Do Supergirl and Powergirl look identical except for their, uh, proportions?

[Jon Clark]

It also might be related to differences in where they went through puberty.

Originally Power Girl grew from infancy in her rocket while Supergirl lived a normal life on Argo. So maybe the differences in where they were during puberty meant Power Girl became more endowed than she would have on Krypton, while Supergirl developed "normally".

Post-Crisis the only difference was that Supergirl was actually born on Krypton while Power Girl technically had the same origin (although her memories were different).

And post-Flashpoint we seem to have a Power-Girl who arrived earlier/younger than Supergirl so again we have the less busty build on the one who was on Krypton when puberty started.

[mathew101281]

It was never directly stated, but I would guess that Kara Zor-L was supposed to be the same age as Kara Zor-El (at that time in 1976). The Super-Squad was supposed to be the main selling point of the new ALL-STAR COMICS--and these three were all supposed to be young kids taking over for the old folks in the Justice Society. Gerry Conway probably thought that no readers would be interested in a group of old gassers nor one called the Justice Society--sounds so conservative. And therefore they had to add some youthful excitement with this trendy Super Squad. But Conway probably didn't think it through--because Robin had to be much older and even Star Spangled Kid (given his time travel experiences) ought to have aged a bit.

When Earth-Two Superman first started showing up (in the '60s), he was drawn to look like the Earth-One Superman. It was really only during this run of ALL-STAR COMICS that Ric Estrada, Wally Wood and Joe Staton established a retro look for the character to make the distinction from his Earth-One counterpart. However, that's purely a stylistic thing. For example, Kurt Schaffenberger's Captain Marvel looked retro (squinty eyes, bulky frame) while Don Newton's Captain Marvel looked modern--but it was the very same guy on Earth-S! So in my mind, Kal-El and Kal-L are virtually alike--they're just drawn with different styles as a kind of wink to the audience.

Power Girl and Supergirl ought to be alike and therefore their breast size should be the same. But maybe breasts on female characters are like eyes on male characters--they're not literal but figurative. So maybe the artist is trying to make a stylistic statement by drawing the breasts large. We could see this in practice circa 2001 when Ed McGuinness, Mike Wieringo, Mike McKone et al drew Superman squinty-eyed and bulky--at the same, the women began to have rounder proportions with often larger looking breat size.

And it seems to me that Power Girl works best when she's drawn by a cartoonist who has that sort of big foot style/manga style. If drawn by an artist in a photo-realistic style, Power Girl's breasts either have to appear smaller or they appear to be too large for health and safety. It's almost depressing to see Power Girl drawn that way in photo-realistic style, because she begins to look like a sad porn actress who has seen better days. Whereas, we don't take breast size so literally in comics that are drawn in high style--where other rules of perspective and anatomy are also being bent if not completely broken.

To me Powergirl always came across as older in both appearance and personality. I never got the feeling that Karen Star was suppose to be a teenager even in her early appearences. To me she came across as an early 20 something's superhero trying to make a name for herself that was different from her famous cousin.

[Jim Kelly]

Yeah, but Supergirl at that time (in 1976) was in her early to mid 20s--so I would say they were about the same age. I don't think Conway wanted us to think the Super Squad were teenagers (well maybe Syl), but he probably wanted us to think they were much younger than the JSA proper. Of course, Mike Grell drew the cover (so that was the first time Power Girl was ever seen by readers like me) and Mike drew the Legion, who were supposed to be teens but seemed to suffer that same condition as the X-Men who were teens but looked like John Travolta and Olivia Newton John in GREASE.

In the early '80s, Supergirl was de-aged to be much younger--to fit with the movie, I guess. So at that point Power Girl appears much older than Supergirl.

[Patgosplat]

the different proportions could be caused by different ancestry. Maybe Alura on one Krypton had a different mother than the other one

[gwhh]

I've always had that idea also. Mom side of the family got big chest in that reality. Super girl mom family have normal size chest. Explains everything.

the different proportions could be caused by different ancestry. Maybe Alura on one Krypton had a different mother than the other one