The Daring new Blog of Supergirl

  • Supergirl Revealed, the story of Lesla-Lar

    A few years into Supergirl’s run as the backup feature in Action Comics Superman was ready for his cousin to jump into the spotlight and be revealed to the world. Supergirl, up until this point, had been kept as Superman’s secret weapon and would only operate in secret until Superman felt she was competent and trained in her powers. The story begins in Action Comics #278 which has Superman telling Supergirl he is ready to reveal her to the world but due to a handful of shenanigans, and the evil plot of Kandorian Lesla-Lar, Supergirl would not be revealed to the world until Action Comics #285. This 8 issue storyline was rather unheard of in the 60s when these comics were coming out. Unlike today when we often see multi-issue storylines telling a single story over a handful of issues or even plot lines evolving in the background over a full run, the stories of the silver age often stayed self contained in a single issue. Often times these issues even contained multiple stories, in the case of Action Comics Supergirl only had an 8 or 12 page story per issue, making this 8 part storyline even more impressive.

    While the story does have an overarching plot thread, and has a clear beginning and end, each issue does have a clear standalone narrative as well. We’ve got one issue where Supergirl goes back in time and becomes a historical figure, an issue where Lesla-Lar disguised as Supergirl teams up with Lex Luthor, an issue that retells the origin of Superman and Supergirl through the narrative structure of Linda watching a Kandorian film about her, and so on. I’ll save the specifics of the individual stories for later and today focus just on the plot thread that ties all these stories together.

    In the first issue of this arc Superman approaches Linda to tell her he’s finally ready to reveal her to the world as Supergirl. This is part of the character’s lore that goes back to Action Comics #252. After coming to earth and showing her super powers, Superman convinces her that until she is fully trained in both her powers and keeping a secret identity, she will stay hidden and be his secret weapon. With that in mind, the idea of Supergirl getting revealed had been a long time coming. Superman sets up a television broadcast with a special announcement but then right before Superman is ready to bring her in suddenly, and mysteriously, her powers are no more making the reveal unnecessary so Superman once again puts it off. The issue ends with Linda, now powerless, at Midvale Orphanage wondering if her powers will ever return.

    The next issue shows Linda trying to adjust to this new powerless life and coming to realize she no longer has to stay at the orphanage. She can get adopted now without accidentally revealing her identity to her foster parents. And so we meet Mr. And Mrs. Fred Danvers (Edna wouldn’t be named until a few issues later). The introduction of the Danvers is another of the reasons why this story is so crucial to the Supergirl mythos. The Danvers have come to be almost synonymous with the character and have been present in many incarnations since their introduction in this story. Along with the Danvers, we’re also met with the antagonist, Lesla-Lar.

    It is revealed here how Supergirl lost her powers. Lesla-Lar is a scientist living in the bottle city of Kandorian who shares a striking resemblance to Kara Zor-El. She has cooked up a plan to take away Supergirl’s powers. With a newly depowered Linda (Supergirl) Danvers, Lesla uses a teleport ray to trade places. While in Kandor, Kara undergoes brainwashing to make her believe she is Lesla-Lar and carries on in Kandor having no idea she ever had powers or was the cousin of the world’s greatest hero. Lesla-Lar on the other hand, now grown to full size and under the rays of earth’s yellow sun, now has superpowers which she plans to use for nefarious deeds.

    Lesla’s plan is told in the pages of the next few issues structured around Kara (as Lesla) in Kandor exploring the bottle city. Her plan involves sneaking Lex Luthor out of jail and helping him destroy Superman. Her idea is that once she and Luthor get rid of Superman, she can easily dispose of Lex Luthor which would in turn remove any proof of her ties to him. Once Superman and Luthor were both out of the picture, she would reveal herself to the world, as Supergirl, and be the most powerful being on the planet easily able to conquer it. A few moments that happen during these issues involve Supergirl realizing she regains her powers in the past and future only being powerless in the present, and also Krypto realizing Lesla isn’t the real Supergirl by smelling her perfume. Lesla (as Supergirl) also briefly tricks Superman into thinking she’s found a cure for her powerlessness in order to trick him into revealing her to the world as Supergirl. This reveal is once again thwarted as the real Supergirl returns, now powerless and unable to be cured by the phony cure Lesla used. At this point Lesla-Lar is unceremoniously exited from the story and Mxyzptlk makes a quick appearance.

