The Strangest Supergirl Is Finally Back, and She Shows Exactly How DC’s Perspective on History Has Changed

Comic books have a long, complicated history with a tendency to go completely off the rails, and nowhere is that more clear than with Supergirl. One look at her first origin will leave you either scratching your head or nodding along and saying that, yes, that’s exactly how comic books can be sometimes. Of course, there are some parts of her history that are even stranger, and the number one recipient of that title is the protoplasmic Supergirl, Matrix. She was the byproduct of DC’s attempt to simply Superman’s mythos, only for her to wind up infinitely stranger than the original Girl of Steel.

Given the combination of her complicated existence and Kara’s return as Supergirl, it seemed like DC was ready to write Matrix off for good. However, this alternate Maid of Might officially returned in Supergirl (2025) #18, complete with the chance to become the main Supergirl once again. Not only is this a fantastic showing of a character that nobody could have expected to see again, but it’s the perfect representation of how much DC has changed. Instead of running away from the wacky and weird aspects of its history, the company is embracing it all for the better.

The Strangest Supergirl of All

Let’s briefly go over who Matrix is and why fans were so convinced she wouldn’t be returning anytime soon. When John Byrne took over Superman’s world post-Crisis, he wiped away every other Kryptonian to make sure Superman was the Last Son of Krypton. This involved getting rid of Supergirl, but fans campaigned for her return. Byrne created Matrix as the compromise, but she was infinitely more complicated. She came from a pocket universe, created by Lex Luthor as a protoplasmic clone of Lana Lang who could mimic Superman’s powers. She’d go on to act exactly like Kara, except for falling in love with Lex Luthor (who was disguised as his own son) and fusing with the next Supergirl, Linda Danvers.

Needless to say, everything about Matrix was weird. She was made to fill a role and did so expertly, but constantly in a way that seemed slightly alien. Supergirl #18 finally brought her back in a big way, establishing that she reached the end of her natural lifespan and was transformed into an information cube until she could be resurrected. She finally was when she fused with Kara’s Super-Substance suit, granting her a new form and restoring her to the complicated woman we all love, even though we never would have seen this coming. Supergirl already struggles to maintain her own mythos, and adding in Matrix definitely complicates things, but that is in no way a bad thing.

Embracing the Weird to Enhance the Heroic

Superhero comics are weird. There’s no getting around that, and every attempt to diminish that weirdness only leads to it coming back twice as hard down the road. The very nature of how comics trade creative teams so often with characters designed to last forever makes this inevitable, but that history is also what makes DC so incredible. DC tries to do away with that every so often, with reboots like Crisis on Infinite Earths or the New 52, but in recent years, DC has decided to embrace their history instead of shying away from the parts that seem like they could confuse new fans.

The floodgates of history first opened with the return of Wally West at the start of the Rebirth rebrand, but it kicked into high gear at the tail end of Dark Nights: Death Metal, which restored everyone’s memories of their lives through every universal reset. This was the shift that hallmarked DC embracing the decades of history at its disposal. This era has given us back tons of legacy characters once thought gone for good. Wally’s entire family is here to stay. Cassandra Cain and Stephanie Brown are both back as Batgirl, and Cass even has her own ongoing. Now, Matrix is back, despite being easily the most obscure and strangest part of Supergirl’s history.

Frankly, there’s no reason to bring Matrix back other than love of her character, and that’s exactly what modern DC comics are brimming with. Her past is wild, but her return is the ultimate showcase that DC is willing to make big swings and embrace all of its heroes, even when they only risk overcrowding a heroine who is trying to break into the spotlight. A few years ago, DC would have balked at a character like Matrix. Now, she has the chance to shine as the main Supergirl while Kara is depowered, building her own identity and pushing Supergirl’s mantle even further into the future without throwing away the past.

What do you think of DC’s approach to embracing its history and legacy characters? Let us know in the comments below!

Supergirl’s 5 Best Costumes, Ranked