Supergirl Archives, Volumes One and Two covers Action Comics #252-285 (1959-1961)
The Silver Age Supergirl covers Action Comics #286-376 (1962-1969)
Both the archives and the omnibuses focus on Supergirl's solo feature in Action Comics, but Supergirl made guest appearances in other DC comics across the "Superman" family of titles between 1959 and 1961. The "DC Finest" edition roughly equates to the Supergirl solo stories published in the two archive editions (through #288) plus the guest appearances.
- Superman's Pal, Jimmy Olsen #40 (October 1959)
- Superman's Girlfriend, Lois Lane #14 (January 1960)
- Superboy #80 (April 1960)
- Superman's Pal, Jimmy Olsen #46 (July 1960)
- Superman #140 (October 1960)
- Superman's Girlfriend, Lois Lane #20 (October 1960)
- Action Comics #270 (November 1960)
- Adventure Comics #278 (November 1960)
- Superman's Pal, Jimmy Olsen #51 (March 1961)
- Superman #144 (April 1961)
- Superman's Pal, Jimmy Olsen #57 (December 1961)
Replies
Supergirl next appears in both the main story and the back-up of Action Comics #260, but I have already covered the main story in "The Silver Age Superman" and Bob covered both in "Supergirl Archives, Volumes One and Two" so I'll move on to...
SUPERBOY #80 - "Superboy Meets Supergirl!"
"We all have our secret hopes and dreams. One of superboy's secret desires is to know a human pal posessing super-powers equal to his, so that the two can super-romp together! But since superboy is the only human on Earth with Super-powers, is this hope doomed never to come true? Yes... and... no! In order for you to understand how, see what happens when, through an amazing set of circumstances... Superboy Meets Supergirl!"
The story opens with Superman and Supergirl building a giant snowman in Antarctica. Then Superman begins to feel sorry for himself that he didn't have any super-playmates when he was Superboy. (You'd think he'd be over it by now, but I guess not.) Supergirl commiserate with him, then resolves to do something about it. She breaks the time barrier and flies back to when Superman was a boy and introduces herself. They play various games and frolic in outer space. When it comes time for her to return to 1960, Supergirl begins to overthing the situation, suggesting, "What if someday, perhaps while delerious from Kryptonite fever, you accidently let it slip that a Supergirl is coming to Earth in the future...!" Immediately buying into the scenario, Superboy replies, "It could ruin your being the secret ace up Superman's sleeve!"
"I goofed!" she concludes. "Suiperman will be infuriated when I return to the future and tell him of this blunder! Maybe he will exile me from Earth permanently!" Thjat seems a bit harsh, but "Supergirl's Farewell to Earth!" (Action Comics #258) was written around a similar premise. Plus, it doesn't occur to either one of them that Superboy will someday grow up to be Superman. She could have said something along the lines of, "I goofed, but remember all the fun we had. Don't exile me to outer space or anything when I return, okay?" Instead, she sends him to inhale the fragrance of the giant red flowers atop Purple Triangle Mountain on the planet Albo in the galaxy Xurolu. It is sais thsat anyone who inhales their scent "forgets everything that happened during the preceeding week! Even super-beings like us!"
This he does, Supergirl returns to 1960, and Superboy goes back to feeling sorry for himself for not having anyone to play with.
SUPERMAN'S PAL, JIMMY OLSEN #46 - "Jimmy Olsen, Orphan!"
"Jimmy Olsen, the Daily Planet's scoop-happy cub reporter, has been involved in many amazing adventures, but none as suspense-packed as when he becomes an orphan in Midvale Orphanage, the very orphanage in which Linda Lee, who is secretly Supergirl, lives. Will Jimmy, suffering from amnesia, regain his memory? Will he learn the astonding truth about Linda's secret identity? for the answers,, read... Jimmy Olsen, Orphan!"
Perry White assigns Jimmy Olsen to cover a flood. While trying to rescue a kitten from drowning, Jimmy is struck on the head, loses his memory, and sent to Midvale Orphanage. Linda Lee recognizes him and is worried that, if he regains his memory, he will discover she is Supergirl. She takes it upon herself to keep him from being adopted until Superman returns from a mission to outer space on Wednesday at five o'clock. Speaking of which, DC could release a whole volume of Superman's Untold Space Missions he goes on so many.
