Friday, April 3, 2020

Review: Adventure Comics #414


Last week, at the suggestion of Mart Gray, I reviewed Adventure #410 and the story in which Supergirl becomes a sort of foster mother to a super-powered alien tyke named Judy. By the end of that story, Jusy was revealed to be the vanguard of an alien invasion, was turned to the light by Supergirl's love, and then was stripped of her powers. Judy's stepfather, the invader, was killed by the good old American Air Force.

But what ultimately happened to Judy?

Well,flash forward 4 issues to Adventure #414 and the back up Supergirl story in that issue. Trust me, many of these Adventure Comics are bonkers and this issue gives us a heady double dose of insanity. The cover story, with Vortex, is bizarre.

But let's get back to our little angel Judy and her guardian angel Kara. Settle in, insanity happens!


"The Kidnapping" was written by John Albano with art by Bob Oksner, the same team that brought us the first Judy story. It is filled with the standard lush, and occasionally Good Girl, art that Oksner excels at.

But we are dropped right into the action.

As Linda Danvers, dressed in a mod outfit that Peggy Lipton would crave, heads for home, Judy is being kidnapped.

Now, you might ask yourself 'why would Linda leave an alien kindergarten-aged moppet home alone while she went shopping. But I don't think you'll come up with a good answer.

Also, it seems almost random. Why did the kidnappers hone in here?

Again, we can't dwell on the details. We have to just accept and move on.


Even worse, when the crooks ransacked the place, they discovered Kara's costume. He knows she is the Girl of Steel. And unless Kara does any number of crimes, Judy will be hurt.

She has to knock off a bank, grab some jewels, and bring a mink coat too.

Ahh ... the seventies.

The whole idea of the costume hanging in the closet revealing a secret identity is such a trope.


Now you would think that in this pre-Crisis universe, a time when Kryptonians can drop kick planets and conquer time, that Supergirl would simply scour the planet with her super-senses and find Judy.

Nope.

Instead, her play is to get into a form-fitting Catwoman-esque body suit and go through with the crimes!! Now that seems silly.

If that isn't enough, her boss from the TV station, bohunk Jeff, calls to tell Linda that a UFO has been reported in the area. Linda needs to be on call for some reporting should something come of it.


The details of the crimes were clear. Supergirl was to drop the loot off at a certain place and then check out a phone booth for more details.

Inside the booth is a picture of Judy proving the little girl is still healthy and safe.

Now you would think the easiest thing for Supergirl to do would be to watch the loot from the upper atmosphere and follow whoever picks it up to where Judy is hiding.

But this is the 1970's. So instead she is able to make out a phone number written on the inside of the matchbook in the picture. Then, super-speed scanning the phone book, she is able to find the address of whom the phone number belongs.

Wow. That reads so dated. Matchbooks? Landlines?

Seriously, the clue on the inside of a matchbook is a pretty dusty plot point, right out of bad films noir.


The number leads to the kidnapper's girlfriend's apartment. And there is Judy, tied to a chair.

But check out the girlfriend. Smoking! Halter top! Bellbottoms! So seventies chic!


Supergirl busts in and confronts the woman. Initially, the woman reacts with violence reaching for a gun. But then she pleads she is an innocent in this ploy. At least Supergirl isn't buying the 'babe in the woods' routine.

But look at a brief peek at a dark Kara in that first panel. She is *aching* for a chance to take this woman apart. Grim and gritty stuff.

Okay, so far this is reading like a standard somewhat convoluted 70's Supergirl story.

But then things get a little crazy ...


The kidnapper returns but is basically cut in half by a laser beam shot into the apartment through the window.

I mean, that is pretty graphic. And it came out of nowhere.

Oksner throws in a little of his good girl art in that last panel letting us see Supergirl's assets as she turns around to look for Judy.

But who shot the man?


Well, whoever they are, they also gun down the girlfriend, perforating her in the middle of the street.

That's straight brutal!


And then the bloodthirsty murderers turn out to be ... Judy's grandparents! They have been looking for her!

Look at how middle america, tray of cookies cooling, sweet they seem. And Judy runs right into their arms. She is ready to go home. (I like how Albano includes a line about their ship jamming radar. Remember, Judy's father got killed by Air Force fighters when he entered US airspace.)

As sweet as they look, the grandparents just bisected 2 people in cold blood. I find it strange that Kara so easily lets these two killers take Judy away so quickly. But this is the seventies and this short story and this Judy plot need to be wrapped up.

In fact, the next day, Linda is still thrilled that Judy is home. She is smiling to the point that Nasty Luthor wonders just what is going on.

Now, you can take a step back and say that in many ways, the beginning of Judy's story was like Kara's. A young girl, rocketed away from a doomed planet and sent to Earth. So maybe she is thrilled that Judy could go back to her family unlike Kara herself. But still, so fast ... and so bloody an ending.

I am glad I got to review this. I owe Martin an extra thanks for getting me to smile again about Supergirl in these weird times for her character and our world.

This is a low importance issue for a Supergirl collection. But as always, worth a buy if you find it cheap.

Overall grade: B

12 comments:

Martin Gray said...

Thank you so much for returning to one of my favourite times for Supergirl. It’s true, this story made no sense but it’s nice Judy wasn’t forgotten. Imagine what she’d turn like given she’s obviously from a world where people kill without blinking. I bet that lollipop is lethal.

Anonymous said...

Ah, the good, old days... And I'm serious here.

Back then, Supergirl's strip had been running for thirteen consecutive years. Supergirl had been allowed to grow up and evolve. She had left the orphanage, gratuated high school and college and gotten a job. Her origin, backstory, personality and civilian name were fully and firmly established.

