Credits | Characters | Plot Summary | Comments | Reprinted In Supergirl Chronology | Legion Chronology Editor: Mort Weisinger Writer: Jerry Siegel Artist: Jim Mooney Feature Characters: Supergirl, Superman Supporting Characters: Fred Danvers, Edna Danvers, Lori Lemaris, Jerro, Lenora Lemaris (Lori's sister), Dick Malverne Guest Legionnaires: Brainiac 5, Cosmic Boy, Lightning Lad, Saturn Girl Villains: Lex Luthor and an unnamed cell-mate, the infinite monster, a great beast on the planet Lomar (in flashback) Other Characters: Zor-El (in flashback), Allura (in flashback), citizens of Argo City (in flashback), citizens of Metropolis, U.S.S.R. Chairman Nikita Krushchev, President John F. Kennedy, United Nations delegates, citizens of Kandor, people of the planet Nyorp, flame-people of the planet Mringa, Professor Hartz and his assistant Karl, U.S. navy, Pentagon personnel, Midvale amusement park ticket-stand worker, Mrs. Hart, some Midvale orphans, two military men in a helicopter, Jackie Onassis Kennedy, Vice-President Lyndon Johnson Part I - The World's Greatest Heroine (12 pages) One afternoon, Superman decides that it's time to publically reveal Supergirl's existence to the world. He decides to meet with her at 9:00 pm that night and disclose it to her foster parents, the Danvers, first. That afternoon, the Danvers family decides to go to Metropolis to see a movie and while driving over an old bridge the structure collapses and Linda is forced to act promptly to save her parents' lives. In full view of them, and without changing to Supergirl, she catches the falling car and flies it to safety. Her parents feel that they are entitled to an explanation, but Linda pleads that she cannot tell them. Suddenly Superman arrives and lets her know that she did the only right thing, and proceeds to explain to the Danvers Linda's Kryptonian origin, including her relation to him. They vow to never betray her secret and later, in the basement of their home, Supergirl digs a secret tunnel exactly like the setup that Superboy had in Smallville in the Kent home. The next morning, in a worldwide telecast from the Fortress of Solitude, Superman introduces his lovely, super-powerful cousin Supergirl to the world, running a tape explaining her origin and showing some of the feats she had secretly performed in the past. After the telecast, Supergirl and Superman tour the world together to tumultuous applause. Everywhere, millions eagerly turn out for a glimpse of the two mightiest crusaders in the entire universe. At the White House, Supergirl meets President John F. Kennedy and afterwards, at the United Nations building, she is awarded a golden certificate authorizing her to visit any U.N. country without a passport and empowering her to make arrests. Superman hangs her certificate of the wall of his Fortress next to the certificate that the U.N. granted to him previously. The celebrations span from the Bottle City of Kandor to worlds throughout the universe to the sunken city of Atlantis. Superman goes on a special mission to the 50th century, leaving Supergirl to keep things under control in his absence. Part II -"The Infinite Monster" (12 pages) On a South Pacific isle, a secret experiment in communicating with other worlds creates a space-warp bridging to a co-existing universe. An infinite monster emerges and causes destruction. The President and the Pentagon broadcast an appeal for Supergirl's help over all radio and TV networks. Supergirl's powers prove ineffective against the monster and people begin to doubt her abilities. Supergirl builds a capsule from scrap metal and hurls it into the 30th century, where Brainiac 5 and the Legion receive her message requesting a particular ray device. A small time-globe materializes containing the device but both are destroyed by the infinite monster. Fortunately, her super-vision and photographic memory allow her to reconstruct the ray-mechanism with super-speed. Shining what is a shrinking ray on the colossal creature, it begins to dwindle down to 8 inches in height. At the Fortress of Solitude, Supergirl places the creature inside a bottle and thinks about how helpful Brainaic 5 has been, while in the future, the Legionnaires watch Supergirl on their time-scope. Cosmic Boy announces that the time has come for them to remove the lead plate off the base of their Supergirl bust at the clubhouse. Now that her existence is revealed, she can read the inscription which says: "Year of Supergirl's arrival on Earth 1959; Year Supergirl's existence was revealed on Earth 1962." Supergirl returns to White House honors including a delegation of flower-bearing children from Midvale Orphanage. Superman returns from the future pleased at her performance and builds her an annex in his Fortress, a special wing all her own to keep trophies and souveniers of her missions and adventures to come!
