ADVENTURE COMICS #404 March 1971
"So much for the Ex-Supergirl! Now to get on with our plan!" Behind the eye-patched lady putting Supergirl in a particularly nasty arm-lock stand an array of freakishly-dressed women, watching gleefully as the Maid of Might screams "AGGH!" And as the idea of Women's Liberation became established as an important, controversial element of the American zeitgeist in the early 1970s, DC Comics sets out its own concept of feminism-- An audience of ridiculously attired females watching two attractive young women fighting each other in long boots and short skirts.
ADVENTURE COMICS #404, cover-dated March 1971, was created by writer/penciller Mike Sekowsky and inker Jack Abel, the cover image also pencilled by Sekowsky and inked by Dick Giordano. It forms the second part of a sexual politics-orientated storyline begun two issues earlier (clumsily bridged by a LEGION OF SUPERHEROES reprint edition) in an episode entitled LOVE CONQUERS ALL - EVEN SUPERGIRL!
The cover for #402 could easily pass as one of DC's Romance titles from the 70s, were it not for the presence of Supergirl's snazzy new outfit or the tommy-gun firing bank robbers in the background.
My first thought on seeing this cover was that it resembles the sort of romance titles comics publishers were putting out at that time-- even the jaunty lettering of the word 'Love' is more redolent of a slushy girls' comic than the sort of thing boys would have been comfortable buying or reading (though the letters pages of these issues do feature as many (if not more) letters from male readers than female ones).
As such it seems to be confirmation that this title, along with LOIS LANE and sometimes 'The New' WONDER WOMAN were targeting young female readers with covers and storylines often more concerned with fashion and relationships than crime-fighting or daring rescues.
The first part of this storyline introduces a new female villain, Starfire, a small-time crook with big ambitions-- to form "a secret army of women who will first help me dominate America-- then the world!" It's the typical scare-mongering stereotype of the powerful woman-- that they don't want to be equal to men, but want to dominate them (the writer's word, not mine).
To assist her in this plan is the 'dishy' Derek, whose role is to seduce Supergirl (his special talent) before slipping her a pill which will rob her of her powers. And so we are treated to much smooching and soppiness (the writer also confident that the way to appeal to a female readership will be to include plenty of this sort of stuff)--
Supergirl even gets to wear another of her new outfits, an evening costume designed by one of her readers (I'm not sure how many male readers submitted costume ideas back in 1970, though I'm pretty confident the character's male fans would have a fair few ideas for a costume makeover these days). You can check out my own overview of Supergirl's changes of outfit here--
And, as seems to be so often the case, the cover turns out to be something of a cheat, Supergirl taking a moment to express her feelings on the role of superhero after apologising to Darling Derek for being late for a romantic picnic--
Then the reason she fails to foil a (staged) robbery is because not because she's gone all gooey-eyed over her beau, but because the sneaky bastard has spiked her cola, causing her to stumble and fall 'like a wounded bird'--
And so two months later, ADVENTURE COMICS #404 begins with a full-page re-cap of previous events, Supergirl being left for dead by Derek and the hoods (the dozy dreamboat even checking her pulse for life before reaching his conveniently erroneous conclusion). After some time she recovers and finds the effects of the drug have worn off, enabling her to fly back to her secret headquarters--
Realising how Dastardly Derek has tricked her, she surmises that her super-powers cannot be fully relied on, deciding to seek the advice in the Bottle City of Kandor--
Confirming her suspicions that the "foreign substance" in her system will cause "periodic losses of your super strength" rendering her "a Part-time Supergirl" the scientists design and build what they call "an exo-skeleton cyborg". I wonder whether this was the first time Kara Zor-El was portrayed in the nude??
And now our attention turns away from our plucky heroine and we catch up with the devious Starfire. This issue's cover featured the character prominently and her mode of dressing -- leather mini-dress, wrist-bands and boots places her comfortably in the company of the various Bad Girls so beloved of comic creators and their readers, as I previously considered here-- It's a curious cover-image since the character does not actually wear an outfit remotely resembling this anywhere in the issue. But I'm guessing that while #402 seemed aimed at pre-teen girls, this cover is aimed at a very different demographic.