I'm the first to admit the stories weren't so great, and the lack of a firmly established supporting cast and villains was and would continue to be an issue, but compare it with any of her SG/PG sucessors so far. Or they were subjected to constant personality changes and awful retcons, or they were retired in less than ten years, or all of it.

Anyway, the story was entertaining (lacks to a lack of awful love interests and horrible transformations), it closes a secondary plot rather than expecting readers to forget about it, and I have to smile at that scene where a criminal realizes for once she would be wasting bullets.

Bob Oskner's art is real good. I love that last panel, featuring a smiling Linda.

Thank you for reviewing this issue, Anj.

Anonymous said...

Ahem. I meant "THANKS to a lack of". I'm sorry for the typo.

H said...

I guess they don't take kindly to kidnapping little girls on Judy's planet. Plus, it saves Linda the trouble of figuring out a way to remove her secret identity from the kidnappers' minds.

Funny enough, the part I'm having trouble with is an apartment with a back door. I can see going down the fire escape but this isn't I Love Lucy or something!

Professor Feetlebaum said...

Looks like Judy traded her lollipop for a doll.

These Supergirl stories edited by Joe Orlando and written by John Albano and Steve Skeates and others may have been a little kooky, but they were an improvement over the ones that Mike Sekowsky had done-and much better than the stories in Supergirl's own book that followed. It's too bad Orlando didn't continue to edit Supergirl.

Bob Oksner's art is terrific. I'm sure someone somewhere wrote that all his girls looked like Tuesday Weld...which made him the perfect artist to draw Thalia Menninger in the Dobie Gillis comic.

I hope Linda remembered to send Judy a birthday card every year.

DC really should publish a collection of these Bronze Age Supergirl stories.


Anonymous said...

As bonkers as this was, I vastly prefer this version of Supergirl the current Goth-Damage-Monkey, assuming floppies ever resume publication that is..."Bring Back Judy, the Lollimoppet Semi Daughter!" sez I.
The Bronze Age Super girl may have a "code against killing", but she will casually take advantage of someone else's homicidal acts if it safeguards her secret identity and concurrent freedom of action...in that she weirdly resembles the Melissa Benoist version of Kara who also has a no-kill policy that doesn't extend to her semi-homicidal foster sister.
Bob Oksner was too much a humor book artist to ever quite click as a superhero penciler, but he draws one of the most consistently doll some versions of Kara ever published, She literally poses perfectly from panel to panel with the precise facial expression required by the script. If its a little too cartoony, well remember comics are movies relayed by panels not celluloid, so cartooniness is built in...

JF

Anonymous said...

"DC really should publish a collection of these Bronze Age Supergirl stories."

Some years ago, a "Supergirl: The Bronze Age Omnibus" was solicited, but the solicitation was cancelled right away. A pity.

So far, DC has only collected Supergirl's Action Comics run and her second solo. It'd be nice if DC collected the rest of her Pre-Crisis material (Adventure Comics, her first solo and Superman Family), but I don't know how likely it is. They appear to have cancelled most of Omnibuses and trades collecting Pre-Flashpoint stuff.

Anj said...

Thanks for the great comments.

These were simpler times!

Love Oksner's work!

Anonymous said...

And Not One Comment about the Classic Bondage Fan Service Cover, Yay Us!


:)

JF

KET said...

"These Supergirl stories edited by Joe Orlando and written by John Albano and Steve Skeates and others may have been a little kooky, but they were an improvement over the ones that Mike Sekowsky had done-and much better than the stories in Supergirl's own book that followed. It's too bad Orlando didn't continue to edit Supergirl."

Well, yeah...Orlando's editing tenure on SG in Adventure seemed to be building towards some sort of supporting continuity, which of course, got completely thrown out by incoming Supergirl editor Dorothy Woolfolk, who wanted her back in a college setting for more romantic entanglements. Then Woolfolk suddenly bailed on the title before the first issue had even hit the news stands; such was the prevailing chaos surrounding DC Comics' treatment of Supergirl in this time frame.

"Bob Oksner's art is terrific. I'm sure someone somewhere wrote that all his girls looked like Tuesday Weld...which made him the perfect artist to draw Thalia Menninger in the Dobie Gillis comic."

Oksner's artistic forte was in DC's humor line, which is why his take on Supergirl often looked a lot like Angel of the Angel and The Ape comics.

"And Not One Comment about the Classic Bondage Fan Service Cover..."

Well, I was reserving that commentary for you to pick up on. :)

It was pretty typical of this era, which also had DC's premiere superheroines suddenly feeling dirty and all needing to take baths and showers. The overtly sexualized undercurrent also prevailed on other Superhgirl Adventure Comics covers such as issues 415, 418 and 420.

"DC really should publish a collection of these Bronze Age Supergirl stories."

It'll likely never happen. Such a collection was actually solicited by the publisher a few years back, only to be cancelled due to lack of pre-order interest.


KET

Anonymous said...

Helluva shame I treasure many of these stories, even the Sekowsky looniness (he was at least making a good faith attempt to create a fixed supporting cast, interesting subplots & a stronger rogue's gallery today's creatives ought to take heed quite frankly). BTW but with the heavy shadowing in this story, I'd swear this is almost Bob Oksner's idea of a Noir....
:)


JF

Anonymous said...

"Such a collection was actually solicited by the publisher a few years back, only to be cancelled due to lack of pre-order interest."

Are you sure of that? Or are you merely guessing?

I'm asking because I have never heard of it being cancelled due to lack of pre-order interest. It disappeared from the solicitation list overnight.

I guess it's possible, but given that her Silver Age Omnibuses weren't cancelled, and the cancellation was instantaneous, I'm not buying that statement unless or until someone gives me a reliable source.