By Paul Kupperberg, Carmine Infantino, Bob Oksner & various (DC Comics)
ISBN: 978-1-4012-6346-1 (TPB), 978-1-4012-7054-4 (Digital edition)
This book includes Discriminatory Content produced in less enlightened times.
As a rule, superhero comics don’t generally do whimsically thrilling anymore. They especially don’t do short or self-contained. Modern narrative momentum concentrates on continuous extended spectacle, major devastation and relentless terror and trauma. It also helps if you’ve come back from the dead once or twice and wear military-grade thongs and thigh boots. Although there’s nothing intrinsically wrong with that – other than a certain pandering inappropriateness from striving to adjust wedgies during a life-or-death struggle – sometimes the palate just craves a different flavour…
Once upon a time, angsty in-continuity cataclysm was the rule, not the exception, but ever since DC readmitted all its past epochs into one vastly welcoming expansion multiverse via the Dark Night: Death Metal, Future State, Infinite Frontier and sundry successive mega-events, a spirit of joyous experimentation has resulted in some truly memorable storytelling. The impending, as yet unreleased and yet already controversial Supergirl movie being a case in point. So let’s look at something from back then that got us to here…
This decidedly backward-looking modern fable harks back to the simpler yet far more aggressive, in-your-face era of the 1980s: days of clearly defined plots, solid, imaginative characterisation and suspensefully dramatic adventure, by way of an almost alternative take on redoubtable Kara Zor-El, late of Krypton’s Argo City and another illegal alien immigrant on Earth.
Supergirl first gained her solid slice of fan devotion as a secondary strip in Action Comics: a tag-along (and trademark protection device) to her more illustrious cousin – and his dog. After years of faithful service, both as cover feature of Action Comics, Adventure Comics and Superman Family and via her own solo title (twice!) and even her own movie as a spin-off part of the Christopher Reeve film franchise, in 1985 she was killed off as a sales gimmick to celebrate DC’s 50th anniversary in the groundbreaking Crisis on Infinite Earths. Since then, a number of characters have used the name – but none with the class or durability of the original… so she was brought back too.
Following a few intriguing concept-tweaking test-runs, the first true Girl of Steel debuted as a future star of the ever-expanding Superman pocket universe in Action Comics #252 (cover-dated May 1959 and on sale from March 31st). Superman’s cousin had been born on a city-sized fragment of Krypton, hurled intact into space when the planet exploded. Eventually, Argo’s minerals turned to Kryptonite like the rest of the detonated world’s debris, and Kara’s dying parents Zor-El and Alura, observing Earth through their viewer scopes, sent their daughter to safety even as they apparently perished. Crashlanding, she immediately and fortuitously met the Metropolis Marvel, who created a cover-identity: “Linda Lee”. Hiding her in an orphanage in bucolic Midvale, he intended allowing her time to adjust to and learn about her new world whilst mastering her powers in secrecy and safety.
… And isolation. At no stage did anyone consider moving the recent orphaned newcomer in with her only surviving family. Kara reached her maturity without the closeness Clark Kent’s human parents provided… although she was eventually adopted by human couple Fred and Edna to become Linda Lee Danvers. Supergirl experienced her own secret double life in the rear of Action Comics: gradually moving from Superman’s covert secret weapon to an independent star turn, and from minor player to globally acclaimed celebrity. From the back of the book to the front of the house is always a reason to celebrate, right?
For decades, DC couldn’t make up their minds over Supergirl. I’ve actually lost count of the number of different versions to have cropped up over the years, and never been able to shake a queasy feeling that above all else she’s a concept that was cynically shifted from being a way to get girls to reading comic books to one calculated to ease young male readers over the bumpy patch between sporadic chin-hair outbursts, voice-breaking and that nervous period of hiding things under your mattress where your mum never, never ever looks…
Her popularity waxed and waned until that attention-grabbing death during Crisis on Infinite Earths. However, in the aftermath (once John Byrne had successfully rebooted the Man of Steel and negated her existence along with all other elements of doomed Krypton) non-Kryptonian iterations began appearing: each accumulating a cadre of steadfast fans. Ultimately, early in the 21st century, DC’s Powers-That-Be decided the real Girl of Steel should come back – sort of…
The New 52 company-wide reboot recast her as an angry, obnoxious distrustful teen fresh from Argo, before the 2016 DC: Rebirth event unwrote most of those changes: reinserting much of that original origin material whilst aligning the comic book iteration with the popular TV series broadcast from October 2015 to November 2021. Then, under the aegis of the Infinite Frontier revolution, Tom King, Bilquis Evely, Mat Lopes & Clayton Cowles crafted 8-issue limited series Supergirl: Woman of Tomorrow (cover-dated August 2021-April 2022). Now you’re ready for the film, okay?
Right here though, we love comics most so let’s look at why Kara Zor-El was so resilient and indomitable…
This incarnation began as The Daring New Adventures of Supergirl with #1 through 12 (cover-dates November 1982 to October 1983) forming the contents of the collected volume under scrutiny here. The series was changed to Supergirl vol 2 for #13-23 (November 1983 to September 1984), which has its own compilation that we’ll get to in the fullness of time.
