The First Girl of Steel

“Twice Told Tales” or “Haven’t I seen this character before?”
A "double-header" review by Emsley Wyatt

Superman #123  (August 1958)
"The Girl of Steel"
Writer: Otto Binder
Cover Artist: Curt Swan
Artists. Dick Sprang, Stan Kaye
Recently I’ve done a series called “Twice Told Tales” looking at recycled stories which, in their second incarnations, introduced the Legionnaires Mon-El and Star Boy.  But did you know that another Legionnaire had a precursor character?  None other than Kara Zor-El; that’s right, Supergirl herself.  The character of Kara Zor-El debuted in Action Comics #252 in the story “The Supergirl of Krypton” published in May 1959. However, nearly a year earlier a story was published about another “Supergirl.” It was called “The Girl of Steel” and was an attempt by DC management to see if a female super character would, err, fly.
As you can see, there’s a strong resemblance between her and her successor.

So where did this Supergirl come from?  Well, it begins, as so many stories do, with Lois Lane and Jimmy Olsen.

One thing about comics, if you ever say you want to make a wish pretty soon the ability to do so will appear.  Superman digs a trapped archeologist out of a cave-in and as thanks to Superman the archeologist gives Jimmy a souvenir from his dig, a small totem.

And, sure enough, the totem does its magical thing, creating a Supergirl with powers equal to Superman.

 However, she may have Superman’s powers but she lacks his experience.

She introduces herself and explains her origin.

Superman and Supergirl swing by the Daily Planet to thank Jimmy for wishing her into existence.  Lois is crestfallen because she realizes that she basically now has no chance with Superman.

She even contemplates rubbing the totem herself and cancelling Supergirl out of existence.  She decides against it because she realizes that it would be pointless and mean of her to deprive Superman of a companion.

Supergirl joins Superman on patrol, but her lack of experience with her powers creates more problems than it solves, as in this example.

 So he decides that they should work separately.  Except that they run into each other, literally, trying to stop a falling elevator..

So then Superman has the bright idea of just changing to Clark Kent and giving her a clear field.  What could go wrong?

Not such a smart idea after all, since Supergirl hadn’t been let in on the whole “secret identity” concept.  Note: The cover scene falsely implies that Supergirl herself has a secret identity.  Not true.

 Superman meets up with Supergirl later and lets her know what a mess she’s made of things, but disaster threatens.

As Superman lifts the track to keep the train out of the water, evildoers strike.

Supergirl comes to the rescue, carrying the Green Kryptonite away.  Coloring error in that first panel as the insignia colors are reversed.

Yes, Jimmy didn’t think to make her immune to Kryptonite.  She returns to Jimmy’s apartment and asks him to put her out of existence by rubbing the magic gem.

All that is left is to deal with Supergirl’s gaffe.  Clark pulls this off by fake proposing to Lois so that she thinks that he’s not Superman because if he were he wouldn’t propose.  Lame, huh?

There were also two additional wishes.  In the second part of the story, crooks get the totem and wish Superman to lose his powers.  In the third Superman is sent back in time to Krypton to “mate” his parents.

This story was so well received that some months later Kara (Supergirl) Zor-El was introduced.  She was, I believe, made Superman’s cousin so that her character wouldn’t interfere with the Superman/Lois/Lana romantic dynamic.

When this story was ultimately reprinted, they recolored this "wish-fulfilment" Supergirl’s costume in orange and green (a pretty sharp look, I thought), and made her a red-heard as well in order to prevent confusion with the “modern” Supergirl.  Here’s a side-by-side comparison.

But this wasn’t last time Jimmy Olsen “summoned up” a companion for Superman.  A story was published almost thirty years later in which he tries again, this time using not ancient magic, but 30th Century science.  But that will be a subject for another day.