Supergirl's Three Super Girl-Friends! is a Supergirl story published in Action Comics #276 (May, 1961), written by Jerry Siegel and penciled by Jim Mooney. It is noteworthy among Legion of Super-Heroes fans as the story where Supergirl and Brainiac 5 join the Legion and start their decades-long romance.
Kara Zor-El/Linda Danvers is grieving about her lack of meaningful female friends when she hears a mysterious mental message stating there are three girls who are yearning for making friends with her. Kara goes to the meeting point and meets Imra Ardeen (Saturn Girl), one of the leaders of the Legion of Super-Heroes, and the newest recruits Luornu Dungo (Triplicate Girl) and Tinya Wazzo (Phantom Girl). Previously the Legion had tried to recruit Supergirl, but she was disqualified on a technicality. Now they want to give her another chance.
Kara accompanies the three Legionnaires back to the 30th century to undertake a new initiation trial. As she is being introduced to the newest candidates, Kara meets an intriguing, green-skinned boy whose face seems oddly familiar.
Tropes:
- Alliterative Name: Saturn Girl asks Supergirl to meet her at the field near Cranston Creek.
- Artistic License – History: King Richard I of England was nicknamed “the Lionheart”, not “Lion-Hearted”.
- Batman Grabs a Gun: In Querl Dox's flashback, Superman decides Brainiac attempting to shrink the whole Earth is the last straw and warns the Coluan he will be destroyed if he does not stop his attack. Brainiac ignores his warning, so Superman turns his own shrink ray against him, and Brainiac shrinks himself into nothingness.
- Canon Discontinuity: Querl's account of Brainiac's final defeat wasn't taken into account by later Superman writers, (although Let My People Grow! would recycle the "Brainiac accidentally shrank himself into oblivion" bit), and ''Whatever Happened to the Man of Tomorrow?", wherein that incarnation of Brainiac was beaten for good, features a very different scenario.
- Complexity Addiction: Brainiac's ship provides a subtler than usual example. His force-field machine has power on and off buttons. You would think one of the most intelligent beings in the galaxy would figure he only needs build one single on/off power button into his device.
- Continuity Nod: Two panels remind readers that the Legion tried to recruit Kara in Action Comics #267.
- Death from Above: Right when she is finishing her trial, Kara is almost squashed by a falling massive Kryptonite meteor.
- Digging to China: Kara digs a tunnel from Metropolis to England to find some old relics.
- Don't Make Me Destroy You: When Brainiac approaches Earth to miniaturize and steal the whole planet, Superman writes on a meteorite the next message: "If you attack Earth, you'll be destroyed!"
- Early-Installment Weirdness:
- Sun Boy's power is not control of fire, light and heat. It is "super radiance". In other words, he shines a lot.
- Phantom Girl is partially invisible when she becomes intangible, a concept which would be ditched by the next Legion stories.
- Expo Label:
- When Supergirl joins the Legion's meeting, the newest Legionnaires have their codenames and powers written on identifying placards, informing everyone that Shrinking Violet and Bouncing Boy's powers are Super-Shrinking and Super-Bouncing, respectively.
- Brainiac has neatly labeled the controls on his ship (his force-shield machine has written "Force-Shield Controls" on the forefront, and buttons are conveniently labeled "on" and "off"), even though he is the only who uses his equipment.
- Excalibur: Kara passes her initiation test by finding and digging up the Sword of King Arthur.
- Exty Years from Publication: The Legion takes Kara to the year 2961 so she can finally join the team.
- Flashback: Before travelling to the future, Supergirl flashes back to her failed former attempt to join the Legion.
- The Friends Who Never Hang: Despite Imra, Tinya and Luornu being presented as Kara's new friends, Supergirl would not develop a close relationship with any of them, although Saturn Girl would aid Supergirl in stories such like Action Comics #307. It wouldn't be until the Supergirl (2005) 2010 Annual that the four girls would spend time together on panel.
- Have a Gay Old Time: The story's title was chosen in the early 1960s, when "girlfriend" was still widely used to describe "female acquaintance" rather than almost exclusively "female lover".
