She was only 15 when she first came to Earth, fleeing the destruction of her world's last refuge. Following in the footsteps of her legendary cousin, the Kryptonian teenager named Kara Zor-El joined Superman's neverending battle for truth and justice as his partner in crime-fighting--Supergirl!
Disguised as the brilliant brown-haired college student Linda Danvers, Supergirl sets out from the safety of Metropolis to see her adopted country for herself. From the streets of Chicago to the hills of San Francisco, she encounters loyal new friends and powerful new foes, astounding new discoveries and terrifying new dangers. Can she stand on her own outside of Superman's shadow? Looks like a job for... Supergirl!
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They seemed to be more focused on the idea that a wig might come off accidentally. I don't recall that they addressed the difference in hairstyles between Linda and Supergirl.
Supergirl #18: (April 1984) “Call Me--Kraken!”
Written by Paul Kupperberg
Drawn by Carmine Infantino and Bob Oksner
1)We open with an unknown assailant attacking an oil tanker in the Great Lakes, demanding money. A Cartoon Oil Tycoon named “Hogwilder” decides to pay and just hike consumer prices. Such subtle social commentary, there!
2)Then, the unknown menace similarly extorts an airplane. Hey, if it worked the first time…
3)Elsewhere, Supergirl breaks up a store robbery, irritating some cop who doesn’t like heroes, I guess. She points out that she’s deputized by the U.N., so nyah-nyah-nyah!
4)Supergirl thinks of a place called “Rokyn”, that the Kandorians have apparently been relocated to. I have no recollection of that whatsoever.
5)The unknown menace attacks a smaller boat – variety is the spice of life, I guess.
6)Annoying Typo: “Sailing, sailing, over the bounding Maine…”
7)Linda puts on her tackiest outfit and goes to see Phil but is annoyed to discover that he’s not where she expected him to be. The bounder! Someone is using a remote camera to observe Linda’s building, taking a special interest in her.
8)Once she’s home, Linda asks Streaky if he only loves her because she feeds him, which any cat-owner knows the answer to that one.
9)Phil calls and apparently lies to her, but she resolves not to use her powers to spy on him, which is good.
10)She goes out for a fly to clear her head and spots a plane in trouble. She encounters the unknown menace, who calls himself “Kraken”. He has a grudge against Argo City because he failed to conquer it once and has come after her as the last Argonian. (On a side note, weren’t Zor-El and Allura alive again at one point? Where are they? Did they go to this Rokyn place?)
11)Supergirl and Kraken brawl for a few pages, before she figures out how to beat him and hauls him away.
Overall: Another OK story. Kraken had potential as a character but had a really uninspired look. I’ve always felt that a distinctive look is important to get a character over.
Next: “Who Stole Supergirl’s Life?”
Rokyn is indeed where Zor-El and Allura live at this point and, in fact, where they remained for the whole remaining time of Earth-One continuity.
It is a red-sun planet where the whole population of Argo City moved to after it was enlarged back to normal size back in 1979's Superman #338, just over three years before this series started. IIRC there are also some Phantom Zone criminals there, trying to start a new life.
There were a couple of drawbacks, though. Some form of glitch destroyed all of their buildings once they settled, so they presumably rebuilt from scratch (without superpowers). And the whole world phase-shifted to another dimension shortly later, so Superman and Supergirl no longer have access to their own people from the former bottled city of Kandor - including Zor-El, Allura and Van-Zee.
Interesting. That's a bit of Superman continuity that I never knew about.
Supergirl #19: (May 1984) “Who Stole Supergirl’s Life?”
Written by Paul Kupperberg
Drawn by Carmine Infantino and Bob Oksner
1)We open with Linda hanging out with Joanie. Linda feels as though she’s lost something, but she’s not sure what. They see a special report of Supergirl stopping an armed robbery, which freaks Linda out. She shoos Joanie away and goes to switch to Supergirl, only to realize that her powers are gone.
2)Meanwhile, Supergirl no longer remembers her life as Linda, although she also senses that she’s missing something. She casually beats up two muggers, who probably should have thought twice before attacking someone in a Supergirl costume.
3)Linda has a sleepless night while Supergirl stops some more crooks. They both are pondering what they’ve lost. Linda argues with Joanie over how long she’s been seeing Phil.
4)Supergirl tries to jog her memory by tracing her route from where Krypton to Midvale. (Should losing her memories of being Linda have removed her memories of Superman?) She finds her way to the Orphanage, which has not fallen over, burned down and sunk into the swamp in her absence. She determines that she was Linda Lee.
