Marvelites tend to overstate the "god-like powers" of Superman and the rest of the Superman Family. Everyday, Earthbound villains cause significant trouble for them. The unfortunately-shown ability to thread an entire planetary system on a cable and fly it about the cosmos at will doesn't actually help much when it comes to taking out the Prankster. Superman takes his lumps as much as any hero. Marvelites cut the Silver Surfer and any number of similarly, cosmic-powered Marvel heroes slack but somehow Superman and co. are always "god-like," "alien," "remote," and "impossible to identify with." Spider-Man beat up Firelord and wasn't in his cosmic phase at the time. He has had cosmic phases, though. Aw, but, y'know, it's Peter. We all know Peter! Clark Kent, he's just... well, y'know... so... I don't even want to say it out loud, but he's so... D.C, y'know? Eww, right?

Marvel is at least as overpowered as DC, but you never hear Marvelites bitch about how an infinite number of parallel timeline versions of the Cosmic Cube make the heroes difficult to identify with, or how the half-dozen different iterations of the Beyonder we've had to this point make the Marvel Universe too stupid to spend time in...

Supergirl is a different person than her cousin. She looks at the world differently. She did not train since infancy to have the entire world depend on her as Superman felt he had to do. Her views have been more subjective and self-questioning. She doesn't have everything decided for herself in the same manner that Superman does. She grew up a normal girl in an endangered community, living on the brink of constant disaster, in the arms of her family. She came to Earth after the worst thing that could happen in her life happened, believing her parents and everyone she knew to be dead. She assumed the responsibilities of a super-heroine willingly and allowed herself to undergo a training period before setting out on her own. That time was, in comparison to Superman's, quite brief. She was out on her own, and able to do as she wished, in a relatively short period of time, knowing the weight of the world did not fall entirely upon her shoulders. 

A good Superman story does not transpose instantly to a good Supergirl story and vice versa. Supergirl tends to deal with contemporaries and earth-bound mortal problems on a more personal basis than the business-like Superman does. Mxyzptlk doesn't hound and bedevil her because she isn't the self-confident, cracksure, know-it-all her cousin is in the imp's book. She's warmer, more involved, less likely to be needed in six other places at any given moment as Superman feels he must be.

Her personal relationships are not as carved in stone as Superman's. She can be the strong one, the weak one, the lonely heart, the girl in love, she can be anyone, which in large part is probably why she's seen as a viable, promising television character by the network.

She's free, and while she has responsibilities, they are not solely her's to bear, so they need only play as large a role in the storytelling as the writer's wish. She's self-searching. She has hidden strengths and secrets, but they're only as secret as she feels they have to be. She's much more loose and yes, young. She doesn't have to have all the answers yet. "Smallville's" super-youngster was the all-important Chosen One, with a Great Destiny Ahead that He and Only HE Must Fulfill! Supergirl might have a great destiny ahead of her. She might not. It might be entirely up to her in a way Superman's never really was. 

She's a different person than her cousin and grew up in a different time with different expectations. Plus, she tends to fight girls a lot.

But hey, Marvelites, preach on about what a unique, one-of-a-kind great guy Ben Grimm is comparison to all those over-imitated DC fogeys... And remember how great the Earth-A Ben Grimm is as well. And the Counter-Earth Ben Grimm. And all of those What If, alternate timeline Ben Grimms, like the two separate ones with no super-powers at all JB himself created. And the Earth-X Ben Grimm. And the House of M Ben Grimm. And the Age of Apocalypse Ben Grimm. And the MC-2 Ben Grimm. And the Earth-X's Ben Grimm's twin sons. And She-Thing. And Ms. Thing.  What makes a really good She-Thing story that would be any different than a Thing story, I wonder...

A teenage Supergirl in high school, having to adjust to (not just a new town or school but) a brand new world, having just arrived from Argo City--THAT would be interesting!  And different from SUPERMAN!  (Maybe not that different from the original SUPERBOY, but that seems gone forever, so--)  Dealing with regular teenage girl problems AND coping with the same powers (and potential responsibilities) of a Superman would make for a LOT of stories!

Even in the 50's and 60's, DC aged her way too quickly, then we had a lot of aimless stories about a young woman who didn't know what to do with her life.

Now, teenage girl stories are all the rage in books, TV shows, and movies!  Why CBS started her off as a clumsy twenty-something--wearing glasses and working in the news business, no less!--is beyond me.

(Potential workaround for the Sugar & Spike problem, btw: Showcase 100 took place during a time of temporal flux. That S & S could have been taken from any period in history. They could still be infants today, sent back into the past for that issue, or they could have been infants back when they were first published, putting them in their late Fifties now... Isn't Kontinuity Kopping fun?)

Once Supergirl was given her own feature, and it happened immediately after her introduction, her aging should only have had as much effect on the rest of Superman's cast as the creators wanted it to. The premise of the strip is she's 15 and in Midvale Orphanage. Cool. She's 15. The strip moves over into it's own spot in another magazine with a new creative team who place her not just in college, but as a college graduate working there as a guidance counselor. Hell of a jump, but okay. That does not mean that Lois & Jimmy are eight years older and Bizarro #1 & Bizarro-Lois are now dealing with a hell-raising, leather-jacketed Bizarro-proto-teenager who friends and him live by their own Bizarro Code. ("What are we the Opposite of? What have you got?") "Oh, but then it's all so much less BELIEVABLE," the Lifers cry. Yeah, well, the whole thing's just a little unbelievable, so, y'know, work with it...

Questions of Supergirl's age bring up questions of Batgirl's age. Somehow, she went from zero to accomplished young professional with a degree in library sciences and enough time put in with the Gotham Library System to rise to head librarian of their main branch before we ever met her. Later, she was a congresswoman, making her at least 25, yet still somehow a contemporary of Robin's who was around 16 at the time. Of course, she could have been a 17 or 18 year old head librarian and congresswoman since Supergirl met Prez in Supergirl #10 and Prez lives in an America where the voting age is 16 and there is no age restriction on serving in government... Ah, the Implications Game... Does make you wonder if there's a huge, untold epic out there about Darkseid's battle with Prez villain Boss Smiley, who already had everything on Earth that Darkseid is after... There's Glory for ya'... Darkseid vs. Boss Smiley..! Darkness vs. Light! The Sole Ruler of Apokolips vs. the Sole Ruler of Earth! Solo Jack Kirby vs. Solo Joe Simon!... Millar? Morrison? Are you reading this...?

We could play the Implications Game forever and ever... ("Sgt. Rock is in Germany this issue and in Russia the next... And Farmboy's with him in both adventures! But Farmboy gets killed in Germany, so what? They went all the way to Russia and then came back just to kill Farmboy? What? These troop movement patterns make NO SENSE! And they have to make sense! They HAVE TO! Sgt. Rock met Superman in DCCP #10, and if I can't make his movements in WW II make PERFECT SENSE it will RUIN my enjoyment of Superman forever!! FOREVER!!!") but who is really helped by any of it? The premise of some characters change over time. Sometimes it's a mistake and they change back again. The entire publishing line shouldn't tie itself into knots trying to keep up...

Kontinuity. A harsh mistress indeed... And not in a fun, shapely, PVC-clad kind of way either...