In Remember to Forget, we spotlight comic book stories that I wish I could forget, but I can’t, so I instead share them with you all!

Today, we look at Supergirl's bizarre (but luckily short-lived) engagement to a total jerk!

Leo Dorfman was one of the more inventive comic book creators that the Superman titles had in the late 1960s/early 1970s, but Dorfman was also a guy who tended to value a good hook more than he valued whether said hook would actually fit with the characters that he was working with. Remember, this was an era where people figured that comic book collecting was a cyclical thing, so he really didn't have to worry too much about character consistency as the people reading this issue presumably wouldn't still be reading the series as they aged out of reading comic books. So if it worked for the hook of the story, then he would go for it. I get where he was coming from, but it made for a number of stories where you say, "Yeesh, he sure doesn't seem to think all too kindly about these characters, does he?"

This brings us to Action Comics #369-370, a two-parter by Dorfman and artist Kurt Schaffenberger.

The first part is titled, "The Boy Who Broke Supergirl's Heart!"

The concept of the story is that Linda Danvers is going on a double date with a friend of hers who is very proud of her new boyfriend, Gary Sparks, who seems to be dating his way through the female population of Stanhope College. Well, guess what? Gary is a total jerk to Linda's friend on the date, including ditching her to dance with some other girl all night...

Naturally, Linda was irritated at Gary, so she came up with a plan to give him a taste of his own medicine by getting him to date her, at which point she would dump him. She appealed to his vanity by creating a sculpture based on him and sure enough, soon he was asking her out...

However, Gary is such a jerk that he is still caught up in himself, even as Linda notes that the making out part is getting kind of fun...

Still, she follows through on her plan to stand him up at a date. When she checks in on him, though, she sees that he had already dumped her!!!

Oddly enough, this is really getting to Supergirl. She even allows a truck to explode because she was now distracted by how much she was missing Gary...

By the end of the first part of the story, she was now planning on revealing her secret identity to Gary as long as he took her back!

What the what?!?!

Page 2: [valnet-url-page page=2 paginated=0 text='Is she really going out with him?']

Luckily, right away, she realizes she can't reveal her identity at the moment. Instead, she just tries to woo Gary AS Supergirl and, "shockingly enough," it works really well!

Soon, Gary proposes and Supergirl agrees!

How little does Dorfman think of Supergirl?

Anyhow, she goes to tell her parents and they let her know that they do not approve. She counters by explaining that, of course, she built a super-computer that can predict the future so she shows her parents how things will go...

Unsurprisingly, her marriage to Gary goes terribly, finishing with Gary ignoring her and forcing her to take their daughter on her Super-missions because Gary ignores the kid, as well, and then cheats on her with an alien named, improbably enough, Lustra...

DANG! She was about MURDER Gary!

Now that she realized she couldn't marry Gary, but stuck by her vow to marry him (she can't break a vow, which is super dumb), she instead man-handles Gary (under the guise of being so in love with him that she can't control her strength) and he breaks up with her and he looks like a fool...

So all's well that end's well, but dang, this story sure doesn't make Supergirl look good that she would become engaged to a guy she KNOWS is a total jerk! She even SAYS HE IS A JERK while she pines for him!

If anyone else has a suggestion for a story that you wish you could forget, drop me a line at brianc@cbr.com!