by Doc Quantum, partially adapted from Action Comics #255 by Otto Binder and Jim Mooney
Nestled within a high mountain range several miles from Metropolis was a fortress built by Superman. This was the Secret Citadel, and its giant-size art deco entrance was only a small glimpse of what lay within the heart of this mountain stronghold.
The Secret Citadel was also the home of one youthful Kryptonian woman named Kara Zor-L. Despite being born in the year 1916 on the planet Krypton, Kara was a woman of only twenty-one years of age in 1974, thanks to the fact that she had been kept in suspended animation for over fifty years since Krypton’s destruction in 1917. During that time, only twenty years had passed for Kara thanks to an effect of extreme speed through space as described by Einstein’s theory of relativity. Kara did not sleep through the long voyage, but experienced twenty years’ worth of memories in a virtual reality version of a Krypton that had never exploded. That was all thanks to the invention of the Symbioship created by her father, Zor-L. The Symbioship was not merely a space vessel capable of interstellar, faster-than-light flight, but was also a fully-immersive virtual reality simulator and life-support system operated by artificial intelligence that allowed her to age to adulthood, while receiving all the nutrition and exercise she needed for good health. For Kara, the illusion of reality presented to her within the Symbioship constituted her entire world.
When Kara’s ship finally landed on Earth on April 11, 1974, she was extremely bewildered by what had happened. From her perspective, her virtual reality life on Krypton had been the only reality she had ever known, and now she found herself on a completely alien planet. To make matters worse, her cousin Kal-L — who had been born the same year as she — was now an old man of fifty-eight with graying temples.
The first days on this new world were confusing as Kara came to grips that the only life she’d ever known was a lie, and that everyone she had ever known was dead. Even Kal-L, who called himself Superman on this world, was not the same cousin she’d grown up with and had gone on double dates with when they were teenagers. This Kal-L was a completely different person who at first treated her like she was trying to deceive him in some way concerning her identity as his cousin. Then, when he was satisfied that she was who she claimed to be, he placed her in his Secret Citadel away from the rest of this new world for months now. It was not only for her safety, he told her, but for the world’s as well.
Kara refused to concede that he had a point, but she, too, was embarrassed by the destruction she’d caused by accident when she first arrived on Earth, speaking nothing but Kryptonese (which Superman had only a rudimentary understanding of) and making a nuisance of herself. In the virtual reality version of Krypton, she was able to leap from place to place like all Kryptonians. But in the lower gravity of Earth, her muscles allowed her to leap even greater distances than she’d thought possible. Her nearly invulnerable body was also much stronger than most elements on Earth, and that combined with tremendous speed had led to her accidentally misusing her powers and causing destruction to private property. It was only through Superman’s swift actions that her existence was kept a secret. Now she was forced to remain at the Secret Citadel until she could be properly trained to use her powers without causing harm to others.
She spent most of her time learning about this strange new world and documenting all she knew of lost Krypton, filling in many of the gaps with knowledge that her cousin lacked, including the nuances of the Kryptonese language. Kept isolated in the mountain fortress, all she could do was read every book she could and watch the outside world on the television. Her vision was perfect, but she did not have the same amazing abilities of x-ray vision and telescopic-vision that Kal possessed, nor was she able to fly like he could. Kal assured her that those abilities would develop in time and with maturity, as would her strength and invulnerability, but for now it was best that she learned to temper her strength as it was.
Kara openly resented being locked away in a fortress, and she had made her feelings known many times over the past few months. Eventually, and with great reluctance, Kal allowed her to accompany him outside the Secret Citadel a few times in recent months. Kara was only to be his secret weapon when he needed assistance; she wasn’t to act alone except with his express permission. This, of course, only contributed to Kara’s resentment.
When Kara met Lois Lane Kent, Kal’s wife, she was struck by how independent this woman was and how she’d made a career on her own merits despite being in a male-dominated workplace in this society so unlike the egalitarian Krypton she had known. Lois told her how, when she first started at the Daily Star newspaper in Metropolis, she’d had to make do with an advice column given to her by the editor, George Taylor. Lois had complained about being nothing more than a “sob sister” just because she was a woman, but gruff old Taylor would have none of it. So Lois continued her advice column even as she sought out real news. Eventually, she proved herself to be one of the best reporters at the paper. And in the decades since then, she had made a reputation for herself as one of the best journalists in the world.
Kara admired Lois as much as she resented Kal. She knew that, had the tables been turned and Kara had landed on Earth as an infant, she would have been a Kryptonian Lois Lane and would have made her mark both as a hero and a career woman in a male-dominated world. She would have been Kal’s complete equal as well, instead of being his secret weapon, since they would have been the same age and would have had the same years of experience with their powers. Kara often thought about how different things would have been had Krypton never exploded, or if she had landed on Earth at the same time as Kal. But reality had not been kind in that respect.
