“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.
