Current Supergirl continuity: connected to Silver/Bronze Age Pre-COIE Supergirl?

[Buried Alien]

What's the present continuity status of Supergirl post Dark-CRISIS? Is the current Kara Zor-El a separate entity from the Pre-COIE Kara Zor-El who died in COIE back in 1985, or are they now considered the same character (resurrected)?

Buried Alien (The Fastest Post Alive!)

[Kuwagaton]

I can only speak up to Andreyko but as of 2020 or so, I think the only person to touch her death after early Post Crisis was Peter David.

Of course, "it all counts" now though.

[CosmeticSkull]

What's the present continuity status of Supergirl post Dark-CRISIS? Is the current Kara Zor-El a separate entity from the Pre-COIE Kara Zor-El who died in COIE back in 1985, or are they now considered the same character (resurrected)?

Buried Alien (The Fastest Post Alive!)

My understanding is that the current Supergirl is the one that was introduced in the New 52.

[DABellWrites]

My understanding is that the current Supergirl is the one that was introduced in the New 52.

Didn't Superman Reborn, Death Metal, and Doomsday Clock, erase the New52 out of continuity? Or am I mistaken?

As for the answer. Just like everything else, it's up to interpretation at this point. There's no clear or direct idea of what's canon from pre-crisis or post-crisis. I bet in the near-future, the lines are going to blur between pre-crisis and post-crisis to the point where what's pre/post will be pointless. We already saw this with Rebirth/Doomsday Clock and 5G. I'm 100% sure that's going to isolate potential new readers even more.

[HsssH]

Didn't Superman Reborn, Death Metal, and Doomsday Clock, erase the New52 out of continuity? Or am I mistaken?

I think that the explanation that makes most sense is that New 52 was expanded to include some old stuff, not erased.

Something like Superman Reborn, and Jon's age by extention, doesn't make any sense in any continuity.

[bat39]

What's the present continuity status of Supergirl post Dark-CRISIS? Is the current Kara Zor-El a separate entity from the Pre-COIE Kara Zor-El who died in COIE back in 1985, or are they now considered the same character (resurrected)?

Buried Alien (The Fastest Post Alive!)

Haven't read World's Finest yet, so dunno if this is explained there at all. But my understanding (which is also based on the proposed 5G timeline) is that the Silver/Bronze Age Kara was killed during COIE and then resurrected more recently as the modern version. Potentially, there might be some kind of convoluted explanation for how people temporarily 'forgot' about Kara after her death (just like how they 'forgot' Wally when he disappeared after Flashpoint).

There are interesting implications though from bringing back Pre-Crisis Supergirl continuity. So was she now born on Argo City after Krypton's destruction? Or was she born on Krypton and took a long time to come to earth? Is she younger or older than Kal-El?

I think that the explanation that makes most sense is that New 52 was expanded to include some old stuff, not erased.

Something like Superman Reborn, and Jon's age by extention, doesn't make any sense in any continuity.

Its...weird. I think this explanation works for some characters/franchises, but not for others. With Flash, Green Arrow, Aquaman, Wonder Woman, I think this explanation works...these are the New 52 versions, except that in some cases (Flash, WW) aspects of their Post-Crisis histories have been restored to them and this has been rationalized in-universe as their timelines/realities being tampered with.

With the likes of Superman and Batman though (and I think possibly the JSA), I think they've been restored to the Post-Crisis versions, with either elements of their New 52 histories (in Batman's case) or new histories entirely (Jon for Superman) being folded in.

[magha_regulus]

I really hope this is officially addressed. Kara's sacrifice deserves to be remembered and praised. She should remember it and there should be consequences for it.

[DABellWrites]

Haven't read World's Finest yet, so dunno if this is explained there at all. But my understanding (which is also based on the proposed 5G timeline) is that the Silver/Bronze Age Kara was killed during COIE and then resurrected more recently as the modern version. Potentially, there might be some kind of convoluted explanation for how people temporarily 'forgot' about Kara after her death (just like how they 'forgot' Wally when he disappeared after Flashpoint).

There are interesting implications though from bringing back Pre-Crisis Supergirl continuity. So was she now born on Argo City after Krypton's destruction? Or was she born on Krypton and took a long time to come to earth? Is she younger or older than Kal-El?



Its...weird. I think this explanation works for some characters/franchises, but not for others. With Flash, Green Arrow, Aquaman, Wonder Woman, I think this explanation works...these are the New 52 versions, except that in some cases (Flash, WW) aspects of their Post-Crisis histories have been restored to them and this has been rationalized in-universe as their timelines/realities being tampered with.

