Kara Zor-El Pre and Post Crisis continuity Question

[nate3po]

I know that Supergirl dies during Crisis on Infinite Earths. From what I could tell the characters of the DCU were aware of her existing and dying in the post crisis continuity. I believe this is mentioned in the miniseries itself and I even saw a reference to her in The New Teen Titans when someone mentions her as among the casualties of the crisis.
Now I know that there were other characters that took on the name Supergirl later but my question has to do with the reintroduction of Kara Zor-El in 2004 in the Superman/Batman title. How is it possible to have this version of Kara Zor-El when there was another version of her remembered after the crisis. Did something else like Zero Hour specifically erase the first Kara's existence completely or was this just one of those discontinuities DC decided not to bother with? Does my question make sense?

[Mad Monkey 7]

Superboy Prime puched a wall. ;)

[SAMaine]

Superboy Prime puched a wall. ;)

This and "Scarlet Witch did it." is the answer to every continuity error in comics.

[Lorendiac]

I know that Supergirl dies during Crisis on Infinite Earths. From what I could tell the characters of the DCU were aware of her existing and dying in the post crisis continuity. I believe this is mentioned in the miniseries itself and I even saw a reference to her in The New Teen Titans when someone mentions her as among the casualties of the crisis.
Now I know that there were other characters that took on the name Supergirl later but my question has to do with the reintroduction of Kara Zor-El in 2004 in the Superman/Batman title. How is it possible to have this version of Kara Zor-El when there was another version of her remembered after the crisis. Did something else like Zero Hour specifically erase the first Kara's existence completely or was this just one of those discontinuities DC decided not to bother with? Does my question make sense?

I know that for several months after her death, a running plotline in the "Legion of Super-Heroes" title of the mid-80s had Brainiac 5 wondering if a mysterious new recruit, Sensor Girl, who appeared to be a blond girl wearing a mask and costume that covered everything except the hair, might somehow be Kara, the original Supergirl, come back from the dead. (Brainy had long had a hopeless crush on her and didn't want to believe she had died and stayed dead.)

The story I've heard goes like this:

Paul Levitz, writer of the Legion in those days, wanted it to actually turn out that Sensor Girl really was Kara, back from the dead, possibly having lost most of her super-powers except for some or all of her super-senses (X-Ray vision, telescopic vision, etc.), as the alias "Sensor Girl" implied her powers were something along the lines of detecting things normal people couldn't.

So for awhile there it was plain that Kara Zor-El had not immediately been forgotten by her fellow superheroes in the DCU, even after the "Crisis on Infinite Earths" miniseries had concluded. However, I hear that Paul Levitz eventually was told outright: "No, you can't bring Kara back to life, not even a badly-damaged, less-powerful Kara. Superman is gonna be the One and Only Surviving Kryptonian in the Post-COIE continuity, savvy?"

So he revealed "Sensor Girl" as someone else entirely. And after that story arc was wrapped up, I don't think anyone in "Legion of Super-Heroes" continuity ever referred to Kara Zor-El again (I could be wrong, though).

I don't specifically remember the Titans reference you mention -- although I'll take your word for it that it happened somewhere along the line -- but I'd hazard a guess that it was probably published around the same time as the Sensor Girl mystery that I referred to -- say, in late 1985 or 1986?

My understanding is that DC took awhile to really lay down official policy on just what things had changed (or been Totally Erased) from their continuity in the Post-Crisis version of their universe, and to then clearly and explicitly explain all those changes to every single writer and editor on every single title, and to start enforcing those decisions rigorously. So there was some "lag" in stories published just shortly after COIE officially ended, in which things were referred to that had been part of Pre-COIE continuity but soon evaporated into thin air! The Titans bit you mention very likely fell into that category of "here today and gone tomorrow, never to be heard from again after we overcome the communications gap between various writers and editors!"

But from the late 80s onward, it became standard that nobody in the superhero community of the Post-COIE Earth actually remembered anything about a "Kara Zor-El." For instance, I think it was in 1988 that Superman, who had been rebooted in 1986 (mainly by John Byrne), met a blond girl in a Supergirl outfit and had absolutely no idea who she was. It turned out that she was Matrix Supergirl, an artificial lifeform from a "pocket universe," created by that pocket universe's "good" version of the brilliant scientist Lex Luthor. But in her early appearances, near as I can recall, Superman never said: "Gosh, Matrix, you have an uncanny resemblance to my dear departed cousin, Kara Zor-El! Did you deliberately copy her costume?" And after she became a regular superhero on the main DCU Earth (even joined the Titans for a year or so in the mid-90s) I never saw any other superhero make that same comparison either!

So: It may have taken a little time for things to settle down in the DCU's "Post-Crisis Official Continuity," but by 1988 and for many years afterward, the official continuity definitely was that if you asked Superman, or Wonder Woman, or Batman, or any other modern superhero: "Hey, do you still grieve for Kara Zor-El, the original Supergirl?" they all would have looked totally blank and said, "Who's that? The first Supergirl I ever saw or heard of was that Matrix kid from a pocket universe!"

I personally blame Jeph Loeb's "Kara Zor-El Reboot" on the idea that Superboy-Prime punched a wall. For many years before that, ever since the late 80s, there wasn't any Kara Zor-El in the DCU's recorded history at all!

(I personally think it was a good idea in theory to try again with a "Kara Zor-El" in continuity, but I think it was an incredibly bad idea to let Jeph Loeb be the one to introduce her and her modified personality, such as it is . . .)

P.S. With all due modesty, I should mention that a few years ago I began writing the first draft of a Timeline about all the different Supergirl characters DC has tried to sell to us as part of its "continuity" at one time or another. In the process of researching and writing one draft after another, attempting to set the record straight for anyone who had gotten confused on the subject of just how many different Supergirls there have been and how we can tell them apart, I became something of an expert on the subject (with the help of lots of guidance from other fans who would read an early draft and then tell me what I had missed!). If you really want to know all about all the different Supergirls and how some of them have been kicked out of continuity (by Crisis on Infinite Earths, for instance) at the drop of a hat, then you might want to read a very long post of mine:

Timeline: 1st Appearances of each Supergirl, Superwoman, etc.(4th Draft) (http://forums.toonzone.net/showthread.php?t=181897)