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True enow, my friend. I can recall only scant occasions when the Danvers provided aid or parental advice to their super-youngster in the way that the Kents often did to Superboy. Most often, the Danvers were plot props.
It's a pity. More focus on the Danvers as parents would've given the Supergirl series some badly needed depth.
Eric L. Sofer said:
Weeks later, Lena and her friends arrive at Metropolis airport
Let me get this right. She's lost in the jungle long enough for her hair to grow two inches and then weeks pass after that... and no one notices she's been missing? Especially the FBI? They can't be keeping all that close track of her, I think.
If they are bugging Lex’s cell because they’re investigating her relationship with him, I would think they would have noted her disappearance. (At this point Supergirl, Lex and the FBI are the only ones who know she’s his sister. By the end of the story, she doesn’t even know herself.)
Supergirl reports to Luthor in prison, and he requests a favor.
Again, when has this ever turned out harmless?
When we say “reports,” it sounds like she’s working for him instead of just doing undeserved favors.
It's amazing that the FBI is still considering a paranoid (schizophrenic?) such as Lena for employment. And employment as... what? I rather doubt she'd make a very effective agent. Maybe a secretary would be a good place to drop her in.
"You're not paranoid if something is really trying to get you." I think I earlier said that in the real world the CIA was studying using people with alleged mental powers for their function, which is gathering intelligence. The FBI is supposedly doing this with Lena. The problem is that the FBI gathers evidence for court cases, which mindreading, etc, wouldn’t qualify as.
Jeff of Earth-J said:
ACTION COMICS #314
"Supergirl's Tragic Ordeal!"
Essentially, Allura has come down with a case of writer's fiat so severe that she "must be reunited with her daughter or she'll die!" She is admitted to the hospital where at first they find nothing wrong.
Don’t they have psychiatrists in Kandor?
The situation comes to a head when. "that night, a distraught, confused Allura slips into the children's section" and steals an android doll from a little girl patient thinking it is Kara as a little girl.
If she has psychiatric problems, it’s lucky that when she “slipped in” she did something with the doll and not the little girl.
At this point, they make a couple of really bad decisions. Edna decides, "There's only one thing to do. We must destroy Supergirl's love for us. If we can make her think we don't want her, she'll rejoin her own parents."
Did anybody think this would work? Linda has been with them awhile, knows that they love her and would know this was ‘way out of character.
"Thanks, Dad! I'll remember that!"
Note that she doesn’t call him “Foster-Dad.” or "Mister Danvers."
"Hmm... the Danvers said they were ready to make any sacrifice..." Next thing you know, Supergirl's parents and foster-parents have exchanged places.
Isn’t an Earth person affected by moving to Kandor? Doesn’t the environment affect the Danvers (and Jimmy Olsen) negatively? Something that needs addressing with Kryptonian science?
Allura needed to be reminded that, "as Kryptonians, you and father are super in this environment" (or at least Supergirl felt her mother needed to be reminded).
Or the little kids reading the story.
"The next day, in the garden of the Danvers' Kandorian home," the Council of Elders has arranged for the Danvers to adopt Dar-Lin, a Kara-lookalike from the Kandor City Orphanage, but Edna is not too keen on the idea.
Is she really a little darlin’?
"Will the Danvers adopt a new daughter? What does the future hold for them in Kandor? And what is the strange destiny awaiting Supergirl and her super-family?
This is part one of a three-parter.
Commander Benson said:
I can recall only scant occasions when the Danvers provided aid or parental advice to their super-youngster in the way that the Kents often did to Superboy.
I think the main reason for the difference is that the Kents were all Superboy had for guidance. Supergirl has Superman and all of Kandor for guidance, and now Zor-El and Allura.
ACTION COMICS #315: Instead of the kind of story suggested yesterday by Commander Benson, Leo Dorfman gives us "The Menace of Super-Girl's Mother."
Note that [Supergirl] doesn’t call him “Foster-Dad.” or "Mister Danvers."
