Action Comics #252

 Action Comics #252

Originally released in 1959

Written by Robert Bernstein and Otto Binder

Art by Al Plastino

I'm going to watch the Supergirl movie today, so it seems fitting that I cover her first appearance. (I already covered the comic that it's based on, Supergirl: Woman Of Tomorrow, in my previous blog) In a bit of a surprise, Supergirl's introduction is in the shorter back-up story; instead, the main story is the introduction of a long-lasting Superman villain, Metallo.

John Corben is convinced he committed the perfect crime. After being caught stealing from his employer, he killed the employer, wiped his fingerprints off of the gun, and made it look like a suicide.  Moments after thinking this, he gets into a car crash that is almost fatal.

A professor finds him, and in what comes across as an example of the sunk-cost fallacy (the idea that you've already come this far and put so many resources into something, so you can't back out now), he replaces Corben's heart with mechanical parts... and then he keeps going, replacing more and more of Corben's body with machinery until only his brain is left. (It's not like the man is a mad scientist, at least not in the sense of ranting about how he'll show all those fools who said he was mad, but it doesn't seem like there was any reason to replace his skin or his entire skeletal system)

The professor says that only two elements can keep Corben alive, with one of them being uranium, though the professor has a stroke before he can reveal the second. Corben abandons the professor, heading into Metropolis and somehow getting a job at the Daily Planet.

Corben commits a series of thefts to stockpile the uranium that he needs.  For someone who thought he had committed the perfect crime, Corben doesn't seem to be a very effective criminal; he makes no effort to hide or even disguise his face when stealing the uranium, though I guess he acted so quickly that nobody caught him in the act.

When mafia goons try to kill Lois for looking into their business, Corben gets hit by several bullets that bounce off harmlessly (he didn't intend to save her; the bullets hit him by coincidence). This leads to Lois assuming that Corben is Superman, which gives Corben the idea to shave his mustache and imitate Superman. (Though I doubt his mustache would be able to grow back, given the nature of his current condition)

Superman foils Metallo's efforts to steal the uranium, but Metallo escapes while Superman is distracted.  Corben visits the professor who turned him into Metallo, who has since recovered from his stroke, and discovers the second element that could keep him alive: Kryptonite, which is what's generally known for serving as Metallo's heart.

Rather than using the Kryptonite to power himself, Metallo plants the Kryptonite at a charity event to weaken Superman so he can take a sample of Kryptonite that Superman has instead.  This act of pettiness (coupled with his inability to open a door properly) proves to be his undoing.

The issue also has a back-up story featuring Congorilla, a character that I'm not familiar with. Thankfully, they quickly sum up the premise.

It's an entertaining romp as Congo Bill switches bodies with a gorilla to save himself from execution by mutinous soldiers.  Plus it's got a gorilla throwing barrels roughly twenty years before Donkey Kong, so that's a fun coincidence.

Supergirl's first appearance largely has her crash-landing on Earth and explaining her backstory to Superman, about how a chunk of Krypton was flung off into space and turned radioactive. Funnily enough, neither Supergirl or her parents knew that she was related to Superman when they sent her to Earth; Kara only realizes it when Clark mentions the name of his father.

In what's described as something that might be the happiest moments of Clark's life, he learns that he's not alone in the universe, and that he has a family member who survived Krypton's destruction.  However, this isn't reflected by his actions, as he worries that Kara showing up in his life could jeopardize his secret identity somehow (How? I'm not sure if Ma and Pa Kent are alive in the present day, but either way, it seems easy enough to claim she's his cousin who moved to Metropolis after a natural disaster killed her parents) and sends her to live in an orphanage.

I get that Superman wants her to get used to Earth and her newfound powers, but it seems uncharacteristically harsh for him to almost abandon her. (I assume the writers didn't want to change Superman's status quo too much) She seems to take it pretty well, even though she likely uses her powers much sooner than Clark would prefer. (Though he can't complain; he was using his powers as Superboy when he was her age, and she knows it)

I enjoy the whimsical "anything goes" nature of this era, and I wish that DC included more Silver Age comics on their app. (The next one in this series is issue 267) I get that there might not be high demand for them, but they're a key part of DC's history and incredibly entertaining.  All things considered, Kara seems incredibly chipper about growing up on a city that was constantly under threat of radioactive annihilation, the food machine breaking down, or the air bubble breaking, so I like how Supergirl: Woman of Tomorrow expanded on that. Still, this issue is an effective origin for Supergirl, who's a character that I haven't read much about. (I think the only stories I've read that feature her in a major capacity are Crisis On Infinite Earths and Supergirl: Woman of Tomorrow)