From 1988-1996, the DC Universe knew their one and only Supergirl as Matrix, given the nickname ‘Mae’ by Ma Kent after she was taken in by the Kents and treated as their own daughter. Mae is a telekinetic shapeshifter from an alternate universe. She goes on many adventures, playing a role in such arcs as Panic in the Sky, the Death and Return of Superman, and Zero Hour. She’s part of the 90s era Superfamily as well as the 1995 New Titans.
Mae values honesty above all, and she idolises Superman as the man who saved her and Lex Luthor as her creator and lover. Mae has a complex relationship with both Clark and Lex (in different ways, obviously) and her dynamic with Luthor is complicated by there being two distinct versions of Lex in her story; her creator, from the Pocket Universe, and her lover, from the Main DC Universe. Mae is deeply kind, optimistic, and naive, but she’s also impulsive, emotionally volatile, and easily manipulated.
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and a history below:
Matrix was created by Lex Luthor in an apocalyptic alternate version of Earth. Luthor started the apocalypse by accident when he accidentally freed Kryptonian criminals General Zod, Zaora, and Quex-Ul from the Phantom Zone. These Kryptonians went on to destroy the entire planet, leaving Luthor scrambling for a way to stop them. The Universe’s only hero, Superboy (Clark, not Kon), died years before in an unrelated adventure—so shortly after Lana Lang’s death, Luthor modelled a protomatter creature after her ‘dna matrix’ and in homage to the late Superboy. This new ‘Lana’, he hoped, could both serve as a weapon against the Kryptonians and a messenger he could send to the main DC Universe to ask Superman for help.
Despite ‘Lana’ and Superman’s best efforts, the Kryptonians successfully destroyed all life on the planet, including the Pocket Universe’s Luthor, her creator. On his deathbed, Luthor reveals that he convinced his protomatter ‘Lana’ that she was the real and original Lana all along, and she never knew she wasn’t real. He reveals that he knows the location of Gold Kryptonite (removes Kryptonians’ powers) and Green Kryptonite (kills Kryptonians) and Superman should find them and end this once and for all. Superman asks him why he created this protomatter ‘Lana’ if he had access to all he needed to win all along, and he blames his own ego before dying.
Clark brought the severely damaged and in-shock ‘Lana’ home to his family, who took her in as their own. As she recovered, she lost her implanted ‘Lana’ memories and gave herself a new name—Matrix. Ma soon gave her the nickname ‘Mae,’ saying that Matrix is no name for a girl. The shock of finding out her entire life has been a lie leaves Mae in a childlike state, having to relearn basic information about the world and basic skills like reading. Clark, traumatised by his killing of the three Kryptonians, leaves Earth to recover himself without endangering humans. His absence leads people to begin to be concerned, and Matrix, already confused about her identity, decides to fill the absence and begins having a delusional episode. She shapeshifts into Clark and believes she actually is him (although she seems to not know that Clark is Superman) and hijinks ensue as she makes her way to the Daily Planet.
When Clark returns from his exile, he brings with him the Eradicator, a mysterious Kryptonian weapon. When Matrix comes in contact with it, it links her mind with Clark’s, pushing her from delusional into full-blown psychosis with hallucinations. She begins to believe she’s Superman and Clark is General Zod, and she must kill him to save her world. Clark eventually calms her down and she decides to leave Earth, just as he did, on her own mission to find a home.
She returns in 1992’s Panic in the Sky! event, having run into Draaga while still in her Superman form, leading him to mistake her for Clark, whom he has a death pact with. Shortly after he realises the truth, Brainiac arrives and puts Mae under his mind-control. Lots of fun superhero stuff occurs (read it! it’s lots of fun!) and eventually Draaga, having come to love Mae during the events of the arc, sacrifices himself to fulfill his blood pact and retain his honor without offending Mae by killing Clark. Mae reflects on this as she buries him and decides that she will keep the name Supergirl, as that’s the form she used while fighting alongside him.
She returns to Earth, and her ship is intercepted by Lex Luthor II, the estranged Australian son of absentee parent Lex Luthor. Seeing the young Luthor son’s flaming hair and young face, she mistakes him for her creator from the Pocket Universe and immediately professes her love. She’s embarrassed to find out her mistake, but her affection doesn’t go away. She and Luthor began a relationship, with Luthor being very sweet and affectionate and charitable, and Mae being very willing to hurt herself to help him.
Not long after they began their romance, Clark dies at the hands of Doomsday. Mae is distraught by her failure to save him and immediately takes on his mission, flitting around the world helping with disaster relief and stopping crime. Luthor begins ‘Team Luthor’ in an attempt to fill the hole left by Superman’s absence. He asks her to do a lot of things, like sending her to fetch people for him or asking her to shapeshift for him. He begins running tests on her to figure out how her powers work, since her creator died before he could tell Mae anything about her biology.
Not long after Clark’s return to life, Mae is approached by Elizabeth Perske during some testing in Singapore. Perske tells her about how Lex Luthor Sr., Lex II’s late father, mistreated her. She says she’s concerned Luthor II is not as kind as he’s pretending to be. Mae reacts poorly before being handed proof that she’s being followed—and then seeing the man who was following her working at LexCorp. She begins investigating and soon discovers that Luthor has been cloning her, creating his own army of mutated clones of her. She confronts him, only to find a sick and dying man. Clark stops her from killing him by pointing out how ill he is, and she relents.
Shortly after this, Lex Luthor II’s mother, Gretchen Kelley, betrays him and reveals to the press via Lois that 21 year old Lex Luthor II was in fact the 50+ year old Lex Luthor Sr., and he had faked his death to grow a young clone body around his brain and eyes. His clone body was deteriorating due to Clone Sickness, hence why he was dying. Lex reacts poorly to the betrayal, but Clark convinces him away from doing anything rash like destroy Metropolis—but Lex’s right hand man, Sydney Happersen (who you might have seen in the recent Superman movie), refuses to let him pussy out like that and sends the missiles himself, dying immediately after of an electrical shock from the malfunctioning button.
Mae, meanwhile, travels the world with Perske for a little while before spending some time in Charlotte, NC. Not too long into her stint there, however, she’s kidnapped by Raven. She ends up going on some adventures with the New Titans for a while, before leaving to save Superman from an alien Tribunal ordering his execution.
When she returns, she gets into a fight with Kon over his relationship with Knockout in Superboy (1994) and has an existential crisis in Showcase ‘96 (#8) before ending up in Leesburg, VA. In Leesburg she comes across a dying woman named Linda Danvers, a victim and member of a demonic cult. Feeling that she’s never been truly whole without a real link to humanity, she sacrifices herself to fuse her body with Linda’s. They create a new being, a combined soul of their two lives and memories, and become the Earthborn Angel of Fire. Mae loses her shapeshifting and invisibility powers and moves into Linda’s house, living her life. They have many adventures, but that’s beyond my expertise, as I’m not personally a fan of the comic and it represents a significant characterisation change for Mae.