So noted. However, this story makes liberal of the term "real parents" throughout. Also, You may have noticed some variation in my spelling of Supergirl's "real" mother's name in my posts. That because DC itself cannot make up it's mind. In this story alone, twice it is "Alura" and three times "Allura." (Upon reflection, the "double-L" version is probably correct.)
As the stoy opens, Dar-Lin is trying her best to fit in to the Danvers' household, but Edna is indifferent. She dotes on Linda, which alienates Dar-Lin. Meanwhile, Supergirl is looking in on them in Kandor using the new monitor she built, but she neglected to turn on the volume because she draws the conclusion that the Danvers have forgotten about her. One day, Dar-Lin goes to take an electronic shower. Edna reminds her to "leave any metalic object outside the cabinet, otherwise you'll cause a short circuit." Instead of saying, "Duh! I've been taking electronic showers all my life!" she responds, "There's only this locket, mother. I'll leave it here on the table." (I get the distinct impression that Edna has shorted out an electronic shower or two since settling in Kandor.)
While Dar-Lin is in the shower, her locket starts emitting a high-pitched beeping noise. She explains that her parents, Zan-Tor and Rena, gave the necklace to her before leaving on their last expedition, but it has never beeped before. Her parents were scientists and explorers, and, three years ago they set off for a top-secret destination, which raises the question how many "top-secret destinations" there can be in a bottle city and makes me wonder how hard the Kandorians searched for them. But I digress. Fred discovers an electronic signal being transmitted by her missing parents. They are currently trapped in the Caves of Kandor, which "were dug by an ancient race of great scientists long before Kandor was built. they booby-trapped the caverns before they died off. Because of the danger, Kandorians are forbidden to enter the caves." Zan-Tor and Rena were trapped by a "gas device" which put them in suspended animation for three years. As soon as they woke up, they signalled for help. And just like that, the sub-plot of the Danvers having a Kryptonian foster-daughter is over before Dorfman really ever did anything with it. Reading it for the first time today, I can't help but feel the same mild sense of disappointment Commander Benson must have felt when he read it for the first time nearly 60 years ago.
"As the days pass, the Danvers try to forget their anguish... but bitter memories pursue them everywhere." One day, while exploring Kandor's famous underwater zoo in scuba suits, Edna observes a srang, a sort of blowfish/seahorse hybrid described as "a weird mutation! A touch of the creatures poison barbs causes its victim to hate whatever he is thinking of at the moment." The srang stings Edna through a crack in the aquarium, and guess who she was thinnking about at the time. "Ohhh! That strange creature stuck me with one of its barbs! I feel only a mild stinging sensation, so it probably isn't harmful," she concludes. She must have not been paying close attention to the electronic guide when it explained all this to her. Then again, Edna seems to be the kind of person who needs things explained to her more than one: electronic showers, secret identities, that Kryptonians have super-powers under a yellow sun.
The house they are living in was once owned by a Kandorian actress. What happened to her is not explained, but she left all of her stuff behind. Masquerading as a Kandorian scientist named Bira, she contacts Zor-El and Allura and tells them, "Aliens from space just arrived on Earth with a device which cures Kryptonite poisoning," but they had to leave Earth immediately because the atmosphere is harmful to them. Zor-El supposes, "I guess they couldn't just contact us because they wer unable to locate our new fortress." (And the city of Kandor in Superman's Fortress of Solitude is so easy?) Zor-El had recently invented a new long-range teleport tube, but the user must return to Kandor withing an hour or his atomic structure will dissolve.
Arriving in the outer world posing as Bira, Edna leads Zor-El and Allura to a shrine to Superman and Supergirl somewhere in the Himalayas. Supergirl once told Edna of this monument once built by an alien race in gratitude to the ones who saved their planet. Inside are stored Kryptonite meteors they picked up on their journey to be kept there until Superman and Supergirl can dispose of them properly. ("Bira" cannot fly, of course, but she dismisses Allura's question as to why she's wearing a jet-belt as it being a new, improved model she is testing.) Edna tricks Zor-El and Allura into opening the lead chest containing the Kryptonite, and they succumb to the deadly radiation.
