Today, learn about how Supergirl gained the power of super-telepathy for a single issue and never used it again!
In every installment of “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.
THE CHANGING COMIC BOOK INDUSTRY LED TO SUPERGIRL STARRING IN HER FIRST SERIES
It is sometimes difficult to properly judge just how bizarre the late 1960s must have been like for Mort Weisinger. When Weisinger took control of the Superman titles in the late 1940s, they were one of the most popular comic book series in the entire industry. Then the Seduction of the Innocent panic hit and comic book sales plummeted in the mid-1950s and many comic book companies went out of business. However, the Superman titles just kept selling. They weren't necessarily always literally the most popular series of titles, but Superman was often in the top two or three comic books sold throughout the 1950s and well into the 1960s. Then a couple of weird things happened. First off, the Batman TV series briefly led to a "Batmania" that made Batman the most popular comic in the entire industry (to the point where suddenly, Justice League of America issues made sure to feature Batman on the cover and even the World's Finest Comics covers suddenly had Batman listed ahead of Superman in their pairing) and so suddenly, for the first time in his career at National Comics, Mort Weisinger wasn't the top dog.
Then, when Batman's sales went back to Earth, Superman regained his spot at DC but his overall sales were lagging a lot due to Marvel Comics' revamped superhero line of books. The other DC comics all tried to adjust to try to be "out-Marvel Marvel" or do SOMEthing to compete with the upstart company, but for Weisinger and the Superman titles, it was harder for them to deal with since they were THE TOP OF THE INDUSTRY, so it was such an unfamiliar place for Weisinger to be, to have to suddenly explain to others what he was doing. When Carmine Infantino became the Editorial Director at DC, he really shook things up and actively wanted to hear from his editors what they could find wrong with the rest of their comic book line. And so now DC staffers started to question Weisinger's decision-making, something he never had to deal with in his TWO DECADES long career. Weisinger would be out of comics entirely by early 1970, but before he left, he first tried to do some dramatic changes to the Superman line.
One of those decisions was to take Supergirl out of her back-up feature in Action Comics (which she had maintained since the late 1950s) and give her the lead feature in Adventure Comics, replacing Superboy and the Legion of Super-Heroes, with the Legion taking Supergirl's back-up spot in Action Comics (Superboy had a second solo series which he continued to maintain after losing his secondary title. Amusingly, the Legion eventually ended up in THAT series, too, and took it over after a few years, displacing Superboy from his own comic book!).
To be frank, when the series began, it was essentially just like an expanded standard Supergirl feature from her old back-up days. Cary Bates was the writer and and Win Mortimer and Jack Abel were the artists.
MIKE SEKOWSKY CHANGED EVERYTHING...LITERALLY
Robert Kanigher took over the feature from Bates, although Bates occasionally did some stories, too, and when Weisinger officially retired in 1970, Mike Sekowsky, who had famously revamped Wonder Woman a few years earlier with editor Jack Miller and scripter Denny O'Neil, took over the book and Sekowsky's main approach to the book was "Who cares? I'm going to do whatever I feel like!" It started off with him having Supergirl constantly change her costumes...
However, one of the funny things is that he clearly didn't care what Supergirl's whole DEAL was, hence, in his very first issue (Adventure Comics #397, with Sekowsky inked by Frank Giacoia and perhaps George Roussos), there is a woman on campus who was sort of struck mute and so Sekowsky has Supergirl use her telepathy to find out what happened to the woman...
You might think, "Wow, I didn't know Supergirl had telepathy" and that's because she DOESN'T HAVE TELEPATHY! Except for, of course, this story. Since Sekowsky was his own editor, there wasn't anyone who could tell him, "Uhm, Supergirl doesn't have telepathy." Check her out using it later in the issue, as well...
Supergirl infiltrates the cult of Zond, but Zond recognizes that she doesn't belong and he kicks her ass. Supergirl then meets up with Diana Prince (with Sekowsky turning to his Wonder Woman run to have Diana guest star) and Diana helps her meet a powerful witch, Morgana, and Morgana is quite familiar with Zond and agrees to help Supergirl take him down, but first, they have to pick out a new costume for the Girl of Steel!
Zond is a former servant of Morgan Le Fay and stole a book of spells to prop himself up as a badass magician of his own, but obviously, once Morgana shows up, she quickly nullifies his magic and Supergirl basically just kicks his butt. Morgana then cures the victim of Zond and the three all part as friends.
And Supergirl's super-telepathy was never used again.
Note that I don't even necessarily think Sekowksy's approach is WRONG here, as especially the changing costumes idea is really quite novel, but it is still pretty funny to see Supergirl springing a new power out of nowhere and then never using it again.
Also amusingly, that same issue also introduced Nasthalthia "Nasty" Luthor, Lex Luthor's never-before-mentioned niece (again, Sekowsky could care less about whether it made sense for Luthor to have a niece). She lasted longer than the Super-Telepathy, but she was gone by the time Supergirl left Adventure Comics for her own solo series.
If you have a suggestion for a future edition of I Pass This Way Again, be sure to drop me a line at brianc@cbr.com!