people greatly overemphasize just how important kara being the older cousin who was sent to protect kal is to her character, as if it isn't something that's mentioned briefly in a handful of comics and never really explored in depth. the "core of her character" isn't that she missed out on being clark's teen mom—it's that she was forced to leave behind the only home she'd ever known, her friends, family, and community died slowly and painfully, and whatever life she imagined for herself on krypton/argo city is something she'll never get to live out.
and ALL of that is true whether she was born before krypton's destruction or after it—her being younger than clark and only knowing life on argo city doesn't lessen the tragedy of her story:
action comics (1938) #288, 309, 371 | the superman family (1974) #168, 207 | supergirl (1982) #1
