Jeff of Earth-J has a lively discussion going on in "The Silver Age Superman", regarding Supergirl and how Superman did and perhaps alternatively should have handled the Girl of Steel when the 15 year old arrived on Earth. Obviously, Superman created an identity for her and placed her in an orphanage, to be used as his secret weapon,
But there is a question - should he have adopted her? Should he have placed her in Kandor to live with a foster family of her own people? What would have happened had he encountered a young Earth Japanese girl in the same situation as Kara, but obviously without powers? Put her in America or in Japan? What if the passenger in the space ship were Kryptonian - but NO RELATION to Superman?
I thought I'd start a discussion so that Jeff's topic didn't get drifted off topic. And to express my own two pence of opinion.
I figure that Superman expected Linda to get adopted - but he wanted parents that were as good as the Kents were. Certainly a high bar to reach! I can't imagine Superman wouldn't check out the background of any potential parents (or have Batman do it for him. I have to say, I think the story of Supergirl meeting Batman and Robin should nave been done, and that Supergirl's adventures lack for that. Make it double for Wonder Woman.)
With Superman's guidance, and super memory and intelligence, one afternoon in a good library would get her used to Earth customs and language. A week watching sitcoms, soap operas, and game shows would probably get her used to colloquial English. So acclimating her wouldn't be too great a challenge.
So what do YOU think? How should Superman have handled the Supergirl conundrum?
Replies
The most obvious answer as to why Superman put Kara in an orphanage was because that's what happened to him so he thought that was the right thing to do. After all, he came out okay.
But we all forget one thing about Supergirl's first appearance: Zor-El and Alura sent her to Earth to find Superman. And they did NOT know that he was their nephew. And they dressed their pretty daughter in an outfit just like his. They were hoping that this Kryptonian male would take care of their Kryptonian daughter. They were hoping that he would protect and provide for her. Possibly even marry her in a few years. Nothing else really makes any sense. I don't feel like her parents expected Superman to adopt her.
If Superman wasn't going to have Supergirl live with him -- and he wasn't -- then placing her in Kandor makes far more sense than putting her in an orphanage. To Philip's point that he thought orphanages were okay, just how long was he even in one? A week?
As I recall from the earliest stories dealing with this matter, the Kents found him, delivered him to the orphanage, and returned within days because they missed him so much ... and the orphanage was all too happy to expedite his transfer to their care because even then he was turning the place upside down.
Now, Kara is older so the challenge of channeling her super-abilities is different, but that's all the more reason to have her in an environment with people from her culture and the possibility of kids her own age ... although, come to think of it, I don't recall ever seeing anyone who wasn't an adult in any Silver Age stories set in Kandor.
There were Van-Zee and Sylvia's twin children.
To get the obvious and necessary out of the way: from a meta perspective, the arrangements turned out the way they did because editorial wanted a specific situation. Supergirl was conveniently available at just the proper distance for both characters to have their own solo features without too much disruption of Superman's status quo - and also for Kara to develop her own plots and supporting cast without just being the early Robin to Superman's Batman.
Therefore, what we are discussing here isn't nearly so much what would make for better or most stories as what would be better from an in-character perspective.
Taking as a point of departure the moment Supergirl first explains her origin to Kal-El, I would have to assume that Superman would feel duty-bound to at least explain Kara that Kandor was at hand and was an avenue worth considering. Having just come from about fifteen years of Kryptonian culture, Kara would be very likely to want to move into the bottled city or at least communicate with its residents often.
On the other hand, she was wearing a Superman variant costume and had apparently grown fond of her cousin's exploits as Superman, so it is no big leap to conclude that she wanted to play a similar role. People have been known to like the idea of having and using superpowers...
I don't know when Superman gained the ability to enlarge Kandorians to regular Earth size. It was definitely before DC Comics Presents #15, where he uses a "Micro-Wave Beamer" to shrink himself and Atom and we learn that he used it before to visit Kandor. He enlarges Al-Var with Green Lantern's ring in 1964's Superman #172, so presumably he did not have his own devices for that purpose at the time. Still, there is no obvious reason why the ring could not have been used for Kara as well. Of course, there is also no obvious reason why it could not enlarge the whole city, so there is that.
So I suppose I would have told her about Kandor first and foremost, then asked about her wishes regarding the readily apparent options of living in the Fortress and operating as Supergirl full time or instead presenting herself to Kandor and perhaps considering to live among them.
Stories could be told about that setup. But it was perhaps not the time for those stories.
Just an insertion here.
I've been gauging the tone of the remarks about orphanages in the comments posted here and in Jeff's Silver-Age Superman thread to this conclusion:
Every orphanage and children's home in America should be offended at the implication that they're all nothing better than the horrid Mudfog orphans' workhouse of Oliver Twist.
My comment on the Silver Age Superman thread:
Jeff of Earth-J said:
From Dickens to Little Orphan Annie to the present day, I don't think orphanages were ever well-perceived
All except by Otto Binder, who wrote this story with a heaven-sent, idealized orphanage.
It is implied in the story that Linda and every other child would get individualized care and attention. This is impossible, regardless of good intentions. It's also unlikely that every child residing there is sweet and innocent, except under The Code.
ClarkKent_DC said:
If Superman wasn't going to have Supergirl live with him -- and he wasn't -- then placing her in Kandor makes far more sense than putting her in an orphanage. To Philip's point that he thought orphanages were okay, just how long was he even in one? A week?
I was also going to say that Superbaby wasn't there long enough to get the full experience.
Having her live in Kandor as a regular kid without superpowers wouldn’t exactly lead to a lot of saleable stories.
Philip Portelli said:
But we all forget one thing about Supergirl's first appearance: Zor-El and Alura sent her to Earth to find Superman. And they did NOT know that he was their nephew. And they dressed their pretty daughter in an outfit just like his. They were hoping that this Kryptonian male would take care of their Kryptonian daughter. They were hoping that he would protect and provide for her. Possibly even marry her in a few years. Nothing else really makes any sense. I don't feel like her parents expected Superman to adopt her.
That’s a good point. Now that you mention it, they didn’t know Superman was a relative. The possibility of their eventually marrying may very well have occurred to them.*
*On that Lois Lane imaginary story cover, Kara looks like she wants to marry him, cousin or no cousin.
Going by this often reprinted panel from Action Comics #289, Superman gave the idea a little bit of consideration!
Ick.
Superman had an enlarger that would work on Kandorians just fine (and of course, Brainiac's shrink ray.) But it ran on the super rare element Ilium-349, so he couldn't use it on Kandor entire.
As for Green Lantern's power ring... this would seem to be an out of bounds solution, same as asking Aquaman, Hawkman, Wonder Woman, or Zatanna for help. It just wasn't done. Why the Guardians of the Universe wouldn't want to help, I don't know - but then, I don't know why the Kandorians wouldn't want to be free at ANY size, and there are plenty of yellow sun planets in the universe.
Luis Olavo de Moura Dantas said:
There were actually two Silver Age meetings between Supergirl and Wonder Woman that I personally remember.
In The Brave and the Bold #63. Jim Mooney provided the cover, Bob Haney the story while John Rosenberger did full art.
The other was Wonder Woman 177. Cover by Carmine Infantino and Irv Novick while Win Mortimer and Jack Abel illustrated the Bill Finger story. 177 is also historic for being the issue before Diana started the powerless/Mrs. Peel-ish phase of her career.
The 1970s were better for Kara in having adventures with other heroes of the day.
(Images and information confirmation courtesy of the Grand Comics Database.)
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