By contrast, the current Supergirl is directionless. She never had to earn the right to call herself “Supergirl”, she never cared about Superman’s approval, and she already believes herself to be super-powerful, faster, smarter, stronger, better, and generally just amazing.

Yeah
I wonder, how long 'til she gets pregnant, marries a white rapper and shaves her head.

Wait, Wha...?!?!?
TOO, SOON???

She does want Clark to be proud of her, and she has stated that to the Kents in recent issues. The difference from her previous incarnation is that she doesn't CRAVE it so. [She also wouldn't be as forgiving if Kal were to suddenly exile her to an asteroid in space for revealing her existence to Krypto.]

Yes, Kara strove to take her place out of the shadows of her cousin, and when she died, the narrative literaly was in one comic that she had succeeded.

In her animated and her modern incarnations, she has more "attitude" because she doesn't want to be in her cousin's shadow ... doesn't want to be constantly compared to her cousin. She likes being "Supergirl," but doesn't want to be thought of as a sidekick.

In the animated universe, Kara at first chooses the more Power Girl-esque costume to set her self apart, but then changes into the blue and red because she is proud of who her cousin is. Still, she ultimately decided to live in the future with the Legion of Super-Heroes, where she could be herself and didn't feel the pressure to "just be Superman's kid cousin."

Like many teenagers, mainstream Kara now is rebellious, and so if Kal might not want her to do it, then she's going to want to find out why.

During her "identity crisis" storyline, she had to face up to the fact that she was indeed flawed. Although her previous incarnation had flaws, still, she didn't have to wrestle with issues as much as she does now. Lesser so than Superman, Pre-Crisis Kara didn't have to think much between black and white ... at least in her Silver Age tales ... she knew what was right and automatically did it. (At first, Kara strove to do what was right even if it meant being a secret weapon or not having any real life of her own, and was Supergirl first, Linda second ... if at all. Then, towards the end of her days, she strove to have a more equal life. She still wanted to what was right, and she wanted her cousin ... who had become almost brother-like ... to be pleased with her, but she also realized that to truly live and to help others she had to have a full life.)

What set her apart from Superman Pre-Crisis as well was that Clark Kent was merely a disguise. Linda Lee Danvers was closest to who Kara really was, and after living for 15 years as a normal girl ... well as normal as one on a chunk of rock that may die any day if those lead shields came off the ground were.

Kara still has the more intimate knowledge of her world's destruction than Kal does, and her TV incarnation even had to deal with the horror when she woke up that Krypton was gone ... when she left it was supposed to be still there.

Although I agree that the writer's are sometimes missing something, still, they're trying to show that this Kara may not be solely what you should aspire to be like, but that you can relate to her a lot more.

Kara is still growing and they are trying to show that. She hasn't completely adjusted to being on a new world, with her baby cousin suddenly an adult and the world's greatest hero, who is now also her foster dad ... along with Batman, and a foster mom Wonder Woman, who was facing her own identity issues up to very recently. Not to mention murder charges.

This Girl of Steel has had to face her home and "sisters" disappearing and then coming back but as enemies.

She's also just had to find out that her best friend was subconsciously using her; she was just a substitute for her dead cousin Superboy. Not to mention only recently remembering that she had been for months living in the future with a whole pile of people she may not see again.

So, she knows she has issues, and she tried to correct them, but when she faced herself ... or rather another incarnation of herself in Power Girl, that it wasn't going to be so easy. She had hurt people and being sorry wasn't always going to wrap it up.

Oh yeah, she was also stalked and abused by her boyfriend, so I mean she has issues to contend with. She doesn't think she's perfect, but if she did think she was amazing, well, she'd be right.

All I know is that at age nine, I lost my favorite hero ever, and comics were never the same for me when they killed Kara off. I might have handled it better if it had been like my other favorite, Barry Allen, but she was wiped out of continuity and thought.

Although I fell in love with her onetime reincarnation of Linda Mae Danvers, it still wasn't completely the same.

I've been into comic books for 28 of my 31 years of living, and I've never been so happy as the day I saw Kara return. She may have changed in some ways, but she's still got her fiery don't mess with her pissed off rage, and I like that she is willing to get down and dirty. Break some bones, spill some blood!

So give her (and me!) a break, and lay off the girl. She's still growing and finding herself. DC has said that she will ultimately become "America's Sweetheart" like she once was, but like a lot or most people it won't happen overnight.

Frankly, it is natural. They are (despite being cousins) the last male and female survivors of Krypton. It is a classic Sci-Fi trope for those two people to get together. It adds a tension to the subtext, since it reveals potential flaws in BOTH characters.

Introducing Kara Zor-El after the resolution of Clark-Lois-Superman love triangle removes that dimension entirely.