The first series featured the original Supergirl, Superman's cousin Kara Zor-El. It began publication in 1972 following a 44-issue run of Supergirl stories in Adventure Comics, ending with issue #424. The series lasted for 10 issues until 1974, after which the character began appearing regularly in The Superman Family commencing with issue #165. The release of the last issue of Supergirl was delayed for several months due to a nationwide paper shortage.
During its first year of publication, the second Kara Zor-El series was titled The Daring New Adventures of Supergirl. With issue #13, the name was shortened to Supergirl, and the title continued monthly publication for a total of 23 issues.
Volume 3 (1994)
In 1994, DC Comics published a four-issue limited series featuring a new Supergirl who was introduced early in the Post-Crisis era. Sometimes referred to as the Matrix, this new character was a protoplasmic duplicate of an alternate universe Lana Lang, granted superpowers by an alternate Lex Luthor. Having been brought to the mainstream DC Universe by Superman, she became romantically involved with the mainstream Luthor, who was posing as his own fictitious son Lex Luthor II. This limited series resolved many of the threads remaining from that storyline.
The fourth series featured a third Supergirl. This character was a fusion of the Matrix Supergirl and Linda Danvers. The series ran for 81 issues, ending with the main character journeying to an alternate universe following the re-emergence of the original version of Kara Zor-El.
In 2004, DC Comics introduced an updated version of Kara Zor-El in the pages of Superman/Batman. The following year, she began appearing in her own ongoing series, with Superman/Batman #19 being republished as issue #0 of Supergirl. Sterling Gates took over the title in late 2008 with issue #34. Amy Reeder Hadley was announced as the new cover artist for the series in May 2010.
DC Comics relaunched Supergirl with issue #1 in September 2011 as part of The New 52 reboot.
Volume 7 (2016–present)
A new Supergirl series written by Steve Orlando and incorporating elements of the Supergirltelevision series began in September 2016 as part of the DC Rebirth relaunch. The series took a three-month hiatus in April and resumed publication in August 2018 with the release of #21. The new creative team was writer Marc Andreyko and artist Kevin Maguire.