Clearly a last shot at life in a precarious, rapidly changing marketplace, this Supergirl acknowledges and accommodates all the convoluted continuity trappings grown around the feature since her 1959 debut, but combines fashionable soul-searching, “Fresh Startism”, and feminist go-getting with mad scientists, monsters, corporate skulduggery, clandestine conspiracies, darkly modern attitudes and edgy psychological underpinning, as befitted her literal last chance. This was to see if she could be a sustainable star in contemporary DC’s firmament and advance beyond “girl” to woman… even if branding wouldn’t allow a name change…
The tale unfolds throughout courtesy of Superman franchise writer Paul Kupperberg (World of Krypton, Superman, Checkmate, Vigilante, Arion, Doom Patrol, Green Lantern, Scooby Doo, Tom and Jerry) who steers Kara’s course by blending old standbys with new friends and foes. The look is handled by visual Architect of the Silver Age Carmine Infantino (Flash, Black Canary, Adam Strange, Batman, Elongated Man, Batgirl, Deadman, Human Target, Star Wars, Nova, Spider–Woman) and glamour/humour inker Bob Oksner (Jerry Lewis, Bob Hope, Angel and the Ape, Ambush Bug, Leave it to Binky). We open with strangers on a train as, after again failing to find a place for her civilian self in many roles and goals, Linda Danvers quits her acting career in New York and moves to Chicago to become a post-grad psychology student at Lake Shore University…
An introductory conceptual recap is only part of TDAoS #1’s ‘A Very strange and Special Girl!’ as the subtle delights of a placid rail journey are briefly interrupted by an industrial meltdown, which is swiftly solved by Supergirl. However, soon Linda faces a true ordeal as she registers at LSU, and impossibly finds an apartment thanks to new vivacious but goofy student friend/human whirlwind Joan Raymond. Danvers’ second first day encounter is not so happy as, after literally bumping into troubled student Gayle Marsh, the two psychically connect.
Gayle is also extraordinary: a mentally disturbed mutant who has fallen under the spell of deranged pedagogue Mr Pendergast. He is convinced Earth is doomed to decline into moral decay and is exploiting Marsh’s psionic abilities to achieve his own far from clear aims…
As Joan moves Linda into the same apartment building she currently graces and introduces her around to an exhausting flurry of fellow dwellers, Pendergast grooms Gayle to the next level, creating a costumed identity for her and unleashing “Psi” on the unknown woman who so unsettled her. Of course the chaotic attack is met not by a shy post-grad but the ever-vigilant Girl of Steel…
The second issue began a back-up feature starring Lois Lane so Supergirl tales were accordingly slightly truncated. Even so, ‘Crisis Over Chicago!’ depicted an explosive clash over the Windy City, with Psi’s initial superiority lost once Pendergast orders her not to kill another superfemale he can exploit. The spat is resolved by allowing Gayle to destroy Chicago instead, but the delay has enabled Kara to marshal her resources and decisively strike back. Driven off, Psi retreats to Pendergast’s home where, whilst Linda Danvers recovers in the bosom of new friends, master and servant have one final argument, and the sinister Svengali suffers the full force of Psi’s unleashed powers…
The introductory opus concludes with the abuser appropriately transformed into a rampaging slime monster rabidly consuming corruption (mostly “winos, dropouts and homeless people”)… Linda meanwhile, meets her excessively weird new tutor/graduate studies supervisor Dr. Metzner, and one of her new housemate takes an unwise side hustle. Acting student John Ostrander (yes, it’s an in-joke!) becomes a delivery boy to make ends meet but his cavalier work ethic gets him – and latterly Supergirl – into a world of trouble. Before that though, the malign manifestation that was Pendergast continues its depredations until clashing again with vengeful Psi and is ultimately defeated by the Girl of Tomorrow on ‘Decay Day’…
In #4, ‘Hail, Hail, The Gang’s All Here!’ expands soap opera elements as Dr Metzner continues to confuse, Joan still won’t stop talking and Ostrander fails to deliver a certain package to the wrongest of people. Thus he is marked for death by a secret cabal seeking to dominate the business world by controlling Earth’s “exchange of information” through supernormal means. As Chicago’s latest superhero is kept busy battling gimmicked-up super-thugs Kong, Brains, Bulldozer and Ms. Mesmer, John makes his fatal negligent misstep, setting upon his clumsy trail the Windy City’s covert rulers The Council.
