Action Comics #252 (1959)
by Otto Binder & Al Plastino
cover Curt Swan
This is it, folks. To end the Supergirl retrospective, we go all the way back to her first appearance.
The cover is extremely iconic and endlessly homage and parodied, but it does make me question the seating arrangement of the rocket.
Also this is the same issue featuring the first Metallo. That’s actually the first story in the book: following is a Congorilla story, and Supergirl ends the issue.
This is a VERY fast 8 page story. Superman hears the rocket crashing on Earth and immediately flies to the rescue… leading to a fateful meeting.
Superman shouldn’t be THAT surprised about other Kryptonians surviving the destruction of the planet: Action Comics #242, the first appearance of Kandor, was 10 issues earlier.
Get this: when Krypton exploded, “by sheer luck” an entire city survived and was sent into space!!!
You might expect this to be devastating for the survivors… but apparently it’s not a big deal, thanks to their Food Machine ® and the fact that “a large bubble of air” still surrounds the city.
Sounds legit.
There’s an additional problem: thanks to Krypton’s explosion, the ground is now Kryptonite!
No problem, because the local know-it-all scientist has “a roll of sheet metal” that is sufficient to cover THE ENTIRE CITY…
…and that was enough to protect the city for SEVERAL YEARS.
Wait a second… if Zor-El knows how to build rockets that can take them to other planets… why are these Kryptonians still living here!? There’s being fond of your city, and there’s staying there for years when THE GROUND IS RADIOACTIVE!!!
Not to mention that there is absolutely no reason for sending ONLY Supergirl away. Why is making a costume more important than saving yourselves!?
Especially since they KNOW they’ll have superpowers there!!!
Superman shows some empathy to a fellow orphan…
…but I have no idea what is reaction is supposed to be once he realizes they’re related.
I take back what I said about Superman showing empathy: his first priority is STILL his secret identity. Come on, Supes, can’t you say she’s a distant relative or something!?
Heck, considering the age difference, you could probably get away with adopting her as Clark Kent!
But nope, his first idea is to force his cousin into an orphanage and lie about her identity.
You know, his only living relative. A teenage orphan who just lost her entire civilization and can bench press the planet.
Ah, the times where you could show up and just claim an entire town was decimated without suspecting the alien superhero was the one doing it.
Also the times where orphanages didn’t need any paperwork whatsoever.
I know it wasn’t the intent, but it’s hard not to interpret Superman’s action as him trying his hardest to shove his cousin out of sight. He’s not wrong about wanting her to start using her powers in public only once she’s mastered them, but still… does she REALLY need to stay in an orphanage!?
We will see in later stories that the Midvale orphanage is the most dangerous place on the planet, but at this time it doesn’t look that bad.
Supergirl can even fix mirrors just by looking at them!
Sounds legit.
But she’s still a teenager (canonically 15), so she still sneaks out at night to go against orders.
That’s already the end, setting up Supergirl for her own serial… there actually isn’t any real superhero action this time.
And there you have it. Supergirl from her very first words to her last.
Historical significance: 10/10
Come on.
Silver Age-ness: 10/10
Nothing about the survival of Argo City makes any sense whatsoever, and I wouldn’t have it any other way.
Does it stand the test of time? 6/10
This is a hard one. If this was a quality score it would be much higher, since it’s a very enjoyable if quick read. The standard plot holds up just fine, but for modern standards it’s more like the summary of a story rather than a complete one. And while this Superman doesn’t have the luxury of having the Kents still alive to serve as Kara’s foster parents… placing her in an orphanage is the best option available to Superman? Really!?!?
Bonus: as mentioned in the comments, this is easily the best tribute to the original Supergirl.
CHRISTMAS WITH THE SUPERHEROES #2 (1989)
by Alan Brennert & Dick Giordano
This is a Deadman Christmas story. Where he’s sad because he’s dead and he only manages to celebrate by possessing other people’s bodies.
He flies away to angst on his own, when a familiar face spots him. Which is unusual since Deadman is invisible to most people.
And she calls him out on his constant angst.
When analyzing that Deadman really misses the recognition he had when he was alive, the mystery woman drops a very heartfelt lesson about heroism.
And her name was Kara.
We do remember indeed.
If a perfect stranger arrived at your door, claiming to be a relative, but no proof of it, and said she had no-one else in her life, would you take her into your home on a permanent basis? Would you pay for her food, clothing, and other upkeep needs? Would you provide for her continuing education? Would you assume all that responsibility just because she said she was your cousin?
