Sterling Gates

Best Quotes if you find the thread hard to read: 

#Supergirl’s motto is “Hope, help, & compassion for all.” I wrote that because we need a character to advocate/stand for those ideals.

For me, #Supergirl is the most important character in DC’s canon. (And your mileage may vary…especially you Batman fans!)

#Supergirl is an alien refugee, sent to this planet to follow in her cousin Superman’s footsteps. That makes her  a wholly unique character. At the time of #Supergirl’s creation, there were few characters like her, and few with her story.

They gave #Supergirl the Super-S and made her “Superman’s Secret Weapon.” Some of those initial stories are extreeemely dated now, BUT #Supergirl was always treated as someone as powerful (or moreso in a couple cases!) as Superman.

[…]

People point to #Supergirl’s death in “Crisis on Infinite Earths” as a low point for the character. I think it’s one of her most important. In that story, #Supergirl goes toe-to-toe with the Anti-Monitor, then the most powerful DC villain of all-time. This dude  DESTROYED UNIVERSES. #Supergirl wipes the floor with him, even as she makes sure Superman and Dr. Light are safe.

Even as she fights the greatest threat the DC Universe has ever known in COIE, #Supergirl saves others…which seals her tragic fate. Obviously, that issue had a huge impact on me as a kid. It’s one of the stories I turn to again and again to help me understand #Supergirl.

#Supergirl has grown past that issue in the last thirty years (as has her meaning to the world), but that story always strikes me. I always felt COIE underscored #Supergirl’s strengths: her compassion, her self-sacrificial nature, her abilities.

[…]

Which brings us back to her importance to the DCU: #Supergirl started as a distaff character aimed at “kid sisters.” She’s since grown  to become a symbol for hope, a symbol reminding us to offer a helping hand to those in need, and  a symbol encouraging us to act with compassion. #Supergirl reflects those ideals back at us, because when she arrived on Earth THAT was what she saw…that was what she experienced. And that’s why #Supergirl’s motto became “hope, help, and compassion for all.”

[…]

One of the things that I like so much about #Supergirl is how universal her story can be. (“But she’s an alien who can fly!” you say.) And yes, that’s true. But #Supergirl’s also someone who migrated to this world and was immediately hidden away by Superman. There is a LOT of subtext to those early #Supergirl stories, where Superman quickly throws a wig on her and says “don’t use your powers.”

In fact, most of the times Superman is okay with #Supergirl using her powers in those stories is when he’s in a BAAAAAD spot.

How many people – especially young women – are told over and over again “just be normal and/or quiet” by someone until they’re needed?

#Supergirl has these amazing gifts and the first few years of her appearances, she’s stuck in an orphanage. It’s THIRTY ISSUES before  Superman is like “uhhh, I probably should tell the world about you, huh?” And #Supergirl gets a crazy coming out issue. (JFK shows up!) The immigrant who’s told to hide their gifts unless they’re needed for work? WAY more relevant story to people than, say, Batman. #Supergirl

And I’m not picking on Batman here, honestly. I just think #Supergirl’s more important a message to people than the billionaire ninja.

(And before BC runs the headline “Sterling Gates Hates Batman,” please note that Batman is one of my favorite characters. But still.)

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In a lot of ways, #Supergirl’s more relatable to so many because her story is about her natural gifts. (Yes, including flight. But still.) #Supergirl didn’t spend millions on going to Ninja School or building trick arrows, she got to Earth and discovered she could DO things. Again, I think that’s so, so relatable. #Supergirl’s powers are internal. Yes, they need sunlight to access, but they come from inside.

Our friend in Batman @Ssnyder1835 has weighed in to point out that Batman is about overcoming fears. I have said it before, but I think  it’s powerful that Bruce Wayne lost his parents. It’s an incredible motivator for that character. He overcomes that loss and swears  no other kid in Gotham will ever lose their parents like he did, and that’s why he does what he does. #Supergirl actually lost more.

In the original stories, #Supergirl lost her world completely. The Argo City inhabitants watched their planet die. THEN  they discovered their Space Life Raft was sinking. Zor-El and Alura scrambled and discovered they could only save Kara. In the span of a few months, Kara loses her world, her people, and her parents. THEN she gets sent to a planet she’s never heard of and gets hidden in an orphanage by Superman and told not to use her powers. At all. Ever….unless he gives her a call.

Look at how many different origin stories that is. Orphan, Lost World, Hidden Hero, Legacy Character. #Supergirl is many, many things.

As such, #Supergirl now represents many, many things to many different people. 

#Supergirl is now an empowering story for young women in a way that she was not in the 1950s. She’s become a new symbol for the 2010s.

#Supergirl represents the immigrant experience in America at its best: she came here and flourished using her natural gifts. (Side note: I’ve actually always wanted to do a Silver Age story that would go deeper into why Superman kept her hidden in that orphanage.) For many in the LGBTQ+ community, the #Supergirl tv show offers an incredible narrative in Alex’s journey. That’s so valuable.

[…]

When you have the privilege of writing for a character you love for so long in your career, you spend a LOT of time thinking about  how they were created and what makes them work for you. I’ve been honored to create #Supergirl stories for almost a decade now.

