Supergirl #18 (April 1984)

With the Girl of Steel returning to the big screen, this time portrayed by Milly Alcock, I thought it would be a good time to look at a comic starring said Maid of Might. Also, it had been a while since I looked at a DC book here. I am a Marvel head, don't get me wrong, but I also enjoy DC. 

The comic we're looking at here is from the last series the original incarnation of Kara Zor-El had before her death on Crisis on Infinite Earths. I have looked at comics in this series before, most recently back in November of last year with issue #2. I've found the series to be pretty decent. I did enjoy the creators trying to give Supergirl her own life, adventures, and rogues outside of the Man of Steel. So, let's see the Girl of Steel take on the threat of the Kraken in Supergirl #18!

The cover is a Howard Bender and Dick Giordano piece. You may also have noticed that the masthead logo is different from the last issue we looked at. This logo first appeared in issue #13, and I admit...I'm not too fond of it. I preferred the first masthead logo as it had that link to Superman's but also looked distinctive. Yes, she's Kal-El's cousin, but she is still her own person. I think that first masthead logo captured that perfectly. This one looks...a bit more generic. But that's just me.

"Call me--Kraken"
Writer: Paul Kupperberg
Penciler: Carmine Infantino
Inker: Bob Oksner
Letterer: Nansi Hoolahan
Colorist: Ben Oda
Editor: Julius Schwartz
Executive Editor: Dick Giordano

The story begins in Lake Michigan. We look in on an oil tanker going across said Great Lake. The Siren Song flies a Greek flag for the Northstar Oil Company.

"🎵Sailing, sailing, over the bounty main...🎵"

The tanker's sonar picks up something odd under the waves. The ship tries to go around it, as it doesn't want to risk a collision. However, a massive wave seems to prepare to crash into the ship...and it stops. Like someone hit the pause button on it.

The ship also ends up stuck in the water. A voice demands that the owner pay them $1,000,000 for passage. And that's not just this ship. Every ship or plane that goes over this lake must pay this person a million dollars as tribute, or they will destroy them. The head of the company, a Mr. Hogwilder, agrees to pay the mysterious being...while using taxpayer money to do so...and take a little extra for expenses, of course. Yeah, I have no idea how he's going to do that. But then again, I am not a corrupt greedy CEO, so...yeah. Maybe they cover that in the college course for it.

The being also demonstrates their new power by trapping a plane in a thunderstorm. So, where's Supergirl at? Well, she's in Chicago foiling a bank robbery.

"I hope I don't get blasted with antimatter wearing this spiffy new suit..."

Yes, this is the costume she will wear when she meets the Grim Reaper in Crisis on Infinite Earths. The costume itself debuted in issue #13, while the headband was added here. Since Supergirl is a Kryptonian, and these bank robbers are just, well, bank robbers in silly helmets, she is easily able to take care of them. A bystander remarks how Supergirl looks very trendy in her new headband and uniform, but it's actually traditional. Pre-Crisis, male Kryptonians wore headbands. But since Kara's on Earth, she decides she can wear one, too. It also helps keep her hair out of her face. She encounters Lt. Peters of Chicago PD, who is annoyed at her catching the criminals, which he sees as her interfering in police business. Kara reminds him that she was deputized as a police representative by the United Nations all the way back in Action Comics #285. I'm not sure how that works, so we should just assume the bureaucracy for that stuff in the DC Universe. 

As she flies off, a boat takes to the waters, only to be trapped on a waterspout, the voice of the being responsible demanding tribute. Meanwhile, Kara arrives at Symphony Hall in downtown Chicago. 

"People tend to get lost here. And never return."

From what I can look up, this is not a real place. There are actual places called Symphony Hall in some places in the US, most notably in Boston, but there isn't one in Chicago. There are concert halls in the Windy City, but none of them look like this from what I could see.

Anyway, Kara is there to meet Phil Decker, a concert musician. A man there tells her that today is Wednesday, and the musicians are off on Wednesday. This strikes Kara as odd as he told her he always rehearses on that day. She fears that maybe he's seeing someone else behind her back. She heads home, lost in thought about this. Unnoticed by her, a figure is watching her thanks to a security camera hidden in the trees. Good thing it isn't fall yet.

"Oh man, this is better than my soap operas!"

At her apartment, she gets a call from Phil who tells her he's still practicing. Kara is tempted to use her powers to spy on him, but she's never done it before, and has no intention of starting now. She needs to clear her head, so she decides to go fly. She decides to just ask the man about it. After all, better to get more facts before making a judgment. She finally notices the craziness in Lake Michigan and goes to check it out.

