Monday, September 8, 2008

Kingdom Come - Supergirl and Brainiac 5's Daughter?



My many thanks to frequent poster Talos who brought up the presence of a Brainac 5/Supergirl daughter in the great Elseworld series Kingdom Come, written by Mark Waid and beautifully painted by Alex Ross.

Now I have read Kingdom Come probably a billion times and did not recall anyone fitting that description. So I had to go back and thumb through the issues to see if I could spot her.


Here she is on the back cover of the letterbox Ross cover. There she is ... the green-skinned woman behind the Flash and Cyborg.

Now, at the end of the weekly series 52, it was revealed that the multiverse exists again but is limited to 52 universes. The 'Kingdom Come' universe was designated Earth-22. The Earth-22 Starman and Superman are currently playing significant parts in the Geoff Johns' Justice Society of America comic.

What do we know about the Supergirl of Earth-22?


Well, in Kingdom Come #1,the Spectre is discussing super-heroes to Reverand Norman McKay and he lists several who have simply stopped being active or left, leaving humanity to its own fate. On that page we see the above shot of the Legion. And who is flying right at the front of that phalanx?


Yeah, it's Kara. And that is probably Conner flying next to her. So Kara left the troubled present to spend her days in the brighter future. We can only conjecture why she would do that. Love of Brainiac 5? Frustration with present day Earth? Need to be in an environment more advanced like the one she knew best on Krypton?

What does seem apparent is that there is a Supergirl/Brainiac 5 amalgam, presumably their offspring, who is active in the present day. Here is her biggest showing in issue #2, albeit 2 panels and no lines of dialogue.


There she is in the lower right hand corner, flying in during this skirmish.


And here is the best shot of her. How the heck did I miss this despite my many readings of this comic over the last decade?


First off, she is basically a green-skinned Kara. But look at that costume design. The 'S' shield is the entire front of the tunic. The 'yellow' areas of the 'S' shield are actually cut out of the tunic, with her green skin showing in those areas. She has the choker and cape. Clearly this is someone linked to the super-family. Given everything we know, it makes perfect sense for this to be Kara and Brainiac 5's daughter.

Despite looking closely at all the issues, that is about it for her in the series. Maybe she is seen in the background of a couple of panels. Maybe.

Now Talos (another tip of the hat) wrote that the character's name was Kara Dox ... a mix of her alleged parents' names. Also a nice play on the word paradox. Of course her fighting in the past while her parents are in the future is sort of a paradox.

So mystery solved, right?

Not so fast. Look at how she is listed in the apocrypha section of the Kingdom Come trade paperback. Brainiac's daughter? Ancestor of Brainiac 5? Makes little sense, especially given her resemblence to Kara and her costume choice. Maybe this entry was an error?

Does anyone have any more information? Maybe from the Absolute Kingdom Come edition?


Regardless, whatever her origin or bloodline, we know her fate. She was not one of the survivors of the nuclear attack on the super-human war in Kingdom Come #4.

Anyways, my thanks again for having this brought to my attention. I still am flummoxed how I never saw her before.

12 comments:

Nikki said...

I read it properly ASAP and I did my own internet research after no answers were on the page and found this quote from Kingdom come: Revelations

"As silly as it sounds, this character is the combination of two songs by one of my favorite groups, XTC: "That's Really Super, Supergirl" and "Brainiac's Daughter." Apparently people assumed that her origin was from the coupling of old-time Legion lovebirds Brainiac 5 and Supergirl, and so, never having answered this question before myself, I'll go along with this idea. This also suggests that she...has traveled back in time from the 30th Century."

problem is the website that quoted it didn't attribute to anyone in the book. Plus we don't even know thats kara because if she is what is power woman's origin.

As for her survival chances, if we take it she is the daughter of Brainiac 5 it would be crazy to think such a big event is not known to the legion and that a time bubble wouldn't be sent to her. After all Scott, Barda and Avia got out through a boom tube that we don't see on panel. Any more info would have to come from the absolute edition. Its possible that she's had first story retconned because the fan idea was better.

Anonymous said...

Well, in answer to what you had wrote about in another recent thread addressing just this too:

nikki wrote: I've never read kingdom come but I was under the impression there was no supergirl as superman's cousin but power woman. A supergirl is seen with the legion at the end though. Who knows, powergirl is refugee from earth 2 maybe the legion supergirl was a refugee too in the kingdom come-verse

Yeah, the latter is what I tend to believe could be the overall case really come both there having existed an E-2 Power Girl AND her younger twin counterpart Supergirl cousin to THAT Earths Superman featured helming from E-22/KC Earth's/continuity itself. Only with "XTC"/Kara Dox actually revealed to being the biological heir to both a time displaced 21st Century eras Supergirl and that of 31st Century eras own Brainy 5 more then likely here. ;) Hmmmm, a Coulan/Kryptonian hybrid offspring? Basically a 12th level intellect of a Coulan with ALL the powers of a Kryptonian to boot! wow! Now THAT's sure one powerful being!

Anonymous said...

I'm getting a headache trying to understand all this continuity mishaugas.
Here is a little thought experiment I'm trying to run:
Name all the other in and out of continuity "Supergirls" that have been killed off since CoIE #7.
There is Kara Dox, Kara Superman's daughter by Lois Lane in John Byrne's "Generations" mini....
I think the list might top off at five or so...but my point is, snuffing Supergirl seems to be a repeating theme at DC, especially when the writer is at liberty...which is often the case.

Think on that...

John Feer

Anj said...

problem is the website that quoted it didn't attribute to anyone in the book. Plus we don't even know thats kara because if she is what is power woman's origin.

Thanks for the research!

Hmmm ... I wonder if it was Ross who said that.

The world may never know.

Anj said...

Hmmmm, a Coulan/Kryptonian hybrid offspring? Basically a 12th level intellect of a Coulan with ALL the powers of a Kryptonian to boot! wow! Now THAT's sure one powerful being!

Thanks for the post.

I bet she would hold her own against the Daxamite Green Lantern we have seen in the GL comic recently.

Anonymous said...

Hmmmm, would that happen to be the Daxamite GL Sodam Yat to which you're referring to there in particular? :/

Anj said...

Hmmmm, would that happen to be the Daxamite GL Sodam Yat to which you're referring to there in particular? :/

Yeah, exactly.

Although with a weakness to lead, a Coluan/Kryptonian might just have the upper hand.

Heath Edwards said...

having melded with the ion creature, sodam is protected from the lead poisoning he's already received... as long as he is connected to ion, i don't think there's too much that could overcome him, even our beloved kryptonian/coluan hybrid.

Anonymous said...

Hmmmm, very true too now that I stop and really think about it, heath edwards.

Nikki said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
Anonymous said...

Y'know this is the first time I've heard of this character!

I've read the novelization of Kingdom Come and they DO have a Power Woman In there as a minor/major character ( I forgot which one it is at the moment so bare with me fOr a minute). No mention of Kara Dox/XTC, though. Funny thing is that I don't even think she pops up in future issues related to this series. Heck, if she was in Batman Beyond that would be awesome! Thanks for opening my eyes to new characters, Anj. As for if she's a mix of SG and Brainiac 5's DNA... That's an interesting concept. I knew SG had an annual Issue where Brainy meets up with SG in her time. It's over on this site to download: http://supergirlproject.wordpress.com/
. Check under annuals/Specials. And it was the opposite in the JLU episode "Far From Home" where she goes to his time by "accident" and ends up staying there.-ealperin

Anonymous said...

Found it! SG annual #2:

http://supergirlproject.wordpress.com/2007/09/08/specials/

-ealperin