But in the story itself this Venus in Furs has ditched the shiny shiny boots of leather and is dressed instead in a figure-hugging black cat-suit. This is of course another indicator of fiction's assertive female character-type, and again a look much beloved of those of us who inhabit the comics world, as indeed I took some time recently to consider here--
Anyway, Starfire has the good sense to ditch Duplicitous Derek, demonstrating beyond any shadow of a doubt her cold-heartedness. See, the writer is saying to us, like a wise old father-figure-- the female of the species really is more deadly than the male--
As his body is disposed of, Starfire calls for her "troops" to be gathered-- and we're introduced to "the nucleus of a soon-to-be mighty army of women"-- Yes, the writer is prompting us, give the gals a bit of freedom and as you can see they'll stop at nothing to "rule the world"--
It's a familiar trope in popular culture of the time, the group of beautiful but deadly all-women criminal gang. Their proliferation reveals the deep-seated dichotomy in the hearts of so many male storytellers-- it's like, sure, they love women and want to present them as attractive and sexy and even exotic, but they also fear and resent them and like to say that if they get the upper hand they'll cause no end of trouble. Yikes! The collection of deadly females brings to mind 60s movies such as DR GOLDFOOT AND THE GIRLBOMBS, or the 'Angels of Death' in ON HER MAJESTY'S SECRET SERVICE.
Both of the above movies involve male power-crazed maniacs leading the girl-gangs, but there's a big difference in the minds of the storytellers between a male character employing women to seize power and a woman doing the same. And I think the way this is manifested in the writing of a story such as this one in ADVENTURE COMICS is through the idea that a woman might use female emancipation as a smokescreen to hide their true intentions. And by perpetuating such a notion, it's not such a big leap to suggest that any woman advocating equality is therefore bound to have an ulterior motive. So, it comes as no great surprise to have just witnessed Starfire's inner thoughts revealing this to be very much the case here. Despite assuring her army that they are going to be "taking matters into (their) own hands" for the good of the whole world, Starfire is of course revealing herself to be nothing more than a female power-crazed maniac. So, her plan involves her girlie team robbing bank in the midst of a carnival, wearing fancy costumes as, what Supergirl later calls, "the perfect camouflage"--
Which brings us to the writer's own acknowledgement of one of the key ideas of this issue-- Supergirl ponders to herself, "Who'd ever expect a Girl Gang of bank robbers?" before concluding, "well, why not-- with WOMEN'S LIB so big today-- Why not Girl Bank Robbers?" And there we have it-- Women's Lib = Girl Bank Robbers. And this coming from a strong female character too!
And so we reach the first instance of the sort of thing some readers might well have bought this issue for-- the Girlfight. But it's going to be a somewhat disappointing spectacle for them, I fear. As I indicated earlier, Starfire's checked suit is no match for the revealing outfit promised on the cover, and the fight itself seems like something its artists, for some reason, were under-confident about depicting--
While Linda's exo-skeleton might give her increased strength, it cannot make her invulnerable, and she is knocked unconscious, coming round to find herself a prisoner of Starfire's legion of lovelies, by now all clad in black catsuits to match their boss's--
At this point I was reminded of the 60s TV show THE AVENGERS episode, HOW TO SUCCEED ... AT MURDER or Pussy Galore's Flying Circus in another 007 movie, GOLDFINGER, both of which feature female gangs clad in almost exactly the same way. The other similarity is that in both examples these gangs are female led, making Starfire's gang still closer to them than the above examples--
Then at long last the art team go to town with a FULL FOUR PAGES of girlfight! "I think I'll have some fun with her!" muses Starfire, having smacked the Maid of Steel a couple of times across the face and observed how "she is no longer super".
So, while her minions watch she expertly throws Supergirl over her shoulder--
Before delivering a nasty knee-blow to her chest, declaring, "I'm going to enjoy this!", clearly already experiencing the thrill of jouissance as her adoring minions watch admiringly--
Then Starfire once more throws poor Linda, this time hurling her at a wooden post--
But the fight's not yet over-- as Supergirl's powers suddenly return and she retaliates--
And in the midst of the confusion Starfire escapes along with the scientist who has created the debilitating drug--
This story has been quite a journey for Linda Danvers so far, she's fallen head-over-high-heeled-boots in love with the Diabolical Derek, been betrayed by him, lost her powers, been shot at, tied up and beaten up, encountered a "Queen Bee" female adversary representative of the dark side of the women's liberation movement, and been made to strip naked in front of the scientists of Kandor.
So the story ends with the threat to Supergirl still hanging over her, because what is a Superhero without his or her Superpowers?
And as she jets away towards her uncertain future we can only ponder on the lessons we as readers might have learnt from this story, albeit 50 year old lessons-- that women must know their place, that it's all very well them looking pretty as long as they don't expect to be taken too seriously. Because when they talk of women's liberation they really mean female domination. In other words, it's better for them to be nice Good Girls like Linda, not nasty Bad Girls like Starfire. Isn't that it?
You can see all my January 2020 posts by clicking here--
My thoughts on the first 2 parts of the SUPERMAN story arc KRYPTONITE NEVERMORE and on Kirby's JIMMY OLSEN #136 and FOREVER PEOPLE #1 can be found by clicking the covers below--
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