Saturday, July 4, 2009

Happy Fourth of July !!


Happy Fourth of July to all my fellow Americans!

Since this is the day we celebrate America's birthday, I thought I would find a patriotic Supergirl story to review. So please pay no attention to the 'Superwoman' on the cover.

Instead I'll show one of 'Supergirl's Three Time Trips' featured in Action Comics #274 (scanned from the DC Archives Supergirl Vol. 2), written by Superman co-creator Jerry Siegel and drawn by Supergirl master Jim Mooney. In the story, Linda Lee is given an assignment to write a report on a historical figure of her choice. She narrows it down to Annie Oakley, Betsy Ross, and Pocahontas. To help with the report, she decides to travel back in time to witness history rather than just read about it.

Supergirl travels back in time to 1776 and sees George Washington show the proposed design of the United States flag to Betsy Ross who agrees to sew it.
Unfortunately, the messenger she gives the flag to has a hard time holding on to it. A strong wind blows the flag into a brush fire thus destroying the first American flag. Luckily Supergirl witnesses the event and decides to intervene.


Hoping to set matters straight, Supergirl takes a British flag from a nearby Redcoat and a blue jacket from a scarecrow in a local farmyard. Using her 'superspeed-sewing' she recreates the original American flag.


Then, hiding behind the brushfire she uses her super-breath to blow her flag into the hands of the revolutionary messenger. He thinks it is simply a stroke of good luck that the flag was blown away from the fire and back into his hands unsinged.


As Kara sneaks behind a bush she sees the messenger deliver the flag to General Washington. Supergirl sewed the first American Flag!

Unfortunately, Washington is sitting atop a big chunk of green Kryptonite forcing Supergirl to escape back into the time stream. Oddly enough, Supergirl runs into Kryptonite in all her adventures in the past ... something which seems impossible since Krypton exploded only recently.


After telling Superman about her Kryptonite encounters, Superman figures out what happened. Only recently he heaved a malfunctioning H-bomb into the stratosphere just as a Kryptonite meteor was entering Earth's atmosphere. When the bomb exploded there was no trace of the meteor left and it was presumed vaporized.

Now knowing that Kryptonite is in the past, Superman deduces that the force of the explosion must have flung shards of the meteor back throughout time.

Still ... Supergirl played a crucial part in the creation of the first American flag.

Happy Fourth everyone! Hope you all see some cool fireworks!

1 comment:

TalOs said...

A sincere Happy 4th of July to y'all in the U.S.A! :D