I figure someone's gotta know. 

In Green Lantern/Green Arrow #83, Carol is paralyzed by a Richard-Nixon-looking mutant little girl, Sybil. She remains paralyzed throughout the rest of the O'Neil/Adams run, last appearing in issue #89, the final issue prior to the book's cancellation (and subsequent revival in 1976). But before that, Carol soon reappears in Superman 261, taking on the guise of the villainous Star Sapphire.

So was she shown to be ambulatory in that issue of Superman prior to becoming Star Sapphire? And was there ever a subsequent explanation for why she could walk again?

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  • As far as I know, they went from the one appearance to the other without ever explaining how Carol Ferris regained the ability to walk.

  • Yeah, that's what it looks like to me, from my digging online. But I wonder if there was ever a subsequent explanation. 

    It doesn't take much, honestly. Just "the effects of Sybil's powers eventually wore off." But I don't know if it's ever been said.

  • I have a very faint recollexion of the question being raised by a reader in a letter column, and it being answered by the editor's response.  Most likely, this was when the Green Lantern series was revived in 1977.  But it could even be in the responses to Superman # 261.

    I'll do some checking to-night and report back on this.

  • Thanks, Commander! 

  • If I had to hazard a guess, I would say that the Star Sapphire gem healed her without her knowledge though it left her in an unstable mental state as seen in Superman #261.

    However there was a Carol Ferris/Star Sapphire spotlight in Green Lantern #192 which told her history. Maybe that mentions it.

    Not sure if it's accessible and it's awfully hot today!

  • Philip Portelli said:

    However there was a Carol Ferris/Star Sapphire spotlight in Green Lantern #192 which told her history. Maybe that mentions it.

    That occurred to me, as well, so that was the first issue of the revived GL series at which I looked. Unfortunately, it glosses over the entire matter of Carol's paralysis.  It does show one of the final panels from Green Lantern # 83 (Apr.-May, 1971) in which G.L. is carrying Carol, but there's no visual reference, such as a wheelchair, to connect that panel with her being unable to walk.

    In essence, there's nothing in that mostly flashback tale to indicate that she was ever paralysed.

    I've gone through the letter columns of the first couple of dozen issues of the revived series, and so far, no mention of of how she got out of the chair.  I'll keep digging.

  • Turns out that it was a lot more accessible than I thought! (Top box on the stack!)

    GL #192 was a brilliant retelling of the life of Carol Ferris, her relationship with Hal and Green Lantern and the influence of the Star Sapphire. Steve Englehart crafted an amazing story as if it was all planned that way while Joe Staton and Bruce Patterson deftly duplicated the artistic styles of Gil Kane (early AND late Silver Age), Neal Adams, Mike Grell and Dave Gibbons.

    Sadly while they show a scene from GL #83, Carol is not shown as paralyzed thus her "cure" is not revealed. Nor is the story from Superman #261 referenced.

    Still it does reveal that the gem was responding to her subconscious desires so that's still an out! And maybe it made Hal forget about her condition.

  • I'd always just assumed that the star sapphire healed her, and Hal never dared to mention it for fear that it might cause her to permanently revert to her Star Sapphire persona.  Or something.  Either that, or it's like Lucy Lawless says: "A wizard did it!"

  • A perfectly reasonable explanation! But the question is...have we ever gotten it?

  • As far as I can tell, all we've ever had is our respective "head canons". As near as I can tell, no one at DC, including the folks that did the Superman/Star Sapphire story, has any memory of Carol ever having been paralyzed. Maybe the magic gem erased their memories!

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