Post-Crisis Kara behaved as an emo, self-centered, angry, bratty teen early on due to Kryptonite poisoning. However she began dealing with her issues, got cured, and developed into a kind, compassionate and cheerful woman.
  • New 52 Kara was a lonely, insolated teen who had anger issues and Survivor Guilt due to losing her family and getting stranded in an alien world. Even so, she went out of her way to help people and risked her life to protect others. In the Red Daughter of Krypton storyline she confronted her anger issues and got over her rage, angst and confusion. When Supergirl (Rebirth) kics off, she has become the kind of person who will stop criminals, send them to prison and try to help them.
• Happily Adopted: Supergirl's foster parents usually have a good relationship with their adopted alien daughter.
  • Pre-Crisis Kara was adopted by Fred and Edna Danvers. They loved her and she them, even after she found out that her biological parents were still alive. When she revealed she was Superman's cousin they took it in stride. And they got heart-broken when she died during the Crisis on Infinite Earths.
  • Pa and Ma Kent also kind of adopted Post-Crisis Kara. They were the only parental figures she established a rapport with, and she regarded them as family.
  • New 52 Kara's foster parents are Jeremiah and Eliza Danvers who first appeared in Supergirl (Rebirth) # 1. Although they are technically her DEO-appointed handlers, they established a strong rapport after a few weeks.
    Jeremiah: What did I miss?
    Eliza: Just the launch, Jeremiah. But the new uniform sure fits.
    Cameron: Years since I let you two get married and you still find ways to help me question that decision.
    Supergirl: Comms are live. I can hear you two.
    Eliza: We're your parents, Kara. We're not dead.
• Harmful to Minors: In The Supergirl From Krypton (1959), Kara is barely fifteen when she sees everyone in her hometown getting sick from radiation and suffering horrible, painful deaths.
• Hates Being Alone: This has been a part of the personalities of Supergirl and her cousin for decades:
  • In the Pre-Crisis universe Clark felt very alone when he was Superboy because he could never play with kids his own age, there was no one like him, and no one could relate to him. Before graduating, his foster parents died, and he felt even more isolated and a bigger outcast. When he met his cousin Kara he felt incredibly happy because he had a family again, someone he could feel connected to.
  • Pre-Crisis Supergirl felt almost as alone as Clark. Fortunately Kara had a cousin she could relate to, but she spent several months living in an orphanage until she was adopted. She hated the place because she felt utterly alone and friendless in a strange land.
  • In Superboy #80 both cousins talk about this◊.
    Superman: Many years ago, when I lived in Smallville as Superboy, I could never play with kids my own age for fear of giving away my identity! Oh, how I longed for a human playmate who was super, like myself!
    Supergirl: I know how you feel! I, too, dare not play with anyone my own age!
  • In Many Happy Returns, Superman says he feels very alone because -even though he's greatest and most loved hero in the world-, he has no social life.
  • In Batgirl (2009), Kara and her friend Stephanie Brown watch a cheesy movie. Most of audience laughs out loud when Dracula cries out he is alone, but both girls cannot laugh about it. They know what being alone is like, and they don't find it funny at all.
  • Post-Flashpoint Supergirl was a lonely, angry teenager. Her family and friends were dead, she could not bring herself to trust her cousin, she didn't manage to make friends or fit in with humans. Her issues of alienation, grief and anger got worse until she flew off the handle.
• Haunted House: In Adventure Comics #408, Supergirl investigates an old, dilapidated mansion which is haunted by the ghost of a little girl whose parents were murdered and buried in the cellar wall by the current owner— her father's uncle, who coveted their inheritance. After the Girl of Steel finds the bodies and turns the criminal over to the cops, the ghost is finally able to rest in peace.
• He Knows Too Much:
  • In Who is Superwoman?, the titular villain murders Reactron's ex-girlfriend so that she can't tell anybody Superwoman and Reactron are working together.
  • Later in The Hunt for Reactron, Reactron murders a whole Metropolis Science Squad when they discover it was Sam Lane who blew the water reservoir up and Supergirl, Nightwing and Flamebird are being framed.
  • In The Unknown Supergirl, Lesla-Lar plans to help Lex Luthor kill Superman and then "accidentally" kill Lex while capturing him so he can't tell that the "hero" who avenged Superman was in fact Luthor's ally.
  • In The Killers of Krypton, Empress Gandelo orders her minions to find and kill Supergirl before her investigation uncovers she is responsible for Krypton's destruction.
  • In Starfire's Revenge, the titular crime queenpin gets her conman Derek Ames assassinated because she cannot trust him to keep his mouth shut about her secret plans, which he is aware of.
