Tag Archives: supergirl

Streaky The Supercat Part I: Action Comics 261

Action Comics 261 - Cover

A couple of years ago my wonderful wife qcait bought me three old issues of Action Comics featuring Streaky the Supercat for my birthday.  So I decided to write about them in here!  This will be the first of my three part series going through each of these comics.  The first issue we will look at is Action Comics 261 which is the first appearance, and origin of Streaky the Supercat.  If you are wondering why Streaky doesn’t have top billing on the cover, this comic is old enough that they used to have multiple non-Superman stores in each issue of Action Comics.  “Supergirl’s Super Pet!” is actually the third story in this comic along with “Superman’s Fortresses of Solitude!” and “Congorilla’s Last Stand!”.  I actually didn’t read the other two stories as this comic is pretty old and I didn’t want to be handling it too much.

Action Comics 261 Front

Streaky’s origin begins with Linda Lee aka Kara Zor-El aka Supergirl hanging out at her home, an orphanage.  Her super vision spots a small piece of kryptonite falling from the sky.  She quickly changes into Supergirl to go retrieve the small rock.  Kara takes it back to her orphanage chemistry lab and begins experimenting with it to try find a way to reverse its effects.  After believing her attempts have failed she tosses the Kryptonite out a window.  Just then her new pet kitten happens to find the rock which, through her experiments, has become the new element x-kryptonite.  The x-kryptonite gives Streaky superpowers which he immediately goes out on the town to show off.  Supergirl hears Streaky’s distinct meow magnified over 50x so she goes to investigate and finds her new pet has super powers.  The two go into space to play when suddenly Streaky’s powers are lost and he starts dropping back to earth.  Kara quickly swoops him up and takes him safely back to the orphanage.

Action Comics 261 Chem Lab

Here are my stray thoughts and observations.  I was surprised to find out that Streaky was not actually from Krypton.  I had always assumed with his stripe that he had somehow gotten to earth similar to Krypto the Superdog.  I also did not know that Supergirl had an alter ego named Linda Lee.  I’ve seen the Supergirl movie in which she uses that name, but like most people I immediately blocked the film out of my memory.  I was also surprised that Supergirl wears a brown wig when she is her alter ego Linda Lee.  I mean it makes sense, Superman’s glasses have to be the worse disguise of all time.  I did laugh out loud when it said, “Next day, in a small chemical laboratory in the orphanage”.  You know the small chemical labs that orphanages are all famous for having.

Overall I really liked the story.  It was short (only 8 pages) but tells a nice little complete story.  It also was corny (as the golden / silver age tend to be) but not so corny that it was unreadable.  The art was fantastic, very detailed and able to emote a lot of action.

I don’t really collect a lot of high dollar comics so this is by far the oldest and most valuable comic I own.  So I was a little afraid to handle it and in order to read it winded up scanning the complete Streaky story.  Since I already went to the trouble of scanning the whole thing I figured I mine as well share the whole thing with you guys, so here it is the complete origin of Streaky the Supercat!


DC All Access: Top 5 Spectacular Supergirl Moments

In honor of the premiere of Supergirl tonight here is a video that DC All Access put together on some of her best moments from the comics.


Elseworlds Finest: Supergirl & Batgirl

Elseworlds Finest - Cover

Today’s installment of Elseworlds we’ll be discussing 1998’s Elseworlds Finest: Supergirl & Batgirl.  If you would like to read along at home you might be able to find a copy at your local comic book shop but the easiest option would just be to get it from Comixology here for 1.99.

Elseworlds Finest - Image 6

While this is definitely an Elseworlds story the main two characters, Supergirl and Batgirl, have their normal identities of Kara Zor-El and Barbara Gordon.  In this world there is no Superman and Kara Zor-El is the true last daughter of Krypton.  Bruce Wayne exists in this world but rather than his parents getting killed, Barbara’s parents were killed and she was raised by the Waynes.

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This is an interesting twist.  Barbara and Bruce are roughly the same age in this universe and have a Brother/Sister relationship.  Bruce acts in a support role similar to Alfred, while Barbara is Batgirl.  Barbara is still a computer genius and uses her “Oracle” computer program to protect and isolate the entire city of Gotham.  No one is above Batgirl’s reach and neither the Justice League or anyone with powers is allowed to enter Gotham.  Barbara keeps Gotham in a police state and while it may be safer it is clear there is mixed feelings from the citizens.

