SGirlspread

From SUPERGIRL #13, including a glimpse of Reactron, who word has it shows up in episode 3 of Supergirl.

With my old gal pal Supergirl headed for primetime on CBS in just a couple of weeks, I thought I’d take a quick look back at my short time writing her daring new adventures. I first picked up the strip from my predecessor Martin Pasko in Superman Family #217 (April 1982, at a time when Linda Danvers was living the life of a soap opera star in New York and the feature was being drawn by Win Mortimer and Vinnie Colletta) and wrote it through the end of that run with #222 (September 1982) and the Julie Schwartz-titled story, “Stop My Life–I Want to Get Out!” Tired of the hassles of hiding her secret identity in such a high profile job and being treated like a mindless commodity by the forces of show biz, Linda quits and sets up the events to come in The Daring New Adventures of Supergirl #1 (November 1982), moving Linda from NY to Chicago and changing her career from TV star to college student, and changing the art team to Carmine Infantino and Bob Oksner.

Supergirl ran twenty-two issues and was supposed to continue on in DC Double Comics, a title to be shared with Superboy (which I was also writing a the time). The scripts for the first two issues were written, and the first stories penciled and lettered (Supergirl now by Eduardo Barreto and Superboy by Infantino), but the project was scrapped when the first stirrings of Crisis on Infinite Earths, which would retcon both characters from the DCU. (In case your curiosity to read those unpublished comic book stories gets to be too much, you can order the aptly titled Unpublished Comic Book Scripts of Paul Kupperberg direct from me and have your very own autographed copy by clicking here.)

If this review by Ken Tucker in the New York Village Voice Literary Supplement from September 1982 is any indication, The Daring New Adventures of Supergirl is more fondly remembered than it had been warmly greeted at the time:

 

“There’s nothing selfish about wanting to get into yourself for a while instead of thinking about the whole blasted world!” Thus speaks Linda Danvers, the shy brunette who metamorphoses into the volup [sic] blonde Supergirl every time someone in her oh-so small town slips on a patch of ice. Of the entire “Superman family,” as DC calls it, Supergirl has always been by far the dullest; writers and artists haven’t known what to do with her for three decades now. As the quote above suggests, the Daring New Adventures of Supergirl consist most daringly of her attempts to get into herself as a person, not a superhero–or, Supergirl goes Mademoiselle.

Must to void: tucked inside Supergirl is a “Special Free Gift to You from the New DC!,” a preview story from the forthcoming comic, Masters of the Universe. The “new DC” bullshit is code for the fact that they’re way behind Marvel in the matter of sword & sorcery schlock, so they hired Curt Swan, the man who made Superman look like a stiff, to drawn some wooden dummies to match the dialogue.*

*Ouch. I also wrote the Masters of the Universe “Special Free Gift.”

2 Comments on Supergirl & Me

  1. Travis says:

    Truly, Paul, your work on Superman Family/TDNAoS/Supergirl was the real swan song for the character, despite the fact that it wasn’t on anyone’s radar during that time that she would be “erased” in the Crisis. The Village Voice writer makes an excellent point about your work focusing on Kara as a character, which is what truly made the book so wonderful. Personally, I loved the artwork by Infantino and Oksner, but it was your work in bringing a personality to the character which felt so ground-breaking. Out of all the Supergirl stories there have been, those are still my favorites. Very excited for the new show on CBS!

  2. Paul , I must admit, I don’t have as much top-of-the-brain knowledge, or affection for Supergirl as others and there are basically two reasons for that. One is that I was always a Marvel man. Pre-Crisis I was always a little irritated at how DC handled continuity, which is to say, they didn’t seem to bother, and the emphasis on continuity at Marvel (as opposed to endless ‘alternate timelines’ as a writing prop) appealed to me. It is interesting that Marvel is now 180 degrees off course in that area and DC has become the continuity fans friend.
    The other reason was that characters like Supergirl or Superboy always seemed like DCs way of making more money off of Big Blue by having all these tangential characters. It was akin to what Marvel did in the ’90’s with half of the Marvel Universe being a ‘mutant’ with an X in their name somewhere. It seemed to me that DC was saying ‘Yes he’s the last survivor of Krypton, except for all these other people’ ; and it sort of cheapened Supermans uniqueness.
    Perhaps I didn’t give the character the respect she deserved in light of that perception.
    Having said that, I think I’m going to go back and look at the period you were writing with fresh eyes.

Leave a Reply