Fans like to debate over how powerful Supergirl really is. The CW Supergirl has raced against the Flash to see if he truly deserves to be called the Fastest Man Alive. Over in the comics, Supergirl’s power levels have been known to exceed Superman’s, making some wonder if she’s the most powerful Kryptonian of all.
However, Supergirl’s most powerful feat arguably has very little to do with her physical abilities. Amazing as it might sound, the Girl of Steel once showed she could survive a cosmic level disaster that literally erased her from existence!
This touching tale happened in the aftermath of DC’s original Crisis on Infinite Earths storyline. The epic crossover event essentially eradicated DC’s entire multiverse by having a villain known as the Anti-Monitor literally wipe entire universes out of existence. Several heroes, including Superman and Supergirl, fought against him – and Kara actually lost her life while trying to destroy the Anti-Monitor’s reality-destroying cannon, dying in Superman’s arms.
To make matters worse, although the heroes managed to defeat the Anti-Monitor, the surviving realities merged into a single universe where Kara Zor-El had never existed. As a result, no one – not even Superman – remembered Supergirl or what she had done to save all of reality. Eventually, DC began introducing other non-Kryptonian versions of Supergirl (including a shapeshifter called Matrix), but the Kara generations of readers had grown up with was seemingly gone for good. Only… she wasn’t.
In Christmas With The Super-Heroes #2, one short story, “Should Auld Acquaintance Be Forgot” showed that Kara had apparently survived being wiped from existence. The story, written by Alan Brennert with art by Dick Giordano, followed Boston Brand (aka “Deadman”), a heroic ghost who temporarily possesses living bodies to save people in danger. Although Boston saves countless lives every day, because of his ghostly nature, nobody knows that he was behind the rescues.
Boston becomes especially depressed around Christmas since he has to watch the living enjoy their holidays while he wanders alone and unseen. In a moment of weakness, he takes over the body of a young man and enjoys a Christmas celebration with his family, but realizes he has no right to steal those moments from his life. Exiting his body, Boston cries out in frustration about how unfair and unrewarding his existence is.
At that moment, however, a pretty blonde woman steps up to Boston and asks if he does what he does for a reward. Shocked that someone can see him, Deadman asks the woman is she’s a magic user, to which his new companion cryptically answers, “No, magic and I have never been boon companions, I’m afraid.” Asking Boston if he’s hungry for recognition of his good works, the woman gets Deadman to admit that he misses the adulation and applause he received as a circus performer before he was killed. In response, the woman reminds Boston:
We don’t do it for the glory. We don’t do it for the recognition. We do it because it needs to be done. Because if we don’t, no one else will. And we do it even if no one knows what we’ve done. Even if no one knows we exist. Even if no one remembers we ever existed.
Telling Boston that she has business to attend to, the woman wishes Boston a Merry Christmas and starts to leave, causing Boston to ask her for her name. The woman’s response? “My name is Kara. Though I doubt that’ll mean anything to you.” Kara then leaves, as the comic ends with a dedication to Supergirl’s co-creator Otto Binder and signature artist Jim Mooney, promising “We Still Remember.”
Kara’s spirit would make another appearance as the guardian angel of a Supergirl successor, Linda Danvers, before her character was retconned and re-established into the DC Universe. Even so, for decades, Kara Zor-El was apparently missing in action – although readers now know she continued her good works from the shadows during those lost years for no other reason than it needed to be done.
