Our recent discussions of Supergirl have made me want to re-read these. i'm not as good at this sort of thing as Jeff is, but I'll try my best.
We start with Volume One:
The cover art isn't bad, but I have to say that Miller isn't who i would pick to draw an Adventures of the Silver Age Supergirl book. (I mean because I don't think that his art style suits the character, not for any other reasons that you might not want to hire him.)
We begin with a foreword by Diana Schutz. I'd never heard of her, but she seems to have been an editor for Dark Horse. She talks about how she loved Supergirl when she was little, at a time when there were few good role models for little girls in superhero comics. She also mentions meeting artist Jim Mooney, and claims that she was one of the driving forces behind getting DC to publish Supergirl Archives (which would explain why she was asked to write the foreword, i suppose), and that she persuaded Miller to do the cover art. If so, good for her, I guess.
Next: Supergirl β
Replies
We end with Superman saving the day by sending a “Supergirl” robot that claims he built it as a “surprise” for the orphans. Good thing Cousin Superman is watching you!
Do they justify the robot, in that Superman is trying to keep her very existence secret?
When a girl in the audience says, "Gosh, look! If that girl has super-strength like Superman, then she must be a Supergirl! We never knew she existed!" the robot opens its cranium and chest plate and replies, "No, I'm just a robot! Superman made me and sent me to open the show, as a super surprise for you kids."
ADDENDUM FROM THE FAR FUTURE OF 2025
The dumbbell gag made my head spin like it had been given a Super-spin. It's too convoluted, too likely to fail, and as Jeff points out, neither dumbbell was designed for this sort of thing. Besides, it seems unlikely it could all be done so fast that Dick wouldn't notice. But more importantly, there were other, easier solutions at hand. The first thing I thought of: Supergirl could have just switched the dumbbells at super-speed. I'm sure if I gave it anothers second's thought, I could come up with another that doesn't involve super-precise drilling and dust-inhaling.
Also, I don't see this mentIoned anywhere, but Dick Wilson looks exactly like Dick Malverne, who will play much the same role in later Supergirl stories.
Why doesn’t she just say, “I had a finished copy in my desk!”? Did Binder not want to have her outright lie?
That is my assumption, yes. In the Silver Age, Superman famously never lies. (He says so in Superman: The Movie, too.) Clark Kent uses much the same double-talk to avoid lying in the Super-stories of the time, suggesting things for other people to assume instead of lying outright. Supergirl, edited by the same man and written by the same team, apparently follows the same course.
. . . Dick Wilson looks exactly like Dick Malverne, who will play much the same role in later Supergirl stories.
That's because they were one and the same. In "The Supergirl of Tomorrow", from Action Comics # 282 (Nov., 1961), Linda Danvers reëncounters Dick Wilson, who informs her, "The name is now Dick Malverne! I've been adopted, too!"
Great guns! I am today years old learning this!
Action Comics #257: (October 1959) “The Three Magic Wishes!”
Writing by Otto Binder
Art by Jim Mooney
1) Linda is reading fairy tales to the younger orphans when an obnoxious little punk named Tom Baxter disrupts the fun by declaring that fairy tales are the bunk. Linda decides to teach him a lesson by using her power to pose as a fairy godmother. This backfires when Tom challenges her to grant him three wishes. Linda resists the urge to smack him into the Phantom Zone and goes along with this. It sure is a good thing that none of the children wonders where Linda is during all this.
2) Tom first wish is that “Fairy Godmother” create a magic mirror to make an orphan called Peggy look pretty. Peggy looks like Alfred E. Neuman’s kid sister, so Kara’s got her work cut out for her. Kara rigs up a fake mirror using a picture of Peggy’s mother (who looks a lot like Lois Lane). Fortunately, Peggy and the other orphans are preternaturally stupid and don’t notice that the “reflection’s” features don’t move and that it’s just a picture of Peggy’s mother.
3) Tom next challenges Kara to turn a rabbit into a horse. She does this by surreptitiously lassoing a horse in a nearby stable and pulling it to her through the air. Later, she blows it back to its stable to land on a pile of hay. There’s no way that this doesn’t kill or cripple the horse, or at the absolute least, drive it insane with fear.
4) The next challenge is to create an unbreakable string. Kara does this by weaving a string out of her own hair. Hold the phone! She can cut her hair with her fingernails? How come Clark could never do that?
5) Tom is now convinced and pretends that he didn’t mean it. Kara punishes him by giving him a Pinocchio nose made out of yeast. She then hypnotizes the children to think that it was all a dream. In the end, she appears to have taught young Tom to fear fairy tales.
Overall: Another piece of lightweight silliness.
Next: The Exile of Steel! (SPOILERS)
There is not a single thing about "The Three Magic Wishes!" that I like. Every aspect of the story (so many more than Bob mentioned) is so implausible that it beggars the imagination, a rote, formulaic story I doubt even children would enjoy.
"Later, she blows it back to its stable to land on a pile of hay."
Now I'll always think of this as the story in which Supergirl blows a horse,
Then she later gets a pet horse (who's really a guy or a centaur or both).
ADDENDUM FROM THE FAR FUTURE OF 2025
Linda resists the urge to smack him into the Phantom Zone
If she had thought this in a word balloon, it would have made this story so much better. But Supergirl's written as so sweet that she's basically a doormat for little brats like Tom. I guess that was the ideal woman in 1959.
Peggy looks like Alfred E. Neuman’s kid sister.
From a 21st century perspective, it was pretty cruel the way they presented her. "Plainest girl" indeed. And, as 1959 would have it, Peggy's only use in life was to be attractive to men.
There’s no way that this doesn’t kill or cripple the horse, or at the absolute least, drive it insane with fear.
I had the same thought. Back then, though, animal cruelty was commonplace. When I grew up in the '60s, the families in the houses to the south of us and behind us left their dogs out 24/7, and put food out once a day. Nobody ever visited or played with the dogs. Those dogs were miserable, suffering physically from exposure and emotionally from isolation. I visited them as much as I had time for. The chihuahua behind me would get so excited when I came over he'd get the zoomies -- and his toenails were so long they'd bleed from running. Then he'd roll on his back and pee hinself out of excitement. It was heartbreaking. But when I'd mention this to adults, they didn't see a problem. Otto Binder was born in 1911, and the thought that animals had feelings was probably not one he ever had.
She can cut her hair with her fingernails? How come Clark could never do that?
Because 1959 Clark had MANLY fingernails that were always closely trimmed. Only girls had long fingernails.
There is not a single thing about "The Three Magic Wishes!" that I like.
I have to agree. Its entire premise -- tricking a kid into believing in fairy tales after he's outgrown them -- is beneath contempt. Even if Tom is a brat.
Now I'll always think of this as the story in which Supergirl blows a horse.
Then she later gets a pet horse (who's really a guy or a centaur or both).
All of Supergirl's interactions with horses are double entendres that, to an adult, are disturbing.
Nobody ever visited or played with the dogs. Those dogs were miserable, suffering physically from exposure and emotionally from isolation. I visited them as much as I had time for.
You just got another notch in my hero stick for you, Cap.
-
4
-
5
-
6
-
7
-
8
of 23 Next