Growing up in the US as an Iraqi Kurdish/West Asian Muslim kid in the ‘90s here in the US, pre-heroes like Kamala Khan (Ms. Marvel), Zari Tarazi of DC’s Legend of Tomorrow, Khalid Nassour (Dr. Fate), and Green Lantern Simon Baz coming up in the 2000s and 2010s, you rarely, if ever, saw heroes on screen you could identify with.

As such, many of us as kids had to identify with famous white heroes like Batman, Nightwing (pre-finding out that he is in fact Romani), and Spider-Man. We still always sincerely loved all their stories, but never from any cultural angle that has always been integral to my and many others identity.

It makes sense, and it is indeed expected at this point, for many of us Black and brown children of migrants to identify with Superman for his foundational immigrant and refugee story. I’m a lifelong Superman fan for all the wonderful things that make him Superman, including and especially his being a fellow immigrant. But there was a key difference I noticed when Supergirl, AKA Clark’s cousin Kara Zor-El, flew into my scope. Believe it or not, this white presenting, blonde and blue-eyed teenage girl superhero would become one of the most important and foundational characters for this brown boy Muslim.

While also a refugee from Krypton, Kara was different from Clark in a profound way. Unlike him with no memory of their home, she left Krypton at sixteen years old. She viscerally knows and remembers her home planet and all her various family and friends. She is Kryptonian culturally, unlike Clark raised in Kansas and the US. Therefore, she must confront the challenges of adjusting to a whole new place, while balancing honoring her Kryptonian home alongside Kal-El. While both must deal with finding their place on Earth, Kara must do so with the internal turmoil of craving the home she’s lost.

Kara Zor-El/Supergirl in Supergirl: Woman of Tomorrow by Tom King and Bilquis Evely (2021-2022)

I would say my own immigrant story is a mix of Kara and Clark’s. Having been brought as a baby to the US by Kurdish parents from Iraq, and having the privilege of visiting Northern Iraq many times in my life, I have been able to keep in touch with my culture and heritage in a physical way that these Kryptonian characters I love rarely, if ever in one continuity or another, could. But as a kid growing up primarily in the US, and having that dichotomy of cultures, I could deeply relate to Kara. Her whiteness and blondness was incidental, and she became one of the most relatable characters to me, even more so at times than my other immigrant/refugee favorite hero, Superman.

I would always feel out of place, often being the only Muslim kid in my class, except in rare instances, and would always have to explain what my ethnicity was to classmates. The only time I would truly feel at ease was when I would hang out with other Kurds, Iraqis, or West Asian Americans, bonding over a sense of ostracization, cultural commonalities, and just having the traumatic and genocidal experiences of what we and our families went through back in Iraq under the Ba’athists, and of course the devastation in the more modern day after the US invasion.

Like Kara, we have trauma over this significant devastation and destruction on our homes and peoples, much of which continues today in the region from colonialist forces. While we at least still have our family’s home countries, albeit to varying degrees based on the geopolitics, Kara does not. Whether you go by the continuity of her parents sending her teenage self shortly after Kal-El, or her and her family escaping Krypton on Argo City only for her to escape later, Kara lost her entire planet and family, barring her cousin. She is thrust into an unknown world as an adolescent with superpowers she’s never had before, encountering her baby Kal who is now significantly older than her. The trauma of losing her home, family, and being thrust with new responsibilities as a superhero would be enough to break anyone, even if they’re Kryptonian.

And Kara has certainly stumbled as she navigates her new status quo. She’s been reckless in the page and screen, rushing in trying to prove herself. She’s butted heads with fellow heroes, and even with Superman at times. She’d face fear from a distrustful populace at times. Growing up culturally confused in the US, especially during an I could relate to her rage and confusion at it seeming the world always being against us. While most of DC’s New 52 revamp in 2011 didn’t work, Supergirl (barring her costume) was a solid standout, putting Kara through the wringer in ways that we hadn’t seen before. The rawness with which she confronted her trauma and rage strikingly had her become a Red Lantern (who are powered by rage), which I hold as one of the peak moments for her character for how it allowed her to fall and rise again.

Supergirl: Volume 5 Red Daughter of Krypton, by Tony Bedard, Yildray Cinar, Emanuela Lupacchino, and Ray Mccarthy, January 2015

And she perseveres through this chapter, learning to deal with her rage in such a way that allows her to escape the curse of the Red Lantern Ring. But still, seeing her able to use this raw emotion of hers to power her heroism was ultimately inspiring. She was allowed to feel her trauma to its fullest degree and work through it, offering an example for those of us also with generational trauma a release and example of how we can work through ours. In this and so many of her other appearances, Kara Zor-El is a standout character for immigrant readers.

Supergirl: Woman of Tomorrow, upon which the upcoming Supergirl film is based, is an exemplary story for Kara. On her 21st birthday, she is still in deep mourning for Krypton, going to a planet with a Red Sun so she can get drunk. Meeting Ruthye Marye Knoll, set on a vendetta to avenge her father, has Kara confronting and persevering through her grief in another raw display that she didn’t seek, but to which she rises to the challenge as always. I will not spoil details for this exemplary graphic novel that serves as a definitive story for Kara Zor-El, so I will simply implore you all to read it instead.

It may seem strange to relate so strongly to a white woman character with extraordinary Kryptonian superpowers. Of course, most of us don’t have her white privilege or her powers to help us, but that’s not what helps Kara ultimately. Rather, it’s her immense relatablity in her journey adjusting as a refugee of devastation of her home, and her adjustment to her new home, while continuing to honor her culture, that makes her such an estimable hero for the refugee and immigrant experience.

I will always be immensely grateful to Kara and her writers and artists for showcasing this, and I keenly look forward to how writer Ana Nogueira and director Craig Gillespie adapt Woman of Tomorrow for the upcoming film. If the trailers are anything to go by, they’re staying true to the spirit of the comic and her grief, and I’m so excited to see one of my favorite all time heroes get her cinematic due.

While both encapsulate the immigrant experience, Supergirl does so often in more visceral way than her famous cousin. Her lived experience on Krypton and Argo City and her forced refuge from her home resonates painfully for many including thousands today. The display of her unbridled rage and grief, and her journey towards a more optimistic outlook while working through her pain, provides a template for us to persevere ourselves, and establish a better tomorrow for us all.

Supergirl debuts in theaters June 26, 2026