Story Found In: Supergirl #1-9, Supergirl Annual #1, Supergirl Plus #1, & Showcase ’96 #8

Details: In this story by Peter David, Linda Danvers is a girl who finds herself on the wrong side of the law, which leads to her death, thanks to the involvement of her boyfriend, Buzz. The very moment she passes on to the great beyond, she bonds with the Matrix -- no, not that Matrix.

This Matrix is an artificial being, who has the memories of Supergirl, and when the two bond, Linda returns to the land of the living as the new Girl of Steel. The story is admittedly darker in tone than most of the books to bear the Supergirl name, but it also offers an interesting balance between life and death/pessimism and optimism that serves to ground a character who suffered a significant absence in the post-Crisis years.