You'd think at the very least, the local news would have gone bonkers about this. I get it's the DC Universe, but you'd think they'd still talk about this. Supergirl finds the plane trapped earlier in the issue, having finally run out of fuel. 

"Mom was right. I should've been an accountant."

Kara is able to catch the plane. She ends up getting an energy blast to the back for her trouble.

Because of it, she has to toss the plane to O'Hare International Airport, hoping it can glide there. She tries to dissipate the storm clouds over Lake Michigan with some heat vision but gets an explosion to the mug for it. 

It's here the being responsible for this reveals themselves. 

"I...have been...RELEASED!"

Meet Kraken, a...sorcerer? He babbles about magic in the issue, so I can assume he is. He's obviously not an Earthman. He's not from the Milky Way galaxy. He's not even from Universe-One (this is still pre-Crisis). Many years ago, he came to this dimension to prove his might and power to his gods. As part of that, he figured "I know the best way to do this! I'm going to do some conquering!" And as such, he tried to do so. Key word being try. His first attempt to conquer a city in space resulted in him getting repelled. In fact, he got beaten so badly he nearly died. Not exactly his finest hour. 

He obviously lived, although he spent a lot of time recovering. Presumably in some kind of space traction. His desire for revenge helped keep him going through this. He would return to the city that originally repelled and whupped him...only to find it floating in space and utterly lifeless. It turns out that this was Argo City, Kara's original home. Kraken took this...well.

He could not redeem himself with the Argosians now all gone. Somehow, he learned of Kara's survival and living on Earth. That's really what he's all about. He wants revenge on Kara simply because she's from Argo City. 

Kara dives into the water and knocks Kraken into it. That was a mistake.

His power is greater under water. He claims his magical powers are invincible in the sea, demonstrating by firing water at her. Thing is, Kara may be no more immune to the effects of magic than anyone else but fighting foes who pack magic is nothing new to her at this point. She disperses the waterspout with a whirlpool. She grabs Kraken's wrists, but he's also strong enough to send her flying.

Kraken blasts at her with hard water bubbles, Kara counters with super-breath. He then hits her with some presumably magical lightning.

Kraken could never quite understand how "tag" works.

Kara notes that if it was really a magical blast, it could have easily taken her head off. Kraken follows Kara out of the water and creates a magic fist to crush the Kryptonian heroine. She's able to use her X-Ray vision on Kraken and realizes something. She then hits him with her heat vision. Kraken suddenly goes weaker. He topples to the ground, his watery creations collapsing...but Supergirl has him.

"You owe a lot of people a lot of apologies, fishface."

Supergirl's X-Ray vision allowed her to discover that Kraken wasn't really a magician. He was just using advanced technology that seemed like magic. She not only used her heat vision to dry him out and weaken him (presumably she assumed Kraken was like Aquaman at the time, that keeping moist helped maintain his strength), she used it to fry his devices, making him unable to use his "magic". If Kraken's idea of heaven is taking down Supergirl, then he's going to be stuck in "hell" for a very long time. Somewhere, the Anti-Monitor is laughing, and he does not know why...

I did enjoy this issue. Kraken is shown to be a powerhouse, worthy of being a threat to the Girl of Steel. We also get a little bit of mystery regarding Kara's potential main squeeze and the mysterious being watching her. So, there was something to think over. We don't get any hints that the watcher here is aware that Kara is Supergirl, but that doesn't mean they aren't aware of it. And since Supergirl has no shortage of enemies (considering her own adventures and her being Superman's cousin), it's not surprising that there's someone in the background plotting against her.  

Kraken is your basic "out to conquer and get revenge" villain. He's not really special, but I think if he did ever get more appearances and development, he could have grown into an interesting character. But still, kudos to the creators for trying to give Supergirl her own villains to fight. Also, I think he looks really cool, and his "magic" being advanced technology was a twist that would make Arthur C. Clarke proud. So, yeah. He was a bit basic, but he had potential.

I felt the bit with Hogwilder was unnecessary. I got the impression he was being set up to be a bigger player in things, perhaps becoming Kara's own Lex Luthor. But he gets one appearance and that's it. We don't see him try to enact the plan he seemingly has for embezzlement. 

Dick Giordano's art here hasn't quite reached the form it has later with The Flash, although I wonder if that was because of Ben Oda's inking here. It does the job just fine. 

If you want to read this story for yourself, I recommend tracking down the 2017 trade paperback The Daring Adventures of Supergirl Vol. 2. Thanks for reading this blog entry! If you liked it, show it off! Take care of yourselves and each other! If you like what I write and want to give my blog some additional support, please make a donation to my Ko-Fi! See you next time!