Poll Results: Who Is Superwoman?

Two weeks ago, in the aftermath of the first Superwoman sighting, I posted a poll to get a sense of who people thought was under the cowl. I'd like to thank everybody who took the time to vote and post.

In some ways, I have to say I am pretty surprised by the results. Here they are.




I thought for sure that there would be 3 or 4 choices that would all be close to each other. There certainly are reasons for people to think that Karsta Wor-Ul, Linda Danvers, or Thara Ak-Var is Superwoman. But it was clear that most people think that Alura is Superwoman. I really thought that Karsta and Linda would get more than 2 votes each. And I thought that Lesla Lar and 'Split Kara' were real long shots but each got some votes!

22% of folks did mark 'other' as their choice but no write-in candidate rose to the top.

That's why I like these polls. It let's me get a sense of what everyone else is thinking. Heck, I'm the guy who thinks she is an evil clone.

But Alura with 36% of the vote ran away with this and so I thought I would do a quick review of what we know of her so far. And see why so many people think that she might be the character on a 'Faces of Evil' cover.


We first met her in Action Comics #869 when she was trapped in the Kandor bottle. Remember, at this point we did not know Kara's parents were alive. We had seen the Loeb/Kelly 'Kill Kal-El' Zor-El and in that origin, Kara had killed Alura! I don't think that sat well with Supergirl fans.

We also had seen her as a loving scientist under Puckett.

But there she was with a Zor-El, the Argo City origin suddenly back in continuity.



In the New Krypton Special, she was reunited with Kara. Alura did have this sort of strange reaction when Kara flew down.

From the beginning she has been a bit nationalistic, espousing thoughts that Earth will be named New Krypton, that humans will begin adapting Kryptonian culture, and being confused by Superman's love of Terran ways.



Later, during her conference with the President when Doomsday attacked, she did askThara Ak-Var to evacuate the humans to safety while she dealt with the threat.

Of course, she then balled up her fists and took part in bludgeoning Doomsday to death. Suddenly, we realized there was a streak of violence in her ... something concerning given her love of country and feelings of superiority.

She further renounced Earth culture when she told Kara in no uncertain terms that her days of co-mingling as 'Linda Lang' were over. Like many of Alura's ideas, she was able to cover this one with a respectable veneer. She worried about Kara's safety and wanted her home.

But it is clear, our ways are beneath her.

At least for me, the biggest clue is the above panels, where Alura gets pumped full of the K-poisoning that was effecting Kara. If this poisoning could make Kara think Zor-El was an insane murderer, could make her moody and prone to fly off the handle ... well what would it do to a political zealot like Alura. Make her crazy enough to kill people? Give her a seperate personality? Make her want to don a costume and hide her face?

Well, it seems it would make her crazy enough to kill people or at least to order people to. Here she tells Superman that the deaths of the Science Police officers at the hands of Zod's troops were simply collateral damage. Again, she states this cool and calm; she once again brings up Kryptonian safety as the rationalization for her beliefs.

Now throughout these scenes, both Kara and Zor-El seem shocked by Alura's behavior, stating they haven't seen her act this way before ... perhaps another clue that the K-poisoning is affecting her.

In fact, she seems to have turned the corner this last issue. She says there will be 'no limits' to what she will do to protect her people and advance her cause.

And that includes crossing the line of lethal force. She gave the order. It is even hinted that she has promised Zod's supporters access to the Phantom Zone projector (and by extension Zod) if they will follow her.

Now personally I think she is full of Kryptonite poisoning but not Superwoman. But you can see that Alura is a cold-hearted calculating leader who seems unhinged enough to put on a mask and hood.

That said, I still cling to the 'evil clone' theory. Actually, my theory is that while in the bottle, Alura and Zor-El took a young girl into their home and became surrogate parents. Whoever this 'surrogate Kara' is ... be it a new Lesla Lar or a clone of Kara herself ... that is Superwoman. She is someone who would want to replace Kara in every way.

Once again, thanks to everyone who voted. We should find out in a couple of months just who Superwoman really is.