But Kandor has contacted Supergirl to tell her that her foster mother has gone "berserk" (which I have no idea how they knew what she was up to). The monument is an odd cave situated atop a high ledge, and Supergirl uses her heat vision from a distance to melt through the cave floor dropping the Kryptonite into the valley below. Then she confronts her mother and summons the Super-Girl Emergeny Squad to return Edna to Kandor. Luckily, the Kandorians discover that she had been strung by the srang, and the effects have worn off. Supergirl and Edna reconcile, but...
"And so once more Supergirl is torn between two great loves! How can she solve this torturing dilemma? See the next issue for the answer!"
Jeff of Earth-J said:
ACTION COMICS #315
"The Menace of Super-Girl's Mother."
Her parents were scientists and explorers, and, three years ago they set off for a top-secret destination, which raises the question how many "top-secret destinations" there can be in a bottle city and makes me wonder how hard the Kandorians searched for them. But I digress.
No, you’re not digressing. It’s like saying they’re going big game hunting or “tomb raiding” in the New York city limits.
Fred discovers an electronic signal being transmitted by her missing parents. They are currently trapped in the Caves of Kandor, which "were dug by an ancient race of great scientists long before Kandor was built.
Brainiac was more careful than most supervillains when he made sure the caves were shrunk and scooped up with the city.
A touch of the creature’s poison barbs causes its victim to hate whatever he is thinking of at the moment.
That sounds like an evolutionary dead end. Most of its victims would be hating the srang that stung them, and wanting to kill it.
Edna seems to be the kind of person who needs things explained to her more than once
This fits with the sexist tone in many of their stories. Fred Danvers never seems to goof up.
Zor-El had recently invented a new long-range teleport tube, but the user must return to Kandor withing an hour or his atomic structure will dissolve.
That sounds like a wonderful invention (not).
Edna tricks Zor-El and Allura into opening the lead chest containing the Kryptonite, and they succumb to the deadly radiation.
I think you mean they are affected and sickened by the radiation. Succumbed can also mean that they died. Since we’re talking about kryptonite it could be either.
But Kandor has contacted Supergirl to tell her that her foster mother has gone "berserk" (which I have no idea how they knew what she was up to).
The same way the census guy knew who was leaving Kandor. Big Brother level surveillance.
Brainiac was more careful than most supervillains when he made sure the caves were shrunk and scooped up with the city.
These stories are chock full of "neat ideas" [such as the "Caves of Kandor" and the the "Space College" near the planet Saturn (Action Comics #312)], most of which I'll wager were never seen again. For example, in "The Menace of Super-Girl's Mother," Kandor was depicted as sitting atop a layer of dirt, like an ant farm. Regarding how hard the Kandorians searched for them, why didn't they ask Superman to use his x-ray vision? If Zan-Tor and Rena had been up against the glass wall, he wouldn't have even needed it.
That sounds like an evolutionary dead end.
Yes, I meant to make that very point but forgot. Thanks!
I think you mean they are affected and sickened by the radiation. Succumbed can also mean that they died.
I actually looked up the meaning of that word before I posted it and went with the "fail to resist pressure, temptation, or some other negative force" definition.
The same way the census guy knew who was leaving Kandor. Big Brother level surveillance.
Ah, yes. That makes sense.
ACTION COMICS #316 - "Supergirl's Choice of Doom!"
The story begins with the Danvers paying a visit to Supergirl and her parents via a three-dimensional viewer. Zor-El and Allura can plainly see how melancholy not being with her foster parents makes their daughter, so Zor-El suggests feeding everything about their own family's life story into a Kryptonian super-computer in order to predict their future. It sounds kind of sketchy to me, but it distracts Supergirl from thinking about the Danvers. After revealing some randon scenes of moving an ancient temple to avoid a flood, rescuing "moon-prospectors" trapped in a cave-in and building an underwater glass tunnel to Atlantis, the machine predicts that the fearsome Zygor will come to Earth at some point in the future.