5)Supergirl confronts Linda, who gets her to remember that she is actually the six Mini-Mes, who somehow combined themselves into one, which then somehow caused her to lose her powers. She escaped from the Fortress in a spaceship and flew to Chicago. This makes no sense whatsoever, and smacks of “Let’s wrap up the Mini Supergirls subplot in a hurry”, to me. Also, doesn’t Superman have an alarm system on his Fortress? I grant you that not many people could break in or out, but the sort of person who could is someone that you’d want to know about as soon as possible. Anyway, Supergirl claims her life back, but offers to help “Linda” make a new life for herself. I wonder if they ever did anything further with “Linda”.
Overall: Another OK story. The notion of a “split identity” is an interesting one.
Next: A “parallel story”, whatever that means!
Today I'm alive, kicking and reading issues 17, 18 and 19.
#15:
As far as I’m concerned, the sunglasses are the only thing that’s wrong with Phil. Does he remind you guys of someone you didn’t like?
I don't like the way he acts in general, the way he grabs her face before he kisses her, for example, I also didn';t like the way he kissed her (on their first date, wasn;t it?) when she was obviously feeling unwell. He's no gentleman.
“Hi, Supergirl. I guess you killed my daughter. No hard feelings.”
Yeah, that's pretty much what I thought!
#16:
I warn you now, that my opinion of this character is going to strongly color my opinion of this story. Ambush Bug is one of the few comics characters that I truly loathe. A truly pointless character – there’s nothing worse than a “comedy” character that is spectacularly unfunny.
I feel pretty much the same. Once time I bought a whole slew of past appearances of Ambush Bug at a quarter sale, read them, forgot them.
...the imaginatively named “The Bandit”
What is it with Kupperberg? "The Gang," "The Council," "The Chairman," "Brains"...
Ambush Bug knocks some guy out for littering.
I prefer the Badger, who beats people of for talking in a theater, "The Badger maims but he doesn't kill."
Ambush Bug beats up a smoker...
I can get behind that.
Easily the worst Supergirl story that I’ve ever read.
Some of the ones from the 1972 series were worse.
Is he supposed to be Ambush Bug?
Yeah, that was Ambush Bug, but that scene confused me at first, too. The story would have read better if that scene had been eliminated and he simply showed up.
I suspect that the coloring also carried over to the reprinted versions.
Speaking of coloring problems, what was with that deep dish pizza?
#17:
He lets out that Linda has it.
He gave that up pretty easily, methinks.
I guess Joanie is Stereotypical Girl
Ya think?
Burroughs is cosplaying as an Old School Southern gentleman, for some reason.
Characterization!
Burroughs tells Metzner that he wants him to leave certain compromising things out of his book.
He also says he doesn't care what psychological conclusions he draws. If I were Metzger, I would have taken him up on it and published an "authorized" edition.
Afterwards, it’s revealed that she has a special comb that uses “color-sensitive molecules” to change her hair color without using a wig.
Yeah, what? She could market that comb and be set for life.
...and to make herself look as much like an 80’s fitness instructor as possible.
If that was her goal, she succeeded.
I feel like they need a better class of heels in this book.
May be a villain called "The Heel." :)
#18:
Supergirl breaks up a store robbery, irritating some cop who doesn’t like heroes, I guess.
Yeah, that's Lt. Peters; we've seen him before.
The bounder!
See, I knew he was up to something.
#19:
This makes no sense whatsoever, and smacks of “Let’s wrap up the Mini Supergirls subplot in a hurry”, to me.
Actually, I rather liked this one myself. I agree that certain aspects of it make no sense, but I'm glad to see Kupperberg deal with the "mini-me" situation he created (although I, too, feel that it's not quite wrapped up). The real Supergirl could hire her as a permanent Linda Lee stand-in in lieu of a robot; she could pay her in crushed coal diamonds.
The Baron said:
Supergirl #17: (March 1984)
“Publish…and Perish!”
I guess Joanie is Stereotypical Girl, as her main concerns seem to be boys, clothes and her hair.
In recent years they have finally started hiring female writers to write female characters. Took them a long time.
The goons, with Metzner in tow, have broken into Linda’s apartment and recovered the book.
Which Linda was going to photocopy. She went shopping instead. Promising to retype it and make at least one copy probably sounded good to Linda until she realized that typewriters and photocopiers don’t work at superspeed. One of the goons, for future reference, tells Metzger that if he had been quieter about the book’s subject it could have been published before they could stop him.
Linda senses their presence and diverts Joanie to her own apartment. The crooks catch on, and flee, again with Metzner in tow.
This time, Linda tells Joanie she has to make a phone call. She tells Joanie that she can’t use her phone because it’s long distance. We know what that means, as did the readers in 1984, but today many people wouldn’t understand that.
The crooks call in Matrix-Prime to help them escape. The robot manages to get the drop on Supergirl, and they get away.
