Hey everyone, Tom here. Today’s the day I’ve been putting off for awhile, covering “The Day Super-Horse Became Human”. I just wasn’t sure how to handle it. But honestly, it turned out to be a decent story, especially for a backup. Of course, I’m a sucker for a Western, and this is most definitely a western story.

To start off with, however, I’d like to talk about the inside front cover of this issue. This one, as I stated before, features a group of youths coming out of a Bob Hope show, and one tough that apparently didn’t go. The tough kicks the crap out of one of the other’s legs and laughs, to which another of the boys responds that he should follow the Golden Rule. The tough starts bashing on the Golden rule, talking about how it’s just a silly rule from ‘One Religion’ rather than a law or something! But wait! It’s Bob Hope!

Bob Hope schools the kid with the anecdote that he’s been all over the world and witnessed many religions with a similar rule, even going so far as to produce a scroll with inscriptions of the Golden Rule as taken from Christianity, Buddhism, Judaism, and Islam (Yes, Islam!) and then states that it IS a Law, the Law of Humanity.

All in all, a pretty decent little lesson from Bob Hope sponsored by the National Social Welfare Assembly.

Not a bad cover piece Action Comics, not bad at all.

Now though, we get into the bulk of the story. It’s a Supergirl backup again, as was common in this era. As was also common, there are no credits for the writers, artists, inkers, or editors. This story was written, according to the DC Comics Database, by Leo Dorfman, and was Pencilled and Inked by Jim Mooney. This story features Super-Horse, Supergirl, the sorceress Circe, and a bandit named The Hooded Demon, as well as no less than 4 panels of nothing but Supergirl kissing someone! In all honesty, Supergirl seems like kind of a hussy for 1964 in this issue.

So the story starts off with a title panel that lists the title and a little background information. Basically that Comet the Super-Horse will be turning into a man, falling in love with Supergirl and that “That is just the beginning of a weird chain of events.”

See, the comic even identifies that this story is weird. Super-Weird. I wonder if that’s one of Supergirl’s powers too?

But yeah, this story is weird.

So anyway, this story is identified as a part of the Valentine’s Day event for 1964, and as such, starts off with Linda Danvers’ (Supergirl’s) two boyfriends (that’s right, TWO boyfriends!) showing up at her house with chocolates and flowers for Valentine’s Day. Dick Malverne (the misogynist from the movies from the last Supergirl review!) and another fella named Sandy Powers don’t even understand what’s about to happen with Linda, and their attempts to woo her will ultimately be ill fated in the face of the other folks interested in her. Namely, we find that in the next panel, when Supergirl shows up at the Daily Planet, the whole WORLD has sent her Valentine’s presents! We get a nice cameo from Lois, Clark, and a decidedly more sober Perry here, and move on.

Supergirl is next seen flying a giant mail sack full of gifts to the Fortress of Solitude. Where we glimpse Comet for the first time. He’s reading her mind and states that he knows she deserves all the love and adoration. Before Comet can put the moves on his lady love (eeewww) she gets a call from someone called Jerro in Atlantis!

Flying off to Atlantis, Supergirl finds that Jerro has trained fish to spell out a love message with fish! Fish? Wow… they know how to get romantic in Atlanti… wait… Supergirl is into this?

Apparently, because she lays a big wet one (they ARE underwater!) on Jerro as Comet lurks in the background watching his m’lady.

Both Supergirl and Comet rise from the sea, and Super-Horse laments the fact that he’s a horse rather than a man. But he has an idea! He’ll fly through the time rainbow (seriously) to find the sorceress Circe in Ancient Greece!

Circe is best known as the sorceress from Homer’s Odyssey who turned his crew into pigs. She’s also best known to mostly dudes my age as that bad guy from Justice League Unlimited that turned Wonder Woman into a pig and made Batman sing old jazz tunes to get her back. (In an episode awesomely titled “This Little Piggy”)

So off to the time rainbow he goes! He meets Circe in Ancient Greece where he gets a potion that will turn him human. This is evidenced by the fact that Circe is holding an infant she claims used to be a baby lamb and will be given to a nearby childless family. Nice to know Circe was out trying to ruin it for the DINKS of 2500 years ago!

Super-Horse takes the potion and flies back into the time rainbow after Circe warns him he’ll regret his decision and she’ll be watching him (because she can apparently see the future too) and turn him back when he’s ready. Thus setting us up for the status quo to be maintained at the end of the issue. (Spoilers – Comet turns back into a horse.)

