Kara Zor-El (English)

Justice League of America (DC, 1960 series) #134 September 1976

Disambiguation: Supergirl, 1959-1985, 2004-present First Published in: 1959 Keywords: DC; Kryptonians Creator List Creator Name List Issue List Cover List Series List Feature List Characters Appeared With Group List Sequences List External Links: Wikipedia Name: Kara Zor-El Additional Names: Linda Danvers Linda Lee Danvers Kara Zor-El / Claire Connors Kara Zor-El / Kara Danvers Kara Zor-El / Linda Danvers Kara Zor-El / Linda Lee Danvers Kara Zor-El / Linda Lang Kara Zor-El / Linda Lee Linda Lee Kara Starikov

Description:

Pre-Crisis history: Daughter of Zor-El and Alura In-Ze of Krypton. Niece of Jor-El and Lara Lor-Van. Cousin of Kal-El (Clark Kent / Superman). Adopted daughter of Fred and Edna Danvers.

Her romantic interests included Dick Wilson/Malverne, Jerro of Atlantis, Brainiac 5, and Salkor of Makkor.

Supergirl died during the Crisis on Infinite Earths. Her history was completely erased following the conclusion of that event.

Post-Crisis history: Kara Zor-El, the daughter of Kryptonians Zor-El and Alura In-Ze, was saved when they rocketed her to Earth just before their sanctuary, Argo City, was destroyed by Brainiac. Her rocket got knocked off course, so the ship's computer put Kara into suspended animation for decades while it followed a new course. When she arrived on Earth, Kara was now younger than her once-younger cousin Kal-El (Clark Kent / Superman).

Kara was later adopted by Jeremiah and Eliza Danvers.

Notes:

Created by Otto Binder (b. 1911) and Al Plastino (b. 1921).

Pre-Crisis Earth-One:

• 15-year-old Kara Zor-El came to Earth from Argo City, was named Supergirl, adopted the secret identity of Linde Lee, and was brought to Midvale Orphanage in Action Comics (DC, 1938 series) #252 (May 1959); Superman decided to keep the existence of Supergirl a secret.
• Supergirl celebrated her 16th birthday in Action Comics (DC, 1938 series) #270 (November 1960).
• Linda was adopted by Fred and Edna Danvers in Action Comics (DC, 1938 series) #279 (August 1961).
• Superman introduced Supergirl to the world in Action Comics (DC, 1938 series) #285 (February 1962).
• The anniversary of Supergirl's arrival on Earth (also used as Linda's 16th birthday) was celebrated in Superman (DC, 1939 series) #152 (April 1962).
• Supergirl discovered that her birth parents were alive in the Survival Zone in Action Comics (DC, 1938 series) #309 (February 1964); they were freed in Action Comics (DC, 1938 series) #310 (March 1964).
• Linda graduated Midvale High School and attended Stanhope College in Action Comics (DC, 1938 series) #318 (November 1964).
• Supergirl was given a drug in Adventure Comics (DC, 1938 series) #402 (February 1971) which caused her to lose her powers intermittently; the effect eventually wore off.
• Linda graduated from Stanhope College in Adventure Comics (DC, 1938 series) #406 (May 1971).
• She attended Vandyre University in Supergirl (DC, 1972 series) #1 (November 1972), and graduated in The Superman Family (DC, 1974 series) #165 (June-July 1974).
• Linda enrolled at Lake Shore University in The Daring New Adventures of Supergirl (DC, 1982 series) #1 (November 1982).
• Supergirl died in Crisis on Infinite Earths (DC, 1985 series) #7 (October 1985).
• After her death, Superman learned that Supergirl had married Salkor of Makkor while suffering from amnesia, as shown in Superman (DC, 1939 series) #415 (January 1986).
• The date of Supergirl's arrival on Earth (and Linda's birthday) was established as May 18 in Action Comics (DC, 1938 series) #305 (October 1963), however it was given as April 11 in The Superman Family (DC, 1974 series) #203 (September-October 1980). According to Supergirl (DC, 1983 series) #20 (June 1984), Supergirl arrived on Earth at 12:17 PM EST.
• The date of Supergirl's public debut was established as February 20 in Superman's Girl Friend, Lois Lane (DC, 1958 series) #41 (May 1963).
• According to the 1976 Super DC Calendar, Kara Zor-El's birthday was on September 22.

Post-Crisis:

• The revised version of Kara Zor-El first appeared in Superman / Batman (DC, 2003 series) #8 (May 2004).
• While fighting in the bottle city of Kandor II, Supergirl disguised herself as Flamebird, beginning in Supergirl (DC, 2005 series) #6 (April 2006).
• Supergirl created the secret identity "Claire Connors" in Supergirl (DC, 2005 series) #10 (November 2006).
• She assumed the secret identity "Linda Lang", niece of Lana Lang, in Supergirl (DC, 2005 series) #34 (December 2008).
• Supergirl adopted the secret identity "Kara Danvers" in Supergirl: Rebirth (DC, 2016 series) #1 (October 2016).
• Her secret identity was changed back to "Linda Danvers" in Supergirl (DC, 2025 series) #1 (July 2025).

DC Bombshells:

• Kara Starikov of Earth 24 first appeared in DC Comics: Bombshells (DC, 2015 series) #1 (October 2015); origin in issue #2 (November 2015); first appearance as The Supergirl in issue #4 (January 2016).