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Origin & 1st app of Supergirl (Kara Zor-El); 1st app of Zor-El, Supergirl's Father; 1st app of Metallo; Curt Swan cover; Al Pastino art; COMIC BOOK IMPACT rating of 8 (CBI)


The notion of a female version of Superman had been tried out a few times before this debut appearance from Kara Zor-El. There were various one-offs and imaginary stories in attempts to keep the flagship title thriving while the original Superman TV series brought in merchandising dollars.

Veteran scribe Otto Binder teamed with regular Superman artist Al Plastino to finally settle on expanding the Man of Steel's family tree with a teenaged cousin from Krypton. Supergirl's first appearance in Action Comics #252 (20 years after Superman's own debut) was an immediate smash with the readers. Copies were quickly being passed along, borrowed, and read heavily,.

That would result in a surprisingly low number of surviving copies of this major DC event, even by the usual standards of tough-to-find DC books from the '50s. The book remains among the top-three toughest DC Silver Age keys to track down.

DC's creative staff had plenty of strong sales to back up trying out new ideas and themes, with Supergirl going through extensive revamps over the decades. Supergirl: Woman of Tomorrow (based on a hit 2022 series) has already been announced as the second movie in the new DC Extended Universe film series, set to follow the company's big-screen 2025 Superman reboot. The heroine's free-spirited first appearance continues to be a prime investment for serious comic collectors.