Flying through the time rainbow, Comet begins to lose his memory as a side effect of the potion. (What?) and crashes down into an open field and quickly realizes he’s crashed through the ground into an untapped oil field. Dick Cheney shows up, kills Comet, and takes the oil for himself



The End

Wait… no… nevermind

Comet surfaces from the oil and is now coated in it, and appears to be a black horse.

So Comet is black now. That’s as close as we’re getting to that innuendo in this post.

Black, oil coated, amnesiac, Comet begins walking around aimlessly, thinking there was something he was meant to do when who should come across him, but a local bandit! The bandit, going by the name The Hooded Demon! Very Intimidating. He’s just broken out of jail and knows the local police will be looking for him. The Hooded Demon, who saw Comet fly in, recalls a local legend about a Devil Horse, and believes Comet must be said horse. To prove this theory, he approaches Comet (who is just looking for someone to help him get the oil off of him) and SETS HIM ON FIRE.

Yes, he actually just sets Comet on fire. His logic is that Devil=Fire so fire must not hurt the Devil Horse. Not even thinking “Hey, there’s a chance here I’m just setting some Horse on fire for no good reason.” This guy is a serious sociopath for that reason alone.

On one of the better panels of art I’ve seen in the Silver Age, Comet is fully ablaze and the Hooded Demon is having his mind blown by the fact the Horse isn’t hurt. And then has his mind blown further when Comet emerges from the flames white. He must be the Devil Horse! And since Hooded Demon saw him change color, now Comet is his Devil Horse. For good measure though he shoots Comet in the face.

Using Super-Horse’s powers, Hooded Demon robs a train. In the ensuing flight, Comet’s powers begin to go haywire thanks to the potions and both he and the Hooded Demon are shot in their respective shoulders. Once back in his cave hideout, the Hooded Demon changes clothes and goes to look for medical assistance in town and leaves Comet to die, when suddenly, he changes into a tall, muscular, very naked man.

Comet steals the Hooded Demon’s clothes, minus the hood, and heads out where he finds a cabin and a man inside to patch him up. Comet has to run though when the police come, and the man fingers him as the Hooded Demon since their clothes and wounds match. Comet steals, or rather ‘borrows’ a horse that surprisingly looks exactly like his ‘horse mode’ and runs off.

Comet then comes upon, who else, Linda Danvers (Supergirl’s!) tour group, who happen to be touring the mountains! Comet identifies himself as Bronco Bill, a tour guide who knows the mountains well, and begins touring Supergirl’s group through various vistas, all the while flirting like the dickens with Linda!

Soon, they share their first smooch, and by the end of the afternoon they’re in love. Local legend apparently states that if two people pass under a waterfall and see a rainbow, then it’s true love. Supergirl is so taken with Bronco Bill that she uses her heat vision specifically to kick steam into the air and form a magnificent rainbow! It must be true love. Bronco Bill thinks to himself how wrong Circe was, and how great it is to be a real boy.

Later that afternoon, Bronco Bill spots the posse, and not believing that Supergirl would believe his story that he used to be her horse, he decides running is a better idea. He jumps on the horse he ‘borrowed’ (the book says borrowed, but he straight stole that horse. Which, by the by, also looks like Comet) and flees!



The posse runs into Supergirl’s group, and tells them about the Hooded Demon. Supergirl sneaks off and changes into her Super-Outfit and begins looking for Bronco Bill, who the posse identified as the villain. Once she catches up to him, he leads her through the Cheney Oil fields in an attempt to get away. Supergirl though, suddenly drops from the sky, her powers waning. Apparently a stray piece of Kryptonite bubbled up through the oil and is now sapping Supergirl’s powers!

If only Comet was still a horse! His regret is spotted thousands of years in the past, and Circe uses her Crystal Ball, a potion, and some sort of timey wimey jiggery pokery to change Bronco Bill back into Comet the Super-Horse!

Comet kicks the Kryptonite away and saves Supergirl. In the final panel, we can see that even though Supergirl thought Bronco Bill was a villain, his name was cleared when the posse captured the real one. Supergirl thinks fondly about Bronco Bill, and how they had shared something wonderful. All the while, Comet stands behind her trying to figure out a way for “Bronco Bill” to return once again.

Creepy.