Wonder Woman Unbound (18 page)

Both women cared only about having a strong, heroic man and not at all about how he treated them. Much like Lois fell for any tough man who crossed her path, Steve would do something brave and heroic to remind Wonder Woman what a strong man he was and all would be forgiven. Love wasn’t about affection, but rather about a stereotypical ideal of manliness. It didn’t matter how domineering the men behaved; their passive girlfriends only wanted to swoon at their strength. The main message of both
Wonder Woman
and
Superman’s Girl Friend Lois Lane
was that men controlled the relationship and women shouldn’t question their actions, however cruel, demeaning, or unnecessary.

Supergirl

First appearing in
Action Comics
#252 in May 1959, Supergirl was Superman’s long-lost Kryptonian cousin. When Krypton exploded, a small portion of the planet survived, and two of its inhabitants were Zor-El, the brother of Superman’s father, Jor-El, and his wife. They later had a daughter, Kara, and when their village began to be affected by Kryptonite radiation, they searched the galaxy for a new home where they could send her. Using a superpowered telescope, they learned that Superman was from Krypton, so Zor-El sent Kara to Earth where she too could have superpowers and be spared the deadly effects of Kryptonite radiation.

Superman discovered her rocket, and he decided to put his teenage cousin in an orphanage where she could interact with other children and learn the customs of Earth. He gave the blonde Supergirl a brunette, pigtailed wig, and she chose the alias Linda Lee.

After her first appearance, Supergirl was regularly featured in
Action Comics,
but she also appeared occasionally in
Superman, Adventure Comics, Superman’s Pal Jimmy Olsen,
and
Superman’s Girl Friend Lois Lane.
Because of their age difference, Superman assumed a sort of parental, caregiver role for her. For all intents and purposes, Superman was her surrogate father and, as a good child, she obeyed him as such. However, much like with Lois Lane, having Superman in charge wasn’t a pleasant experience.

Ostensibly, Superman put Supergirl in an orphanage so she could learn how to fit in on Earth, but an ulterior motive quickly became clear: Superman wanted to keep Supergirl as a secret weapon. When Supergirl asked if she could reveal herself to the world, Superman responded, “No,
Supergirl!
I have many cunning enemies! If I’m ever in a bad trap, you’re the only one who could rescue me!” So Supergirl stayed in the orphanage, and was initially fine with her secret weapon role. When Superman was in trouble or needed assistance, she would jet off and help, all the while making sure that no one noticed her so that her existence remained a secret.

In an early appearance, Supergirl saw a newspaper story about one of Superman’s exploits and stated, “I won’t get any headlines for my feats like my cousin
Superman
does! But it’s still super-fun to work secretly as
Supergirl
and help others!” Supergirl even sabotaged her interviews with couples looking to adopt her so she could remain at the orphanage; in one issue, she used her heat vision to burn a roast she was making in hopes that a couple would think she was careless and a poor cook. She dutifully remained Superman’s secret weapon, giving up the establishment of her own identity and the love of a family so that Superman could have a safety net, but her happiness with this arrangement soon wore thin.

Although Supergirl had to stay at the orphanage, she worked hard to get the other children into loving homes. These instances included:

• Helping Timmy Tate with a magic show that impressed his potential parents, resulting in his adoption
  
• Proving that Paul was not lying about seeing Streaky the Super Cat perform fantastical feats so that potential parents wouldn’t be told he was a liar
  
• Using her superbreath to help Frank Cullen shoot several holes in one, impressing his potential new father, a golfer, so much that he adopted him
  
• Warming an iron with her heat vision so Nancy could iron her dress and look nice for her interview, after which she was adopted
  
• Flying underwater to help Eddie Moran rescue a drowning man, who then adopted Eddie
  

Her commitment to family and adoption extended beyond the orphanage as well: in an adventure in the future, she helped a boy named Tommy Tomorrow find parents, and she found a home for a Bizarro baby with Bizarro parents.
*
Just as the desire for marriage was a common theme in other DC comic books, so too was the desire for family well illustrated in Supergirl stories. The nuclear family was again paramount, and Supergirl soon wanted a family of her own.

In a guest appearance in
Superman’s Girl Friend Lois Lane,
Supergirl thought, “Jeepers! If … if cousin
Superman
and Lois got married, they could adopt me! … ‘Mother Lois’!! … ‘Father
Superman’!!
… Gee! I’d be the happiest girl alive!!!” Note the rare usage of three exclamation points. Supergirl ached to be adopted and have the happiness and security that came with being part of a family, but Superman wasn’t interested and punished her when she tried to meddle in his love life. A year and a half after her first appearance, Supergirl was still housed in the orphanage. After seeing another girl get adopted, she thought, “H-how long will I have to wait for a mother and father to adopt me? …
>Sob!<”

Supergirl was finally adopted in August 1961, but only because she had lost her superpowers in the previous issue. Without her powers, she wasn’t able to pull her usual tricks to sway couples from adopting her and, with a career as a superhero no longer a possibility, Supergirl became Linda Lee Danvers, the dutiful daughter of Fred and Edna Danvers. Her superpowers did eventually return, and she remained with her adopted parents, but it’s striking that the only way Supergirl could have a family was for her to no longer be of any use to Superman.
*

Superman, despite being raised by caring parents who taught him everything he needed to know, actively deprived Supergirl of a loving home. To Superman, Supergirl was little more than a tool. Furthermore, even though he was her only family member in the entire universe, he came by infrequently, popping in only when he needed her help or, even worse, when he wanted to teach her a lesson or submit her to a test.

