Contrary to popular belief, Darna was not named after the magical "Ibong Adarna" (Adarna bird), which appears in a Philippine epic of the same name. In "Bulaklak Magazine", Narda was already established as Varga's mortal identity. "Darna" was simply an anagram of "Narda". The concept and image of the character was based on the illustrations of Superman appearing on comic books brought by soldiers from the United States to the Philippines. It was the story of a mortal girl named Narda (named after one of Ravelo's childhood playmates), her brother Ding and their grandmother, Lola Asay, who lived in the town of Masambong when a falling star revealed itself to be a magic amulet that turns Narda into the superheroine Varga.