ACTION COMICS 375 (1969)
by Leo Dorfman & Kurt Schaffenberger
The Supergirl retrospective is coming to a close: I’m only going to cover this Action Comics issue and its second part, plus a three-part of her Adventure Comics run.
I would love to say that Supergirl is ending on a high note, but…
One of the frustrating things about Supergirl stories in college is that there is no consistency on what she’s studying. This time it’s astronomy.
Supergirl saves her teacher’s son from being crushed by a horse by MELTING THE ASPHALT BENEATH THE HORSE.
How the heck are those poor animals not horribly mutilated by this!?
Normally I would find it very cool if an astronomer found a nebula with this rather cool shape… but this is comics so now I’m expecting Cthulhu’s cousin to show up at any moment.
Something interesting to date the story: the teacher’s husband was killed in Vietnam. This is 1969.
Supergirl really wants to help her teacher, who is going to use a super-telescope provided by the Technology Foundation (founded by Captain Obvious, no doubt).
Despite its generic name, the Technology Foundation sounds like an interesting piece of worldbuilding.
Aaaand it’s immediately made completely obsolete.
Admittedly this has to be the wet dream of any space enthusiast.
So of course it means something HAS to go horribly wrong!
Or not.
5,000$ in 1969 would be about 36,000$ today, and it seems to go just a little bit into the teacher’s head.
Except I’m not calling her out for thinking her students are a bunch of idiots.
A satellite from Earth orbiting through the rings? What does that question even mean!?
The teacher might be going a little overboard, though.
We do get the scene from the intro page integrated into the comic, which is always a treat.
Okay at this point I’m still thinking Cthulhu’s cousin is involved. There is no way a 1969 comic is showing a single mother sending her toddler to boarding school without something weird going on.
She seems to have calmed down a little from smashing things in her class.
Hey, we FINALLY get to see a parsec used correctly!!!
I was expecting at least the conversion to miles to be right… not only it’s a fine approximation, but the figure about the distance to the center of the galaxy is surprisingly accurate.
I’m sure the students will be thrilled by the news!
For once there are actual consequences about making an ass of yourself!!!
She doesn’t care about being fired from college since she’s going to work for the Technology Foundation.
All these shenanigans give Supergirl an idea on how to figure out what’s going on.
And it turns out that the reason why she’s been acting like a lunatic is that she’s blind.
First Lois Lane and now this… what is it with Silver Age DC and women doing ridiculous things to keep their blindness a secret!?
And so the teacher now hates Supergirl because it’s her fault she was blinded.
And that’s the end of part one! Will Cthulhu’s cousin show up in the second part?
Probably not, but I’m still hoping.
Historical significance: 0/10
Despite being a two-part story, nothing comes from this.
Silver Age-ness: 4/10
That horse scene practically screams Silver Age… but we get consequences for the teacher’s behavior in a far more realistic way than usual.
Does it stand the test of time? 3/10
Meh. It’s by no means the worst story of the college era and there is SLIGHTLY more realism than usual, but basically nothing happens for the vast majority of the time.