• Heartbroken Badass: In Solo #1, Dick Malverne, Pre-Crisis Supergirl's childhood crush died after confessing he loved her and he knew her Secret Identity all along, leaving her heart-broken.
  That was the last time I saw Richard. Tonight I know what it is to be human. Tonight my super skin is still invulnerable, but my Richard is never coming back, and my heart is broken into a million pieces.
• The Heartless: Several Supergirl's enemies are born from her dark emotions: Satan Girl, Kara's negative side given shape and sentience by a fragment of Red Kryptonite; Nightflame, her death wish's embodiment; and Dark Supergirl, who is born from her self-loathing, grief and Survivor Guilt.
• Heartwarming Orphan: Linda Lee eventually gets adopted, becoming Linda Danvers.
• Heavyworlder: Krypton having a much greater mass than Earth was one of the explanations for Supergirl's powers.
• Heel–Face Brainwashing: "Superman Vol. 1 #162: The Amazing Story of Superman-Red and Superman-Blue!" had Superman split into the titular super-genius versions of himself. They then create an "Anti-Evil Ray," which they then upload to a bunch of satellites and bombard the planet with. For her part, Supergirl releases the Phantom Zoners and uses the ray on them. Sure enough, the ray brainwashes everyone into being "good," which leads to a perfect world, free from disease, crime, and war.
• Hellfire: Supergirl enemy Nightflame is a sorceress capable of summoning infernal flames that are hot enough to burn an invulnerable Kryptonian.
• The Hero Dies: In Crisis on Infinite Earths, Supergirl sacrifices herself to destroy the Anti-Monitor, and dies in her cousin's arms. Although she fails to kill the Big Bad, her sacrifice saves Superman, saves momentarily the last five surviving Earths, and gives the surviving heroes time to regroup and come up with a new strategy.
• Heroes Love Dogs:
  • Kara really likes Krypto, and he becomes her pet when she arrives on Earth. In non-canon story Superman #149 in which Superman gets murdered by Lex Luthor, Supergirl becomes Krypto's sole owner when she takes over her cousin's job.
  • In Krypton No More, Superman, Supergirl and Krypto fight and have fun together.
  • Post-Crisis Kara tried to befriend Krypto, and she was devastated when the dog seemed to dislike her. Later on, they became friends.
  • Post-Flashpoint Kara was delighted◊ when she learnt that Krypto survived.
  • In Tales of the Sinestro Corps: Superman-Prime #1, Superboy-Prime hurts Krypto, resulting in the whole Superman Family ganging up on him.
    Supergirl: You better hope our dog is okay. Or we're going to hurt you.
    Power Girl: Oh, Kara, Honey. That's a given.
• Heroic BSoD:
  • Post-Crisis Kara Zor-El had one of these after the destruction of New Krypton. Superman hugged her while she cried in space, and she considered quitting the hero gig for a while.
  • In the Red Daughter of Krypton arc she went through one after meeting and beating Lobo, believing everyone wanted to manipulate her and she belonged nowhere. She was so upset and furious that she became a Red Lantern. A while later she was told that she would be a Red Lantern forever because she would die if she took her Power Ring off. She fell to her knees in despair and fury, threw her head back and screamed while incandescent light poured from her eyes.
• Heroic Build: Supergirl is usually drawn with this body type: broad shoulders, large breasts, thin waist and lean, muscular arms and legs.
• Heroic Bystander: In Supergirl vol 5 #20, Supergirl is fighting a cyclops (long story) and being trounced by the giant monster. Then a bystander hands an arrow dropped by an Amazon (long story) over to Supergirl, and she uses it to blind the cyclops.
• Heroic RRoD: In Crisis On Infinite Earths, Supergirl engages the Anti-Monitor and fights so hard than her physical body begins falling apart. Dr. Light guessed that, even if Kara had won, she would have died due to the extraordinary physical strain.
• Heroic Self-Deprecation: Post-Crisis Supergirl is one of the world's greatest and mightiest heroes, has saved the world several times, saved countless lives, helped hundreds of people and been full-fledged member of four super-teams. Now you try to convince her of this. Kara has a rather low self-esteem and regards herself as an immature, clueless child who is barely worthy of bearing the S-shield. In Good-Looking Corpse she leads a team of young heroes and she is shocked when they praise her cleverness and leadership skills.
• Heroic Resolve:
  • Even if Supergirl looks hurt or is dying, never, ever, try to harm her cousin under no circumstance.
  • In Crisis on Infinite Earths, she was hurt and beaten. Then the Anti-Monitor (an universe-eating Eldritch Abomination) tried to kill Superman. She pounced on the Anti-Monitor and delivered such a brutal beatdown that she she almost killed him.