Of course, you wouldn’t.
But, for some reason, that’s what a lot of folks think Superman was supposed to have done with Supergirl.
While it could have been handled better, I see no problem with how Superman set his newly arrived cousin aside.
Now, in examining that situation, I compare Superman’s position to my own when I was a commanding officer in the Navy. I was single, and marginal time for a social life that might might lead to changing that status. I worked ten-to-sometimes-fourteen-hour days, few full week-ends, and when I had my at-sea command, forget it. Three-quarters of the year I was deployed across the ocean, spending twenty-four-hours a day at sea. Even when I did have free time, I was preöccupied with what needed to be done at work.
Now, suppose in the middle of all this, a fifteen-year-old girl, a girl I had never seen before, appeared at my door, claiming to be my cousin. No proof of that, mind you, no documentation of her identity or relationship to me. Just her word for it.
And she tells me that she’s just arrived in town and has no place to go, showing the same lack of emotional distress as Supergirl did upon her arrival.
(When Kara pops out of that rocket, she’s smiling, optimistic, excited to be on Earth. There’s no hint of any distress over the deaths of her parents or the loss of the only world she’s known. In fact, she’s pretty chipper about the whole situation. That alone should’ve made Superman suspicious.)
Sorry, I have no obligation to this girl. My responsibility is to turn her over to whatever social service deals with teen-age runaways or orphans. I’m not going to put her up in my home—that’s just asking for trouble. I’m not going to invite her into my life or assume her care and feeding, beyond her immediate needs. I don’t have time to see to her long-term requirements—clothing, shelter, identification, admission to school. Nor do I have that responsibility, even if she were my cousin. I’m not obligated to someone who thrusts herself upon me.
Superman, who has greater responsibilities than I did and was certainly busier than I was, was confronted with the same situation. All he knew for certain about Kara when she landed on Earth was that she was from Krypton or, at least, a Krypton-like planet.
Were there better ways of dealing with her than turning her over to an Earth orphanage and telling her to keep her powers a secret by pretending to be an Earth girl? There, you’re absolutely correct. He should have taken her to Kandor and turned her over to the authorities there, or maybe his father’s old friend, Professor Kimda. Then Kara would be raised in her familiar culture.
But I stand by the episteme that Superman was not obligated to take an unknown underage female into his home, upending his life and interfering with his weighty responsibilities.
That’s a fair analysis. But on the other hand, for the sake of argument… while he’s definitely not being The Worst here, I don’t think he handled the situation as well as he could have.
For example, why not try bringing her to Kandor before trying the orphanage? It’s definitely better equipped to deal with the situation. Granted, it was a very recent concept at the time of this issue, but it had been introduced.
A simple “I would bring her to Kandor but I haven’t figured out a way to shrink people yet” before going with the orphanage would’ve gone a long way.
Superman doesn’t seem to question that she’s telling the truth once she’s done revealing her origin; she’s not any random teenager given her powers (it’s not like there were that many origins for Kryptonian-like powers in 1958), but if he really did have any doubts he could’ve run a number of tests.
“A simple ‘I would bring her to Kandor but I haven’t figured out a way to shrink people yet’ before going with the orphanage would’ve gone a long way.”
As I alluded in my post above, I’m 100% in agreement with you there. And I like the way you come up with a valid plot reason—with Kandor being such a recent development, Superman hasn’t figured out a way to safely shrink people, yet—to keep Supergirl viable as a super-heroine.
That leaves only what could Superman have done with Kara, if not the orphanage or Kandor? Instaling her in the Fortress of Solitude, to live alone in isolation, would be the securest solution, but too lonely an existence for anybody, let alone a teen-age girl.
So, who could the Man of Steel entrust with the knowledge of Kara’s existence on Earth? Jimmy Olsen’s out—that doofus would spill the beans before the end of the week. Lois Lane is no good—she’d make sure the story got out in the next issue of the Daily Planet with a headline in 72-point type.
I thought about turning her over to Wonder Woman to live on Paradise Island (not to mention the convenience of having two super-types to train Kara in using her powers). But the Justice League wouldn’t be created for another six months, so there’s no established reason that Superman would know the Amazing Amazon.
Unfortunately, the Superman mythos Mort Weisinger was building was too early in its development to have sufficient resources to place a Supergirl on Earth, but I’ll think on it some more.