Supergirl on Film and Television
Superman's Cousin Makes Appearances in Animation and Live Action
Dec 5, 2008
The obviously derivative character of Supergirl took an oddly circuitous route to her cousin's side. Her roots can be traced through various female counterparts to the Superman character, including numerous instances where Lois Lane accidentally gained analogous powers to the Man of Steel or at least dreamed that she did. Both Superman and Superboy dealt with Super Women who had a lot in common with Supergirl in the comics of the 1940's and 1950's. Jimmy Olsen also dreamed up a Super Girl of sorts before the "real" Supergirl, Kara Zor-el, made her debut in 1959.
Bringing Supergirl to Life
In 1984, following the success of the first two Superman movies starring Christopher Reeve and the financial success and critical failure of Superman III, part of the team responsible for those films turned their attention to Supergirl.
Ilya Salkind had written a treatment for Superman III that Warner Brothers ultimately rejected in favour of a Superman vehicle that included Richard Pryor. Not to be deterred, Salkind took many of the ideas from that treatment and transplanted them into a Supergirl film. Marc McClure reprized his role as Jimmy Olsen, tying the Supergirl film to the Superman franchise.
Unfortunately, the movie was a dismal failure. Despite how well Helen Slater filled out the Supergirl costume, poor plotting, sloppy direction, awful dialog and an over the top performance by Faye Dunaway combined in a movie that rivals Superman III as the worst superhero movie ever made.
Animated Appearances
In the comics, Kara Zor-el is from Argos City, but in Superman - The Animated Series, Supergirl is not actually Superman's cousin but Kara In-Ze, a "near-Kryptonian" from Krypton's sister planet, Argos. Her powers are not as mighty as her male counterpart, but close enough that the two bond and Clark Kent's parents wind up taking in another superpowered orphan.
Kara adopts a slightly different costume in the series, wearing a white top and blue skirt rather than the traditional Supergirl outfit of a blue top and red or blue skirt. She still wears the red cape and the "S" shield on her chest.
This version of Supergirl also appears in Justice League Unlimited. The unpowered hero, Green Arrow and original League founder Green Lantern take her under their collective wing and serve as mentor and teacher as Kara learns to wield her great power. In the final season of the show, Supergirl adopts a more "Superman-esque" costume and eventually leaves the League to join the Legion of Super-Heroes in the Thirty-First Century.
Live Action Television
In the third season of Smallville, an episode titled "Covenant" brought a young girl calling herself Kara into Clark Kent's life. It turned out that this Kara was a young human being used by Jor-El, Superman's father, to teach the young Kal-El what he would need to know to become a superhero.
In the seventh season, Kara Zor-El comes to Kansas and further helps Clark to discover the hero he is destined to become. Unlike her Earth raised cousin, Kara has access to the full array of her Kryptonian powers including flight, something Clark Kent has yet to master. Laura Vandervoort has reprized the role in the eighth season of the show.
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