Beyond Lori, other magic-based characters frequent Superman’s world time and again. The fifth-dimensional imp Mr. Mxyzptlk is one of Kal-El’s oldest and strongest adversaries, a trickster who can only be defeated by being tricked in turn to say his name backwards. Supes regularly fights the Silver Banshee, victim of an Irish curse. As a member of the Legion of Super-Heroes, Superboy served alongside the magical Princess Projectra of Orando and battled the wizard Mordru. The oddball comics of the postwar, early code era dabbled in many other genres as well, including fantasy stories that saw Superman face off against mythical heroes Hercules and Samson, or joining King Arthur’s Knights of the Round Table.
The fantasy aspects are even more pronounced in Supergirl’s stories. She interacted with most of the same magical characters as her cousin, including Mxyzptlk and Mordru. But she had her own strange adventures, most famously involving her flying horse Comet, who changed into a human via a spell from the witch Circe and who dated Supergirl for some time. Supergirl counts among her rogues gallery the sorcerer Zond, the sorceress Nightflame, and more recently, Legion baddie the Emerald Empress, whose Emerald Eye of Ekron has magical properties.
Dunaway’s Selena may have been invented for the movie, but she’s very much in line with these eerie antagonists. Supergirl writer David Odell and director Jeannot Szwarc follow the tone and world established by Silver Age DC Comics. The Argo City of the film may look like the science-focused Krypton of Richard Donner’s movies, but it counts among its citizens the wizard Zoltar (Peter O’Toole), who holds a powerful MacGuffin called the Omegahedron. When Kara arrives on Earth and masquerades as human girl Linda Lee, Selena and the sniping warlock Nigel (Peter Cook) use their powers not just to find the Omegahedron but also to mess with Kara’s romance with groundskeeper Ethan (Hart Bochner, playing a very different type of white knight than he did in Die Hard).
The mixed-up identities, goofy romance, and earnest emotional outbursts in Supergirl fit right alongside the stories of the era, stories that formed the bedrock of the character. Even though several different versions of Supergirl have appeared since the original version died in 1985’s Crisis on Infinite Earths #7—including a blob of shapeshifting goo, a fallen angel bonding with a teen girl, and a midriff-baring escapee from Darkseid—both the comics and adaptations keep coming back to the original version that debuted in 1959, the one who had all the magical fantasy adventures.
In fact, the next Supergirl movie will likely continue this fantasy turn. Written by Tom King and illustrated by Bilquis Evely, the 2021-2022 comic book series Supergirl: Woman of Tomorrow certainly has its sci-fi elements, as Kara and Superman’s dog Krypto go across an alien planet, and even some aspects of a True Grit–style Western, as it is narrated by a young girl who wants revenge against the man who killed her father.
But Evely presents the story as high-fantasy, as announced by the cover of the first issue, which shows Kara raising a sword into the sky. The series imagines Supergirl as a type of wandering warrior or a knight of old who walks into a situation and helps the defenseless, pledging her allegiance to a quest. She even reunites with Comet, albeit back in horse form.