  • In Red Daughter of Krypton Kara was dying after her battle with a worldkiller. She was sick from Kryptonite-poisoning, worn-out and her heart hardly beat. Then the world-killer proclaimed her cousin would be his next victim. Thirty seconds later she had hurled the biological living weapon into the Sun.
• Heroic Sacrifice:
  • Her death in Crisis on Infinite Earths saved Superman and the whole Multiverse and it was one of the big comic book deaths at that time. Remarkably, in Convergence she found out that she'd die if she left her universe to fight the Anti-Monitor, and she still chose to fight.
    Oh, dear God. Did my death mean anything? Did I help them save the world?
    [beat]
    No. I can't think that way. Even if all my death means is I've delayed theirs, I still have to save them.
  • Post-Crisis Kara tried to kill herself to destroy the Kryptonian Worldkiller and save Earth in the Red Daughter Of Krypton arc.
• Heroic Spirit: Supergirl never quits... ever. Even if she has been beaten, depowered, weakened, captured... by enemies that outnumber her, overpower her, or outsmart her, she will fight on until winning or dying.
• Hero Insurance: Supergirl usually tries to cleans up after her battles:
  • In Supergirl vol. 5 #12 new hero Terra (now called Atlee) helps Supergirl take out a giant dinosaur; after the battle she uses her earth powers to repair the streets and even fix a fire hydrant. It is later revealed in the Terra miniseries that she apparently does this after every battle.
  • In Supergirl #31 and Red Lanterns #31, a city gets leveled and burned down because of a battle between two groups of Red Lanterns. Supergirl and her Red Lantern team want to help out with rebuilding it after the battle, but the frightened locals beg them to leave as soon as possible.
• He's Back!:
  • Kara wanted to give up being Supergirl after the destruction of New Krypton in the fifth volume, but she donned her Supergirl costume again to save Metropolis from Bizarrogirl.
  • At the end of the New 52 "Red Daughter of Krypton" arc, Kara becomes again Supergirl, and decides to return to Earth and protect the planet.
• Heterosexual Life-Partners:
  • Supergirl and Batgirl usually have this kind of relationship.
    • In the post-Crisis continuity, Kara and Stephanie Brown. They love spending time together and helping each other. And if you pick on Steph, you will never know what hit you.
    • In Elseworld's Finest: Supergirl & Batgirl, Supergirl and Batgirl don't get along well at the beginning, but they turn into this over the course of the story.
  • Post-Crisis Kara and Cassie Sandsmark Wonder Girl were very good friends, too.
• Hidden Depths: A lot of people in-universe thinks Supergirl's a brainless, gullible Flying Brick that hits first and asks questions later. Though she's a member of the Kryptonian Science Guild and has plenty of hobbies◊: playing guitar, drawing, costume-designing... She also owns a pet cat she's very fond of.
• Hidden in Plain Sight:
  • In Pre-Crisis continuity, it often happened folks in Midvale or Stanhope were wondering about Supergirl possibly having a secret identity while plain Linda Danvers walked by.
  • The Untold Story of Argo City: In the Superman Museum, a little girl is admiring the Supergirl's exhibit. When Linda Danvers walks by, the little girl asks her if she would also love being Supergirl.
    Little girl: Gosh, isn't she wonderful? Don't you wish you were Supergirl and shared all Superman's adventures?
    Zor-El: (whispering to Allura) The child doesn't know she's talking to Supergirl herself!
• High-Altitude Interrogation: Kara did this in the Crucible story arc. After being abducted and taken to a weird, unknown place, she grabs the neck of one of her kidnappers and hovers over an abyss, demanding answers while reminding him that "It looks like a long way down."
• Hit Me, Dammit!: In Supergirl vol 4 #77, Kara believes -mistakenly- her X-Ray Vision disrupted a woman's pacemaker. She feels so guilty and distraught that when a super-villain shows up, looking for Supergirl, she asks him to beat her up.
• Hoist Hero over Head:
  • In the New 52, Kara does this to a living Kryptonian suit before hurling it into the Sun.
  • Inverted on the cover◊ of Supergirl #15 (Jan 1984).
• Hoist by His Own Petard:
  • In Action Comics #286, Luthor tried to shoot at Supergirl, but he accidentally shot himself.
  • In Superman Volume 1 #338, Brainiac shoots his shrinking ray at Kara, but she deflects it back at him. Struck by his own ray, Brainiac begins to rapidly shrink, and he pleads with Supergirl to save him, but she coolly states that the enlarging ray has not enough energy left to save Superman, Kandor and him, so Brainiac is out of luck◊ (note that Brainiac had previously shrunk both Superman and the city of Kandor). Even Superman begs her use the ray to save Brainiac, and she replies: "Cousin... NO!"◊
  • In The Killers of Krypton, Empress Gandelo slaps Harry Hokum with her rock-hard, razor-sharp hand and then she gets him dumped into space. It is not a pretty or clean way of dying, and you would almost feel sorry for him... if Hokum wasn't an utterly amoral, sadistic tyrant who regards people as tools, blames his own mistakes on his loyal subordinates and has murdered countless people in atrocious ways. Gandelo does not care about any of his misdeeds, though; she is pissed off because he revealed her organization's secrets to Supergirl.
