Two weeks' pocket money, well spent

[dreamer_easy]

As a little girl, I severely wanted to be Supergirl. My first ever imaginary hero self, the unfortunately named Hora, was a fairly obvious Supergirl knockoff: long blonde hair, cape, able to fly (albeit thanks to wings bestowed by her father Horus). I also severely wanted to be Batgirl, thanks to the Batman TV series. It's really interesting to me now, looking back, how much I identified with these characters because they were girls (and in Batgirl's case, because she was a redhead!). I thought Green Lantern and Green Arrow were epically cool, but I didn't feel the same connection with them.

So what could possibly be cooler than a teamup - complete with villainess?



I owned this as a kid - a compilation of black and white reprints, released in Australia in 1977. Two weeks' pocket money IIRC and worth every cent.

Cleopatra's sceptre ("Cor! That royal rod is lovely!") possesses a lolarious "exchange student from London", robs Supergirl of most of her powers, and generally causes hijinks. No real harm is done in the end; even Lilibet's dubious boyfriend only went along with the conquest of America to make sure she didn't get hurt. Aw.

It's the seventies, so the heroines are thoroughly liberated. Batgirl is a Congresswoman. As superheroes, they're businesslike:



The JLA, under the sceptre's spell, kick the crap out of Supergirl ("It's the sound of the wavelength of your body, Supergirl! If you're exposed to it very long, you'll disintegrate!") and chuck her in a river to drown. Batgirl to the rescue!



As a kid I was puzzled as to whether this was standard practice when resuscitating someone. I love Supergirl's doofy "Whuh?" look there. I also like the detail that Batgirl is primly replacing the cap on the tire; earlier, when the sceptre caused an indoor hurricane, Supergirl stays behind to help clear up the mess.

The volume also contains the ridiculous WORLD WITHOUT MEN!!!, and a ripping story in which Supergirl has to spend the night in a haunted house without losing her mind. She fakes a mad dance ("Swing! Swing! Be loose!") to draw out the baddies. Check out her naughty look in this panel:



(There's also a rubbish Krypto story of which the less said the better.)