    Linda, still saddened by the loss of her powers is ready to give up the Supergirl life for good when suddenly she feels strong and powerful again. Her miraculous cure for powerlessness was done by Mxyzptlk. He was popping in on his normal menace through the 3rd dimension and stumbled upon a young powerless girl that he thought would make for a good prank. His idea was to give an ordinary girl the same superpowers as Superman without the weakness to Kryptonite. His plan of course backfires when the ordinary girl he chooses is the Maid of Might herself, Supergirl. Now more powerful than ever, Superman is once again ready to reveal herself to the world. As mentioned a moment ago, this is when Lesla-Lar exits the story. She sees Supergirl fully powered again and tries to use her ray to take her powers again, but because her powers are now from Mxyzptlk the ray no longer works. It is during Lesla’s frustration that the Kandorian police come in and arrest her. While Superman is now ready to reveal Supergirl, he has some business to attend to in the 50th century and puts Supergirl to watch over the earth while he’s gone.

    During this time we face the final stretch of shenanigans before we finally get Supergirl’s debut. The shenanigans being “The Six Red K Perils of Supergirl”. Supergirl, now immune to Kryptonite, goes into space to get rid of 6 Red Kryptonite meteors. For plot reasons, a technicality is introduced in her Kryptonite immunity that makes her only immune to green Kryptonite. Over the next 2 issues we see Supergirl get very fat, turn into a wolf-girl, get very tiny, grow a second head, get fatal vision and kill everyone she loves (don’t worry this one is just a silly red-k hallucination), and finally grow a fish tail. These red-k mutations are all fairly brief and inconsequential, but do all for around dates that Supergirl is going on with one of her boy-friends, Dick Malverne. This storyline marks Dick’s first return to Linda’s life since he tried to expose her as supergirl at the orphanage, and begins the romantic life between them. As Supergirl finally winds down from the last of the red-k, Superman returns from the future.

    Superman reveals he encountered Mxyzptlk on his way back and reveals to Supergirl that he was why she had her powers back and was immune to Kryptonite. With Mxyzptlk now defeated, Supergirl no longer has the Kryptonite immunity but does have all her powers back the way she should. It’s not really explained what finally caused her powers to come back all the way but I guess Lesla-Lar being locked up probably had something to do with it. Now, without any further obstacles, we can finally get to what fans had been waiting for for nearly 3 years, Supergirl Revealed to the world.

    Action Comics #285 is a novel length story, this is what it was called when a story took up a whole 24 page issue back in the day. While this issue is notable for being a milestone issue in Supergirl’s life, it’s a tad unremarkable on its own. Superman informs Supergirl that she can tell her foster parents about her super heroic identity before the worldwide reveal which she does after saving them when their car falls through a bridge. The rest of the first part of the story goes rather well with Supergirl making global announcements of her existence and she sees Kandor, Atlantis, and alien planets celebrating Supergirl. The back half of the novel length story features Superman going off into space and publicly leaving Supergirl to defend the planet. This story feels basically the same as any other Supergirl of the time but does feature the general public reacting to Supergirl which sets us the new status quo for the Maid of Might.

    This storyline has been reprinted a number of times mostly along with her other backup adventures in Action Comics in collections like Supergirl in the Silver Age, Supergirl Archives, Showcase Presents Supergirl, and the recent DC Finest: Supergirl. While I quite enjoy this storyline I feel like it looses itself in the middle a bit. I think the idea of a Kandorian stealing Supergirl’s powers and life is a very exciting story idea and I like what’s done in these first few issues. Once Mxyzptlk and Red Kryptonite enter the story and Lesla-Lar gets pushed to the side the story feels like it’s trying to waste time to further prolong the reveal. While I don’t particularly care for Mxyzptlk giving Supergirl Kryptonite immunity, or the rather arbitrary return of her powers, and I feel like they didn’t really stick the landing in the final issue, I do still find this storyline quite enjoyable. Lesla-Lar is a great foe for our heroine, the 2 red-k issues show a lot of wackiness in rapid succession, and the introduction of the Danvers and the reintroduction of Dick Malverne are great at building up Linda’s supporting cast. It looks like Lesla-Lar shows back up in Superman Family and she’s also been mentioned in the solicitations of the upcoming Supergirl series so I’m excited to read more of her.

