In “If I Pass This Way Again,” we look at comic book plot points that were rarely (sometimes NEVER!) mentioned again after they were first introduced. Today, we look at how Supergirl became a cyborg in the 1970s and then it just was never mentioned again after a while.
In 2014, DC did a company-wide event called Future's End that saw the events of the characters in the future, and in Supergirl's Future's End one-shot (by Tony Bedard, Emanuela Lupacchino and Ray McCarthy, with colors by Hi-Fi and letters by Rob Leigh), we see that she has teamed up with her father, who has become the Cyborg Superman and she, too, is a cyborg like her father. By the end of the issue, though, she has categorically rejected her cyborg implants. The interesting thing about this to me, though, is that Supergirl specifically had a cyborg storyline in her comic book in the 1970s and BOY, was it weird, and BOY, was it quickly and quietly ignored.
How did Supergirl lose her superpowers?
In 1969, Supergirl gained her first headlining feature when she took over Adventure Comics from the Legion of Super-Heroes, with the Legion, in return, taking over Supergirl's backup feature in Action Comics. In 1970, Mike Sekowsky took over the feature as the writer and the artist and, well, if you know anything about another comic book series that Sekowsky took over around this time (Wonder Woman), you'll know that he tried all sorts of crazy stuff with this comic book series. In Adventure Comics #402 (by Sekowsky and Jack Abel), the villainous Starfire was introduced, and she had an evil plot to take down the world's superheroes using a pill that the brilliant Dr. Kangle invented that can take away people's superpowers.
Their plan began with Supergirl, as one of their operatives, Derek Ames, seduced Supergirl, and began dating her. On one of their dates, Derek hid the pill in Supergirl's drink and thus, the saga of Supergirl's lost powers began! Instantly, Starfire's gang attacks Supergirl, and, well, things don't go well for the Maid of Still (that was never a really good nickname, right?), as she realizes that her super-strength is gone. She dives for cover as she also notices that she likely is no longer invulnerable, let alone being able to fly, and she gets hit by a bullet...
However, while she seems to be dead at the end of the issue, she actually survived. Then, her powers return long enough for her to fly to her secret headquarters. She then travels to the Bottled City of Kandor (where her father was living, as he turned out to have survived the destruction of their home city) to look for some help in fixing her problem.
How did she become a cyborg?
After experimenting on her for a while in Adventure Comics #404 (by Sekowsky and Abel), the Kandorian scientists realize that there is nothing that can be done to stop the fact that her powers are cutting in and out, but they come up with a solution of an exo-skeleton that she can wear under her costume that will give her super-strength, and then also rockets in her boots so that she can fly... Of course, amusingly enough, Sekowsky, who CAME UP WITH THE IDEA, then proceeded to basically never ever draw the rockets in her rocket boosts. It was kind of funny, as, again, this was HIS IDEA, but he was, like, "Oh man, who wants to draw rockets? Let's just have her fly, okay? Get off my back, man!"
Eventualyl, Supergirl defeats Starfire's evil plot, and also gets Dr. Kangle to come to the side of good. However, even though he is now on the side of good, he has to explain to Supergirl in Adventure Comics #407 (by Sekowsky and Henry Scarpelli) that he never bothered to come up with an antidote to the pill that can remove powers because, again, his intent was robbing all superpowered people of their powers, so why would he want to reverse it? So even now that he's a good guy and admits he shouldn't have done that to Supergirl, he doesn't know how to fix it.
Okay, so one of the major problems with Supergirl not having her traditional superpowers is what happens when she needs to go into outer space or under water? The pressure and the whole "not being able to breathe" stuff causes problems, but it is fixed in Adventure Comics #408 (by Sekowsky and Dick Giordano), when he has the Kandorian scentists now go in and add cybernetics to Supergirl's skull so that she can now breathe underwater and in space. She even notes, as they do the surgery on her, that she is now way too filled up with mechanical gadgets...
In the following issue, we even see Supergirl use her new mechanical gills to allow ANOTHER person to breathe basically THROUGH her.
However, that issue also had a backup story by E. Nelson Bridwell. Bridwell was one of the most brilliant DC editors in terms of continuity, and he was the type of guy who would always want to "fix" something that he thinks doesn't make sense, and one of the issues he naturally had was that what if Supergirl had a costume that exposed her legs, wouldn't the exo-skeleton be visible? So he had the scientists in Kandor develop a bracelet that can give her super-strength so that she doesn't need the exo-skeleton (as seen her, drawn by Art Saaf and Dick Giordano) and, of course, why doesn't she just use her Legion of Super-Heroes flight ring to fly?
Okay, so that was the deal with the series for the next year or so, until Adventure Comics #423 (by Bridwell, John Albano, Sekowsky and Bob Oksner), when Supergirl is controlled by some villainous aliens, but luckily, her powers cut out on her again at just the right moment... And...that's the last time any of this stuff was ever mentioned again. Supergirl's feature ended in the next issue, and then she got her own solo book that didn't refer to any of these stories, so her powers were back to normal. But that means that no one had the stuff REMOVED from her, either, right? So she was still a cyborg when she died in Crisis on Infinite Earths!
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