With the likes of Superman and Batman though (and I think possibly the JSA), I think they've been restored to the Post-Crisis versions, with either elements of their New 52 histories (in Batman's case) or new histories entirely (Jon for Superman) being folded in.

So confusing.

[D.Z]

Most of 5G was junked and scrapped.

You have to read World Finest and her other recent appearances and some parts of Rebirth had for her.

[Jon Clark]

See this is why "It all happened" the way DC uses it is such a headache. On one level it's nice to think the Supergirl who went from Superman's secret-weapon to the first person to seriously hurt the Anti-Monitor is the one appearing currently in Action Comics. But on another level it is hard to make the Silver Age ideas mesh with the modern takes. Does Kara remember being Linda Lee, orphan? Did those memories (of being Linda Lee-Danvers) actually influence her current personality as opposed to being Linda Lang (pre-Flashpoint) or very briefly Kara Danvers?

Are we supposed to read her as a person who remembers being dead or as just the survivor of Krypton's/Argo's destruction?

Did her basic moral code come from two loving parents (Pre-Crisis), the twisted version of Zor-El from her early Post-Crisis origin, the Zor-El/Allura of New Krypton, the new-52 guy who cut a deal with Brainiac... ? At least Power Girl's Zor-L seems to be consistently vague and not flip-flopping between saint and sadist.

[bat39]

Most of 5G was junked and scrapped.

You have to read World Finest and her other recent appearances and some parts of Rebirth had for her.

5G was mostly junked, but a few aspects of it do seem to be sticking around, such as Wonder Woman being a JSA member. Supergirl dying during COIE and then being resurrected is one of those 5G ideas that I feel is being retained, given that she's now been shown to be around during the Pre-COIE era of the current timeline. But, as is the case with Wonder Woman, they need to do a story explaining how that works.

See this is why "It all happened" the way DC uses it is such a headache. On one level it's nice to think the Supergirl who went from Superman's secret-weapon to the first person to seriously hurt the Anti-Monitor is the one appearing currently in Action Comics. But on another level it is hard to make the Silver Age ideas mesh with the modern takes. Does Kara remember being Linda Lee, orphan? Did those memories (of being Linda Lee-Danvers) actually influence her current personality as opposed to being Linda Lang (pre-Flashpoint) or very briefly Kara Danvers?

Are we supposed to read her as a person who remembers being dead or as just the survivor of Krypton's/Argo's destruction?

Did her basic moral code come from two loving parents (Pre-Crisis), the twisted version of Zor-El from her early Post-Crisis origin, the Zor-El/Allura of New Krypton, the new-52 guy who cut a deal with Brainiac... ? At least Power Girl's Zor-L seems to be consistently vague and not flip-flopping between saint and sadist.

They definitely need to do a story explaining the mechanics of all this.

My guess is that we're probably back to the Pre-Crisis loving parents. Which is also in line with her most successful media adaptation so far, namely the CW show.

Whether she was born on Argo post Krypton's destruction, or was a teenager on Krypton who used to babysit Kal-El but arrived on earth later than him is a far more interesting question IMO. Especially considering how much her being 'older' than Kal-El has become a big part of her character in modern depictions over the past nearly 20 years (including the aforementioned TV show).

[Digifiend]

Based on World's Finest, which present Kara remembers, yeah, pre-Crisis Kara and current Kara are one and the same. When she died in Crisis, her original Linda Lee Danvers secret identity died for good. When she was resurrected (which is what her pre-Flashpoint reboot will have been retconned to) she tried out several new secret identities, eventually settling on Kara Danvers in Rebirth.

I think that the explanation that makes most sense is that New 52 was expanded to include some old stuff, not erased.

Something like Superman Reborn, and Jon's age by extention, doesn't make any sense in any continuity.

Correct. Most of the New 52 stuff simply played out differently now, as Superman was older, married to Lois, had Jon, and thus didn't romance Wonder Woman. That's the timeline change caused by Superman Reborn. Jon though, was born after Conner debuted, which ages up Conner. Conner certainly doesn't seem to have aged up 11 years (the age Jon was pre-Bendis) since Death of Superman, and neither have the rest of Young Justice. Conner's reintroduction made it impossible for Jon to be so old, he needs his origin altering to include either time travel or trans-dimensional time dilation (i.e. he ages up in an AU and time passes slower on Earth-0). They could link it to Flashpoint.

[HsssH]

If I'm not mistaken there are Supes/WW romance reference in WW after Superman Reborn.