DC Comics had a great new idea that I have to give them a lot of credit for. They released a couple of 500 page books that were black and white copies of massive amounts of comics for $10. The Superman volume contains nearly every Action and Superman from 1958 and 1959. One of the stories included was Superman 123 from August 1958 - "The Girl of Steel."

Note: 500 page books are difficult for my scanner. Some of these images have problems as a result.

Once again, we get a glimpse into the typical life of a reporter. Jimmy is flying the Daily Planet's helicopter over a flood zone. Lois wants to get the story of the flood from the ground so - of course - she parachutes down from the helicopter. What a great plan. There's a flood that requires Superman to build a raft to save the people caught in it from drowning. I know, I'll parachute down there and... well... drown I guess. Even before there was The Weather Channel, there were showboaters.

As stupid as the plan is to begin with, it doesn't even work as Lois's parachute fails to open. While the rest of us are left to wonder why she didn't just have Jimmy land her somewhere, Superman stops his life saving work to catch her.



Somehow Jimmy manages to hear this conversation; I guess the Planet can afford to have incredibly quiet helicopters. We haven't even gotten to the weird part of the story yet and it's already strained my credibility four times. Anyway, Jimmy decides that if only he were to have a magic wish, he'd let Superman have his Super-Girl. Of course, he reminds himself, "Aw, that's silly! Magic wishes are only in fairy tales!"

We then switch to some nebulous "later." Superman is rescuing an archeologist. He takes Jimmy along... ummmm... to watch or something. It's not like he does anything there. However, when the rescuee asks if he could give Superman anything as a reward, somehow Jimmy gets a gift out of it, an ancient totem that offers to grant three wishes once a century. Wait a second here. Jimmy just made a comment dismissing magic wishes and now he has a device that claims to grant them. Surely these aren't connected are they? Let's find out!



I love the phrase, "as a phenomenon unknown to modern science." See kids, this isn't a story about a magic device. It's all really scientific somehow in a way that we won't even bother trying to explain.

I wonder if kids sat around the playground after this issue was published and said, "Harken!" to each other.

So, magic Totem Spirit that is really scientific and stuff, Jimmy asked for Super-Girl to be a companion. Now did he mean a pal or did he mean a "companion?"

The meeting between the two was quite dramatic. They both rescue the same plane and...



The late lamented Cheeks the Toy Wonder page had a great comment about this panel. Why does Superman just accept that? He didn't even ask what magic totem it was that Jimmy rubbed. Oh, a woman with all of my powers was just magically created. That's nice I guess. I wonder what I should have for lunch today...

Super-Girl - may I say here how glad I am that when Kara Zor-El came to Earth, they dropped that annoying hyphen? - quickly reveals what she believes her role in Superman's life will be. I have powers, you have powers, I guess that means we're supposed to be married or something.



(In case you're wondering, Super-Girl's balloon says, "Jimmy felt you were lonely and needed a lifelong companion! Are you glad I'm here Superman?")

Unfortunately for Supes, his new girlfriend has some extra powers. Her SuperClingingness ability enables her to show up to try to stop the same disasters that Superman does, only to make matters worse. She also has the popular SuperIDon'tThinkForASecondBeforeBabblingAwayImportantSecrets:



So Superman's in a bind now. Super-Girl had to be wished away because of exposure to Kryptonite and the dramatic need to make sure that the actions of these characters have absolutely no consequences whatsoever. Lois heard Supergirl give away Clark's identity. How can Clark possibly convince Lois that they're two separate people. Does he ask Bruce Wayne to disguise himself as Clark so they could be seen at the same place at the same time? Does he use a Superman robot? Well normally those are the kinds of tricks he would use. This time though, he tries a different approach:



Let's go through the layers here of wrongness. Superman proposed to his girlfriend because he knew that she would know that he wouldn't ever really want to marry him. She's so sure of that that she ignores some obvious evidence in favor of Clark being Superman. Moreover, as the next panel shows, she's right.



Despite all of this, she has decided that she couldn't marry anyone else. Sure that's good for saving Superman's secret identity, but it's not exactly healthy. Lois is like a teenager who has a big poster of a rock star on her wall who knows that this is the man that she will marry. That's kind of cute at twelve Lois, but wouldn't you be happier if you set your sights on someone who was only mostly disinterested in you? Harken!

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