Jimmy and Linda becomes friends, but she frequently disappears suddenly (to go on missions as Supergirl), making Jimmy (who has been given the name "Tom Davis") suspicious. When Linda reads the story of "Little Red Riding Hood" to some of the younger orphans, it strikes a chord with Jimmy. Subconsciously, he is recalling the time when he was transformed into a werewolf and Supergirl broke the spell with a kiss. ["The Wolfman of Metropolis" (Jimmy Olsen #44) is not included in this volume (probably because Supergirl appears in only three panels on the last page), but it is available in The Amazing Transformations of Jimmy Olsen tpb.]
Next, a couple wants to adopt a teenage boy (why, I do not know), but Linda melts the lock to his room as he is getting cleaned up to meet them, making him late. The prospective father says, "If that boy is so tardy, we don't want to adopt him! I can't stand someone who arrives late!" Harsh, but it's probably for the best. The next morning, Jimmt awakens to find that his memory has returned. He confides in Linda, but plans to stay at the orphange "undercover" to write an article titled "I Lived in an Orphanage." But another couple wants to adopt him, so Linda, using a combination of super-speed and heat vision, alters their glasses like a fun house mirror to make him appear fat. "He's too fat! thinks the man. "We want to adopt a child not an enormous appetite!"
Later that day, Linda must use her wits to prevent Jimmy from discovering her Linda Lee robot when a baseball rolls into a hole in the hollow tree where she stores it. By that time, it is five o'clock on Wednesday (which seems awfully specific to me) and Superman is returning from his space mission. (Good thing he wasn't late!) Supergirl squeezes one of her hairpions into a thin strand of wire ten feet long, which she uses to secretly activate Jimmy's signal watch, drawing Superman to the spot. (I wouldn't have thought a hairpin stretched to that length would be strong enough to punch the button without bending, but I guess I'm wrong.) Superman tells Jimmy that his super-vision reveals that Perry White is interviewing to back-fill Jimmy's position, so Jimmy decides it's time to leave.
Linda shakes hands goodbye with him because she's afraid a kiss would "stir his memory of the wolf-man episode once more and give away my secret!" Sounds like a longshot to me, but what do I know?
Weirdly, Jimmy is old enough to date Lucy Lane, an adult with a full-time job (among other women), but the powers that be can’t tell he is an adult.
As we know, most people adopting a child want a baby or toddler. Two couples of creepy people decide not to adopt him based upon issues that could have been corrected after he was happy with new parents. They didn’t want a teenage son, they wanted slave labor!
Perry sends him to cover a flood. He disappears. Is he dead? Never mind, got to hire a replacement.
That's what he gets for always calling him "Chief"!
Supergirl next appears in "The Untold Story of Red Kryptonite" (Superman #139) which has already been covered in the "Silver Age Superman" discussion (p.35), which brings us to...
SUPERMAN #140 - "The Supergirl Bizarro!"
A couple find an apparently abandoned baby in a field. He is wearing a red-and-blue supercostume, complete with cape, but no "S" shield. They take him to the Midvale Orphanage where he is named "Baby Buster" and given over to Linda Lee to babysit. Linda soon discovers that the child has super-powers and spends a couple of pages chasing after him, cleaning up his messes. When the child flies into Metropolis, she has to abandon the chase, lest she be spotted and revealed as Superman's secret weapon. Superman himself becomes involved, and together he and Supergirl wrangle Baby Buster and return him to the orphanage, where more hijinks ensue.
Soon, a couple named the Crandalls show up to adopt him. "Look, Henry! Just the kind of baby boy we always wanted! We'll apply for adoption right now!" Mrs. Crandall slips Linda a note in Superman's handwriting which reads: "Supergirl! Let Mr. and Mrs. Crandall adopt Baby Buster! They know all about him... and you! (signed) Superman." Adoptions happen mighty quick at Midvale, and after filling out some paperwork, the Crandalls are allowed to drive away with him that very day. Supergirl follows, and the "Crandalls" reveal that they are robots. Supergirl is to take Buster to the Fortress of solitude while the robots drive their car into a convevient pool of quicksand, so that neither they nor Buster can ever be traced.
At the Fortress, Superman and supergirl and Krypto work in shifts babysitting Buster. More hijinks ensue. That night, Supergirls works on some of Linda's chemistry homework, but when she tried to "save time" by heating the solution she mixed with her x-ray vision, it explodes! Apparently, heating ther chemicals changed them into "an unknown super-explosive," but should Midvale require its charges to work with potentially volotile chamicals? And should these experiments be performed without adult supervision? In any case, when the smoke clears, Buster has changed into a Bizarro baby.
