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Did this actually cause Supergirl's amnesia? If so, that's a weapons-grade narrativium coincidence! Veena could surely never have expected to her plan to work on a non-amnesiac Supergirl. Or did Veena just use it as a convenient explanation for something that she herself had done?
When Lightning Lass pretended to be her dead brother, she was given away by her lack of an Adam's apple. Supergirl could have discovered 'Joaquin's' imposture in the same way, but that would have deprived Binder of the opportunity for a little girl-on-girl action.
Did this actually cause Supergirl's amnesia?
My take on the story is that, no, Supergirl never had amnesia in the first place, and Veena's trick only worked because Supergirl was playing a long with it. That explanation doesn't play fair with the readers, though, because of certain thought balloons which indicate Supergirl doesn't know what's going on.
Jeff of Earth-J said:
ACTION COMICS #357
"Supergirl's Secret Marriage!" by Otto Binder
Linda drives (which I found odd, given the usual amount of sexism in these stories), but she doesn't know where she's going.
Joaquin letting her drive was probably an under-the-radar clue. I’ve only seen one really old movie in which the woman doesn’t have to change seats in her own car to let the man drive.
Suspicious that he may be a crook, Linda checks his fingerprints with her microscopic vision, then compares them against all of the fingerprints on file with the police and FBI, which she has memorized. [My suggestion of her verifying Superman's fingerprints in "The Case of the Superman Impostor!" (Action Comics #346) doesn't seem so implausible now, does it?]
I don’t specifically remember it being done, but I’m pretty sure that the military takes your fingerprints when you join (today DNA, also) and many or most government agencies take your fingerprints when you are hired. Supergirl and police detectives would also have access to those files, even before the internet.
After the dinner, they try to get to the bottom of her memory loss. The night before, while capturing a gang of crooks, she received a glancing shot from a Green Kryptonite ray-gun which, Joaquin speculates is the cause of her amnesia.
Why would Supergirl buy this? She’s had many exposures to Green K without it affecting her memory.
Apparently, they have yet to consummate their marriage (which, in itself is pretty unbelievable, given what we know of Supergirl's libido).
Not my experience, but sleeping separately doesn’t necessarily mean not ever having sex.
One of the guests whispers to another how odd it is that they were invited "since none of us knows this Joaquin fellow!"
I guess he came because he wanted to see Supergirl.
One of her adventures he recounts is when a tidal wave threatened a coastal city. She doused herself in gasoline, set herself afire, and "sky wrote" a warning. Frankly, I'm surprised this stunt passed the CCA. But I digress.
Like I mentioned before, censorship is often inconsistent.
Now he's over his infatuation with Supergirl and wishes he could make up with Veena, but she didn't come to the party.
He’s mainly over Supergirl because he thinks she’s married.
She slipped the wedding ring and keys into Linda's purse at the beginning of the story when she dropped them, although Linda dropping her purse at the exact moment Veena needed her to is quite a coincidence.
It was fairly obvious that the ring and keys were slipped into her purse, since we knew it had to be a hoax. Writer’s fiat had Linda dropping her purse when Supergirl shouldn’t drop anything she doesn’t want to drop.
Similarly, the long arm of coincidence reached out once again when, the night before, Supergirl just happened to receive a glancing blow from a Green-K ray-gun just when it suited the story.
Veena, like everyone in this story, was watching everything Supergirl did. This incident fit into her plans.
But Supergirl was apparently wise to Veena's ploy all along dues to certain "feminine traits" Veena exhibited as Joaquin, specifically, the kiss. "A girl usually puts her arms around a man's neck when kissing him... just like 'Joaquin' is instinctively doing! A man puts his arms around a girl's waist or shoulders!"
Since “Joaquin” is from another planet, the “usually” would be hard to pin down.
So Binder avoided any explicit girl-on-girl action, but he did manage to throw in one same-sex kiss.
I suspect that Mort was “sitting on” Binder to make sure he didn’t push it. If this was a story about Kal-El (adult or teen), and a male was disguised as a female it would probably have been rejected. At the time this story was written, censors watched for gay men but gay women were not thought to exist. A woman (quickly) kissing another woman would go over most heads.
Why would Supergirl buy this?
If this was a story about Kal-El (adult or teen), and a male was disguised as a female it would probably have been rejected.
Good point.
ACTION COMICS #358 - "Superboy in Argo City" by Cary Bates
This is the second "Supergirl" script by Cary Bates, who is 20 years old at this point. He has abandoned the formula of the older generation of writers, but brought back the obnoxious, interractive narrator who continually breaks the fourth wall and addresses the reader directly. This story is a continuityl implant, obviously.
One day while Superboy is out in space breaking off a piece of a jewel asteroid to made a present for Ma Kent, he is knocked unconscious from behind by an automated space probe collecting mineral samples. Cue the narrator. ["A mere mechanical device has clobbered the invulnerable Boy of Steel into unconsciousness... Can you guess how this could happen?"]