When Supergirl saw Krypto, the super dog, and flew over to meet him, she was chastised by Superman because Krypto could follow her to the orphanage and expose her secret identity. Superman declared, “You must be taught a
lesson
for breaking my rule!” and he exiled her to an asteroid for one year. After a week, she received a message from Superman to return to the orphanage for a day. It turned out that the exile was a test to see if Supergirl could protect her identity and cover for Linda’s weeklong absence, which she did. Again we see Superman forcing a female character to endure an elaborate ruse so he could make an insignificant point. To Superman, the ends always justified the means, even if the means involved making a teenage girl feel ashamed, sad, and alone.

While Supergirl and Lois Lane were both maltreated by Superman in similar ways, Wonder Woman is a more apt comparison to the Maid of Might. With their superpowers, both had the capacity to rebel against the controlling man in her life; Lois, for all her gumption, was just a human up against a superpowered Kryptonian. Wonder Woman and Supergirl didn’t have to put up with these domineering males, yet they willingly did. Although their relationships were different, romantic for Wonder Woman and parental for Supergirl, their superpowers kept them from having a normal life, and these men offered them the hope that someday they could be part of a nuclear family. They were kept in a sort of limbo, unhappy with their lot but unable to change it, looking forward to some idyllic future where they would feel complete.

Star Sapphire

Carol Ferris first appeared in
Showcase Comics
#22 in September 1959 as the daughter of the boss of Green Lantern’s alter ego, the test pilot Hal Jordan. Early in the issue, Hal asked Carol out on a date, but later that day her father announced that he was going to travel around the world for two years and that Carol would be in charge of the company. When Hal later asked Carol if they were still going out that evening, she replied, “Mr. Jordan,
puh-lease!
From now on the relations between us will be
strictly business!
” Hal tried to change her mind, but she stated, “During the next two years I’ll have absolutely no time for romance! I’m your boss. Mr. Jordan—and that’s
orders!
”

In her first appearance, Carol appeared to break out of the Silver Age mold. She purposefully set aside romance in favor of a career, and a very high-powered one at that, and committed herself wholly to her job. While other female characters were wrapped up in relationships with domineering boyfriends and wishing they could trade their careers for marriage, Carol did the opposite and swore off men so she could best run her company. It was a remarkably progressive stance, and it lasted for two-thirds of an issue.

By the end of
Showcase Comics
#22, Carol was out on a terrace kissing Green Lantern, and two issues later she was sure that he was going to propose to her and was terribly excited to accept. Naturally, he didn’t propose, and instead a classic love triangle was born. Carol loved Green Lantern, and he loved her too but wanted Carol to love his alter ego, Hal, not his superpowered self.

Carol immediately became fixated on the notion of marrying Green Lantern, and in
Green Lantern
#1
*
thought to herself while sitting in her office, “Night and day … day and night … all I think about is
Green Lantern!
I wonder if my dream will ever come true … and that someday he and I will marry?” Her commitment to her job had faded; instead of working, she was daydreaming. Soon she even rescinded her dating embargo on Hal and the two sporadically went out on the town. Carol the high-powered businesswoman very quickly turned into Carol the love interest.

The narration of the series unsubtly reinforced this role; in
Green Lantern
#7, Carol was on another date with Hal, and an editor’s note stated, “Carol Ferris, in the absence of her father, is in sole charge of the
Ferris Aircraft Company
where Hal works! Nominally, therefore, she is Hal’s boss … but actually, and mainly, she is his
romantic interest!
” Several issues later, Carol was described as “the young and pretty ‘boss’ of the
Ferris Aircraft Company,
” with boss in quotation marks.

However, the narrow scope of her character was given the opportunity to grow when she became the villainous Star Sapphire. In
Green Lantern
#16, Carol was kidnapped by a race of alien women called the Zamarons, who told her that she would be their new queen. The Zamarons were described as coming “from a world tremendously in advance of ours scientifically! A place inhabited solely by
women!
And if what they say is true, they are all
immortal.
”
^†
There was only one caveat to their immortality: their queen was mortal. Whenever their queen died, the Zamarons scoured the universe to find a woman who was the exact physical duplicate of their queen, and that woman happened to be Carol. They wanted to take Carol back to their planet, where she would be crowned Queen Star Sapphire and rule their advanced world. To a business-minded woman involved in the high-tech aerospace industry, becoming queen of the Zamarons would be the biggest promotion possible. On Earth, she was already in charge of her company and had essentially reached the top of the ladder. Leading the technologically advanced Zamarons was a significant step up and a great honor, which Carol promptly refused.

She just couldn’t bear to leave the man she loved and wanted to stay on Earth with Green Lantern. But the Zamarons were persistent, declaring, “As our future queen you must be made to realize, highness, how far superior even the
lowest Zamaron
is to
any man—
no matter who he be!” The Zamarons thought that if Carol could see that the powers of the Star Sapphire were greater than those of the Green Lantern, she wouldn’t be in love with him anymore, and so they gave Carol superpowers and manufactured a confrontation.

The powers gave Carol a split personality, where her Star Sapphire side wanted to defeat Green Lantern but her Carol side wanted him to win. Ultimately, she beat Green Lantern and returned to the Zamaron ship, but instead of agreeing to go with them Carol begged them to give Green Lantern another chance. The Zamarons could barely believe it; one cried out, “She doesn’t seem to realize that
men
are a distinctly inferior species!” and another chimed in, “She acts as if a
man
could be
something important!
” The head Zamaron warrior agreed to give Green Lantern a second chance, and this time he defeated Carol by surrounding her with an impenetrable barrier that cut her off from the source of her powers. Inside this box, she thought, “I feel so weak … so helpless …” but then realizing she was beaten, “I’m defeated! How terrible …
no! How wonderful!
” The Zamarons, disgusted with Carol, wiped her memory and left her in the middle of the desert while they resumed their quest for a queen.