Supergirl #1

History

Writers Michael Green and Mike Johnson were already an established creative partnership at DC, having collaborated extensively on the Superman/Batman series before being tapped for this relaunch; both also had substantial television credentials, including work on the NBC drama Heroes. Artist Mahmud Asrar served as both penciller and inker on the debut issue, with colorist Dave McCaig and letterer John J. Hill completing the production team, under editors Wil Moss and Matt Idelson, with Eddie Berganza as executive editor. The New 52 initiative itself emerged directly out of the Flashpoint event, with DC co-publisher Jim Lee reportedly insisting on exactly 52 simultaneous titles, and Supergirl was part of that first wave — on sale September 21, 2011. The creative team publicly framed their mandate as introducing 'a Supergirl you only think you've met before,' signaling from the start that this would be a harder-edged, more isolated character than the post-Crisis or early 2000s versions.

Trivia · 8 facts

• Published September 21, 2011 (cover-dated November 2011) as part of the first wave of DC's New 52 reboot, which simultaneously launched 52 new #1 issues across the publisher's entire line.
• Written by Michael Green and Mike Johnson, with art (pencils and inks) by Mahmud Asrar, colors by Dave McCaig, and letters by John J. Hill.
• This is Supergirl Volume 6 — the character's sixth solo ongoing series in DC history — and continues the Kara Zor-El version of the character restored by Jeph Loeb and Michael Turner in Superman/Batman (2004).
• The issue establishes the New 52 origin: Kara's pod crashes through Earth's crust near Smallville and resurfaces in Siberia, where she emerges already in costume, disoriented, believing she is still dreaming, with no knowledge of Krypton's destruction.
• First appearance of Simon Tycho — a young, hyper-wealthy tech industrialist who holds government contracts granting him first claim on any extraterrestrial material landing on Earth — introduced here as a supporting/antagonist character and intended as Supergirl's own arch-nemesis analog.
• Contains a cameo by Pandora, the hooded figure who appeared in the background of every first-wave New 52 #1 issue as part of a line-wide editorial mystery that would not be resolved until the Trinity War crossover (2013).
• Mahmud Asrar's New 52 costume redesign debuted here — replacing the traditional skirt with a high-collared navy-and-red unitard — described by the creative team as Kryptonian armor befitting a teenage warrior; it sparked immediate fan debate and was considered the most radical departure from the character's classic look up to that point.
• The first story arc ('Last Daughter of Krypton,' issues #1–7) was collected in a trade paperback (ISBN 1401236804, October 2012) that hit the New York Times bestseller list; the full run was later collected in two omnibus volumes, with the New 52 Omnibus Vol. 1 (2025) gathering issues #0–20 alongside related Superman-family crossover chapters.

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