The probe returns to its launch point, a floating dome-covered city. ["Yes, this is Argo City, the giant fragment which miraculously escaped Krypton's doom when it was flung away from the exploding planet, in one intact piece!"] The probe was launched by Zor-El, but he and Allura are away at a session of Argo's council chiefs, leaving Kara to retrieve the samples. ["Recognize the little girl? This is Kara--known today as Supergirl--when she was just a young child! But neither she nor Superboy has any powers under a red sun!"] Kara looks to be about eight years old, which doesn't exactly jibe with her being 15 when Superman is, say, 29, but I'll let it pass. ["If you deduced that it was the probe's super-hard Kryptonian metal which enabled it to kayo Superboy--give yourself a perfect score!"] That really doesn't make sense to me, but neither does it make sense that Superman's heat vision cannot melt lead, so I'll let it go.
Kara puts Superboy in a tube filled with "vitalizing vapors" and gives him "special fruits and herbs to strengthen him," but they cannot understand each other because Superboy is speaking English and Kara Kryptonese. ["What's this? How could Superboy have forgtten the language of his home world?"] If you deduced "amnesia" then give yourself a perfect score! To keep him entertained, Kara shows him some of her father's inventions, starting with a grav-beam. Now they can both juggle heavy pieces of machinery with ease. Superboy remarks that it is almost like having super-strength. ["Poor superboy! He doesn't dream that just a few hours ago, under Earth's yellow sun, he was the strongest lad in the universe!"] Kara admires his costume. ["Little Kara has no idea that one day she will wear a similar uniform herself!"]
Soon Joer-El and Allura return. Kara explains the situation, and Allura suggests that they give him a name until he remembers his own. Zor-El agrees and calls him "Kal-El" after his nephew, which sounds familiar to Superboy. ["No wonder! Superboy himself was that nephew!"] Browsing through an "electronic family album," Zor-El is struck by how much the boy resembles his own brother when he was a youth. Days later, Kal-El and Kara are flying arounf the city using propulsion pacs. They use the pacs to help recapture two pet prism birds which escaped their cage. ["But this first feat is nothing compared to the spectacular achievements that will some day be performed by the future Superman-Supergirl team!"]
Sudden;y, the whole city begins to shake "as if it were going out of its orbit around Krypton's sun!" Actually, that is exactly what's happening. Jor-El has just fired off the rocket tubes he designed to propell Argo City to a habitable planet. This is a new one on me; I thought that, when Argo City was "flung away from the exploding planet, in one intact piece" it was hurled into interstellar space, but apparently, as this story would have it, it stayed in orbit around Krypton's sun for some years. Using Zor-El's special hyper-drive, it will take them about a week to reach the nearest star system. To pass the time, Kara and Kal play a game which once belonged to her father and his brothers, Joe-El and Nim-El. This is the first time I've ever heard of Nim-El, so I'll have to leave it up to one of our Silver Age SMEs to provide color commentary. Where's the narrator when I need him? Enroute, Kal gives Kara the jewel he intended to give to his mother.
the next day, as the city approaches a yellow-sun system, it flies through a bright orange cloud of what they assume is space-dust but is actually a warning not to enter the solar system. The aliens are giant, floating spherical "heads" with bug-eyes and four tentacles in lieu of arms and legs. They declare Argo City's tresspass to be an act of agression and sentence them to annihilation. Zor-El argues his case, and the aliens agree to a compromise: Argo City will be allowed to leave as long as one of them remains behind to die as a sacrifice. Before Zor-El himself can volunteer, Kal leaps into a capsule which is to be transported to the place of execution. In order to prevent interferance from the rest of them, the aliens bombard them with a blast of cereb-radience, which will erase their memory of him.
But, on the way to the place of execution, Superboy's memory begins to return. ["Yes, as he is bathed by the rays of the yellow sun, Superboy's powers return--and his amnesia vanishes."] In order to escape the alien, Superboy flies directly through the yellow sun. Assuming Superboy has been killed, the alien returns home. But now the last thing Superboy remembers is breaking off a piece of the jewel asteroid to give to his mother, but he doesn't have it now. ["Yes, when Superboy regained his memory, he forgot all that happened in Argo City!"] Flash-forward to 1968, Supergirl shows Superman the jewel she's had since she was a little girl, but she can't remember where it came from. As soon as he sees it, Superman's "total recall memory" identifies it as the jewel he took from the asteroid, but he still doesn't remember his visit to Argo City, nor how it got there. But Supergirl is certain of one thing: that Superman never visited Argo City when he was Superboy, allowing the narrator to get in one final zinger. ["Yes, he did! But fate arranged for both of them to forget their first meeting!"]
I'm not generally a fan of continuity implant stories to begin with, but because of the ever-present narrator, I found this one to be more annoying than entertaining.
Suddenly, the whole city begins to shake "as if it were going out of its orbit around Krypton's sun!" Actually, that is exactly what's happening. Jor-El has just fired off the rocket tubes he designed to propel Argo City to a habitable planet. This is a new one on me; I thought that, when Argo City was "flung away from the exploding planet, in one intact piece" it was hurled into interstellar space . . .
