Superman #123 (1958)
by Otto Binder & Dick Sprang
cover by Curt Swan
Appropriately enough, Supergirl’s history actually begins nine months before she first shows up.
We begin with Superman doing his this while Lois Lane is… being her usual Silver Age Lois.
A Superman offhand reference to a “Super-Girl” potentially helping him leads to Jimmy wishing there really was a girl with powers. Not, mind you, wishing that Lois had superpowers because even Jimmy Olsen is not THAT crazy.
And what do you know, soon Jimmy ends up with a magic wish-granting totem…
…which means Super-Girl now exists.
Strangely enough, she’s perfectly aware that she didn’t exist yesterday.
Jimmy’s wish of Super-Girl being Superman’s “companion” is, uhm, weird when you consider she’s the basis for his teenage cousin.
Just look at her expression. She’s definitely renaming the Fortress of Solitude the Fortress of Hookups.
Lois gets the opportunity to make Super-Girl vanish from existence. If this was her own series she would probably take it, but in this period she’s willing to *sob* suffer if it makes Superman happy.
Too bad Super-Girl was created by Jimmy Olsen, which means she can’t get anything right.
There is, however, one thing Super-Girl can do that Superman can’t… die for dramatic effect without ending the series.
Jimmy… you have two wishes left! You could use them to, and I’m just spitballing here, wish for Super-Girl to survive AND make Superman immune to Kryptonite?
Or better yet, wish for BOTH to be immune and the use the last wish for whatever?
I swear the Daily Planet can make ANYTHING about its staff rather than the actual news.
Publicizing the incident is incredibly stupid because then a couple of criminals break into Jimmy’s apartment to steal the totem.
The fact that Superman doesn’t realize he’s lost his powers on the FIRST panel is simply hilarious. How many clues does he need to figure this out!?!?
Superman gets easily duped into being shot in the chest but Jimmy saves him… with magnets.
I get that it’s for charity, but the people of Metropolis seem to be very easily entertained.
Of course Superman ends up getting his powers back. And instead of taking the wish-granting totem away from Jimmy, or at the very least tell him to wish for something USEFUL, he just leaves. Headed for the Fortress of Hookups, no doubt.
Instead of just making the next wish, Jimmy decides to write it down… which apparently counts!
According to Silver Age time travel rules, if you go back to a time when you already exist you show up as a ghost. But apparently that wasn’t firmly established yet, because Superman shows up as a phantom on Krypton even if at this time he wasn’t even born yet.
But why did Superman show up when… OH GOD.
I have never been so happy about the Comics Code existing.
Honestly, I’ll take Superman’s parents being secretly Nazis over them “mating” with their own son.
Just kidding: Jor-El was actually a member of the K.B.I. (Krypton Bureau of Investigation… seriously!!!) spying on the K-Nazis. But unfortunately he can’t prove it.
This is a precursor of the Phantom Zone. In more sense than one, since the proper Phantom Zone won’t be introduced until Adventure Comics #283, three years later.
Superman gets his powers back once he’s in space. That’s because the relationship between his powers and a yellow sun won’t be properly codified until Action Comics #262 two years later.
Better not think too much about the temporal mechanics of this encounter, since it would mean Jor-El would be fully aware that the stranger he will meet in Superman #141 is an alien.
Also this might be where Jor-El gets the inspiration of sending his son to a planet with lesser gravity in order to give him superpowers.
But Superman tricks the Nazi into nuking himself…
…with proto-Kryptonite!!!
So, uhm… Superman didn’t quite “mate” with his mom, but…
Yes, Supes, that’s clearly the lesson to be learned and not STOP GIVING JIMMY MAGIC STUFF!!!
Historical significance: 2/10
Nothing really survives from Super-Girl to Super Girl, with the exception of the costume (though the regular Supergirl won’t get the red skirt for years).
Silver Age-ness: 10/10
Full to the brim of the era’s tropes.
Does it stand the test of time? 0/10
Yeah, uhm, this ain’t another Superman #141. The experiment with “Super-Girl” was obviously successful since it lead to Supergirl, but other than some historical interest in Superman’s travel to Krypton… this has not aged well.