Kara was too young to remember (untill she called upon her "power of total recall"), but the Zygor attacked Argo City when she was just a year old. The Zygor is a sentient ball of lumpy flesh with a Cyclopean eye, as maw or jagged teeth, and three flame-shooting tentacles it uses as weapons and to project itself through space. Zor-El managed to drive it off (through a fluke of luck), but the Zygor vowed revenge. The computer reveals that, at some point in the future, the Zygor will track Zor-El to Earth using its telepathic powers. Still watching the future events play out on the screen, they super-family observes how Supergirl will fly into space to confront the creature by herself. (Perhaps her parents were on a "space mission" with Superman at the time.)
"As a result of eating Red Kryptonite meteors," the Zygor explains, "I acquired a form of Kryptonite vision which gives me hypnotic control over super-being from Krypton," because of course. Makes perfect sense to me. Under Zygor's mental control, Supergirl lures Zor-El and Superman into her fortress. (Hmm... I gues they weren't in space after all, or maybe she waited until they returned.) "I'll be merciful," says Zygor, leading the scene on the cover. 'You only have to kill one of them. Which one will it be? The choice is yours!" The Supergirl of the future makes her chaoice and pulls the switch, but the Supergirl of the present smashes the computer screen before learning which one.
Then a thought occurs to Zor-El. The computer was predicting what would happen if Zor-El and Allura stayed in the outside world. All they would have to do to avert this situation is to return to Kandor, because there "the Zygor would be unable to detect our presence on Earth!" I'm not really sure what difference that would make since it tracked him telepathically in the prediction and he will still technically be on Earth (just small) but, as we'll soon see, it will quickly become a moot point. Zor-El and Allura switch places with Fred and Edna, and Supergirl and her foster parents resume their happy lives together.
"Days later, as Zor-El and Allura watch a Kandorian monitor screen" it is revealed that they faked the whole thing. The Zygor did, in fact, attack Argo City, but he sent it first to the Phantom Zone, then freed it and placed it in the Kandorian Zoo where, "after years of captivity," it died. He has kept its skeleton, reduced to Kandorian proportions and preserved for future study, in a vault in his lab. "Luckily, Kara never saw it!" We can chalk up the "neat ideas" of the moon-prospectors and the Atlantis tunnel to Zor-El's fake prediction, but this episode does raise another question: Why didn't Zor-El save the citizens of Argo City by sending them into the Phantom Zone? this question has come up before, and we said that he didn't have access to a P.Z. projector, yet he had one to send the Zygor there when Kara was only one year old.
Jeff of Earth-J
I think you mean they are affected and sickened by the radiation. Succumbed can also mean that they died.
I actually looked up the meaning of that word before I posted it and went with the "fail to resist pressure, temptation, or some other negative force" definition.
Words that have unclear or conflicting definitions annoy me. She’s not there anymore, but I had a “discussion” with the woman who was the office manager at my veterinarian’s office about the word “bi-annual.” An anti-worming medication was said to be bi-annual. They meant every six months. I said to her that it should be listed as “semi-annual.” For example, bicentennial means 200 years, not 50 years. Apparently, bi-annual has two conflicting definitions, while semi-annual has a single clear definition. Just because I’m a man, she probably thought I was mansplaining. I wasn’t. She just refused to listen.
ACTION COMICS #316
"Supergirl's Choice of Doom!"
The Supergirl story actually made the cover!
After revealing some random scenes of moving an ancient temple to avoid a flood….
In the recent case of Morocco, it was an earthquake, not a flood, that destroyed a 1,000-year-old mosque in its mountains.
Why didn't Zor-El save the citizens of Argo City by sending them into the Phantom Zone? this question has come up before, and we said that he didn't have access to a P.Z. projector, yet he had one to send the Zygor there when Kara was only one year old.