    Thanks so much for reading my blog! If you have any thoughts, questions, comments, or corrections about any of my posts feel free to contact me via email at blogofsupergirl@gmail.com

  • Supergirl in the Mutiverse: Earth-15

    Earth-15, a world that could have been a perfect earth according to Superboy Prime. He then proceeded to explode the planet so maybe we shouldn’t take his word for it. This was an earth that had virtually no crime and its initial group of heroes had been able to step down and the next generation to take over. This world has heroes like Jason (Batman) Todd, and Donna (Wonder Woman) Troy.

    Throughout the comic appearances of this universe there is not a Supergirl that’s shown although the world does feel populated by more metas than what we see. The few appearances of this universe feel, to me, as if the Crisis never happened and the characters of the Pre-Crisis era were allowed to continue on their stories and the sidekicks and younger heroes were to step into their mentors shoes. With this mindset, I bring you Kara Danvers Superwoman. Superwoman is the protector of Chicago, the city she was operating out of before the Crisis and her costume is based on the Pre-Crisis Supergirl with slight changes.

    As with all my Supergirl in the Multiverse posts, this is my own artwork and depicts Superwoman floating in the foreground with her cape held in both hands. The background shows clear skies and and the skyline of Chicago. The top right has a motif of Superwoman’s symbol and a number 15 on top of it.

  • Supergirl (1984) Press Packet

    The subject of this week’s blog post is perhaps my most unique item of my Supergirl collection; the Press Packet released for the 1984 Supergirl movie staring Faye Dunaway, Helen Slater, and Peter O’Toole. I am a huge supporter of this often ridiculed movie and as such have acquired a small collection of memorabilia and other products related to the film that I plan to cover in later blog posts.

    The press packet included these 2 documents from Allied Advertising Agency informing the recipient of the packet on where and when the film will be showing and the specifics on how the press should submit their reviews. As I am not a member of the press and got this packet secondhand I don’t entirely understand all the specifics of this information, but I do enjoy their inclusion and, for me, it adds to the novelty of the kit.

    The packet also includes a selection of portraits of the main characters as well as the director and producer. In order the pictures are; Helen Slater as Supergirl, Faye Dunaway as Selina with Helen Slater as Supergirl, another portrait of Supergirl now as a wide shot, Peter O’Toole as Zaltar, Faye Dunaway as Selina, Hart Bochner as Ethan, the director Jeannot Swarc, and the producer Timothy Burrill. Each of these images are printed on glossy photo paper with Tri-Star and Supergirl branding along with a brief blurb mentioning the legal requirements if the press were to publish any of these photographs along with their reviews. Each photo also includes a small slip of paper that lists the name of the character, the name of the actor, and a brief explanation of what the character is like.

    In addition to the 8 portraits, the kit also includes 6 images from the movie. These pictures depict some of the actors that have smaller, supporting roles like Mia Farrow and Simon Ward as Alura and Zor-El. These images also have caption cards that now describe the scene depicted as opposed to the character traits as the last set did. All together the kit includes 14 black and white photos. While none of these images feel exclusive to the kit they’re still very exciting to have and make an excellent addition to my collection.

    The most interesting part of this kit, however, is this blue booklet. This booklet opens with a full cast and crew list and the normal legal dialogue about ownership of the Supergirl character by DC Comics. The booklet then goes into a 10 page synopsis of the movie that also touches on the characters present, the thoughts of the producers, and some of the special effects utilized to bring Supergirl to life. The book ends with biography pages for Faye Dunaway, Helen Slater, Jeannot Szwarc, Timothy Burrill, Ilya Salkind, and Alexander Salkind.

    While the biographies of the director and producers are fairly by the books, the biographies for Faye Dunaway and Helen Slater are quite interesting because they have quotes from the actresses. The biography for Slater is particularly interesting because this was her first film so it explores more so how she approaches this character with “Amazonian proportions” as she puts it.

    As I mentioned at the top, this is one of my most unique pieces in my Supergirl collection. My partner works at a used book store and this press packet, along with a couple others, came in with a collection someone was selling. I immediately knew I wanted it for my collection having no idea what it was. I’m glad I jumped on it when I did because when looking around online for press packets for this movie since acquiring it I have not seen anything close to as complete as the kit I have. This little blue folder is such a great look into the history of the film and I’m glad to be able to share it on my blog.