  • Starfire's Revenge: Derek Marlowe/Ames is a conman who enthusiastically seduces and steals gullible wealthy women. His boss gets him killed off because he cannot be trusted to keep quiet about her ambitious scheme.
• Holding Hands: In Convergence #8, Kal and Kara link hands while they observe from afar the planet created by Brainiac.
• Home Base: In Action Comics #271 Supergirl built her own -short-lived- private underground base beneath the Arabian Desert. In Supergirl (2011), Kara had an underwater base called "Sanctuary of Solitude", which was destroyed. Finally, in Supergirl (Rebirth), Kara inherited his cousin's Fortress of Solitude.
• Hope Bringer: Supergirl and her cousin are the The DCU's biggest examples, bringing hope eveyrwhere and showing there's a better way. In some continuities, the "S"-shield is the Kryptonian symbol for "hope". Nonetheless, Supergirl is a bigger hope-bringer than her cousin, her motto being "Hope, Compassion and Help for all". In Convergence: Adventures of Superman, Superman tells she brings him hope.
• Hostage Situation:
  • In an Annual, a bank full of people are taken hostage, and Supergirl has to slip into the building and take the bank robbers down without letting anybody spot her.
  • The Strange Revenge of Lena Luthor: When Supergirl reveals she has discovered his ploy, Mind-Bomber holds her friend Lena hostage and slinks back into an abandoned subway station, where he expects to take advantage of the darkness to take Supergirl out using his psychic powers.
• Hot-Blooded: All incarnations of Kara Zor-El are emotional, passionate and headstrong women, and some of them are quite hot-tempered (her New 52 self) or tend to charge into situations without thinking (her post-Crisis counterpart). Her anger is an actual plot point in the Red Daughter Of Krypton arc, in which she attracts a Red Ring of Rage and can hardly control her emotions.
• Hot Wings:
  • Flaming wings sprout from Supergirl's back in the grand finale of Cosmic Adventures in the 8th Grade.
  • Kara gains flame wings to battle a space dragon after being exposed to Red Kryptonite.
• Human Aliens: Kara is Kryptonian and outwardly indistinguishable from humans, despite obvious biological differences. Exactly how close or distant humans and Kryptonians are can vary depending on the work. According to some Silver Age stories, Kryptonians were descendants of humans plucked from Earth by a more technologically advanced race. Some Post-Crisis stories imply this as well.
• Human Alien Discovery: At the beginning of Gotham City Garage, Kara Gordon believes she's a normal 20-something woman. Then James Gordon reveals he isn't her biological father and helps her escape from the domed city and to the wastelands, where she discovers she has strange powers. Eventually Kara learns she's an alien from a planet named Krypton.
• Humans Need Aliens: Supergirl has saved the day countless times since her creation.
  • In the Crisis on Infinite Earths she saved an infinite number of Earths when she took the Anti-Monitor on. Even although she died, her sacrifice gave the surviving heroes time enough to fight back. When human Linda Danvers tried to take Kara's place to save her life, she unfortunately found she couldn't hurt the Anti-Monitor because she couldn't punch so hard like Kara (who was an Earth-One Kryptonian).
  • In Supergirl (Rebirth), Kara provided the DEO (Department of Extra-normal Operations) with Kryptonian technology to help them fight alien threats off. Moreover, Lar-On would have killed everybody in the base if Kara hadn't returned.
• Humble Hero: Although Supergirl has occasionally been called "the world's greatest heroine", and is definitely one of the mightiest Earth's heroes, she simply regards herself as someone whose abilities entail responsibilities and duties. Nonetheless, she is not interested in fame or glory and she would definitely prefer being a normal woman.
• Hurl It into the Sun:
  • In the New 52, Kara once essentially did this to herself to try to get rid of a Red Lantern ring without it killing her. It worked.
  • In Supergirl Rebirth, the Department of Extra-normal Operations launches Kara into the Sun as a last resort to help her get her powers back.
• Hyper-Awareness: Kara has demonstrated having impressive capability for analysis and deductive reasoning (Super Instinct she called it back in the Silver Age) owing to her Super-Senses, heightened memory and natural intelligence. In a classic story she recognizes a heartbeat because "with hearing as sensitive as mine, they're as individual as fingerprints".

---