Elseworlds Finest - Image 7

In this world Lex Luthor is not a villain but instead a benefactor of the Justice League.  The story kicks off with Luthor receiving an award from Barbara Gordon (and the city of Gotham) for his work in renewable energy.  A super buff Joker who has been taking Bane’s venom uses the opportunity to kidnap Luthor.  This super buff Joker of this world is obsessed with Batgirl and uses the kidnapping as an excuse to gain her attention.

Lex Luthor was the one who found Supergirl when she landed on Earth and represents a father figure to her.  She becomes distressed learning he has been kidnapped and, despite knowing Gotham is off limits, enters the city anyway to rescue him.  Batgirl is immediately alerted and confronts Supergirl.  Once seeing how distressed Supergirl is, and possibly realizing that she is overpowered, Batgirl invites Supergirl to assist her in finding Luthor.

Meanwhile Luthor cuts a deal with Joker and gets Joker to work with him in exchange for an unlimited supply of venom.

Batgirl takes Supergirl to a secret underground lab of Lexcorp where we learn the true nature of Lex Luthor.  Superman had in fact come to Earth but Lex got to him first and used the Kryptonite from the crash to kill Kal-El while he was still a baby.  Lex has since been using Kryptonian technology and Kal-El’s own corpse to further Lexcorp.

Elseworlds Finest - Image 4

Supergirl naturally goes into a blind rage and is set on killing Luthor for the horrible acts he has committed.  Batgirl manages to stop Supergirl from killing Luthor and we then learn Batgirls backstory.  An aging Joe Chill winded up getting a commuted sentence for killing her father in exchange for naming names.  One of the people he named was Luthor as the man responsible for contracting the murder that killed her father.  Jim Gordon was never the target that night, Joe was suppose to kill the Waynes but when Jim Gordon intervened he was killed instead.

The award was a set up from the start.  Batgirl planned it to get Luthor out of Metropolis long enough for her to gather evidence against Luthor.  Luthor plays it off that it doesn’t matter anyway because he is beloved and no one will believe their story against him.  However Batgirl had been live streaming the entire encounter which Luthor had confessed all.

Elseworlds Finest - Image 5

The comic ends with Supergirl burying Kal-El’s body and that start of a friendship between Supergirl and Batgirl.  Barbara however hides away a kryptonite ring stolen from Luthor “just in case”.

Overall I really enjoyed the comic.  I think it was a fresh take on both of the characters.  Rather than just being side characters or part of a bigger bat or super family this had Batgirl and Supergirl front and center as the leaders of their world.  I did think it was odd that they didn’t go by Superwoman and Batwoman seeing as they were the main forces in this world.  This isn’t a huge deal but would have helped to separate this world from the typical DC Universe.

I liked the different take on Batman’s origin in which it is the Gordon’s that died instead of the Waynes.  I liked that Bruce Wayne takes on the role of Alfred and helps assist Batgirl while she’s out in the field.  They appear to have a romantic relationship in the public eye but seem to be truly platonic while in private.

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My only real complaint is that I would have liked to see more of the rest of the world this comic takes place in.  We got to see some bits and pieces on how things are different such as Abin Sur as this worlds Green Lantern but it never really goes into any depth.  This is just a one shot comic so they are limited on what they can tell in this story but it would have been nice to see more.  Part of what I really love about these elseworlds comics is the details and smaller changes.

Anyway if you like Elseworlds and are a fan of Supergirl and Batgirl this is definitely a book you should check out.


Top 8 Cat Moments in Comic Books

Number 8: Catwoman Vol. 3 Issue 1

Catwoman 1 - 6

I probably could have put together an entire list of just Cat moments in Catwoman (and still might) so I decided to just pick one.  I picked the first issue of Catwoman in Vol. 3 because it occurs in the first few pages of the book and sets the tone for the series.  In 2011 DC Comics rebooted every comic book they had with new artist and writers back to issue 1.

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This was a big moment for comic books.  It served as an introduction to comic books to a whole new set of fans who have never read a comic book before.  Therefore it is important that the books made a good first impression right away.  This opening scene set the mood for the whole series and this did a great job.  It’s Catwoman working on the fly, her door is getting knocked down and she’s grabbing what she can to make an escape.  It’s a fun scene and is just a taste of the shenanigans to come.

Number 7: Batman Issue 406 (Batman Year One)

Batman 406 DC 1987

This is basically another Catwoman moment, but it could be seen as the first Catwoman moment!  There is a suspenseful moment in the Batman Year One story where Batman is pinned down by cops and a cat gives away his position.  They start shooting and Batman could have just left the cat behind but he scoops the cat up on his way out and gets it out of the building to safety.

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It’s one of my favorite moments in the story, not just because Batman saves the cat from certain death but because it also establishes a good relationship between Catwoman and Batman.

