Supergirl Week: 68 Years of Supergirl Fashion and Costumes Ranked

Despite appearing in comics across eight different decades, Supergirl’s various looks haven’t deviated wildly from the initial take on the Maid of Might. Like her cousin, Superman, the red/blue/yellow motif remains fairly consistent, with the occasional wild swing usually course-correcting to the expected mean fairly quickly. Yet despite that, her looks across the decades contain some very distinct and memorable (or infamous) riffs on the traditional “Super” visual. With that in mind, let’s look at those riffs, and rank each one on a scale of 1-to-10 to determine which Supergirl costume is the one to beat.

Super-Girl

With a few exceptions, I’ll only be looking at the costumes worn by characters intended to be Kara Zor-El or reasonable facsmilies thereof, not alternate versions of the character who stand on their own (so no Power Girl, originally the Supergirl of Earth-2, or Cir-El, the Supergirl of an alternate future who popped up between the end of the post-Crisis Supergirl and the “return” of Kara Zor-El). One of those exceptions is “Super-Girl,” who debuted in Superman #123 (1958). While not the first time DC Comics had created a female character with Superman’s powers (Lois Lane gained superpowers in 1943; Superboy met a Supergirl in 1949), Super-Girl was created specifically as a way to see how readers would react to an entirely new female Superman counterpart. Created by Jimmy Olsen via magic totem (as was the custom at the time), Super-Girl is also notable for debuting with a look — basically Superman’s costume, but with a red miniskirt & bare legs instead of red trunks & blue pants — that would become iconic for the character despite not being worn for decades thanks to its use in the first live-action Supergirl movie.

Score: 8/10

Supergirl’s Original Costume

Thanks to the positive response to the story of Super-Girl, Kara Zor-El, the Supergirl as we know the character today, debuted a year later in 1959’s Action Comics #252. Superman’s cousin emerged from a late-arriving rocket ship wearing a version of Super-Girl’s earlier look, with one notable exception: her skirt is blue, not red. While this would be the character’s default look for over a decade and merits points for being the first Kara Zor-El look, it lacks the visual pop of the red skirt.

Score: 5/10

The 1970s Costume

By the early ’70s, Supergirl’s original Maid of Might uni-color dress look felt dated. After a campaign in which DC asked readers to send in their own costume ideas (and even utilized some in published stories), the character received a new permanent look in 1972 to coincide with receiving her first solo series, The Daring Adventures of Supergirl (prior to that, most solo Supergirl stories came in the pages of the anthology title Adventure Comics). Featuring a deep V cut, red hot-pants and pixie shoes, it is very much of its time while still hearkening back — thanks to the red bottoms — to the original Super-Girl look. While the original version feels very ’70s, once the hot-pants were subtly tweaked into being regular shorts and she swapped out the pixie shoes for regular boots, it became a decent look that would last into the 1980s and be featured in a lot of the licensing of the time.

Score: 7/10

The 1980s Costume

As “of its time” as the look which preceded it, in 1983 Supergirl received an update for the 1980s, giving her a red miniskirt for the first time since 1958, along with a red headband and a new style of cape which connected directly to the S-insignia on the chest. Between that and the headband, it feels unnecessarily busy in a way previous looks (even the ’70s ones) don’t, but it’s the perm that accompanied the new costume which really dates this — a look which almost made it onto film (Helen Slater screen tested in a version of it, but the finished film ultimately went for the cleaner look that resembled the ’58 costume) and is immortalized by being the costume worn by Kara when she died in Crisis on Infinite Earths #7.

Score: 4/10

Matrix

Following the intended continuity cleanup of Crisis of Infinite Earths in 1985, it was decreed that Superman would be the only survivor of Krypton. Yet the concept of a female Superman is too strong to lay dormant for long. Thus, a new version of Supergirl debuted in 1988. To work around the “only Superman” edict, this character — named Matrix — was a protoplasmic entity from a pocket universe that took a form which resembled the pre-Crisis Supergirl (and possessed additional superpowers to boot). Superman eventually brought her back to the main universe, where she operated as Supergirl wearing what had quickly become the iconic Super-Girl/Helen Slater version of the classic look with the red miniskirt.

Score: 8/10

Linda Danvers/The 2000s Costume

In an effort to fudge the character a little closer to her pre-Crisis characterization, late in the ’90s, writer Peter David merged the protoplasmic Matrix with a human woman named Linda Danvers, assigning elements of the pre-Crisis Supergirl’s backstory and characterization to Danvers. The end result was a character who looked like pre-Crisis Supergirl, acted like pre-Crisis Supergirl, but brother, wasn’t pre-Crisis Supergirl.

Following the debut of Supergirl on Superman: The Animated Series, the comics eventually adopted that version of the character’s look: replacing the red boots with Doc Martens, the red miniskirt with a blue micro miniskirt, and the blue top with a white belly-shirt. While the shift in colors wouldn’t last, the introduction of the midriff-baring top would, for better and worse, become a staple of Supergirl’s looks going forward.

Score: 6/10

The Return

Following over a decade of the non-Supergirl Supergirl (who become an angel at one point), DC decided to bring back a more streamlined version of the character. Like the original Silver Age version, she was simply the cousin of Superman. This “retro modern” Supergirl featured a look designed by the late Michael Turner, which hearkened back to the original Kara’s all-blue look, while hanging onto the late period Linda Danvers/animated Supergirl bare midriff. When done in Turner’s hyper-sexualized style, it can create an awkward rendition of the distinctly teenaged character. Nevertheless, it would stand as the character’s default look for years.

Score: 5/10

New 52

After a series of “soft” continuity reboots such as Zero Hour and Infinite Crisis, DC committed to a Crisis on Infinite Earths-level revamp of its continuity in 2011 with the New 52 publishing initiative. Unlike the post-Crisis continuity, Supergirl remained front and center in the new timeline. Like most of the New 52 characters, she received a new look inspired by Jim Lee‘s style. As such, it channels a bit of the busyness of the 1980s look. The high collared-cape works well, but the knee-holes and awkwardly-shaped crotch do not.

Score: 3/10

DC Rebirth

Every new jumping-on point is also an excellent jumping-off point, and after the buzz of the New 52 quieted down, DC quickly found itself facing calls to bring back more of the pre-New 52 feel to the comics. Thus was born DC Rebirth, a back to basics effort that saw a number of character return to classic roots. To wit, Supergirl returned to a modernized version of the post-Crisis, Helen Slater, Super-Girl look with a red skirt, blue top (fully covering her midriff), and high red boots that bring the character the closest yet to having fully covered legs. It’s a look which balances the classic with the modern.

Score: 9/10

Dawn Of DC

As part of the Dawn of DC publishing initiative, Supergirl adopted a new uniformed look alongside other members of the Superfamily. For the first time, the comic book Supergirl had a costume with pants (TV Supergirl star Melissa Benoist finally succeeded in getting the character into pants a few years earlier). The tradeoff: the cape disappears for a jacket. It’s a choice that makes … less sense than the pants one (Superman or Supergirl without a cape just doesn’t look right).

Score: 4/10

DC All-In

Yet another publishing initiative (DC got really into the idea of broadly-themed publishing initiatives in the 2010s and 2020s), DC All-In put Kara back in a version of her classic costume for the launch of a new solo series. Updating the Rebirth Era modernization of the classic look by adding in the early ’00s bare midriff (albeit in a classier way than the original Turner design), Supergirl’s current look is another smart balance between the modern and the classic.

Score: 8/10