Wasn’t the meteor shower that destroyed the lead sheeting sudden and unexpected? I don’t think the Phantom Zone was desirable until there was no other choice. Then there was no time. (He just happened to have the Survival Zone projector for the two of them.)
Having left the Weisinger books before all this, I don’t think I ever knew that Zor-El and Allura survived until now.
The Supergirl story actually made the cover!
Yes, and what strikes me as odd it that the story itself was allotted only 10 pages. The "Supergirl" feature varies in length (from 10 to 13 pages), but I'd say the vast mahority of them have been 12 pages. Then again, all Mort really needed was a striking cover image to get the readers to plunk down their 12 cents.
ACTION COMICS #317 - "The Great Supergilr Double-Cross!"
At Metropolis Prison, Luthor has made a few adjustments to the prison's old TV set making it a color TV, but he also "added a secret channel to the circuit. A hidden switch turns this set into a monitor which tunes in on my sister, Lena Thorul, wherever she is!" Just as he discovers she has a new boyfriend (she's mooning over a photograph), the prison guards show up in his cell to remove the TV set for the night. A little foreshadowing here: "Luthor, you'd have flipped if you'd seen that photo!"
"The next day, in Midvale, at the home of Linda Lee Danvers," Lena arrives driving her new boyfriend's car. His name is Jeff Colby and he had some important business so he loaned her his car to pick up Linda and Dick for a double-date picnic promising to join them later. (Already this sounds serious to me; I have never let a girlfriend drive my car.) Suddenly, Lena gest an ESP flash that Jeff is in danger, that he's in a plane about to crash. Using her telescopic vision to confirm that it is true, Linda slips away "to get more firewood" and switches to Supergirl. The experimental plane he was piloting is in a nosedive but she saves it with her super-breath. Colby parachuted out, but is in danger of landing in a lake and possibly drowning, so Supergirl blows his chute to land close to the picnic grounds.
After he lands, Supergirl observes him burying his chute. When he arrives he says he's late because the bus that brought him was in a traffic jam. Then he asks about his car (which is the first non-suspicious thing he has done so far). It hasn't been running right lately (he says), and figures this is a good time to work on it. Linda observes from afar and discovers that the engine is really a radio. "Agent Zero calling Spy-Dome!" he calls. "Experimental plane sabotaged as ordered! In two weeks I'll deliver the plans for the soloar-powered rocket!" Visually searching in the direction the radio's antenna was aimed, Linda discovers the "Spy-Dome," a man-made island which looks like Karl Stromberg's "Atlantis" (from the movie version of The Spy Who Loved Me) or the Legion of Doom's headquarters from Super Friends.
Linda's mission is clear: she must break-up Lena's burgeoning romance with Jeff Colby, even if it means the end of their friendship. Linda realizes that Lena's ESP powers should have warned her about Colby's bad intentions, but she rerasons, "I guess her love for him is so strong it interferes with her extra-sensory powers whenever he's near." A week later, the happy couple are having their engagement party. Lex Luthor watches from prison on his gimmicked TV set and recognizes the groom, but readers don't find out who he really is just yet. Linda uses a rare space crystal to hypnotize Jeff and has him fill up her entire dance card with dances with her. Lena wonders whether or not he could be falling for Linda, but dismisses the notion reasoning that he's just being nice to her because she's her best friend. Then Linda hypnotizes Jeff into giving Lena's engagement ring to her, Linda.
"Gulp,!" gulps Linda. "Well, this is the end of our friendship, but at least I kept her from marrying a spy and a traitor!" Later, Linda gives back the ring and hypnotizes Jeff to forget the entire night. The next day, when he pays a visit to Lena, she rejects him and says she vever wants to see him again. Later, Supergirl reports Colby and the Spy-Dome to the FBI and learns that, not only is he an undercover agent working against the spy ring, but that he's the agent who once trapped Luthor. D'oh! Supergirl explains that she was responsible for Colby's memory blackout, "but I can't explain it without revealing my secret identity!" Oh, that's great, Supergirl. If the FBI didn't already know you had a secret identity, they certainly do now. You know what they say about "loose lips"...
