Argo City is a fictional Kryptonian city in the DC Comics Universe, and the birthplace of Supergirl. Argo City was first seen in Action Comics #252 (May 1959).
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Pre-Crisis
Earth-One
Argo City was one of the largest cities on the planet Krypton (the others being Kandor and Kryptonopolis.) Warned of the impending destruction of the planet by his brother Jor-El, scientist Zor-El convinces the Argo City leaders to construct a dome around the city's perimeter. The dome allows the city to survive the destruction of Krypton, and provides oxygen for the inhabitants (in earlier stories, the air bubble is kept in place by unspecified means). The same chain reaction that turned the rest of Krypton into Kryptonite begins to affect the surface of Argo City; the surviving Kryptonians manage to line the surface with lead, protecting everyone from the deadly rays. Zor-El and his wife eventually have a daughter named Kara, the future Supergirl. About 15 years after the destruction of Krypton a meteor shower pierces the lead lining of Argo City, dooming its inhabitants to a slow death. In desperation, Zor-El sends Kara in a spaceship to Earth, where her cousin Kal-El (Superman) helps her become Supergirl. Zor-El and Alura manage to survive in the Phantom Zone, but the other inhabitants of Argo City perish.
Earth-Two
Power Girl, the Earth-Two version of Supergirl, is also from Argo City. As told in Showcase #98 (March 1978), Power Girl's version of Argo City does not survive the destruction of Krypton. Power Girl survives because her father Zor-L manages to send young Kara to Earth in a spaceship, similar to her cousin Kal-L's, only with a slower-than-light drive. Kara spends her flight in suspended animation, experiencing life through a virtual reality chamber.
Post-Crisis
Recently Argo is shown to still be in-continuity. In issue #6 of Supergirl, Supergirl and Power Girl travel to the bottled city of Kandor. There Supergirl claims that the city of Argo still exists, and that she is searching for it as it is a piece of her home. It is not directly stated in Post-Crisis continuity whether Argo survived the destruction of Krypton, as Supergirl was jettisoned from Krypton at the same time as the infant Superman.
Alternate versions
Argo City is mentioned in the DC/ Dark Horse Comics crossover miniseries Superman-Aliens. In the story, a probe that appears to be Kryptonian crashes on Earth, and leads Superman to an Argo City that has been overrun by xenomorphs from the Alien film series. Superman befriends a survivor named Kara, and together they destroy Argo City and the aliens. Superman, who is impregnated by a facehugger, escapes in a pod and regurgitates the chestburster upon returning to Earth and its yellow sun. Thought dead, Kara managed to escape in a separate pod. In this story, Argo City is revealed to not be part of Krypton, and received its Kryptonian influence from a visiting Kryptonian cleric years earlier.
Appearances in other media
In 1984 film Supergirl, Argo City is shown as having survived in a pocket of extradimensional space, with life-support powered by a device called the Omegahedron, the loss of which forms the basis of the film's plot. In the television series Superman: The Animated Series, Argo is said to be the name of Krypton's "sister planet" knocked out of orbit by Krypton's destruction, with a cryonically frozen Supergirl as the lone survivor of a small colony of Kryptonian settlers.
External links
- [1] Argo City entry on Supermanica
- Argo City at the Superman thru the Ages website
