The Official Superman Quiz Book

This time out I’m taking a look at the Supergirl pages of questions from The Official Superman Quiz Book by Bruce Nash. This book was published by Warner Books in 1978 to tie into Superman the Movie released the same year. The cover boasts “Illustrated with Authentic Superman Comic Book Cartoons” and as such we see throughout the book dozens of illustrations that seem to be pulled from comic stories and covers that are sometimes edited slightly.

The opening to Supergirl’s quiz section (Pages 84-87) for instance feature this illustration taken from the cover of Action Comics 285 from February 1962. The artwork seems to be edited slightly to account for the break in the page. Supergirl and her cousin seem to be larger and take up more of the page and the buildings lining the street are pushed farther to the left and right. Superman, in the original, has his hand on Supergirl’s elbow and has such been redrawn so the pair can exist separately on either page. Otherwise the artwork seems relatively unchaged.

For this post I’m going to show the questions, give my answers to the questions, and then at the end after we go through all the questions I’ll shew the answers shown in the back of the book. I’ve only looked briefly at this book beforehand so I’ll be approaching the questions blind. Feel free to play along with me!

1. What is Supergirl’s birth-given name? Which is of course, Kara Zor-El.
2. Why was this name chosen for the Kryptonian Lass? Zor-El is the name of her father, however I’m not sure if the book is asking for more specifics than this seeing as many Kryptonian females get their last name’s from their fathers.
3. What were the names of her real parents? As mentioned a moment ago, Zor-El is Kara’s father and her mother is named Alura.
4. In what city was she born? Argo City. At the time this book was written, Kara was born years after the destruction of Krypton while Argo was floating in space.
5. How did Supergirl”s home city survive the destruction of the planet Krypton? Thanks to the scientific mind of Zor-El, Argo was placed under a protective dome that carried some of Krypton’s atmosphere with it.
6. How did the city continue to survive after its ground turned into a deadly for of anti-kryptonite? Lead sheeting was layered over the city’s ground to protect from the radiation.
7. What later happened to finally doom the twice-rescued city? The city was hit with a meteor shower that damaged the lead and caused the radiation to once again threaten the Argoians.
8. How did Supergirl escape her city’s tragic fate and make the journey to Earth? Zor-El fashioned a rocket much like his brother did years before to save Kal-El. Zor-El and family also used a super-telescope to see that Kal-El had grown up on Earth and become Superman.
9. How did Supergir’s parents manage to save themselves before their city perished? Zor-El used an experimental device to save himself and his wife in a pocket dimension called the Survival Zone.
10. Where are her parents now living? Assuming this means her Kryptonian parents, they now reside in Kandor after leaving the Survival Zone. Her foster parents, the Danvers, are living in Midvale.
11. How old was Supergirl when she arrived on Earth? 15.
12. Who first discovered Supergirl when she arrived on Earth? Superman, however it could be argued that Ellie Leeds may have witnessed the crash first.
13. What secret identity did Supergirl adopt? Linda Lee, and later Linda Danvers after being adopted.
14. Why did Superman initially choose to keep Supergirl’s existence on Earth a secret? He wanted to make sure she had her powers under controll before revealing her to the world, he wanted to have her as a secret weapon in case one of his enemies ever got the upper hand on him, and he wanted to make sure Supergirl could keep the secret identity of Superman safe.
15. True or False: Superman made Supergirl’s costume? False, it was made on Argo based on Superman’s as seen through the aforementioned super telescope.
16. In what orphanage did Supergirl live under her assumed identity after arriving on Earth? Midvale Orphanage
17. Who was the headmistress at the orphanage? This question is the first one that I’m not sure of the answer to. Supergirl’s stories in Action Comics are some of the stories that I’m not as familiar with.
18. What was the hairstyle of the first wig Supergirl used to conceal her natural blonde locks? Pigtails, which Fred Danvers would say are too childish for her after adopting the young girl.
19. Where did Supergirl keep her alter-ego’s robot hidden? In a hollow tree outside the orphanage.
20. Who was the first earthling to discover Supergirl’s existence? Again I would cite Ellie Leeds, the girl who slipped into a coma after seeing Kara’s rocket crash, however her story wouldn’t be told until 2 years after this story was published. So maybe the question refers to Dick Wilson (later Dick Malverne) who captured a picture of the girl of steel in her secret weapon era.
21. Who adopted Supergirl? Mr. And Mrs. Fred Danvers, Edna’s name wouldn’t be revealed until a few issues later.
22. In what city did Supergirl and her foster-parents live? Midvale
23. What is the occupation of Supergirl’s foster-father? Again my lack of knowledge of Supergirl’s Action Comics stories is coming up, but I think he is either an engineer or a police officer, I know post-crisis Fred Danvers is a police officer.
24. At what college did Supergirl obtain her undergraduate degree? Stanhope College
25. What was the name of her blonde roommate? Unsure on this one I guess we’ll learn together soon!
26. How did Supergirl secretly enter and exit the college campus without being seen? I would imagine she had a secret tunnel much like Superboy had when he lived in Smallville.
27. Who was the steady boyfriend of Supergirl’s alter ego while she was attending college? Dick Malverne possibly?
28. What college did he attend? I’m stumped once again
29. Who was the President of the United States at the time Supergirl’s presence on Earth was finally revealed to the world? John F. Kennedy. His wife, Jackie, even makes a remark of the girl of steel’s beauty!
30. Who is Supergirl’s best friend? I would say Streaky the Super-Cat
31. Who is Supergirl’s teen-aged merboy admirer in the undersea city of Atlantis? Jerro!
32. Which member of the Legion of Super-Heroes is crazy about Supergirl? Brainiac 5.
33. Where does Supergirl now work? Seeing as this book came out in 1978, I think the girl of steel was living in California and working for a television station with Nasty Luthor but I can’t remember the name of it.
34. Which one of Supergirl’s criminal foes is a duplicate of the Girl of Steel that was created by red kryptonite? Satan Girl, who you can read more about here.
35. What villainess tricked Supergirl into drinking a serum that periodically cancels out her super-powers? I can’t remember exactly but I’m willing to guess it was Nasty Luthor.

You can check out the image for the full list of answers but I’ll discuss some of the answers I got wrong or didn’t know. Looks like question 2 did have a more specific answer to the original question of Kara’s name as she was born under the constellation of the same name. Questions 3-16 were all answered correctly and it looks like Miss Hart is the name of the orphanage’s headmistress. For question 23 I was right when guessing engineer, although I did cheat a little by giving 2 answers. Supergirl’s blonde roommate, from question 25, is apparently Jan Butler. I guess I’ll have to make an effort to read the rest of Supergirl’s stories in Action Comics. For question 26, looks like she has a secret chimney not a secret tunnel. As shown in the answer to question 28, looks like Dick went to State Tech. I guess if I had to give a human as an answer to Supergirl’s best friend, Lena Thorul is a good choice, however I would think of her more as Linda’s best friend seeing as she doesn’t know Linda and Supergirl are the same.

Looks like I got my timing correct on the answer to question 33, Linda was living in California (San Francisco specifically) and working at a tv station (KSF-TV specifically). Unfortunately we can’t go out on a high note since I got the last question wrong. It wasn’t a serum from Nasty but from Starfire but probably not any Starfire you might be thinking of. This Starfire isn’t Tamaranean or any other kind of alien warrior, she is just a human crime lord with one eye and 5 comic appearances during Supergirl’s run in Adventure Comics.

I hope you enjoyed this fun test of my Supergirl knowledge! Let me know if you tried along with me and if you knew any of the questions that stumped me. Feel free to write in at daringnewblog@gmail.com