Just because a Supergirl has to die in the Crisis doesn't mean that it has to be Kara does it?
Part 2: The 00s come to the 60s
So The Spectre shows up - and even in his Hal Jordan repentance days, that was rarely a good thing - and explains that Kara needs to go back to Earth 1, needs to go back to the 60s, and needs to die in the Crisis. Obviously that freaks Kara out. Not even on Earth for a week and her future death is foreshadowed. Linda though is a bit more experienced in this game. She remembers the question that Kara asked the other night. "Are we heroes?" Perhaps she wasn't always, but now? Now she's going to try to be one.
Just because a Supergirl has to die in the Crisis doesn't mean that it has to be Kara does it?
Linda uses Kara's rocket to propel herself to Earth 1, meets up with Superman like Kara did, but she has the reverse problem. If Kara was too innocent about how science worked, Linda tries too hard to explain everything and that works as well then as Kara's handstand did now.
Errr...
Ummmm... Come on, just make something up...
Awkward introductory stories out of the way (which turned out to be worthless anyway because Superman noticed that Linda's costume was made of Earth fibers), Linda settles into life on Earth 1. And she loves it.
(For the record, my money's on Krypto in that tug of war. Streaky looks way too distracted.)
The stories might be wacky, the science might not always conform to anything that we know or suspect to be true, the characters might be a little too pure, but the energy of their lives is obvious. There's reasons why people love reading old comics. It probably would be fake if people tried to write comics like that now, but as markers of a period of time, they're so much fun. Ok, occasionally a little awkward
but fun.
Meanwhile back in "our" Earth, Kara teaches the comic book readers of the present a lesson. People always mock the Silver Age Superman for being such a Boy Scout. Well what would it look like if someone with all of his powers, frustrated over the fact that she made a decision that proved her not to be a hero, decided that she wanted to behave like Batman. It probably would look something like this:
Cool? Yes. However, it's just overkill. If you have those powers and an attitude, it becomes hard to write stories, doesn't it? Supervillians just slink off into the distance.
Time passes on Earth 1. Superman and Supergirl - not being cousins - decide to get married. They have a kid. Life goes on but if there's ever a question you don't want a likable character asking themselves in the DC Universe, it's the one asked below.
The Crisis is returning. The event that killed Kara is finally here. Linda agrees to sacrifice her life but, no, it's not enough. If Kara herself doesn't die, the universe will still end.
I've been talking a lot in recapping these issues about how much I love old comics. I love their energy and silliness. However, there's also something to be said for the new ones.
Tragedies were out of place in stories where the good guys always had to win and death is reversible. People might mock the imaginary stories of that era, but they were one of the few chances where everything could go wrong. Consequence free comics are fun, but there's a case to be made for allowing people to live with the results.
Is Linda a hero? She wouldn't have called herself one in the beginning of the story, she became one in the middle, but by the end, it just was too much for her. Not even the image of her daughter being reborn as the carefree Supergirl 1,000,000 (trust me, you don't want to know) was enough. She wrote a letter to Clark saying that she's paid her dues and dropped off the face of the DC Universe, probably permanently. The world is a poorer place for it.
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