After reading a great deal of Earth’s literature, Kara had been struck by the similarity of her dilemma to that of a princess kept in a tower from several legends. Kara identified most with Brünnhilde, a shield-maiden who was one of the Valkyries of Norse mythology, warrior-women of Odin. After offending Odin, Brünnhilde had been condemned by the All-Father to become a mortal woman, and she was imprisoned in a remote mountain fortress and kept behind a ring of flames, where she remained until she was rescued by the hero Siegfried. In Kara’s fantasies, Kal took the place of Odin, and instead of being rescued by some hero, it was Kara herself who broke free from her imprisonment to become a hero in her own right.
Kara had already come up with a name for herself after Kal had begun calling her by the nickname of Supergirl. “No,” she’d finally told him the last time he’d used that nickname, “call me Power Girl.” The discussion had ended there, and Kara couldn’t help but feel satisfied that, in some small measure, she’d hurt him by not taking his name or costume. Indeed, she’d designed a white costume with blue gloves and boots and a red cape; it looked nothing like Superman’s, but was more based on a generic super-hero look influenced by current fashion.
She’d also designed her costume for another purpose. Since Superman was so straight-laced and traditional, Power Girl would flaunt traditionalism with a costume that had an opening on the chest in place of a heroic insignia, which showed off her ample cleavage. When Kal first saw her in her new costume, he was shocked, to say the least. The poor guy didn’t know where to look for weeks after she started wearing it. When Lois saw her, she just laughed at first, then earnestly cautioned Kara that she might be sending the wrong message through what she could only term as a cleavage window.
Kara challenged Lois on this, of course. If Lois thought that Kara was somehow putting herself in danger of being treated like a sex object or worse, Kara reminded her that she was a Kryptonian and was in danger from no man. And the more Superman and Lois argued the point, the more resolute Kara felt about keeping her costume the way it was, even if she had been thinking about changing it herself. Now she had to keep it, if only to prove her point. If all the rest of her freedoms were kept from her, at least she’d be able to hold on to this one. And besides, she reasoned, her cleavage window would provide an ample distraction for her opponents, giving her a momentary advantage in battle. Finally, Superman and Lois were forced to drop the argument, and they simply got used to it.
With a name and a costume, Kara thought she was ready to make her public debut. Superman wasn’t so sure. This led to one of the worst arguments the two ever had, and at the end of it, each refused to speak to the other, thanks to their mutual stubbornness. In a conciliatory move, prompted by Lois, Superman agreed to allow Power Girl to go on occasional secret missions as part of her training. Some of those missions were simply Kara going incognito as an Earth woman and trying to blend in without revealing her powers in any way. Other missions involved various uses of her powers in clandestine ways.
On this day in October, 1974, Kara awoke at the Secret Citadel, got dressed, and began her day of reading, watching television, and training in the specially built gym.
As Kara drank a cup of coffee and settled down before the wall-screen television, a news alert warned the public that a large satellite sent into orbit months earlier was about to fall to earth. The reporter warned the public not to approach the satellite, since it may contain dangerous radioactive materials.
Kara frowned as she watched the news report, wondering where it could have fallen. It was at that moment that a message came through to the large computer in the Secret Citadel. As usual, it was a note from Kal, giving her another training assignment. The note read as follows:
Dear Kara,
You are learning to handle your super-feats well, since you came to Earth recently! Next, I would like you to take your first trip across the ocean to Europe!
Love, cousin Kal!
Kara frowned. She still felt angry at him for keeping her there, but he still kept acting like she was his own little girl or something, instead of his cousin. It still rankled her how he treated her like he was her wise old teacher and she his naive young student, despite the fact that she and Kal were technically the same age.
He was starting to learn, though. He was starting to like being called Kal-L after only being called Clark Kent or Superman all his life. And instead of giving her precise details like he had at first, which annoyed her immensely, he’d begun leaving the details of the training assignments to her own judgment. It was thus up to Kara to figure out how to traverse the ocean using her powers.
Flying was out of the question, since she probably wouldn’t develop that ability for a few more years, at least. Even leaping one-eighth of a mile in a single bound wouldn’t do, since there weren’t a string of islands close enough to each other to stretch across the Atlantic. So how would she get there under her own power?
“I guess I could just swim over there,” she said to herself, then dismissed the thought. It was far too simple a training exercise; besides, she’d already proven herself to be a strong swimmer, and she wanted to find new uses of her powers rather than always retread what she’d already learned.
As she finished her breakfast, pondering the problem, an idea suddenly struck her. Quickly flipping through Kal’s extensive video library, she located one particular videotape that she’d seen a few weeks ago and placed it in the video cassette recorder. It took a short while to load, but to Kara’s super-senses, this Earth technology was exceedingly slow. Finally, once it started playing in the VCR, she hit the fast-forward button and scanned through the tape until she’d found the part she wanted to see.
It was a video of Jay Garrick, the world-famous Flash, who had revealed his secret identity to the world a year ago. This video was a documentary that had captured various uses of the Flash’s powers, such as becoming invisible by vibrating in place too fast to be seen or running up the side of a building through momentum alone. It was one particular ability that piqued Kara’s interest now. The Flash could run across water without falling in, based on a similar principle as skipping a stone across a stream. At the right speed, the Flash could “skip” across water indefinitely, as long as he didn’t slow down.
That was all the answer Kara needed.