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Supergirl’s true power and myth was revealed in the 1984 film. Supergirl’s character is a retelling of the mythological Arthurian Lady of the Lake. She is fundamentally different than Superman and requires an entirely different sort of story to explore this.
Comics are modern mythology. In some ways, they are retellings of those stories or they use distinct characters from those time and tell their new adventures. More often, the themes and forms of the myth find themselves retold and reinvented for a new age. Joseph Campbell championed the idea of the monomyth—that all stories are telling the same singular story. In truth, not all modern mythologists agree with his larger conclusions. There are more than one mythic structure and story that gets retold.
While Luke Skywalker and Neo and Harry Potter retell the story of hero’s journey as Campbell explained it, Maureen Murdock says that there is a completely different structure for the female as they navigate the heroine’s journey. Superman is a form of this hero’s journey. In particular, there are themes and symbols pulled from the story of Christ and retold in Superman’s story. The only begotten son, sent to Earth from above, born and raised by a simple family, destined to die to save others, resurrected after a time of death. These are the key beats from Superman’s story and the story of Christ.
Supergirl is not Superman. Her story is not Superman’s nor is it Campbell’s hero journey. She can not be expected to repeat those identical notes. So what myth is she based on? What myth does she retell? We must search the different versions of her story to discover the moments that reveal her place in the larger tapestry of mythology.
The myth underlying Supergirl is that of the Lady of the Lake–its an Arthurian one. Supergirl’s mythological foundation is captured perfectly by the 1984 film Supergirl. In the film, Supergirl, played by Helen Slater, journeys to Earth not in a rocket ship but through Inner Space. She travels through the waters and emerges in our world, rising out of a lake. It is an image completely evocative of the Lady of the Lake myth in Arthurian legend—the goddess rising out, floating out, of the waters she inhabits.
The film portrayed the connection well but was not the first to connect Supergirl with Arthurian legend. Rewind to Action Comics #267 (1960) by Otto Binder, Wayne Boring, and Stan Kaye. From the 30th Century, the Legion of Super Heroes travel back to our time to find a hero to join their ranks that will inspire future generations. Rather than Superman, that hero is Supergirl. Her initiation requires her to hunt in the future for the long-lost sword of Arthur: Excalibur. She does so with ease and becomes a shining visage carrying the sword above her as she rises from the Earth. What’s critical is that she rises from out of the Earth lofting Excalibur above her, repeating the image of the Lady of the Lake.
Returning to the 1984 film, the Arthurian myth of sword and sorcery is present from the start. The opening scenes and costumes are far more medieval than the futuristic Kryptonians of the Superman film series. This film sees Supergirl pursue a ball of power through inner space and wrest it from an evil witch in a castle with a literal dragon. At one point, she is banished and must slog through a miserable bog, returning to the disgraced, wounded king of Argo, Zaltar—an image of the Fisher King of Arthurian myth. Every aspect of the film is Arthurian in nature. This is not a retelling of the Christ story that Superman gives us. Instead, this is a tale of the power of the Lady of the Lake.
At a deeper mythological level, the story of Supergirl is the search for the Grail—or in this case, the Omegahedron. Early on, Zaltar holds a wand in one hand and the Omegahedron (the symbol of the Grail) in the other. Supergirl does the same and produces life. The Omegahedron is lost and winds up in the hands of a witch, guarded by a dragon. Supergirl travels through the waters (hinting that perhaps her entire world and its mysterious power was under the waters all along) and seeks out the mysterious Omegahedron. Yet, what’s remarkable is that it is Supergirl’s return to her Camelot (Argo) that returns the power to the city—not the Omegahedron. At the deepest mythological levels, Supergirl in this film is the image of the divine feminine, rising out of the waters of inner space and the unconscious, confronting the image of the evil mother and reintegrating herself with the Grail itself. Both the Omegahedron and Supergirl are the Grail itself.
In mythology, the Lady of the Lake was named Nimue and she is the one that provides Arthur with Excalibur. She is the one who determines who receives her power. The Lady of the Lake is a retelling itself of the older Celtic myth of the goddess in the waters. The Lady is a goddess, the lake is the water of the Otherworld.
Found scattered throughout the rough, verdant land on which the Arthurian stories were told, the wells are natural sources of water and have a deep mythological history. The wells were the conduit of power within the Celtic world. Each of these, in myth, sprung from the Otherworld. From that place, water flowed into our world filling the springs. These wells were formed by goddesses who were believed to still indwell the actual waters. Nowhere is this truer than in their understanding of the Otherworld. The great well Segais was in the center of that alternative place and from it flowed all the waters that filled the Celtic world. For the Celts, this Otherworld was not just another locale, but served as the archetypal place from which all life and wisdom formed.
So, the Lady of the Lake is the otherworld goddess’ entrance to our world—it is there that the otherworldly feminine transitions from world to world. That Supergirl enters our world in that manner, puts her in a different framework—she is not descending as her cousin. She rises from the Otherworld of the Celts which was below our feet. She arose to enter our world. She is not visiting Earth.
Fast forward to the recent series Supergirl: Woman of Tomorrow (by Tom King, Bilquis Evely, Matheus Lopes, and Clayton Cowles). In this tale, Supergirl is off-Earth and finds herself recruited into a quest worthy of Camelot: embark on a quest across a world of medieval scenery to defeat a tyrant. King’s handling of Supergirl reinforces that Kara’s myth is more akin to sword and sorcery (evidenced by the phoenix wings she manifests while under the influence of Red Kryptonite) than the myth of the begotten son sent to save a world. Kara ascends. Kal-El descends. While brandishing the same S, the two are quite opposite in their approach. Kara rises from the ashes—surviving out of the midst of destruction.
Ultimately, Supergirl is not Superman. Her very mythological structure is different. Tom King’s version of Supergirl understands her Arthurian roots and uses it to show her on her own heroine’s journey—distinct from her cousin’s.
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