The next day, as supergirl is flying back to Midvale, unbeknownst to her, Buster zaps her with Luthor's original duplicator ray, creating an imperfect duplicate. Just then Superman arrives and, realizing that Buster must have been an imperfect duplicate all along, orders Bizarro Supergirl to take the baby back to Bizarro World. But she has grown attatched to the baby and refuses to give him up. Just then, after having observed the situation from space, Bizarro #1 arrives to reclaim his son. Bizarro thinks Superman purposefully created Bizarro Supergirl so she could foster the child on Earth. He declares war on Earth, and flies back to Bizarro world to raise an army.
Donning a lead suit, Superman flies into space and gathers a "flock" of Green Kryptonite meteors. Then he has Supergirl toss the duplicator ray to him, creating Blue Kryptonite. When the Bizarro army flies near, they become incapacitated and retreat to Bizarro world to regroup. Then Superman uses the BLue K to defeat Bizarro Supergirl, and he and the real Supergirl return the baby to Bizarro World, where they learn that changing from "human" to Bizarro is a natural part of a naturally-born Bizarro's development process. But Bizarro Supergirl lies in wait to ambush them on their way back to Earth. Unfortunately, she has chosen the asteroid where Superman turned the Bizarro army back with Blue K.
Supergirl is the first to notice: "Look, Superman! Somehow, Bizarro Supergirl blundered into her own death trap! The radiations of the Bizarro Kryptonite turned her blue and snuffed out her life!" "Poor creature!" concludes Superman. "It's better this way!"
Supergirl follows, and the "Crandalls" reveal that they are robots. Supergirl is to take Buster to the Fortress of solitude while the robots drive their car into a convevient pool of quicksand, so that neither they nor Buster can ever be traced.
Doesn’t sound like anybody was going to check on the kid, anyway. If they did, they would either discover that the Crandalls never existed or that they are real people but swear they’ve never even been to the orphanage.
Fortunately, among other things, the Code pretended that no one would ever harm a child. The orphanage can now celebrate having one less kid to feed and clothe.
"Poor creature!" concludes Superman. "It's better this way!"
This statement doesn’t fit with a guy who would never intentionally kill. It’s not like Bizarro Supergirl was suffering. The editor and/or writer just didn’t want to keep track of a lone Supergirl clone.
Doesn’t sound like anybody was going to check on the kid, anyway. If they did...
...that's something they maybe should have done before the adoption.
SUPERMAN'S GIRLFRIEND, LOIS LANE #20 - "Lois Lane's Super-Daughter!"
DC's first "Imaginary Story," "Mr. and Mrs. Clark (Superman) Kent" (which can be found in the DC's Greatest Imaginary Stories tpb) appeared in Superman's Girlfriend, Lois Lane #19 (see the "Imaginary Stories on Infinite Earths" thread). "Lois Lane's Super-Daughter!" (which can also be found in the Superman in the Sixties tpb), its sequel, was the second. Clark Kent breaks tells Lois about Supergirl and suggests adopting her in the same breath: "I am not the only super-being from Krypton on Earth! I've a Supergirl cousin... a teenage orphan named Linda Lee! Let's adopt her!" to which Lois replies: "Huh? Well, anything you say, dear!" (What else could she say?)
The adoption is contingent upon Lois quitting her job at the Daily Planet: "Because of your job as a reporter, Mrs. Kent, yoiu would be unable to give Linda the full attention every child should get from her mother! You'd be too busy to keep house!" Lois reluctantly agrees, and things go downhill from there. To make a nine-page story even shorter, Lois and Clark lose custody of Linda and she must retun to Midvale Orphanage. "Oh, well!" chirps the narrator. "It was just an imaginary story, anyway, which may never happen... or will it??"
ACTION COMICS #270 - "The Old Man of Metropolis!"
"Superbaby... Superboy... Superman! These three stages of life for the Man of Steel are familiar to all of us. But have you wondered about his next phase... old age? What will be the fate of the World's Mightiest Man then? Even Superman wonders about that and gets a seeming glimpse into the future that will startle you, as well as him, in... The Old Man of Metropolis!"
Perry White assigns Clark Kent to cover the talent show at the Midvale Orphanage, where Clark sets about sabotaging Linda Lee's chances of being adopted. She has painted a picture and written a short story (for Clark's eyes only) about her future career as Superwoman. Clark takes the story home to read, but begins to doze off due to an eariler exposure to Kryptonite. In the trifecta of "hoax, dream, imaginary tale," this story is a dream. This story is formulaic, but it's interesting to see a possible "Superwoman" of the future.
Can anyone find the thread for "The Adventures of Supergirl", that covered her later pre-Crisis adventures? As I recall, Jeff started it, but I finished it. As usual, the one complaint that I have about the latest iteration of the site is that the search function is useless.