While Superman saved the world, his female cousin devoted much of her time to interfering with friends' romances, counselling teens, and... thinking about her wardrobe. Here, the original Girl of Steel, in her 50s Skater Outfit, considers something a little more "mod".

The Super-A-Go-Go look, already a little dated by the time she adopted it, did not last long. The stripper costume, above right, barely appeared at all. Increasingly, however, the writers gave her real challenges, of the sort Wonder Woman had been handling for years.

					The track suit (left) was another dead end.Although it reflected women's fashion in the 70s, it strayed far from the sartorial trends for super-women.
			For most of the 1970s, she wore the outfit seen below and in the foreground, right, with disco choker, plunging neckline, short shorts, and the "S" emblazoned over one breast. In the 1980s, she received a perm and the aerobics/cheerleader outfit at right. DC artists were obviously aware of this costume's sexual aspects, as shown in the image, above, from Plop!, DC's short-lived answer to Mad. Supergirl definitely died (left) fighting a villain called the Anti-Monitor. Then DC retconned reality, and she retroactively never existed. This made it possible for her to appear again for the first time, first as a one-shot alternate universe character, then as an alien "Matrix"(above). That version of the character also died. Death, of course, seldom takes in comix, and it was subsequently revealed she had merged with a young earth girl named Linda Lee Danvers (below)-- which name had been taken as the secret identity of the Silver Age Maid of Might. The turn-of-the-millennium Supergirl dressed like a turn-of-the-milleniun Pop Tart. That Supergirl's comic ended its run with issue #80. A melancholy Supergirl, having failed to save the life of the original Girl of Steel (the one who retroactively never existed. Don't ask), decides to disappear. That storyline did feature an interesting bit of retroactive history. When the original Supergirl returned to her reality, her memory of this story's events had been erased, save for the trace in her mind that prompted her to take the name "Linda Lee," which name the writers had given the new Supergirl in tribute to the original! In any case, the new Supergirl sends her most prized possessions to Clark Kent and Lois Lane, and asks that no one look for her. Shortly after the turn-of-the-millenium Maid of Might vanished, a new Supergirl appeared, in Superman: The 10 Cent Adventure.  She called herself Cir-El and claimed to be the timewarped daughter of Clark Kent. Fans did not take to the character; many regarded her as a pretender to the title. Not surprisingly, then, DC decided she wasn't who she claimed to be, and the character quickly disappeared. She wore the standard superheroine-issue "bathing suit as costume," in black. This had little to do with fashion (though, as seen at left, it cuts rather close, like a 2000s thong), but the colour reflected the sartorial manner of many contemporaneous super-doers, such as Joss Whedon's Angel and The Matrix's heroes. With the jury weighing in on Cir-El, the poptart Supergirl possibly still alive, and Powergirl confirmed as a Kryptonian, yet another Girl of Steel shows up in Superman/Batman #9, claiming to be Superman's cousin. Her first costume consisted of contemporary teenware (purchased by Lois Lane Kent), shown in this cover by Michael Turner (left). In issue #12, her identity as the Man of Steel's Kryptonian cousin confirmed, she adopted a belly-top variation of the original blue outfit (right). The low-slung skirt, belly top, and anorexic look had brief widespread popularity in the early 2000s among teen girls. She carried that look long after it vanished from the mainstream. In September 2011, DC once again rebooted their universe, even setting all issues back to #1. The revamped Supergirl went with a designer-looking "S" and the "no-pants" look trendy among pop stars such as Victoria Beckham, Lady Gaga, and Katie Perry. We can be reasonably certain that a Supergirl of some description will always be around, battling crime, trendily dressed. Bonus: In 1958, before the appearance of the official Supergirl, DC had Jimmy Olsen wish a magical version of the character into existence. The tale ends with the prototype, called "Super-girl," returning to the mystic limbo whence she came. DC has also been home to some Superwomen, the first of whom predates Supergirl. Return to Superman: Up, Up, and Away! with Continuity Return to Crossover Comix: Supergirl meets Supergirl Detailed article on Supergirl's history (off-site, at E2) TheJim at Wall Paper Base has created this image of Supergirl's multiple identities.