To make up for her mistake, Supergirl un-anchors the Spy-Dome and tows it withing the three-mile limit so the spies can be apprehended. Following up with Lena, Supergirl sees her entering the Overseas Nurses Aide Service considering signing up for a three-year stint. "Seeking advice, Supergirl consults her beloved foster-parents." Edna tells her to come completely clean and tell Lena the whole truth, but Fred cautions against revealing her secret identity. They were no help. If supergirl has asked me, I would have advised her to tell the truth, but substitute Supergirl for Linda. That way she can bring everything out in the open, Linda and Lena will be friends again, and Supergirl won;t have to "lie" because she and Supergirl are one and the same. But Supergirl chooses a different tack.
She works far into the night building a Jeff robot, then sends it to meet Lena at the pier where she is to catch the boat to Africa. As soon as the robot reveals itself, Supergirl flies up with the real Jeff in her arms. Basically, she attributes all of the actions taken by Jeff the night of the party to the robot, then reflects that the moment of their reconcilliation "is worth all the 'little white lies' [she] told." Basically, that's the same solution I suggested but with an extra layer of unnecessary obfuscation concering the robot. After that, Lena reconciles with Linda and asks her to be maid-of-honor at her wedding and Luthor reads about his sister's engagement to the G-man who once arrested him in the society pages. On the day of the wedding, Linda thinks, "It's the most thrilling moment of Lena's life!... who knows? Maybe I'll be a bride someday soon! *sigh*... But I wonder who the bridegroom will be?"
"Readers, who do you think would make the perfect husband for Linda (Supergirl) Danvers?"
Jeff of Earth-J said:
ACTION COMICS #317
"The Great Supergirl Double-Cross!"
At Metropolis Prison, Luthor has made a few adjustments to the prison's old TV set making it a color TV, but he also "added a secret channel to the circuit. A hidden switch turns this set into a monitor which tunes in on my sister, Lena Thorul, wherever she is!"
If they ever learn not to give him things, let alone electronic things, Luthor will truly be stuck there.
(Already this sounds serious to me; I have never let a girlfriend drive my car.)
If you are on my car insurance, you can drive it. Otherwise, NO!
After he lands, Supergirl observes him burying his chute.
This is truly suspicious. This is only done in wartime when you don’t want to be spotted.
Linda observes from afar and discovers that the engine is really a radio.
No wonder the car hasn’t been running right. It’s a radio!
Linda's mission is clear: she must break-up Lena's burgeoning romance with Jeff Colby, even if it means the end of their friendship.
Wouldn’t it make more sense for Supergirl (not Linda) to turn him in to the FBI? They should be close by if they’re still watching Lena. If the FBI arrested him as a spy I think Lena would just have to lick her wounds.
Linda realizes that Lena's ESP powers should have warned her about Colby's bad intentions, but she reasons, "I guess her love for him is so strong it interferes with her extra-sensory powers whenever he's near."
We later find out that he didn’t have bad intentions for her to detect.
Linda uses a rare space crystal to hypnotize Jeff and has him fill up her entire dance card with dances with her.
She didn’t just use super-hypnosis? Or wasn’t that a thing yet?
Oh, that's great, Supergirl. If the FBI didn't already know you had a secret identity, they certainly do now. You know what they say about "loose lips"...
That would fit with my contention that the supers should say they don’t have one. But the convention for comic characters and comic readers is to assume they have one.
Basically, that's the same solution I suggested but with an extra layer of unnecessary obfuscation concerning the robot.
The robot is something else they think have to trot out for the new reader who hasn’t seen one of the robots yet.
After that, Lena reconciles with Linda and asks her to be maid-of-honor at her wedding and Luthor reads about his sister's engagement to the G-man who once arrested him in the society pages.
I’m sure he had quite a reaction.
"You sure you don’t want to rephrase that?
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