Happy Batman day. Heres Superman:
Power Girl may have the worst and most convoluted series of origins and re-origins in all of DC Comics, which considering both Wonder Girls and Woman and a plethora of other characters, mostly female I will note, is an impressive feat.
To address the Power Girl question is to consider the Superman thing as a whole, and the Kryptonian circumstance in part, so we will address those first. Krypton is the once idyllic planet-nation under a red sun of human-like aliens which had jetsons-esque techno-futurist abundance for all its people. It’s one sin was believing that there was nothing to improve toward, nothing left to do, and so their basic maintenance fell behind and leads ultimately to the destruction of their planet and the death of their race as a whole. What Krypton and Kryptonians are on a metaphysical level, is related most closely to the tagline for Superman which reads: The Man of Tomorrow. Krypton (at the time of its inception) is the Earth of tomorrow. A jetsons planet of limitless abundance having embraced the sciences, social welfare, exploration and medicine as its civilizational pillars. Krypton and Kryptonians represent on Earth the greatest and worst future faculties of the human endeavor. Superman represents Truth, Justice, and the American way; individualist good samaritanship which is at the heart of the entire Superhero landscape and a necessary philosophical bend for all Superheroes to embrace. These are not only middle American values but Kryptonian values as well. We know this is the case because General Zod is imprisoned in the Phantom Zone for inciting a militarist junta coup on Krypton long before Superman ever meets him, and when Zod comes to be on Earth his values carry the exact same stigma they did on Krypton to similar results. Fundamentally the hope that Superman carries is that humanity can ascend to the heights of Krypton and learn from its mistakes through him and thereby ascend into true peace on Earth Jetsons future. To that end, Kryptonian characters need a slice of that pie. Kryptonian characters need something to do, something impactful and some place in the hierarchy of that leadership based on hope and vision. Kryptonians (on Earth) are empowered with the greatest of all abilities physical and moral and it is their shouldered duty to use them for the greater good or for the greatest evil.
The job of messiah for the future-to-be is a tough one, but it isn’t one with a big payroll. Simply put there does not need to be 10 Kryptonians on Earth doing Superman shit. On a different level, and I dislike powerscaling in general but it bears addressing: If there are a whole crew of Kryptonians on Earth how is it ever legitimately in danger. There is no batch of Nuclear Missiles large enough or alien vessel advanced enough to stop 8 Supermen from taking care of it. The Justice League becomes unnecessary and other heroes become set pieces in stories they can never themselves own. Too many Cowboys and Not enough Indians. We will remedy this as we did in https://theforsakenland.site/t/putting-the-bat-family-up-for-adoption/69/4 by breaking down the supporting cast of “Other Kryptonians and the like” and sending them to the corners of space where they actually make sense.
First, a no doubt incomplete list of Kryptonians that are implied to be active:
Superman (Kal-El)
Superboy (Kon-El)
Superboy (John Kent)
Supergirl (Kara Zor-El) - Not to be confused with Linda Danvers, who I am going to say for simplicities sake exists only on Earth 2, more on that later though.
Power Girl (Karen Starr)
Superman obviously must stay as he is. The Superman we know and love will continue to serve mankind from Metropolis and defeat all manner of alien threats and science fiction evils. He and Lex Luthor, the two great futurists of our era; will continue their battle of wills, wits, and might until the end of days when Superman will take to the skies one final time to help his friend Orion of New Genesis and end up the shepherd of the lost herd of New Genesians and restored Kandorians in New-Supertown. I am a proponent that the bottled city of Kandor be eventually unbottled, and its Kryptonian inhabitants set free to live normal lives. They bolster the staggeringly low population of New Genesisians after the War in Heaven, and represent a possibility for Kal-El to live amongst his people as a savior like he is at that point to humanity and to the people of New Genesis.
