Mindy Newell: Dear Supergirl…
Superman: C’mon, Kara…don’t give up. You’ll make it. Pl…please…please stay with us.
Supergirl: I can’t. B…But’s it’s okay…I knew what I was doing…I wanted…wanted you to be safe. You mean so much to me…so much to the world.
Superman: You succeeded in destroying the machines.
Supergirl: Thank heavens…the worlds…have a chance to live…y-you’re crying…please don’t,,,you taught me to be brave…and I was…I love you so much…for what you are…for…how good you are…
The Death of Supergirl, Crisis on Infinite Earths #7 October 1985, Marv Wolfman and George Perez
Dear Supergirl,
I watched the teaser. And though I generally don’t watch them because of their usually really bad quality, the bootleg version of the pilot episode mysteriously showed up in my e-mail box the other day; by the time you read this I will not have been able to resist. You are my favorite super-heroine of all time.
How many times have I mentioned you, Maid of Might – one of your nicknames back in the day – on these pages in the last two – or is it three – years? The last time was just two week’s ago in Occam’s Razor.
I was heartbroken when Marv and George decided to end your life in Crisis. I mourned both for you and for the death of my childhood dream. And I mourned for the end of an era – of all the changes that Crisis wrought, this was the one that struck me at my core, this was the one that felt real, felt irreversible.
And I felt old.
And even though you came back, you didn’t come back the same. You were no longer your cousin’s secret weapon, you were no longer hiding in an orphanage as an ordinary Earth girl named Linda Lee. You didn’t have a Linda Lee robot to cover for you when you were off doing super-missions on your own or for your cousin, and you didn’t have a best friend in the orphanage named Lena Thorul, whom you didn’t know was actually the sister of Lex Luthor, your cousin’s arch-enemy.
You didn’t have a cat – the only thing I didn’t like about you, because I’m a dog person – and you didn’t have a super-horse named Comet – which was another reason I loved you, because I’m a horse person – for the “strange brand” marking his hide. You weren’t a member of the Legion of Super-Heroes, and you didn’t have three boyfriends: the 31st century green-skinned, brilliant Brainiac 5, the Atlantean fish-tailed mer-boy Jerro, and ordinary Earthling and fellow orphan Dick Wilson.
Fred and Edna Danvers didn’t adopt you, and you didn’t rescue them from certain death, blowing your secret identity, which of course your cousin agreed you absolutely had to do. And the people of Earth never celebrated and honored you when your cousin finally said that you were ready to graduate and step out on your own, so you never met the President and you were never honored at the United Nations.
Well, there is one good thing. You were never kidnapped by Lesla-Lar of the bottled Kryptonian city of Kandor and brainwashed into believing you were she, living her life as a respected scientist in a city in a bottle kept by your cousin in his Fortress of Solitude while she lived your life on Earth.
All that history, and more, wiped out of existence as if it never happened, never inspired the imagination of one little girl and, I bet, thousands, maybe millions, like her, who read comics and dreamed of things that never were but could be.
All that history to draw from, to borrow, to homage, to even reinterpret…all the things that could be….
…when you, Supergirl, make your first debut on network television this fall.
I don’t know whether to laugh and cheer…
…or to cry and mourn once again.
You can cheer, Mindy. The show isn’t perfect, and I would like it more if she was younger, but a lot of the good stuff is there. Kara is there, earnestly trying to do her best. The “earnestly” is my favorite part of the character, and the show nails it.
Beautiful. I was nine years old when they killed her off. I was distraught. I cried. They wouldn’t even allow her to exist. Despite Superman essentially being the only Kryptonian again, that wasn’t enough. Barry Allen could be celebrated despite his sacrifice, but not Kara. I’ve been in mourning ever since. Granted, my inner child was healed when Kara Zor-El was Supergirl again after almost 20 years, despite her not being, well, herself. I don’t cry as hard when I read Crisis #7, but just reading the quotes have me feeling quite sick. 30 years after killing her off she’s now on TV, and the world again knows who Supergirl is. But, I do still mourn. I really miss “my” Kara, my “big sister” and “best friend.” It still aches that except for a few exception, I haven’t “heard” Kara’s dry sense of humour, seen her smile, and felt her determination and heroism for 30 years. Thank you for sharing.
Heh. My first wife read that issue of Crisis</i< and said "How DARE they make me feel so bad about a character i don't even LIKE?"
Personally, i think Peter David's run on Supergirl was the best ever.
argh.