Supervillain Origins: Reign

She was born to be bad – and she definitely lives up to her promise. Welcome to WatchMojo.com and today we will explore the comic book origin of the alien villain known as Reign. As with most comic book characters, there are often re-imaginings and different versions to a character’s past. We have chosen primarily to follow the storyline which unfolded in 2012’s Supergirl #5, #6, #7, and #0. Any villain capable of giving grief to a Kryptonian has to be formidable; to say the least, and Reign fits that description. Bred to be a killing machine, Reign’s supers-strength, speed and durability make her a deadly foe. Combine that with her advanced fighting skills and her innate brutality and you get someone who can seriously threaten the likes of Supergirl. Reign showed up early on in the New 52’s revamp of Supergirl. Supergirl, AKA Kara, was anxious to learn more about her past, and was led to the ruins of Argo City, the Kryptonian City where she was born, to look for answers. Kara’s father, Zor-El, had foreseen Krypton’s destruction, and sent his daughter to Earth, so that she would be spared. At the same time, he had devised a plan to allow Argo City to be jettisoned from Krypton when it exploded. If all went well, he hoped to be able to bring Kara back to live in Argo City. As evidenced by the ruins of the City, all did not go as planned. Kara was distraught to learn that her parents truly were dead – and was surprised to learn that she was not alone among the ruins. A large, fierce warrior named Reign had followed her to Argo City. She wanted Kara to join her as a Worldkiller, a group of beings created by Kryptonians as weapons of limitless destruction. It seemed that Kara’s father, Zor-El, was involved in their creation. When the leaders of Kryptron declared these monstrosities had to be destroyed, he instead hid them away and kept them in stasis. Presumably, they were freed when Krypton exploded. Reign had come to Argo City seeking answers about her own creation, but found none. However, she did discover that a number of surviving Kryptonians had been sent to Earth – and she believed there must be a reason why this particular planet had been chosen. When Kara rejected Reign’s offer to join her as a Worldkiller, they engaged in the inevitable fight – with Reign coming out on top. She left Kara to die on Argo City, and escaped to wreak havoc on Earth. But Kara, encouraged by a vision of her parents, survived and returned to Earth to battle Reign. Along the way, Reign dropped hints that some of the technology Zor-El used to try to save Argo City had been taken from other alien civilizations. Reign also revealed that she was not alone in her efforts to decimate the Earth. Three other Worldkillers joined her, each with their own special sets of powers. And it turned out that, though created on Krypton by Kryptonian scientists, they had been developed from embryos taken from other species alien to Krypton. When these clones awakened, they felt an insatiable hunger for domination and destruction. Over the years, they had fed that hunger on other worlds. Earth would be but another opportunity for them to get their jollies through mass annihilation. Reign offered Supergirl one last chance to join them. She claimed that only a Worldkiller could kill another Worldkiller, so Supergirl had no hope of defeating them. But Kara soon figured out a wat to use that information to her advantage. Once Kara uncovered their weakness, Reign called off the assault – but promised they would return one day. Reign also mentioned that there was a fifth Worldkiller who had disappeared, hinting that he or she might one day make trouble for the Kryptonians of Earth. Many details of Reign’s past are shrouded in secrecy, but her run on the “Supergirl” TV series definitely makes her a much more familiar face, raising her profile among DC’s gallery of rogues.