    Thanks so much for reading my blog! If you have any thoughts, questions, comments, or corrections about any of my posts feel free to contact me via email at blogofsupergirl@gmail.com

  • Supergirl in the Multiverse: Earth-14

    Earth-14 is perhaps the least explored universe in DC’s current local multiverse having just one appearance. Superman vol. 4 #15. The basic premise for this universe seems to be the amalgamation of the Justice League and Suicide Squad called the Justice Squad. The Justice Squad is quickly eliminated just moments after their introduction by the Gatherers and their leader The Prophecy as they attempted to kidnap Squad Superman of their universe. Since this world is largely unmapped, there is not currently a Supergirl present.

    The Superman of this universe seems to be the only hero with superpowers which implies the potential for a Krypton-14 that would exist in the universe. With the potential of a Krypton comes a potential for a Supergirl. This Supergirl, Squad Supergirl, has a similar powerset to Squad Superman and takes some design elements from him and his Justice Squad compatriots. For her civilian name, we are once again at a loss due to the lack of depth this universe. As such I will go with a classic, Linda Lee. After witnessing the attack on the Justice Squad, Linda (Squad Supergirl) Lee realizes she can no longer stay as the secret weapon of her cousin and must instead jump into the spotlight and become the prominent hero of Earth-14!

    As with all my Supergirl in the Multiverse posts, this is my own artwork that depicts Squad Supergirl in the left foreground crouching with a pair of high tech binoculars to her eyes. Her costume includes red shorts, red boots, and a silver and gray body armor over her torso and arms. The sun i s setting in the background over a desolate city. A motif in the top right depicts the Squad Supergirl logo with a 14 on top.

  • Supergirl Surprise 1: Supergirl Vol. 4 #5

    In a new feature of my blog called “Supergirl Surprise” I will go to my Supergirl comic boxes and pick an issue at random to read and talk about. My goal for these posts is to explore the issue on its own and on its own as a collection of paper and staples. As such I will be taking pictures of the comic as opposed to finding digital screenshots of the panels. I will also bring in pictures of the ads or letters pages if there’s anything that catches my eye.

    Supergirl #5 has the cover date of January 1997 and is written by Peter David and has art by Gary Frank and Cam Smith. The story opens with our heroine visiting her, at one time, adopted parents Jonathan and Martha Kent.

    This interaction gives some nice closure to Supergirl’s life before the new status quo introduced in the vol. 4 iteration of Supergirl. This Supergirl, Mae, is a protoplasmic clone from another dimension. More recently, when this comic had come out, Mae had merged with the dying human Linda Danvers. Showing her interacting with her past life in a way that feels almost alien to her as Linda now was a nice way to respect where the character was before and allow for the character to start anew.

    We then fly from Smallville back to Leesburg, the home of Linda Danvers. Here we are briefly introduced to the new Dick Malverne who says “sometimes you recognize people’s souls from previous incarnations” which is of course a clever nod to the pre crisis Supergirl and Dick Malverne. To find out more about Dick Malverne take a look at my blog post about him here.

    Meanwhile, in the background, a b-plot has been brewing that involves Chemo reforming in a lab in Leesburg. The A and B plots come together and result in a fight between Supergirl and Chemo. This fight results in a dialogue between the two where Supergirl tells Chemo he isn’t alive because he’s a collection of chemicals and the result of a freak accident. This conversation ends the fight and Chemo dissipates into the sky but Supergirl is met with a crisis of conscious wondering if she is alive or not when she is also just a creation that wants to be more and wants to be human.

    This issue is a great look at Supergirl and her transition from the Matrix Supergirl into something more and helps further build the new world of Linda Danvers and Leesburg. This issue is the first appearance of Dick Malverne in the post crisis universe and has been reprinted in Supergirl Volume 1 TP from 1997, Supergirl by Peter David book 1 from 2016, and will be reprinted in the upcoming DC Finest: Supergirl – Body and Soul that realeases in October. This issue also came bundled with a Supergirl action figure based on Linda’s later white t-shirt costume that came out in 2005.

    None of the ads really caught my eye but were mostly advertising PlayStation and Sega Saturn games. The letters didn’t intrigue me much aside from this one that called this new Supergirl title “Supergirl Vertigo-style” and “Twin Peaks on Kryptonite”.

    The letters page also came with a little blurb that briefly caught readers up on the previous 4 issues of the title.

    Thanks so much for reading my blog! If you have any thoughts, questions, comments, or corrections about any of my posts feel free to contact me via email at blogofsupergirl@gmail.com