One of its drones sets up an electromagnetic field around Supergirl. She can’t touch it and it impedes her vision and hearing, so she can’t track the thugs. Kinda clever.
Later, Linda proves to Metzner that she’s not Supergirl by demonstrating that she’s not wearing a wig. Afterwards, it’s revealed that she has a special comb that uses “color-sensitive molecules” to change her hair color without using a wig.
Wally West used a gas to change his (pointlessly exposed) red hair to brown back in the day.
We end with her deciding to wear a headband to honor her Kryptonian heritage, and to make herself look as much like an 80’s fitness instructor as possible.
Supergirl #18: (April 1984)
“Call Me--Kraken!”
We open with an unknown assailant attacking an oil tanker in the Great Lakes, demanding money. A Cartoon Oil Tycoon named “Hogwilder” decides to pay and just hike consumer prices.
I guess that’s implied. He looks like a cross between Lex Luthor and Marvel’s Kingpin, and wears a red suit.
Elsewhere, Supergirl breaks up a store robbery, irritating some cop who doesn’t like heroes, I guess.
The established jerk Lt Peters.
Linda puts on her tackiest outfit….
Can’t argue with that!
….and goes to see Phil but is annoyed to discover that he’s not where she expected him to be.
He told her he has rehearsals every Wednesday. The guy at the door said they always take Wednesdays off. Who/What is he doing?
Once she’s home, Linda asks Streaky if he only loves her because she feeds him, which any cat-owner knows the answer to that one.
Anyone who believes that shouldn’t be a cat owner.
She goes out for a fly to clear her head and spots a plane in trouble.
When she is attacked by Kraken, she throws the fuel-less plane towards the airport. Too bad that the braking process requires fuel and reversal of the engines.
Supergirl and Kraken brawl for a few pages, before she figures out how to beat him and hauls him away.
Kraken said he was using magic. She is puzzled that his “magic” hasn’t killed her by now and figures out that he’s actually using advanced technology. She dries him out with her heat vision (like you could do with Aquaman or Sub-Mariner) and he’s weakened for capture.
Supergirl #19: (May 1984)
“Who Stole Supergirl’s Life?”
Supergirl confronts Linda, who gets her to remember that she is actually the six Mini-Mes, who somehow combined themselves into one, which then somehow caused her to lose her powers.
In that story, the gold kryptonite took the powers away from the six duplicates, so this Linda doesn’t have powers.
She escaped from the Fortress in a spaceship and flew to Chicago.
Why does Superman have working spaceships in the Fortress? Did anyone in Chicago notice a crashing spaceship?
Anyway, Supergirl claims her life back, but offers to help “Linda” make a new life for herself. I wonder if they ever did anything further with “Linda”.
Except for the questionable details at the end, I really liked this issue. It had a lot of real feeling, particularly in the “Linda” character.
So now when Joanie suggests that Linda restyle her hair, she can do it.
When Joanie suggests cutting her hair she will invent a "red sun lamp."
Supergirl #20: (June 1984) “Celebration!”
Written by Paul Kupperberg
Drawn by Carmine Infantino and Bob Oksner
1)A Mysterious Figure causes a helicopter to crash, but Supergirl saves it, although she feels a momentary weakness while doing so. She shrugs it off, which strikes me as unwise.
2)Clark calls Linda and tells her to be in Midvale at 12:17 p.m., but won’t say why. OK.
3)Joanie stops by, and she and Linda go to school together. Linda finds Phil and ends up calling him a liar and stalking off. Mysterious Figure causes Linda to faint and dumps her in the trash.
4)Supergirl goes to the Fortress and gives herself a medscan, but she turns out OK. She decides to find Mysterious Figure. She finds him and discovers that it’s the Parasite. They brawl, and Parasite reveals that he knows her and Superman’s secret identities. He takes away her powers and traps her in a flying cell. She escapes using her comb, somehow, and gets her powers back just in time. She confronts the Parasite, who turns out to be a clone and disintegrates. Apparently, the real Parasite was in Metropolis, losing to Superman.
5)Supergirl goes to Midvale, where Superman shows her a statue celebrating her arrival on Earth. The League and the Titans are there, as well. Those present include the Green Lantern, the Flash, Hawkman, Wonder Woman, the Atom, Firestorm, the Red Tornado, the Black Canary, Aquaman, the Elongated Man, Zatanna, Terra, the Green Arrow, Wonder Girl, Cyborg, Starfire and Changeling. Funny seeing Terra there, knowing that she’s actually a mole. We end with the two cousins swapping notes about how they each best the Parasite.
Overall: Another interesting story. I think it’s the first in a while to tie into the greater DCU.
Next: “Curse of the Kryptonite Man!
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