Through super-hirelings The Gang the clandestine pencil-pushers provoke an extended clash as ‘Fear Times Four’ finds the Girl of Steel neutralised by Ms. Mesmer’s powers – until Linda’s visiting human parents Fred & Edna Danvers find a work-around to crippling post- hypnotic suggestions – and all but Brains are captured. Then, murderous, mechanistically-fertile mechanoid Matrix-Prime unleashes a hordes of killer-bot babies in a vengeance strike that wrecks the airport in ‘Battleground O’Hare’ but cannot stop Supergirl discovering the Council’s secret citadel at the bottom of Lake Michigan…
Her shattering retaliation and subsequent clash with an army of mercenaries/“security consultants” in #7’s ‘This Meeting Will Come to Disorder!’ exposes a hidden mastermind behind all the chaos, but not even the fighting-mad “Maid of Steel” can stop his getaway…
With a moment of peace at last, Linda opts for a relaxing jazz concert in Grant Park but instead stumbles into even more peril after a recent ally is attacked there…
TDAoS #8 opens with outsider hero Negative Woman ambushed by an energy-stealing atomic assassin before Kara reunites with the New Doom Patrol who must act as ‘Stand-Ins For Supergirl!’ The DP (Neg-Woman, Tempest, Celsius & Robotman Cliff Steele) have been hunting a superpowered Vietnam vet/AWOL US war criminal for months; and now that hate-filled radioactive killer has had enough. Regrouping in ‘Re-Enter: Reactron!’ our heroes chase and harry Reactron as he randomly attacks places storing nuclear materials – like Linda’s new alma mater – whilst attempting to link up with prospective new employers The Council.
In the inevitable final clash, The Last Daughter of Krypton goes toe to toe with the maniac and defeats him, but at terrible cost…
In #10, aftereffects of her battle have left Kara suffering from debilitating ‘Radiation Fever!’ Committed comatose to hospital, on awakening she ignores doctor’s orders, discharges herself and retreats to her other identity, waiting for a recovery that does not happen. Elsewhere, exposed Council supremo The Chairman consults his pet evil scientist Professor Drake and hatches a plot to remove Supergirl whilst exploiting her as a resource. Thus when Matrix-Prime goes on another rampage, still-ailing Linda abandons her date with new beau – music tutor Philip Decker – to stop the robot. Instead, she is defeated and ends up in Drake’s lab as a helpless genetic template for a line of Supergirl clones under the Chairman’s control. Sadly, Drake has over-promised and the army of obedient perfect copies are not what he intended. At least they are obedient…
Drake also assumed his process and her ongoing radiation-poisoning had finished off his test subject, but while boasting to his boss, weakened, still-declining Kara breaks free of ‘A Dark and Frozen Purgatory!’ and shakily heads to the Arctic circle Fortress of Solitude. In response, the six successful, foot-long Supergirl clones are despatched to kill the already dying hero, but even without her Kryptonian powers that’s no easy task. Nevertheless, the stubborn fight can only end one way…
The yarn and this first volume closes with #12 and a full dose of pure comic book deus ex machinery as ‘Guess Who’s About to Die!’ finds Supergirl beaten and thrown into cousin Superman’s all-purpose cosmic trash-disposal unit – AKA “the Disintegration Pit”. However, interaction of the roaring radiations there with her own nuclear-ravaged form generate a spontaneous reversal, and a restored Caped Kryptonian counterattacks, cunningly dispatching the mini-me Maids of Steel to become again the One-and-Only Supergirl…
Enraged and out for blood, she heads back to Chicago and a showdown with Drake and the Chairman, but arrives too late…
To Be Continued…
With eye-catching covers from Rich Buckler, Dick Giordano, Keith Giffen, Klaus Janson, Mike DeCarlo, Ed Hannigan, Gil Kane and Paris Cullins, this is an old-school no-nonsense comics saga of goodies vs baddies and well-meaning outsiders striving to fit in. It offers nothing but fun, thrills and a brief escape from worldly woes. And what’s wrong with that?
© 1982, 1983 2016 DC Comics. Ali Rights Reserved.
Today in 1928 we welcomed both Filipino artist and creator Jesse Santos (Brothers of the Spear, The Occult Files of Dr. Spektor, Dagar the Invincible, Tragg and the Sky Gods) and Belgian all-star component of Le Journal de Spirou Yvan Delporte (Steve Severin, Gaston Lagaffe, Idées noires, The Smurfs, Isabelle), followed a year later by Atlas-era artist Vic Carrabotta (The Amazing Adventures of Buster Crabbe, Two Gun Kid, Apache Kid, Kid Colt: Outlaw, Outlaw Kid, Jann of the Jungle, and all their genre anthologies). The date also greeted writer Alan Zelenetz (Alien Legion, The Raven Banner, Kull, Conan) in 1948; mangaka Reiko Okano (Onmyoji) in 1960; writer Peter Milligan (2000 AD, Shade the Changing Man, X-Statix) in 1961; artist Mike Wieringo (Fantastic Four, Sensational Spider-Man, Flash) in1963; Kevin Van Hook (Bloodshot, Superman and Batman vs. Vampires and Werewolves) in 1965; and artist Carlo Pagulayan (Elektra, Emma Frost, Deathstroke, Planet Hulk, Batman) in 1978.
The same date saw the deaths of cartoon pioneer Frank King (Gasoline Alley, The Rectangle) in1969 and Filipino cartoonist Larry Alcala (Siopawman, Slice of Life, Mang Ambo, Kalabog en Bosyo) in 2002.