Supergirl: There’s One Problem With Kara’s New Season 5 Costume

The premiere episode of Supergirlseason 5 revealed a new costume for Kara Zor-El, with a feature that is as improbable as it is impressive. Granting that comic book science can justify a lot, there are some aspects of the new Super-Suit that raise more questions than answers.

The new Supergirl costume has been controversial since it was first revealed at San Diego Comic Con 2019. The most notable feature of the new Super-Suit is that it traded Supergirl’s trademark red skirt for blue pants – a move that offended many traditional Supergirl fans. However, actress Melissa Benoist had apparently been lobbying for this change for years behind the scenes, having grown tired of having to film during the cold season in Vancouver with relatively little lower-body coverage. Throw in the fact that Kara spent most of season 4 in a new armored costume that gave her pants and there seemed little reason not to make the change permanent.

The reason for the new suit is revealed early on in the Supergirl season 5 premiere episode, “Event Horizon.” A battle with a super-strong alien shape-shifter leaves Kara with a shredded cape, which offers an annoyance beyond looking bedraggled. It is revealed that the cape serves an aerodynamic purpose (no matter what Edna Mode may say) and that Kara uses it to help steer herself while flying at high speeds. This leads Brainiac-5 to offer to fix Kara’s cape, although being who he is he can’t just stop himself at merely making a stronger cape.

Later in the episode, Brainy presents Kara with a”microscopic motion activator,” which he attaches to her glasses. He warns Kara to be careful removing her glasses in public from now on, as he programmed the activator to be triggered by her suddenly jerking her glasses off in a dramatic fashion, as she always does whenever she needs to change into Supergirl. The costume can be similarly hidden by Supergirl replacing her glasses once the danger has passed and Supergirl needs to disappear.

Though the exact science behind Supergirl’s new costume is unexplained, it appears to use some form of nanotechnology to build a costume around Kara within seconds after being activated. The effect looks something like Cinderella’s clothes being changed by her fairy godmother and indeed Kara’s formal dress and hairdo seem meant to be a reference to the classic Disney version of the fairy tale heroine. This neatly solves the problem of Kara’s ripped cape by arranging for her to get a fresh costume whenever she needs it.

As impressive as the new Super-Suit is, it does raise several questions. For instance, it is unclear what happens to the clothes Kara is wearing when she activates her glasses and if they are altered to make the new costume. It is also unclear where Kara keeps her glasses once she has changed into Supergirl as (like most women’s clothing) the new Super-Suit doesn’t seem to have pockets. Still, for all its flaws, the new costume still makes more sense than Wonder Woman simply spinning around to change clothes.

About The Author

Matt Morrison
(1835 Articles Published)

Matt Morrison has been writing about comics since before the word
“blogging” was coined. He got his start writing for the
legendary DC Comics digital fanzine Fanzing,
before receiving his own column, The Mount. Since then he has gone on
to write for over a dozen websites, including 411
Mania, Comics
Nexus and The Cult of Nobody. He holds both an MS in Information
Science from the University of North Texas and a BFA from the
University of Texas at Arlington. Known as a font of comic book
history trivia, he has delivered lectures on the history of American
Comic Books, Japanese Manga, Doctor Who, and Cosplay at over a dozen conventions
and served as an Expert In-Residence for a course on Graphic Novels
for Librarians at the University of North Texas. In addition to his
work for Screen Rant, Matt is currently the Editor In Chief of
Kabooooom.com and writes reviews for No
Flying, No Tights – a graphic literature and anime review site
aimed at teachers and librarians. He also maintains a personal blog –
My Geeky Geeky Ways –
which hosts his extensive episode guide for the television series
making up The Arrowverse as well as his
comedic Let’s Play videos. What little spare time he has is
devoted towards acting, role-playing, movie-riffing and sarcasm. You
can follow his adventures on Twitter, @GeekyGeekyWays.

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