Thursday, July 30, 2020

SUPERGIRL "Hold It--Stop!"

The CW's Favorite Heroine's habit of changing costumes began during the Silver Age...
...and these pages present the fan-submitted costumes which were then adapted (and sometimes combined) for use in comics!
These never-reprinted pages from DC's Adventure Comics #398 (1970), which was part-reprint (explaining her "This is how I used to look" comment), were the follow-up to the mention in the Zond story that the editors would show the designs in the next issue!
But wait!
There's more!
The reprint book Super DC Giant S-24 (1971)...

...featured even more designs...

Wednesday, July 29, 2020

Adventure Comics SUPERGIRL "Now...Comes Zond" Conclusion

Discovering a coven of mystics on Stanhope's campus, Supergirl attempts to shut them down, but the leader, Zond, utilizes magic to defeat her...
Though writer/artist/editor Mike Sekowsky eschewed the use of footnotes, we'll point out that Morgana the Witch had appeared a few months earlier, in DC's Wonder Woman #186 (1970).
Supergirl again uses her previously-unknown telepathic powers, this time to probe the mind of Henry to learn the spell to summon Morgana!
TOMORROW
A Special Presentation of Never-Reprinted Pages Showing Fan-Created Designs for Supergirl's Costume 
(some of which were eventually used)!
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(which includes this story)

Tuesday, July 28, 2020

Adventure Comics SUPERGIRL "Now...Comes Zond!" Part 1

In 1970, writer/artist/editor Mike Sekowsky...
..., who had already made the most radical changes in Wonder Woman history by de-powering Diana Prince, took over the Supergirl strip in Adventure Comics. and immediately shook up the status quo...
Wow, Kara Zor-El just had her butt handed to her, eh?
How does the Girl of Steel make a comeback?
Be Here
TOMORROW
for the Answer!
When did Supergirl previously-demonstrate telepathic abilities?
She didn't before or after Sekowsky's run, but did a couple more times during it!
We always knew Kryptonians were vulnerable to magic, but such "mysticism" was shown to be a rather sanitized version of the concept, more like Arthur C Clarke's "Any sufficiently-advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic" than traditional sorcery.
Suddenly, the wizarding world in DC Comics had gone gothic with covens of hooded figures and other trappings of Satanic worship!
Much of this was due to modifications to the Comics Code Authority's rules, loosening restrictions about monsters, mysticism, and horror in general.
Comics creatives leaped at the opportunity to create new horror-oriented strips like Swamp Thing, Tomb of Dracula, and Monster of Frankenstein, or injecting spooky elements into existing series, with DC being the most radical with their revamping of Challengers of the Unknown from scientific adventurers into a version of GhostBusters!
Sekowsky had already done so in Wonder Woman, and, as part of his "updating" of Supergirl, introduced some of those aspects (which would be expanded on) here!
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(which includes this story)

Thursday, July 23, 2020

Adventure Comics SUPERGIRL "Heartbreak Prison!" Conclusion

An unknown, unseen, alien contacts Supergirl across interstellar space, requesting she stop despotic madman Tyrox from unleashing his "Zenith Weapon" which could destroy the universe!
Though she could easily defeat Tyrox's guards. Kara allows herself to be arrested and imprisoned so the lunatic won't activate his weapon as a last resort against her...
Several points...
1) Green Kryptonite can poison and kill Kryptonians under a red sun.
Most of the population of Kara's home, Argo City, died when the lead shielding under the city was ruptured by meteors, exposing the citizens to the ground below the spacegoing domed city...which had become green kryptonite when Krypton exploded!
(Some, including her parents, escaped to the Phantom Zone, and later moved to the bottled city of Kandor!)
2) Tyrox's technology is remarkably-primitive for a culture that created a device capable of destroying the whole universe!
3) We never heard from the "mysterious, unknown intelligence" again.
He/she/it's identity remains unknown.
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(which covers the second half of her Action Comics run and ends just before her takeover of Adventure Comics)

Wednesday, July 22, 2020

Adventure Comics SUPERGIRL "Heartbreak Prison!" Part 1

When you think of the CW's favorite super-heroine...,,, do you think "women's prison"?

You will, after reading this never-reprinted tale from DC's Adventure Comics #394 (1970)!

This tale of unjust jailing concludes...
THURSDAY!
Truth to tell, these women sound like a bunch of second-raters, except for the one who blew up a rocket (which probably was manned)!
So, it's not exactly Caged Heat or Big Doll House!
Considering the limitations imposed by the Comics Code of America at the time, it's actually not bad for a kid-friendly tale!
One obvious thing, though...who (or what) was the mysterious voice, and why did Kara trust it implicitly?
How did she know it wasn't evil, and simply wanted someone to do his/her's/it's dirty work?
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(which covers the second half of her Action Comics run and ends just before her takeover of Adventure Comics)

Wednesday, July 15, 2020

Adventure Comics SUPERGIRL "Please Stop My Funeral!"

Ever hear the phrase "She'd be late for her own funeral"?
In the following cover-featured (by Curt Swan and Neal Adams) tale from DC's Adventure Comics #383 (1969), the Girl of Steel is about to, ironically, live it!
Ok, it's a tad convoluted and contrived, but this never-reprinted tale by writer Robert Kanigher, penciler Win Mortimer, and inker Murphy Anderson is the very embodiment of DC's Silver Age output!
It's an impossible situation, yet she easily gets out of it!
Wotta gal!
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(which covers the second half of her Action Comics run and ends just before her takeover of Adventure Comics)