Kara Zor-El is Superman's cousin and, like him, gets her powers from a yellow sun. Unlike Clark, she didn't arrive on Earth as a baby: she lived through Krypton's destruction up close. In the DCU she's played by Milly Alcock and first appears in Superman (2025).
Kara shows up near the end of Superman (2025). She lands at the Fortress of Solitude with a stained suit and the look of someone who partied all night. She's there for Krypto. The dog was hers, and Clark was only looking after him while she was away.
The movie explains why she's drunk: under a yellow sun, a Kryptonian body can't get drunk, so Kara likes to party on red-sun planets.
Supergirl (2026) tells her origin in flashbacks. When Krypton exploded, the scientist Zor-El, Kal-El's uncle, saved Argo City with a force field, and the city drifted on through space. Kara was born eight years later.
That chunk of planet was toxic. Kryptonite slowly killed Argo's people, and Alura was among the victims. Zor-El sends his daughter to Earth with Krypto, where her cousin already lives as Clark Kent. Unlike him, Kara saw all of it happen.
The movie opens on Kara's 23rd birthday. She celebrates by partying across several planets, while Clark keeps calling, worried she never settles down on Earth. On one of them, the planet Holzherr, she meets Ruthye Marye Knoll, a girl whose family was murdered by Krem of the Yellow Hills, leader of a gang of raiders called the Brigands. Ruthye wants revenge.
Kara wants nothing to do with it. She changes her mind when Krem steals her ship and hits Krypto with a poisoned dart. The dog has three days to live, and Krem has the antidote.
Kara reluctantly agrees to bring Ruthye along. The two cross planets chasing the Brigands and find out the gang kidnaps women. Along the way they run into Lobo, a bounty hunter tracking Krem's right-hand man, Drom, who becomes an unlikely ally.
Krem gets away and leaves another family dead behind him, so Kara decides to go on alone. Ruthye secretly follows. The hideout is on Barenton, a planet with a green sun that drains Kara's strength. Powerless, she collapses, and Ruthye looks after her.
Barenton turns and the yellow sun rises. Her powers come back. For the first time, Kara puts on the full Supergirl suit, takes down the Brigands with Lobo's help, and frees the captive women.
Kara asks Ruthye not to kill Krem and convinces her that revenge won't ease her pain. Ruthye walks away. Then Kara picks up the girl's sword and kills Krem herself. She recovers the antidote and saves Krypto just in time.
In the end, Kara returns to Earth, makes up with Clark, and decides that planet is her home.
Milly Alcock is confirmed for Man of Tomorrow, the Superman sequel, set for July 9, 2027. The premise announced by the studio is a reluctant team-up between Superman and Lex Luthor against Brainiac. The movie hasn't been released yet.
Supergirl debuted in Action Comics #252 in 1959, created by Otto Binder and Al Plastino, already as a survivor of Argo City. She died in Crisis on Infinite Earths in 1985 and came back years later. The movie adapts the miniseries Supergirl: Woman of Tomorrow (2021–2022), by Tom King and Bilquis Evely, which also features Ruthye, Krem, and Krypto's poisoning.
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