Superboy is an interesting query. I am extremely particular about Superboy because Superboy represents the most logical immediate transition of the title of Superman. It matters where “Superman” goes next, who it goes to next. I do not feel that there is a meaningfully interesting comic book Superboy or that there has been one since Clark himself was Superboy. To be fair he sets a high bar having inspired the Legion of Superheroes. This leaves us will Conner Kent or Kon-El. I like the angle of Conner being half Clark and half Lex, but I am particular to the Young Justice angle of him Not having Superman’s full suite of powers, and that being a challenge he has to overcome generally in his career as a Teen Titan and otherwise. Similarly, I do not like the thought of multiple guys with Superman’s full set of powers running around with the “S” on their chest. Conner’s personal journey to contend with is being made in the image of God, and being imperfect nonetheless. He has to make his own way and figure out what it means to be him. He has the guidance of Superman for the first part of his life, but when Superman leaves for Supertown he must become Superman and deal with things his own way. He can’t fly. He doesn’t have heat vision. But he is strong and tough as fuck and that is what gets him through. The Mark Grayson of Superman but a little less whiny and with better role models. Superboy should, in the aftermath of Clark going to New Genesis, be taking up the title of Superman and committing to leaping tall buildings in a single bound and bending steel in the classic style. I think I see Superboy Conner Kent’s abilities as being more comparable to some of the high end strongman stuff that Superman was doing during the “selling warbonds era” of Action Comics. My real lore with Superboy really resides with how badly I think Young Justice treated him as a character given the things they built and implied in Season 1, but this is not the place for that. (See: https://theforsakenland.site/t/a-group-of-teens-is-dead-in-rhode-island/36/5) Superman Conner Kent will do alot to help found and direct the first generation of the Science Police, who will supplant the Metropolis PD’s Special Crimes Unit and soon expand to other parts of the country as a federal task force.
I suspend the birth of any Superman-children to the space in time after “The War in Heaven” which culminates in Superman taking Lois to New Genesis so she can have their child. John Kent is the prodigal child in many ways. He is born and raised amongst the people of New-Supertown and sees nothing but the green gabled walls of paradise until he is almost a man. His first exposure to the terrors of evil must come on Earth, where when he is 16 Kal-El sends him to learn from Superman. John is half-human as the child of Lois Lane, but being raised amongst the New Gods around their power has brought him to full Kryptonian heights. What the human parts of his existence impact is yet to be decided.
Supergirl, and for this we will first say Kara Zor-El, is a cool character that I like, but I think has a place outside of the events of the current day. Her arc is being displaced on Earth as a 16 year old girl, which is already how most 16 year old girls feel, and also it being literally true and she has superpowers and feelings and her cousin is the greatest guy in the world that everyone looks up to and the standards for her being are unimaginably heavy for her. She goes through these trials for a while before the option to travel to the future with Braniac-5 and be in the Legion of Superheroes presents itself, which she gladly takes. Very similar look and feel to the animated movie with basically the same plot. Because there is tons of time travel shenanigans in DC Comics, looking mostly at Flash here, I am not against the idea that she might come back to the present day on occasion in order to accord with her cousin and have an adventure.
Second, Linda Danvers, who honestly I am a little muddy on even after revisiting some comics and the wikipedia page out of desperation. Linda Danvers’ entire situation is bespokenly Earth 2 to me, which I guess is funny because her existence is a Crisis-ism. But I digress. I will do something in more detail on Earth 1 and Earth 2 separation at some point. Linda is the Supergirl of Earth 2, her adventures are there and she does little if any interaction with Earth 1.
Power Girl, most maligned of the Super-family in the mainstream comics. Le Boob Window. Power Girl is a character which like any character peripheral to Superman has a terrible crisis of identity as to what the character is about and can do because its just Superman again for the 5th time and Supergirl for the 3rd time. She has had a uniquely rough run of things, reimagined and maladapted over and over. I am going to make somewhat of a deep-cut and say that actually I like her directly post-Crisis origin the most, where she is an Atlantean test tube baby from the long lost peak of that civilization. Knowing that, I really don’t think Powergirl needs to be associated with the Supergang at all. I like Infiniti Inc, and I think she can make her own way there and legitimize them as a super-team. (My thoughts on the Justice League and Super Teams here: https://theforsakenland.site/t/the-justice-league-will-save-the-world/61) Atlantis’ history is rarely ever touched on outside the pages of Aquaman, he is the most relevant circumstance for it but I think Atlantis is cool and should get as much characterization and involvement as Themyscira or New Genesis does, as the three places are linked in nature.
I am not addressing the several monkeys, dogs, cats and other animals that are implied to be of Kryptonian origin or otherwise super powered and my thought on them is that they can live in Supertown when it is constructed as animate evidence of the goodness and the power of the place and supporting characters to John Kent’s life. Lois Lane never gets super powers. Thank you for your time.