Today in Comics History, September 22: Happy birthday, Supergirl!

Born on this day, September 22 (or the Kryptonian equivalent): Kara Zor-El, better known as the Gal o' Steel: Supergirl! But Bully, (I'm sure you're asking right aout now), didn't we already celebrate her birthday on April 11 and then again on May 18? Whats up with that, huh, Bully? Is Ms. Zor-El trying to con me out of three birthday gifts a year?

And I say wash your mouth out right now with soap, and not just hand soap, get a bar of Lava and shove it right in that blaspheming piehole of yours! Supergirl would no more cheat someone than she could eat Krytonite (exception: immediately post-Superman #233). No, she is an honest woman who believes in truth, justice, and keeping her skirt smoothed down around her thighs, and she is always honest when she says she has two birthdays. Just like Paddington.

In ascending calendar order: while the April 11 date was put out by the we-usually-have-no-problem-using-it-as-a-source Super DC Calendar 1976, that date is superceded by May 18, a day that's actually in canon (at least on Pre-Crisis Earth-1). And that's not Supergirl's birthday, that's Linda Lee Danvers's birthday: a day adopted by her for her human civilian identity, since it was the day she first arrived on Earth and was discovered by her cousin Superman. Several years before, though, she had been born in Argo City on Krypton on September 22. Clear now? So yeah, you can give her two gifts if you want. Just make sure neither is green and glowing.

Because I've already used a buncha panels about her birthday in those two previous posts, here's some more recent comic book depictions of Supergirl's birthday!




from Supergirl: Woman of Tomorrow #1 (DC, August 2021), script by Tom King, pencils and inks by Bilquis Evely, colors by Matheus Lopes, letters by Clayton Cowles
Okay, maybe not her best birthday. So hows about a birthday panel from just about the finest Supergirl comic book, certainly my favorite: 2009's winner of my award for "Most Fun Comic of the Year", by Landry Q. Walker and the late great Eric Jones: Supergirl: Cosmic Adventures in the 8th Grade!


from Supergirl: Cosmic Adventures in the 8th Grade #2 (DC/Johnny DC, March 2009), script by Landry Q. Walker, pencils and inks by Eric Jones, colors by Joey Mason, letters by Pat Brosseau
Oh well, maybe Kara doesn't have the best birthdays on screen. But we wish her a great day.

Happy birthday, Supergirl! You're so super!