The names "Curtis", "Swan" and "George" appear on the cover of this issue, disguised as city street signs. Artist Curt Swan pencilled the cover and George Klein inked it, and this was their clever way of signing their work. Although writers and artists usually weren't given credit at this time, the splash page credits writer Jerry Siegel and artist Jim Mooney (although Siegel is misspelled as "Siegal"). In the Supergirl stories preceding this one (Action Comics No. 283/284), Superman is said to be visiting the Legion of Super-Heroes in the future, and immediately upon returning he tells Supergirl that he has decided to reveal her existence to the world without delay. It is possible that he went to the future to ask the Legion their opinion on this very subject. Just because Supergirl's existence is being revealed to the world, it did not mean that she had to reveal her secret identity to the Danvers. But with Supergirl's existence public knowledge and her position as a crime-fighter official and fully sanctioned by the U.N., telling those closest to her is not only the responsible and honest thing to do, but it is necessary to her success, as proven by the Kents invaluable assistance to Superboy. Because of Supergirl's sudden popularity, Jerro the merboy has already decided that things will not work out between him and the Maid of Might. Lenora, Lori Lemaris' younger sister, uses this event to make her move and win Jerro's heart herself. Brainiac 5 states that only Brainiac knows how to enlarge the shrunken city of Kandor, indicating that this knowledge is still unknown in the 30th century but we know that the city was enlarged sometime in the 20th century, founding the planet Rokyn (Adventure Comics No. 356). Fate was preventing Brainiac 5 from revealing the secret, though he would have given it to her if he could. Supergirl refers to Brainiac 5 as being the "great, great, great, great grandson" of Brainiac, but this would make him Brainiac 7 not 5. No doubt she got it wrong because when she first met him that's the way he introduced himself to her. For the record, Brainiac 5 is the great, great grandson of Brainiac (by forced adoption of Brainiac 2, since Brainiac was an android and couldn't have children of his own). This story marks the first and only time a Legion time-globe, basically a small time-bubble, is used to remotely deliver an object to someone in another time. It is interesting that the shrinking ray that the Legion sent back is destroyed and that the monster is defeated by a copy that Supergirl herself constructs. Yes, she copied the device but its fate's way of making sure that the monster was defeated by a weapon made in the 20th century. Superman goes on a special mission to the 50th century in this story. He has been to this time period before, as Superboy, and discovered that in that era he was only considered to be a legend. The only people who believed Superboy was real was a decendant of Lana Lang (Adventure Comics No. 279). It is possible that Superman was visiting Lita Lang years later and letting that future world know about the existence of a Supergirl as well. One of the presents Supergirl receives is a painting of herself. This is fast work by the artist responsible as the events of this story take place in the span of a day. He or she must have started painting as soon as Supergirl appeared on the television broadcast (either that or it was painted by someone who was privy to the knowledge of Supergirl before this - like Batman and Robin). The Supergirl wing Superman builds in the Fortress is complete with three framed pictures of her boyfriends - Brainiac 5, Dick Malverne, and Jerro. The Man of Steel thinks of everything! The inscription on the Supergirl "statue" (actually a bust), is accurate, as Supergirl first appeared on Earth in Action Comics No. 252 (May 1959) and she had been serving as Superman's secret emergency weapon for almost three years. This issue most likely came out on Thursday December 28, 1961 but the story itself is stated to take place in early 1962. Action Comics No. 360 (G-45) (Mar.-Apr. 1968) Supergirl Archives Vol. 2 |
