Happy Birthday Supergirl

Today is considered the birthday of Supergirl, Superman's cousin, Kara Zor-El.

    

To celebrate, here is her first appearance and a major turning point in Supergirl's life!

Action Comics #252 (May, 1959)

Under a cover by Curt Swan and Al Plastino, with a story by Otto Binder and Al Plastino, debuted "The Supergirl From Krypton!".  Supergirl's rocket crash landed on Earth, and Superman was there to greet the young girl in a costume styled like his, who also had powers as he did.

Sent to Earth from Argo City (a section of Krypton that had survived the destruction of the planet, for a while) by her father, Zor-El, Kara came to Earth. 

Vowing to keep her safe and give her time to get used to Earth, Superman kept her as his secret weapon, with Kara not revealing herself to the world, and living as Linda Lee in Midvale Orphanage.

That status quo lasted for a while, with Linda getting adopted by the Danvers, but Supergirl was still a secret to the world at large until...

Action Comics #285 (February, 1962)

Under a cover by Curt Swan and George Klein, with story by Jerry Siegel and Jim Mooney, Superman finally reveals Supergirl to the world as "The World's Greatest Heroine!".  with many of her friends acknowledging it, including merboy Jerro, Linda's adoptive parents Fred and Edna Danvers and her friend from Midvale, Dick Malverne.

In a double sized story, Supergirl even faces the Infinite Monster alone after her big reveal, as well as getting a little help from her friends from the Legion of Super-Heroes (Cosmic Boy, Saturn Girl, Lightning Lad and Brainiac 5).

From here, the world looked a little brighter with Supergirl in it.