Mr. Wrexham already took care of your question about Jor-El's twin brother, Nim-El. So, this one is up to me.
The resolution to the apparent contrtradiction in Argo City being hurled away from the destructing Krypton by the force of the explosion and the rocket tubes installed in Argo City's asterioid foundation by Zor-El is contained within "The Untold Story of Argo City", from Action Comics # 309 (Feb., 1964).
First., the tale iterates the "party line" explanation for Argo City's survival. It was hurled into space intact upon a large chunk of the planet.
But, as the story of Argo City progresses, we learn that Zor-El came up with an idea to direct the course of Argo City through space, rather than just career helplessly:
The story goes on to show that, eventually, Zor-El used the rockets to propel Argo City into a yellow-sun solar system, which bestowed super-powers upon the residents. However, a religious zealot, Jer-Em, believed that possessing super-powers was against the will of Krypton's ancient gods. Jer-Em flew outside the protective dome of the city and used his super-strength to alter the direction of the rocket tubes, sending Argo City back into a red-sun system. Unfortunately, this consumed the remaining fuel in the jet-drive engines of the rockets, so Zor-El was unable to undo what Jer-Em did. (They did send him to the Phantom Zone for thirty time-cycles, though.)
Hope this helps.
Yes, I remember "The Untold Story of Argo City" from Action Comics # 309, but to "career helplessly through space" doesn't jibe with being in "orbit around Krypton's sun," nor does "sending Argo City back into a red-sun system" necessarily mean Krypton's original solar system.
. . . "as if it were going out of its orbit around Krypton's sun!"
Ah, that's the part I missed. Point taken. However . . .
. . . nor does "sending Argo City back into a red-sun system" necessarily mean Krypton's original solar system.
It doesn't necessarily mean it wasn't Krypton's original red-sun solar system, either. Logically, Jer-em would've altered the trajectory of Argo City back the way it came, to the nearest red-sun system he knew about.
"... The resolution to the apparent contrtradiction in Argo City being hurled away from the destructing Krypton by the force of the explosion and the rocket tubes installed in Argo City's asterioid foundation by Zor-El is contained within "The Untold Story of Argo City", from Action Comics # 309 (Feb., 1964).
"... First., the tale iterates the "party line" explanation for Argo City's survival. It was hurled into space intact upon a large chunk of the planet."
I seemed to remember a still earlier version of the legend. Indeed, in Action Comics #252, the first Supergirl story, it's merely "Our street of homes is being flung free into space!" There are "pitiful few survivors."
"Fortunately, a large bubble of air came along with the chunk!" declares Zor-El. "Also, this food machine is still working." There is hope for survival on The Chunk!
Alas, the ground beneath turns to kryptonite! "But luckily, Zor-El had a roll of sheet metal in his lab, and ..." Further luckily, it's lead, and there's just enough of it to cover the surface of the entire chunk!
I can't imagine the astrogeophysics involved in this amazing chunk and its air bubble. Nor the science involved in the machine that makes food out of nothing. Nor the incredible luck with the giant roll of lead foil in storage.
I guess I accepted it all when I read it as an eight-year-old!
Jeff of Earth-J said:
ACTION COMICS #358
"Superboy in Argo City" by Cary Bates
This is the second "Supergirl" script by Cary Bates, who is 20 years old at this point. He has abandoned the formula of the older generation of writers, but brought back the obnoxious, interactive narrator who continually breaks the fourth wall and addresses the reader directly.
Without looking it up, I’m pretty sure Julie Schwartz had a lot of this in his stories. It seems like Mr Bates overdid it.
Kara looks to be about eight years old, which doesn't exactly jibe with her being 15 when Superman is, say, 29, but I'll let it pass.
Jim Mooney’s version of Superboy doesn’t look…..quite right. His eight-year-old Kara’s face looks remarkably like Kara’s face at fifteen and when she first went to college.
Suddenly, the whole city begins to shake "as if it were going out of its orbit around Krypton's sun!" Actually, that is exactly what's happening. Jor-El has just fired off the rocket tubes he designed to propel Argo City to a habitable planet. This is a new one on me; I thought that, when Argo City was "flung away from the exploding planet, in one intact piece" it was hurled into interstellar space, but apparently, as this story would have it, it stayed in orbit around Krypton's sun for some years.
Everything You Know Is Wrong
Using Zor-El's special hyper-drive, it will take them about a week to reach the nearest star system. To pass the time, Kara and Kal play a game which once belonged to her father and his brothers, Jor-El and Nim-El. This is the first time I've ever heard of Nim-El, so I'll have to leave it up to one of our Silver Age SMEs to provide color commentary.
When discussing their trip to another solar system with Zor-El, Superboy remembers knowledge about time and distance involved in the trip. He remembers this knowledge but nothing about himself or his life. Amnesia is more common than a cold in these stories.
Did Cary Bates feel the need to create a third brother? Or was this an obscure bit from a forgotten story?
I'm not generally a fan of continuity implant stories to begin with, but because of the ever-present narrator, I found this one to be more annoying than entertaining.
I don’t like continuity implants, period.
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