The Comic You Should Be Talking About for March 22, 2006: Supergirl and the Legion of Super-Heroes 16

Official Good Buddy Brian Cronin got a good deal of mileage out of his theory on who was behind the mask of the Swordsman in New Thunderbolts. I've never been shy about stealing other people's schticks (especially since he stole my FAQ-as-Socratic-dialogue schitck earlier this week, the bastich), and for a while I've had a thought niggling in the back of my brain about the solution to another current comics mystery. So, for your reading pleasure, my theory on the quandary facing the Legion 1001 Years Later: Who is Supergirl?

Since the announcement that the Maid of Might would be added to both the roster and the title, most fans have been wondering how Kara Zor-El, the current Supergirl appearing in both her own title, set in the 21st Century, and Legion, set in the 31st. A number of people have assumed that she would be timesharing between centuries, as the Pre-Crisis Kara did with the Pre-Crisis Legion. There has been much hueing and crying from some corners that this is a shameless exploitation and overmarketing of the character, whom very few people seem to like, anyway.

It should go without saying that I think these people are morons.

Consider: The hype on this series coming out of DC is that exactly how Supergirl can be in two centuries at once is the big mystery. And when has it ever been that the most obvious solution to a mystery was, in fact, the solution? Hell, when was the last time Mark Waid *didn't* juke us one way while setting up the real answer to be completely different?

I've had a sneaking suspicion that the Legion Supergirl not only wouldn't be Kara Zor-El doing the timeshare but, she wouldn't be Kara at all. And, having read this issue, I think my suspicion is confirmed.

Let's do spoilers for a bit. The Legion is adjusting to their new status as an arm of the UP when they get called in by Saturn Girl's mom to stop a meteor that's headed right for Earth. It's a big meteor (it's heat wake alone carved a thirty-mile trench in the surface of Neptune), and not even the Legion's heaviest hitter, Colossal Boy, is enough to stop it. However, there's a second object that seems to be following the meteor, smaller, and leaving a red-and-blue streak.

I'll save you the "It's a bird..." bit: it's Supergirl, she stops the meteor. A stunned Cosmic Boy, who's only ever heard of Supergirl in millenium-old comic books that may or may not be based in fact, asks her if she's really who she appears to be. She answers that she is, and that that's the whole problem. You see, she's Supergirl... and she's dreaming the Legion.

If I'm allowed to lapse into the vernacular of a race other than my own: Nigga, please.

My suspicion that Supergirl wasn't Kara carried with it a suspicion of who she really was, and the signs, I'm thinking, are pointing that way as well. Think about it: Who's been linked romantically to Brainiac 5, who had a longstanding relationship with Supergirl in the Pre-Crisis continuity? Who was last seen on the far rim of the known galaxy, inside a stasis pod, with Brainy beseeching the Legion's mortal enemy Praetor Lemnos to, at any cost, "save her?" Who has almost the same hairstyle as this Supergirl, which is not shared by her 21st Century counterpart? Last, and most important: Who dreams the future?

This ain't no Supergirl. This is Dream Girl. Revived by their greatest enemy and apparently given powers equal to Superman's.

And that spells nothing but trouble for the Legion. I can't wait to see what's next.