Number 6: Supergirl Vol. 5 Issue 14

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So there is a bunch of Superpets.  If you are aware of any of them (which you probably aren’t) you probably are aware of Krypto the Superdog.  But there is clearly one pet that is the best and that is Supergirl’s pet cat Streaky, the Supercat.  I’ll have a future blog post devoted just to Streaky but I picked this issue because it is a different non-super version of Streaky.  In this version Streaky gets his name from completely non-super power related reasons…

Supergirl 14 - 1

Number 5: Chilling Adventures of Sabrina 1

Chilling Adventures of Sabrina 1

Every one needs a sidekick, from Batman and Robin to Tango and Cash, every one just works better in pairs.  So our number five selection is Sabrina the teenage witches’ side kick Salem.  I’m not super familiar with all things Sabrina so it’s nice they added a little info comic in the back up to explain things.

Sabrina 2

Salem serves as Sabrina’s voice of reason and occasional wit and humor.  Now lets hope they eventually release issue 2!

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Number 4: Wonder Woman 600

Wonder Woman 600

As these types of anniversary issues tend to be Wonder Woman 600 is an anthology issue which includes several stories from various writers and artists who have had an important runs in Wonder Woman history.  Part of this included a story drawn by Amanda Conner in which Wonder Woman and Power Girl have a heart to heart over a cat.  It’s not specifically said that this cat is streaky… but… its Streaky.

Number 3: Wednesday Comics

Wednesday Comics 12

Wednesday Comics was a weekly anthology comic book that came out in 2009 and lasted for 12 issues.  It featured short 1 page stories featuring various takes on DC characters from different writers and artists.  Throughout it’s run Amanda Conner did a few Supergirl stories and most of them featured Streaky.  I tried to find as many as I could but this series isn’t digital yet so I found as many as I could.

Number 2: Saga Chapter 14

Saga 14

If you aren’t reading Saga right now go ahead and close this out and start reading it right meow.  It is not only the best comic that is coming out monthly right now but could very well be one of the greatest comics of all time.  That is pretty high praise so with that I will say that the following page from chapter 14 is my favorite moment of the entire series (so far).  Lying cat is a character that has been around from the beginning of the series.  He (she possibly?) is the side kick of an assassin named “The Will”.  This particular assassin has been given the bounty of taking out our main characters so he is a bad guy but has managed to win our hearts over.  Lets just hope he never does actually kill our main characters…

Lying Cat has the ability of being able to tell if any one is telling the truth.  If they are being honest Lying cat says nothing, but if a person is lying, Lying Cat will say “lying”.

The back story of this scene is that The Will went to a pleasure planet called Sextillion for some carnal pleasures.  When he asked for a woman of the night he was presented with this 6 year old slave girl.  The Will did not approve and killed this girls pimp and took her off planet to protect her.  This scene takes place after their escape.  It’s touching, its simple, its why this series continues to be amazing.

Saga - 1

Number 1: Sandman Issue 18

Sandman 18

The Sandman is arguably one of the greatest series of all time, read any best of comics list and you are sure to find Sandman firmly in the top 5.  This story is a one shot story that takes place in issue 18 titled “Dream of a Thousand Cats”.  This story is a sad one about a cat who lost her kittens due to some human cruelty.  I really don’t like that part, it almost spoils the entire story for me but the rest of the story is so unique and interesting that I still enjoy it.

Apparently a long time ago cats were the dominate speices on the planet and people were their subjects.  The humans band together and a group of a thousand dreamed the same dream and were able to change cats in to smaller subordinate animals.  Our main cat in this story seeks out Dream (the Sandman) who tells her if she can get a thousand cats to dream together they can change the world and turn things back.  Our main cat goes from place to place to tell her tale and gather enough cats to dream together.  However cats are independent and skeptical of her tale and dismiss it as myth.

Like I said before the cat violence part really turns me off of the story but there is a lot to like in this story.  Neil Gaimen does a great job of getting to the essence of what it is to be a cat.  Their intelligence, their independence, their inquisitive nature.  It’s a great story and really nothing like anything thing else I’ve read in the series.

Bonus Cats! Green Lantern 55

Green Lantern 55

Strap in kids because this one is going to hit you right in the feels.  The Red Lanterns symbolize the emotion of rage.  Initially at least they could not talk and could only scream and puke blood.  So of course they got their own series during the re-launch of the new 52…

Any who this was the knowledge I had of them so I was never terribly interested in reading them.  I was aware that there was a Cat that was part of their team named Dex-Starr but little else.  I did not know that this cat was given and origin story and that it was heartbreaking.


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