- Heroic Sacrifice: Brainiac risks his life to give Supergirl a force-field belt right before a meteor crashes onto their heads.Supergirl: Brainiac 5, you saved my life by loaning me your force-shield belt...But you could have lost your own life! Why did you it!
Brainiac 5: [...] I'd gladly sacrifice my life to save yours, any time! - Hoist by His Own Petard: When Brainiac attacked Earth for the final time, Superman scanned his ship's deck and noticed Brainiac's pet had accidentally turned off the ship's forcefield (notes that Superman knew exactly what that button did because Brainiac had put an unnecessary label on it), and he then caused Brainiac to be hit by his own shrinking ray to get rid of him.
- In the Blood: Supergirl freaks out when she meets Querl Dox and realizes he resembles Brainiac. Querl confesses he is his great-great-grandson, but the first Brainiac is hated by all his descendants, who have spent ten centuries atoning for his misdeeds.
- Inconsistent Coloring: Querl's green face is colored blue several times.
- Initiation Ceremony: Supergirl must show off her powers in order to join the Legion, so she finds the King Arthur's Sword, Achilles' helmet, and King Richard the Lionheart's shield. Previously she had tunneled through the entire planet, but a random piece of Red Kryptonite ruined her test.
- Inventional Wisdom: Brainiac's ship's force-shield has a power button... and a shutdown one, which can incidentally be reached and poked distractedly by Brainiac's pet right before a battle against Superman.
- Kryptonite Is Everywhere: Supergirl is talking to the Legion when suddenly a giant Kryptonite meteor drops down on her.
- Kryptonite-Proof Suit: Brainiac 5 gives Supergirl a force-field belt which shields her from Kryptonite radiation.
- Love at First Sight: Querl Dox falls for Kara Zor-El as soon as he lays his eyes on her. And he falls hard. She will be his first, great and only love.
- Love Confession: Before Supergirl goes back to her own time, Brainiac begs her to stay and become his girlfriend. Kara feels very flattered, but she answers she regretfully cannot stay in the 30th century.
- Mechanical Horse: After inducting Supergirl and Brainiac 5 into the Legion, the team hold a celebratory parade wherein the three founding members ride grey robot-horses.
- No Antagonist: The story has no central villain due to being about Supergirl making new bonds and then having some harmless adventures.
- Not Enough to Bury: According to Querl's account, when Brainiac was struck by his own shrinking ray, he completely disappeared.Brainaic 5: Then he turned super-swiftly flung the saucer into the path of its own ray...! Then it popped out of existence... reduced in size to nothingness!
- Paper-Thin Disguise: Saturn Girl wears a mere lead face mask when she first greets Supergirl and teases her into guessing her identity. And still, Kara takes several minutes until she realizes that blonde telepath who knows her identity, claims to have met her before, and has the same hairstyle, clothes and voice as Saturn Girl is Saturn Girl.
- Public Domain Artifact: In addition to the Sword in the Stone, Kara finds Achilles' helmet and Richard I the Lionheart's shield.
- Rule of Perception: When Kara turns on her belt-generated force-field, she is surrounded by a thick white outline which only the readers can see.
- Rule of Three:
- Supergirl meets three super-heroines who want her to join their super-team.
- Triplicate Girl, who can split herself into three exact duplicates, makes her debut in this story.
- Supergirl finds three long-lost artifacts.
- Shrink Ray: Brainiac's improved shrinking ray can miniaturize entire planets.
- Speed Blitz: When Superman catches Braniac's ship, he hurls it so fast that it is hit by his own beam.
- Status Quo Is God: Supergirl takes a Legion belt back to the 20th century, which among other things grants her immunity to kryptonite. Naturally, it gets smashed by a stray rock and breaks.
- Third-Person Flashback: Brainiac 5 narrates Braniac's final defeat, which happened ten centuries ago, via a flashback.
- Time Travel: Kara travels to the 30th century to join the Legion and then goes back to 1962 to go on her daily life.
- Visible Invisibility: When Phantom Girl uses her power, her body becomes a white-and-blue stripped outline.
