Adventure Comics #397 (1970) page 6: Supergirl the mugger

See the main gallery page for discussion of the significance of this story.

To infiltrate a cult, Supergirl first identifies and then ambushes a co-ed on her way to “see the wizard.” Supergirl leaves her tied up in the woods, heedless of the girl’s (accurate) warning that after seeing Zond, Supergirl will be in no condition to return and free her. The girl's fate is never revealed.

Zond’s pitchfork insignia also appeared in Phantom Stranger comics of this era as the sigil of the Dark Circle, but neither series makes an explicit comment to connect to the other, which is too bad. The pointy hats surely intended to evoke and implicitly criticize the Ku Klux Klan. As usual in this story, the faces and “S” insignia were redone by the second inker.

Supergirl's thought balloon in panel four is redundant with the caption in panel five. The text in panel one turns out to be false; the comatose girl's quick cure on page fourteen has nothing to with Zond, but Supergirl didn't know it at the time.

I acquired the other 13 pages in this story over the course of a year. This page had already sold, and I figured it would remain missing, its owner unknown. So when it came up for auction, I leaped upon it. Now the whole story is together again, which seems unusual for work over 50 years old.