Back Issue Box: Adventure Comics #381

Adventure Comics was once a flagship title in the DC universe with anchors like the Legion of Superheroes and Supergirl leading the way. With the current retro-fitting of the DCU to a more Silver Age sensibility (after years of 'grim and gritty' fare), Adventure Comics is back and in a big way. Adventure Comics #0 was released last week, reprinting the Legion's first appearance and including a very interesting 'Omens and Origins' story about Lex Luthor and Kon-El.

With this rebirth of the title, I thought I would take a look back at Adventure Comics #381, Supergirl's first issue as the headliner and her first 'booklength' tale. The book was released in 1969, 10 years after Supergirl's first appearance in Action Comics. 'The Supergirl Gang' was written by Cary Bates and drawn by Win Mortimer.

I included the opening splash page because I think it is a very nice 'one stop shopping' review of Kara's history. In three sentences, a new reader basically knows the broad strokes of Supergirl's history and is also thrust into the issue's story.


The story starts out in Metropolis where Supergirl is patrolling for Superman while he is away on a deep space mission. While flying overhead, she hears a muffled explosion and comes across a gang of thieves robbing a safe. She has little problem overpowering them but is shocked to see that all the thieves are young women she recognizes from the Stanhope College campus. Even stranger, they all seem to be dazed and amnsetic when questioned at the police station.


After some simple questioning with the girls while in her Linda identity, Supergirl discovers that they all had enrolled in a local Detective School for women. Wanting to learn more, Linda goes to a demonstration the school is having where a woman dressed suspiciously like the women burglars shows her prowess in marksmanship, safe cracking, and martial arts.

Adding to the mystery, the school itself is made of lead-lined walls blocking any XRay vision reconnaisance.

Deciding to some old-fashioned detective work herself, Supergirl flies to Gotham and lets herself into the Batcave.

Can you imagine Batman just allowing Supergirl to rifle through his files in today's DC Universe? Not likely ... or not happily. It was a simpler time.

Still the legwork seems to have paid off. The man running the school is a known felon named Albert Maxom.

Of course, you would think the Metropolis Police should have figured this out as well.

Unfortunately, Supergirl doesn't think there is quite enough evidence to blow the case wide open. She also want to be able to produce some proof that the girls were not knowingly involved in the crime. The best place to gather that evidence is from the inside.

Linda joins the school and passes the first challenge, fighting back when confronted by some thugs. Since she was with other students, she could not use her powers. Luckily, the thugs were actually robots that shut down. Maxom uses the robots to see if his females students will fight back if confronted. If you don't try to fight back against his robots you are expelled.

After some snooping, Linda also discovers a plausible reason for the lead-lined walls. Maxom (who is posing as his legitimate twin brother) has a working nuclear reactor in the school. He is trying to create atomic weapons to fight crime.

An atomic reactor in a detective school? Sounds pretty suspicious to me but it makes Linda doubt her instincts that things are not on the level here.

I tend to chuckle a bit at things like this when looking at it from a 2009 sensibility. Who would approve a private nuclear reactor just outside of Metropolis and next to a college?

Despite being a new girl, Linda strives to head right to the head of the class, especially when she hears that a new crime might be being committed that night. Her only way to get on that squad is to dispatch the top student in the class, a blonde named Miss Barbour.

As you can see, Miss Barbour has a secret too. But more on that later ....

Despite being overmatched in martial art skills, Linda defeats Barbour who literally collapses from exhaustion.

Promoted to the upper echelon, Linda and the other girls are brought into a secret room where Maxom, dressed in a suit of mirrors, hypnotizes them into doing his bidding ... committing crimes and giving him the loot.

So let me see if I understand this Maxom guy. He has access to a nuclear reactor and robot thugs and can also mass hypnotize. And he thinks the most efficient way to use this hardware and skill set is to send female college students on daring break-ins? Seems at the very least he just should just send the robots in.

And doesn't Supergirl have enough information now to shut the whole operation down? I would think so. But instead she proceeds with the plans of robbing a Metropolis bank.

The girls, including Linda, are successful in robbing a local bank. Superman, who has returned from space is about to stop them when he notices Supergirl amongst the pack. She in turn leaves him a microscopic message telling him she knows what she is doing. Superman actually trusts Supergirl (near inconceivable back then) and lets the girls escape back to the school.

Supergirl finally decides to end the charade. She ties up Maxom's associates and let's him know she has uncovered the whole seedy mess. She even has time to grab her Linda Danvers robot to explain away how she was there for the robberies and yet is *not* really Linda Danvers.

But just as Supergirl is about to lead Maxom to justice, he pulls out his last ace in the hole. The robots seen earlier attack again but this time they expose Kryptonite they have hidden in their mechanics. Supergirl is suddenly incapacitated.

But Miss Barbour shows up in her own reveal ... as Batgirl ... and swings Supergirl far enough away from the Kryptonite that she is no longer effected. Get it .... Miss Barbour ... Barbara ... Barbara Gordon ... nice little unexpected twist.

Now I really have to question Maxom's crime prowess. He had access to Kryptonite wielding robots and he sent out barely trained college co-eds to rob banks? Couldn't he just sell the Kryptonite to the mob and live on the interest he would collect?

With the robots far away, Supergirl simply blows them apart with her super-breath. And Batgirl gets the honors of punching out Maxom. Another job well done by the female World's Finest team.

I have to admit the Batgirl reveal was a bit of a surprise when I first read this issue. A pleasant surprise.

And it was nice to see Supergirl finally get her own title rather than a few pages at the back end of Action Comics. As a result, this issue also has some historic qualities for the Supergirl fan, it being her first solo issue and all. I see this issue run between $15-40 dollars at conventions depending on condition. It is a nice piece to have in a Supergirl collection.

Overall grade: solid B