A Supergirl / Countdown connection? [some SPOILERS]

[Spiffy]

I didn't really think much, one way or the other, about the fact that Supergirl isn't in any of the teaser images we've seen for Countdown. After all, there is only so much room on those posters, and she's SO overhyped anyway. If I thought on this at all, it was no more than "so... maybe she's not part of Countdown at all".

But peeking at Issue #19 of "Supergirl" in a store made we wonder. Maybe she IS a part of Countdown and perhaps is being left out of the promo images so too much isn't given away.

I haven't really kept up with Supergirl, the comic book, lately. Its been a fairly bad run from what I understand (and recall myself from brief looks), she's appearing in other books (Legion of Super-Heroes most notably), and she's hardly seemed vital to bigger DC doings. Maybe this Amazons Attack thing recently, but then again that sucks so I didn't waste too much brainpower there.

But Issue #19 has some interesting stuff relative to the greater DC mythology, and stuff which might intersect with Countdown, depending of course on how we choose to interpret some of the images we've seen.

First of all, right on Page 1, we get an appearance from that old standbye of Crisis' past, Pariah. Who apparently has been revived somehow to warn Kara and help her through some almost certain to be tragic future.

From what I can figure out (a regular reader of SG can fill in the blanks here with a reply) he's predicting some future where she's going to either have to kill Superman or break some promise made to her (presumably still dead) father. And he makes it seem like some kind of doom may occur either way. He also promises to reappear at some key plot turning point in the future.

Now prophecy being what it is in DC-land... maybe she's not being set up to be the killer of a good Superman, but perhaps she has to be the killer of a BAD one. There's some kind of prophetic waffling about her finding a third path "based on Hope", but that could be a smoke screen. Maybe some bad incarnation of Supes shows up and its her job to stop him.

Thoughts? Am I making too much of a scene from a n otherwise crappy book, or might it actually mean something? Again, a more regular reader may want to fill in some blanks here--my ignorance could be building castles out of sand here.

[Jack Zodiac]

So, you're thinkin' Supergirl isn't the Supergirl of this universe, and that her father from her universe sent her to kill that universe's Superman, but she wound up in our universe instead? Or something?

Maybe. Sure, why the hell not? It'd make more sense than Jor-El being insanely paranoid of his brother- enough so to permanently damage his daughter to meet his own ends. But then, if that's the case, it betrays the abusive father angle that was probably the most interesting part of the new Supergirl's characterization.

[Spiffy]

So, you're thinkin' Supergirl isn't the Supergirl of this universe, and that her father from her universe sent her to kill that universe's Superman, but she wound up in our universe instead? Or something?
Huh? How'd you get that from what I typed in my post? My theory wasn't any more complicated than Supergirl having some fate to kill an evil incarnation of Superman. Who Countdown is leading us to believe might appear.

Maybe. Sure, why the hell not? It'd make more sense than Jor-El being insanely paranoid of his brother- enough so to permanently damage his daughter to meet his own ends. But then, if that's the case, it betrays the abusive father angle that was probably the most interesting part of the new Supergirl's characterization.
If that's the rationale behind the resolution I saw in SG issue #19, yeah, that's screwed up. As I said, I am not a student of current Supergirl other than the conclusions I was able to draw from this last issue, and tiny bits I recall from last year.

But what was the cause of the paranoia? Is it anything which could possibly lead to the "dark Superman" images we are seeing in Countdown promo posters? That's the question. If so, maybe there's a tie-in here. And if not? Then this is some dumb separate piece of continuity which may never tie in.

[Jack Zodiac]

Huh? How'd you get that from what I typed in my post?

I've been reading Supergirl on and off for a while, and one of the key elements has been Zor-El telling her to kill her cousin Kal-El. The reason being his paranoia over his brother's Phantom Zone discovery, and his observation that the creatures that inhabit that zone have the power to break into our dimension and possess people. He believes the phantoms will follow baby Kal-El to Earth and corrupt him and those around him, so he alter's Kara's body to sprout Kryptonian crystals and sends her to Earth to kill him.

That obviously be a huge damn storyline to squeeze into the Earth of the current DCU, but if Kara's from another Earth and her Earth's Superman was corrupted by the phantoms of the Phantom Zone, then maybe that's who she's supposed to kill.

[Spiffy]

Well, there's a precident with Power Girl (being from an alternate Earth).

Although its not strictly necessary. Sure, it explains this paranoia of Zor-El you describe, but in terms of tying it into Countdown that wouldn't be strictly necessary. And having her all Power-girlish would complicate stuff.

All that's really necessary is some way for her to legitimately fight an alternate of Superman and thus fill in a loophole in that prophecy.

Come to think of it... isn't there something about how the more recent heroes (Ion, the current Firestorm, etc.) would have been from Earth 8 originally? What if she's one of those people displaced by Universe-crunching and is from another reality only in the sense that she WOULD have been born into one otherwise? And in THAT reality, Superman would have gone bad.

Then again, that would unhinge the prediction of her fighting an alternate. If she was fated to fight some Earth 8 Evil Supes, then what the heck's to be done when no such person exists? I think I like the simpler idea of her "fooling" destiny better--being fated to fight her actual cousin but finding an out.

[Paul Newell]

But peeking at Issue #19 of "Supergirl" in a store made we wonder. Maybe she IS a part of Countdown and perhaps is being left out of the promo images so too much isn't given away.
They just had a couple of issues where she was being tested by Dark Angel, at the behest of one of the Monitors, to see if she was an anomaly or not....So there's a definite Countdown tie-in there.

[Buried Alien]

I sense some attempt to tie in the current Supergirl with the true-blue, Pre-COIE Earth-One Supergirl who died in the First Crisis.

Anyone think that by the time FINAL CRISIS (or whatever it'll be called) is over, we'll have seen the Pre-COIE Earth-One Superman and Supergirl again?

Buried Alien (The Fastest Post Alive!)

[Spiffy]

I sense some attempt to tie in the current Supergirl with the true-blue, Pre-COIE Earth-One Supergirl who died in the First Crisis.

Anyone think that by the time FINAL CRISIS (or whatever it'll be called) is over, we'll have seen the Pre-COIE Earth-One Superman and Supergirl again?

Buried Alien (The Fastest Post Alive!)
Are they actually separate people or are the New Earth versions simply literally reincarnations, shoved back through time of course since time is meaningless?

That line of thought is odd. I wonder. Has the issue ever been explored in DC comics about whether or not alternates share a um... soul? We know that souls exist as a concept in the DCU, so the big question is... what does that MEAN when there are alternate versions of people running around?

[moebius]

Considering there are at least three people in the New Earth dimension with Kal-El's exact genetic makeup (Superman, Cyborg Superman, and Super*** Prime), I would say that any prophecy about "killing Kal-El" or "killing Superman" should be taken with a grain of salt.