Retracing the route taken by the spaceship that carried him to Earth, Superman travels to Krypton--or, at least what’s left of it. The planet is now nothing more than blasted rubble, a ring of asteroids caught in the orbit of its red sun. Just when he begins to give up hope of ever finding out anything about his past, Superman receives a distress signal from a planet on the edge of the Kyptonian system. When he arrives at the planet, he finds that it’s in pretty bad shape, with the surface buried under the ice of a permanent winter. A holographic recording tells Superman that he’s on the planet Argo, which was ripped from its orbit when it’s sister planet Krypton exploded. The handful of survivors placed themselves in suspended animation, but when Superman finds them, they’re dead in their chambers--all save for a young woman named Kara.

Superman takes her back to Earth with him, where Kara quickly gets used to her new life with superpowers by joyfully flying around the Kent’s farm in Smallville--until Clark stops her, chiding Kara about how she should not fly during the daytime. Eager to make a difference in her new world, Kara follows Clark back to Metropolis, which is suffering from a major crime wave instigated by the newly re-formed Intergang, who are back with some amazing new high-tech weapons. Despite Clark’s further admonitions against using her superpowers, Kara joins up with Jimmy Olsen--who’s looking to make his name at the Daily Planet with a big story of his own--as they investigate a video arcade where the youthful members of Intergang hang out. But both Kara and Jimmy get more excitement than they bargain for when the leader of Intergang turns out to be none other than Granny Goodness, a lieutenant of the evil Darkseid of Apokolips.

Supergirl was always one of my favorite characters from the comics, and so it was a blast to see her origin in Little Girl Lost. Instead of the usual blue dress variation on Superman’s costume, the creators of this episode decided to give Supergirl a distinctive new red white and blue outfit, complete with little white gloves and a belly shirt. Supergirl’s demeanor is wonderfully enthusiastic and buoyant, making her a great match for Superman, who reverts to the older brother role in how he must reel in Supergirl and her bouncy zeal during this vastly entertaining two part epic, in which the future of the very Earth itself is at stake. And check out the credits for an inspired bit of voice casting in this episode: Granny Goodness, a woman, is voiced by Lou Grant himself, Ed Asner!