Statue 1: Pre-Crisis Supergirl

As I mentioned in my earlier posts, one of the triggers that has returned me to the hobby of collecting and reading superhero comic-books was my discovery, while shopping on Amazon, of a Supergirl action figure.  This wasn't just any old action figure. Rather, it was my favorite version of the character, the so-called "pre-Crisis Supergirl."  First, a brief explanation of what this means.

In 1985, DC decided to clean up its multi-verse, and they published a famous mini-series, called Crisis on Infinite Earths. In the series, many ongoing characters were killed off, and the many alternate DC universes were all consolidated into one single, universe.  This effectively "rebooted" the continuity, and many origins (such as Wonder Woman's and Superman's) were updated and re-told, with the idea being that these characters were making a "first appearance" in the 1980s instead of the 1960s (or 1930s).  As part of the story-line, in issue #7, Supergirl died saving Superman's life.

The reasons why Supergirl was killed off, and the mess that was made afterward by bringing the character back in different, sometimes bizarre, forms, are beyond the scope of this article (though I will discuss them at length in a future posting).  However, shortly before her death, in her own (short-lived) series, Supergirl had been given an "updated" (1980s style) costume, and I had come to really like that version of her suit.  It proved wildly unpopular with Supergirl fans, I think mainly because it's the costume in which she died (so it comes with bad memories for many of us), but I always thought the "S" shield looked better on it than any of her others -- or any of Superman's for that matter.

In any case, because that version of Supergirl is long dead, and because the Crisis story happened before most of today's collectors could read, I found it surprising that DC had bothered to commission an action figure in their Crisis on Infinite Earths line depicting Supergirl in that outfit.  I also was fairly sure that they wouldn't produce these figures indefinitely, so when I saw an action figure for sale depicting my favorite version of my favorite comic-book character, for a mere $27, well... I could not resist.

And so, in early December of last year, I ordered the "Crisis Supergirl" action figure from Amazon.  It arrived a week or so later, in an attractive package, and it really looked quite good.  The "S" shield is a little bit too small, but otherwise, her look is very accurate to the way she appeared in the comics of the early 80s.

The Crisis Supergirl action figure in package, flanked by her old comic books

The action figure stands about six inches high, and is made of solid plastic.  The figure itself is, as I said above, quite accurate to the look of the 1980s Supergirl, as you can hopefully see from the reading material I have flanking her in the shot.  The package was nice, though not enough that I was unwilling to remove the action figure. I know that collectibles have to remain sealed in the package to retain their "value," but I did not buy this action figure as a monetary investment; I bought it as a decoration.

Therefore, after a few days, I finally removed Supergirl from the package.  I have to admit, this is where a little disappointment set in. Although she has joint articulations at the shoulders, hips, elbows, knees, and wrists, the figure is extremely stiff.  In fact, when trying to move her right arm into a pose I had seen in Amazon's advertisement (with the arm lifted up over the head), I don't think I even got it half-way up when the arm broke right out of the socket.  I was of course very upset -- here I had my favorite Supergirl not five minutes out of the package, and she was broken already!

Fortunately, my years of working with model trains and my plethora of adhesive material served me well. I was able to glue Supergirl's arm back into position, and it looks fine.  I learned my lesson, which was to treat this "action figure" as a statue, not an action figure -- and to never move any of the joints.  This is, of course, rather disappointing given that the articulation joints are clearly there, and they should be movable. But I never planned to "play with" her anyway -- I always intended her to be a display piece. And the glued arm works well enough for that.

Crisis Supergirl on her display stand, still surrounded by biographical material.

Overall, I would say that this is a great looking model of the original Supergirl, and that if you just want to look at it, and not move any of the joints, she is just fine.  If you want to play with her, or give her to a child who will want to move her limbs, then I would not purchase it. She breaks far too easily.

Although this is not really a "statue," it serves the same purpose as one, so I will call this my "first statue" purchase -- the first collectible super-hero figure I have purchased since returning to the comic-collecting hobby.  There will be many more over the coming months, so stay tuned for more articles reviewing these pieces.