For me, it speaks to #Supergirl’s strength that she’s come so far in her personal journey. I lost a parent as a teen and crumbled. She  lost EVERYTHING and still managed to become one of Earth’s most hopeful heroes. There’s unlimited power in that narrative.

SUPERMAN SECRET FILES 2009 written by Sterling Gates and Greg Rucka art by Fernando Dagnino

SUPERGIRL (2005) #53 written by Sterling Gates art by Jamal Igle

SUPERGIRL (2005) #54 written by Sterling Gates art by Jamal Igle

WORLD'S FINEST (2022) #8 written by Mark Waid art by Dan Mora

SUPERGIRL (2005) #42 written by Sterling Gates art by Jamal Igle

• Kara lives in Hammersmith Tower, apartment 4-A.
• Kara had a bully on earth during high school called Belinda-the-bully, who seemed to always beat Kara at Street Combat Six using a surprise uppercut TKO.
• Also there were no video games on Krypton.
• Kara has one hell of an uppercut thanks to Belinda-the-bully.
• Kara has to calculate everything during a rescue. Air resistance, negative acceleration, matching the object’s speed. Like everything. Or else whiplash could kill victims or she’ll make a cater after every landing or things would crash against her as she catches them. Our girl knows how to multitask like a boss.
• Kara does her calculations in Sulls, a weight measurement on Krypton. She problems converting these to pounds.
• Alex is approximately 31 Sulls.
• Kara isn’t that great with Earth’s physics. The Rokyn Society’s Gravitistics doesn’t line up with Newton’s laws all too well. She apparently tried to tell that to her ninth grade teacher while English wasn’t her first language.
• Krypton didn’t believe in resolving conflict by physical violence. They first exhausted communication, every diplomatic option before disagreements got out of hand. So, that explains a lot about Kara’s temperament and hesitance to start a fight.
• Kara talks to Clark a lot about people finding out about her identity and how it would affect the people she cares for.
• Winn has a badass hajib-and-leather-jacket-wearing hacker friend named Rabiah Zinoman, who can go up against an alien who is practically a computer himself.
• Did I mention her screen name is RazzleDazzle130?
• Also she doesn’t date, so possibly on the asexual/aromantic spectrum?
• Speaking of screen names, Winn has several: Supergirl_In_Action252, Mufungo, and Dollm8ker (the latter being a throwback to his comic book roots).
• … James apparently got turned into a turtle once? (I need a fic now!)
• Kara had a college roommate named Donna, who was in love with Silence of the Lambs and would watch it every few weeks. After capturing and interrogating Fort Rozz criminals, Kara doesn’t like it that much anymore.
• Kara’s father used to say, “Not my cup of Thoni tea.”
• Kara learned how to control her dreams from the decades in the phantom zone. She dreamt of Kypton mostly. She used a Kryptonian dreaming technique called Tarukor for the control. She’s also so proficient in it that she went toe-to-toe with an alien known for manipulating/creating dreams.
• Alex promptly calls Kara a dream warrior.
• Kara, after dreaming/sleeping for decades, didn’t sleep much on earth the years following her landing. Now she mostly does it out of habit and normalcy.  
• Alex and Kara saw My Chemical Romance in concert. Seriously just imagine scene teens Kara and Alex though.
• Kara had a weird dream about Oscar Isaac once.
• Cat milks stuff for days after a Supergirl fight.  
• Kryptonians used sunstones as pictures. Like multi-faceted rocks with pictures on them.
• Kara is very proficient in hand-to-hand combat (since she learned of the DEO), despite not learning it on Krypton. Without her powers, Kara can still kick your ass if she wanted to. She also really likes uppercuts.
• Clark loves mysteries, grew up reading them and they are half the reason he became a reporter, wanting to uncover the secrets in people. They infuriate Kara, though, she just wants the world to be straightforward.
• Alex doesn’t know Kryptonese.
• Alex had a med school boyfriend that used to write poems about them together like “And so we fight, tooth and claw, with our backs to the wall.” That may have been the reason they broke up.
• Cat apparently partied with cast of Hamilton.
• Cat had lunch with Gwendoline Christie.
• Hand of Krypton was its justice system’s greatest honor and heaviest responsibility. They were in service to Krypton’s future.
• Kara went to Stanhope College.
• College actually challenged Kara in academics her first year. Yes, Supergirl was brought low by Professor Haley’s Oceanography pop quizzes.
• Kara did a huge research paper on doxing in college.
• By her own admission, Kara graduated ‘top-ish’ of her class (knowing her though I headcanon that she was at least top ten).
• Kara curses a lot more in Kryptonese than in English. Like a lot.
• Kara learned (passable) English in a day. Our girl is a fast learner (do as you please with that information).
• Midvale is in California, on the beach.
• Kara can fly to about 40,000 feet before she’ll be at risk of being in space.
• The DEO has at least one agent that wears a hajib.
• Clark says, “Truth, justice, and the American way,” Kara on the other hand would say, “Hope, help and compassion for all.”