American Honda Presents DC Comics’ Supergirl

#1

Release:	1984
Cover:	1984

Creators

Writer	Joe Orlando | Barry Marx |  Robert Loren Fleming
Artist	Angelo Torres
Cover Artist	Angelo Torres
Colorist	Joe Orlando
Letterer	John Costanza
Scripter	Andrew Helfer
Editor	Barry Marx

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Yes…and I’ve come to a decision…I’m through being Supergirl!

As I write this, I’m a few hours away from heading out to a movie theater to take in an early matinee of Supergirl, so I thought it only fitting that I look at the comic that inspired…probably no part of the movie if I had to guess.

No, instead of writing about the Woman of Tomorrow, I decided to look to the past and bring an unofficial trilogy of sorts to an end.

There were three times in my primary and secondary education that I was given a PSA comic in school. I’ve written about the other two elsewhere, and now we’re at the third and final comic, one I received while I was in high school.

While the first one focused on conservation and the lingering effects of the energy crisis, and the second focused on the scourge of illegal drugs, this outing featuring the Maid of Might is all about the value of seatbelts and was made in cooperation with both Honda and the US Department of Transportation.

I’m curious as to why Supergirl was chosen as the character to help sell the message of the necessity to buckle up for safety, though, like this post, the timing of it coincided with the release of a Supergirl movie, so I suppose DC felt the need to try to elevate the Girl of Steel’s profile.

Of course, by the time I got this comic some years after its release, her movie had bombed, her series had been cancelled, and Supergirl herself was dead (though if I recall the timing correctly – shortly before I started driver’s ed – I got it at around the time that Byrne was introducing the Matrix version of Supergirl).

Like the end of the world as we know it, our story starts with an earthquake, one which results in Supergirl having to cancel a date she had in her secret identity of Linda Danvers.

Steve Gordon is not, as far as I can recall, one of Linda’s canonical boyfriends, but he is at least a relatively normal, non-creepy guy with a steady job, so while he’s no Brainiac Five he’s still light years ahead of Dick Malverne, or Jerro the merboy, or, you know, her horse.

We quickly learn that we don’t – I hope, anyway – have a Betty and Veronic situation with Linda and Ellen, as it turns out that Ellen is Steve’s little sister.

As they head to the theater to see the latest movie that cinephile Steve can’t wait to see, Steve has no time for nonsense like putting on his seatbelt.

Unsurprisingly, the brother and sister end up having an accident right before arriving at the theater, an accident that reminds us not only that we should wear our seatbelts but that we also should not drink and drive, as it’s drunk driver who hits them.

Because she emulated her older brother by not wearing her seatbelt, Ellen’s head hits the steering wheel hard, which is the last thing Steve sees before everything goes black.

Fortunately, Ellen is okay, but Steve doesn’t know that as he has sunk into a coma.

Not just any coma, either. It’s one of those dramatic “we have no medical explanation for it, so there must be something psychological that’s keeping him from waking; guilt, perhaps” comas.

Speaking of guilt, Supergirl feels guilty about Steve’s condition as she should have been with him instead of wasting her time helping those stupid earthquake victims she doesn’t even know.

She mulls this idea over in the intergalactic zoo inside her cousin’s Fortress of Solitude, and when the Man of Steel himself arrives, she tells him about the decision she’s made to stop being Supergirl.

Fortunately, Superman might have a way that she can help Steve.

Superman notes that there’s a risk that if the person whose mind you enter dies while you’re there, your own body will live on, but your mind, your very soul, may be lost, and even though he doesn’t actually know Steve – much like Kara didn’t know the people she helped in California – he is willing to take the risk.

Naturally, she can’t let him do that, and insists that she be the one to enter Steve’s mind.

Fortunately for her, this is a family-friendly comic, so Steve’s mindscape is not that of a typical teenage horndog, but is instead an ever-shifting world of adventures inspired by movie buff Steve’s favorite celluloid tales, all of them involving driving in some way.

The first, a sort of Road Warrior in the arctic story, in which Steve, as hero Gord-on, must drive across a frozen lake, evading marauders and the perils of the ice itself, to secure fuel for a small frozen village.

He’s surprised to discover that his sister was hiding in his vehicle, and, as in the real world, encourages him to put on his seatbelt, and as in the real world, he refuses. Supergirl, who is along for the ride, urges him to doe the same, but her presence in his mind is largely invisible to Steve.

Naturally, they have an accident, though Supergirl manages to rescue them, but dreamworld Steve falls into a coma, leading Supergirl to have to pull a Cobb and go deeper.

This time, Steve has cast himself as an Indiana Jones type, with Ellen as his Short Round, and once again he ignores her pleas to buckle up for safety, insisting that it’s better to be thrown clear of the vehicle should they crash.

He avoids most of the dangers on his trip…

…but ultimately crashes, and while he is thrown clear, he would have been in for a rough landing if Supergirl hadn’t caught him.

Still, he goes comatose again and we go down another layer where it’s Hammer Time.

Mike Hammer time.

Once again, Ellen shows up, and once again he insists he doesn’t need a seatbelt, stating that they’re not going to go very fast.

This time, when Supergirl speaks up…

…inception occurs and the idea takes hold, leading Steve to buckle up just to get Ellen to shut up.

We get yet another accident, but this time, things work out differently.

Knowing that Ellen is safe is enough to assuage Steve’s guilt and get him to finally wake up, and it’s enough to assuage Kara’s guilt and encourage her to continue her career as Supergirl.

Because it’s a PSA comic, it closes out with some learning activities, which I’ll share in an Activity Corner post.

This isn’t the weakest of the three PSA comics I got in school, though it’s nowhere near the gold standard set by the anti-drug comic featuring the New Teen Titans. It is a bit more serious than the Captain America energy conservation comic, and isn’t too far from the kind of story you might see in a regular comic published by DC at the time.

There were some fun moments in the movie sequences in Steve’s mind, but they were hindered a bit by the need to, er, drive home the message.

It’s interesting that the story has three credited writers, but from what I know of Robert Loren Fleming’s history in comics, I’d guess he was largely responsible for the dialogue.

I know the name Angelo Torres, but I’m not familiar with his work. His style is somewhat generic, though it’s preferable – as far as I’m concerned as someone who was never a fan – to the work of Carmine Infantino, who was the regular penciler in Supergirl’s regular book.

Torres does, however, render Linda in a way that resembles her look in that series.

Speaking of looks, the costume Supergirl sports in this seems to be unique this comic. It’s not quite the costume she was sporting at the time – no perm, no headband, no red accents on the upper chest and shoulders – nor is it quite like any of the others that came before it.

It’s not bad, it’s just, like the art itself, sort of generic. It’s the median Supergirl costume.

There was a second one of these comics from DC, Honda, and the DoT that came out after Supergirl’s death and closer to the time that I got this one, but it’s not the one that I got. (Though I do own it now.)

That one leans a bit more into silliness.

In any case, I need to get this posted and get ready head out to see a movie that people online assure me is either hot garbage, good but flawed, or excellent, but which I’m sure is considerably better than any of the movies inside Steve’s head.

And I will, of course, wear my seatbelt on the way to the theater.

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