The Inevitable Mediocre Spin-off

I've been reading comics a good few years now and when I first started I was told to read Kingdom Come. I bought it. I leafed through it not really paying much attention once we got to the abomination that was Nightstar. The product of the worst pairing the DCU ever subjected us to. Its been on the shelf gathering dust until I was told about this character over at the Supergirl Comic Box Commentary. I got the flimsy old paperback out and searched her out. She turns up a few times in a non speaking role. A mystery wrapped in an enigma wrapped in not very much material.

We know that Alex Ross loves his classic Supergirl. Supergirl is all over this book as a waitress in Booster Gold's restaurant 'Planet Krypton'. What is unclear is the past of this world. This seems like a Golden Age future with the icons of the silver age thrown in, put through the 1990's continuity filter. Its because of this I have no idea where I am. From the waitress we can gather there was a Supergirl but which one? Power Woman is superman's cousin here so is it Matrix?

To confound matters the Supergirl waitress in her first appearance looks like she uses Alex's favourite Supergirl costume, the deep-V neck and hotpants combo. So was the Supergirl Kara? Well more evidence points that way when we learn her whereabouts. When Superman went into seclusion the superheroes parted ways. Supergirl went to the future and the legion of superheroes.

Of all the Supergirls only Kara was ever a legionnaire. Then again we are put off the trail. The Legion we see is the Post Zero hour legion. The only reboot Kara was not involved in. We are also told that Argo, Kara's city survived but this could have been the world of Power Woman. So I went to the fountain of knowledge that was wiki to clarify and it was no help. It suggested that the legionnaire Supergirl is the daughter of Lois and Clark. Two dark haired individuals with dark haired parents can't realistically have a blonde child unless its repressed DNA in parental genes from several generations before. Even then it would be cancelled out by the dominant dark gene.

So onto the main point, someone said that the green lady was the daughter of Brainiac 5 and Supergirl. I read the comic and got no answers. I turned to the net. I already knew that XTC did a song called 'Brainaic's Daughter' beforehand. It was in researching that I found out this was the genesis of the character. I found this quote from Kingdom Come: Revelations, a book that accompanied the hardcover comic before the absolute edition was released.

"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."

The trading card released previously had listed her as Brainiac's Daughter and ancestor to Brainiac 5. Personally I feel the Supergirl/Brainiac 5 idea works far better with the sense of DC nostalgia in the book and the theme of what is effectively the third generation of superheroes in a world without superman to look up to. Its also hard to deny the resemblance. XTC as she has come to be known is Ross' Supergirl in a different costume (albeit still with the choker) and with a different skin colour.

Is she the daughter of Brainiac 5 and Supergirl? Well it depends on how much you respect the author's words and a retcon that never actually made it to the page of the comic. Actually it isn't even a retcon considering that we learn nothing about her in the comic. She doesn't even get a name. I'd love more info on this whether you have this Revelations book or if there is more in the absolute edition or interviews.