In this feature we examine comic book stories and ideas that were not only abandoned, but also had the stories/plots specifically "overturned" by a later writer (as if they were a legal precedent). Click here for an archive of all the previous editions of The Abandoned An' Forsaked. Feel free to e-mail me at bcronin@comicbookresources.com if you have any suggestions for future editions of this feature.

Today we look at whether Supergirl came to Earth Post-Crisis specifically to kill Superman...

Writer Jeph Loeb introduced the Post-Crisis version of Kara Zor-El in Superman/Batman #8 (with artist Michael Turner)....

The storyline was a huge success and Supergirl was soon given her own series. Loeb launched the series with the opening five-part storyline, along with artists Ian Churchill and Norm Rapmund. In the fourth issue, Lex Luthor splits Supergirl into, for lack of a better term, a "good" and a "bad" version of herself. In the next issue, Loeb's final issue on the series, the "bad" Supergirl refreshes the "good" Supergirl's memory on why they were on Earth in the first place...

Now here's the thong - look at how Loeb writes it - it is very simple to just say "Yeah, she was lying." Loeb never confirm that it is the truth at all.

However, the next issue, written by Greg Rucka, seems to do so...

Then the following issue, when Joe Kelly takes over (still working over Rucka's plot here, though)...

In Supergirl #16, Kelly (working over a Mark Sable plot), reveals WHY Supergirl's dad wants Kal-El dead. He believes him to be a lure to deadly "Phantoms" that will devour Earth...

Was the Phantoms thing legit? Or what? Find out on the next page, along with how the whole thing was pretty quickly retconned...

In Supergirl #17, the "Phantoms" begin to take over Earth and Supergirl convinces herself that she DOES have to kill Superman to stop it all.

In Supergirl #18, though, Kelly reveals that this Phantom invasion was all sort of a test by the Monitor operative, Dark Angel, to see if this reality's Supergirl "deserved" to exist (this is sort of tying in with the fact that Supergirl died in the previous DCU reality pre-Crisis)....

Note that Monitor still seems to suggest that Supergirl WAS still sent to Earth to kill Kal-El, but it was just the whole Phantom thing (including her father visiting her in #17) that was fake.

But in Supergirl #24, new writer Kelley Puckett DOES show that, yeah, the whole "you're here to kill Superman" thing was a lie, as Supergirl regains her ACTUAL memories of her trip to Earth. This time these memories stuck (and they're basically the basis of the current Supergirl TV series, as well)...

In Supergirl #35, Sterling Gates and Jamal Igle reaffirmed that her father was not a psycho sending her to kill Kal-El. Instead, Kryptonite poisoning was to blame for the fake memories...

I wonder if the Supergirl TV series will ever have a plot where Kara is temporarily tricked into believing she was sent to Earth to kill baby Kal-El?

That's it for this installment! If there's an interesting retcon that you'd like to see me feature, drop me a line at bcronin@comicbookresources.com!