Supergirl is Pretty Darn Smart!

cover art by Curt Swan

 As a writer, I think Bob Kanigher's best work was on DC's war-themed books rather than superhero books. But he did manage to tell some fun superhero stories as well.

Adventure Comics #395 (July 1970--with art by Kurt Schaffenberger) is an example of this. It is a silly tale in many ways, but it portrays Supergirl in a way I really enjoy--showing her using her intelligence rather than her superpowers to solve a conundrum.

The conundrum in question is a supposedly haunted house, once owned by an inventor named Amos Ameswell until his mysterious disappearance 10 years earlier. There's a one million dollar prize for anyone who can say the night in the place without being forced to flee in pure terror. Recently, a horror movie actor named Vincent Sale (get it?) tried it, but was rendered grey-haired and insane before the night was over.

Before going on, I'm going to get a nitpick out of the way.  Notice in one of the above panels in which Linda Danvers (aka Supergirl) adamently states that she doesn't believe in ghosts. But she exists in a world in which magicians, supernatural threats and such things are acknowledged to exist. In fact, Supergirl regularly travels into the future to work with the Legion of Super Heroes--WHO HAVE AN ACTUALLY MAGIC-USING WITCH ON THEIR TEAM!  I'm sorry, Linda, but you aren't in a position to summarily dismiss the possibility that something supernatural is going on in that house.

To be fair, I do get that she has to explore the theory that the supernatural events in the house are being faked. But then she encounters the ghost of Superman's dad Jor-El.

Soon after, she encounters an apparently solid Kryptonian Thought-Beast, which (while under a yellow sun) should be more powerful than she is. But, inexplicably, it melts away when she hits it with heat vision.

It all seems to be too much for the Maid of Might. Soon, she is acting nuttier than a Kryptonian Fruit Cake. But that, of course, is a trick.

Supergirl has picked up on several subtle clues and used deductive reasoning to realize that a custom-made TV in the house is linking the place to the Phantom Zone, making some of the Zone criminals visible and allowing them to mess with people via telepathy. She smashes the TV to re-banish them to the Zone, but is then confronted by Amos Ameswell, the supposedly missing inventor. It was Amos who built the TV and who now seems completely unconcerned with her superpowers.

As I said, I like this story specifically because Supergirl's powers are of limited use and it's her intelligence--complete with her own Sherlock Holmes-like deductions--that really make this one stand out.

The story continues into the next issue. Next week, we'll finish up with the Outlaw Kid story arc we've been following, then finish up with Supergirl in two weeks.