Paneling: Action Comics #256

A discussion about the Supergirl trailer led to the topic of Comet the Super-Horse, which led me to think about a comic I had as a kid that contained multiple stories about the Maid of Might, some of which featured the centaur-turned-horse-turned-sometimes-cowboy, and a specific panel from a story that didn’t actually feature him.

The comic – an 80-page Giant – was one of several old, tattered comics that my sister had scooped up from the thrift store where she worked to give to her comic-loving baby brother.

I had thought that the comic, which was long ago lost to the ages, was this issue of Action Comics…

…which is why I picked up a copy of it from the comic shop a while back.

However, it turns out that while it does have some stories in common with the comic I remember, the one I had was actually an issue of Adventure Comics.

But regardless, the story – “The Great Supergirl Mirage!” by writer Otto Binder and artist Jim Mooney – originally appeared in Action Comics #256.

The story is set in a time when Supergirl is still cloistered away in the Midvale Orphanage as Linda Lee because Superman – who can be as much of a dickhead as the Superman of the Future – decided she can’t be allowed to outshine him she must be kept in reserve as his “secret weapon” and doesn’t deserve to have a loving family the way he did must never get too close to anyone who might discover that she’s secretly a Kryptonian.

However, one day she gets a bit sloppy while flying around and is photographed by fellow orphan Dick Wilson (later Malverne) who was testing out his new telephoto lens and spotted something odd in the sky.

After taking the photo, he snoops around in Linda’s room and sees that she’s barely started writing the report that’s due for their upcoming class.

Once he heads to class, Supergirl swoops into the room after having been out doing good deeds in secret, puts on her Linda Lee disguise, and finishes writing her report at super-speed.

Dick is suspicious when she turns in her completed report, but when he confronts her, she suggests that what he saw was just a draft and the completed report was in her desk drawer. Dick supposes it’s possible, but remains suspicious.

He becomes even more suspicious when he develops the photo he took earlier and sees that what he photographed earlier was neither bird nor plane, nor even Superman, but a g-g-g-girl!

Dick is pretty sure he knows just who this mysterious flying girl is and sets out to prove his suspicions.

His first attempt at outing Linda as Supergirl involves…well, this.

That plan ends up being a bust thanks to some quick thinking on Supergirl’s part, but when he learns that a traveling circus troupe is going to put on free show for the orphans, he hatches another scheme while skulking about backstage.

…okay, he wasn’t skulking – he was actually tasked with checking out the props that were sent in advance of the show. But I still think Dick is a creep.

When he asks Linda to pick up the “fake” dumbbell, she does so without thinking, revealing that she has super-strength.

Thinking fast, Linda grabs a piece of coal used for the fire-eating act, crushes it into a diamond, and then sends it spinning at super-speed into the steel weight to hollow it out, leading us to the third panel on the story’s sixth page, which is the panel that popped into my head.

The “later use” is to fill up the actual fake weight so that Dick can’t lift it and she can convince him that he never actually switched the tags like he thought.

Dick didn’t know that among this mysterious Supergirl’s powers was the power of super-gaslighting.

Even so, Linda isn’t sure she can keep up the charade, as she fears that Dick will never give up on his quest to prove that she’s the Supergirl he photographed. As she sobs in her room, she thinks that maybe she should just give in and admit the truth to Dick.

The next day during the performance, all of the orphans are amazed at the sight of a heretofore unknown Supergirl lifting a much heavier weight than even the strongest of strongmen could lift.

But all is not what it appears to be.

Dick realizes that the robot is what he photographed, and therefore Linda probably isn’t a secret Supergirl.

Linda is relieved, but she’s not so sure that all of Dick’s suspicions have been allayed. After all, throughout her cousin’s career as Superboy, Lana Lang never gave up trying to prove that he was Clark Kent.

The story closes out with a note from her cousin saying that while spying on her he saw the trouble she was having and decided to be gracious enough to pull her fat out of the fire. This time.

Which is the least he can do given that ultimately the secret she’s keeping is his, not hers. Superman is the one who put her in this position in the first place.

Anyway, I’m not going to go off on that rant right now. I just wanted to share that ridiculous image of Linda Lee inhaling steel shavings and keeping them in her lungs “for later use.”

In closing, I’ll leave you with a cropped version of the letter from Superman for you to do with what you will.

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