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Continuing a look at Supergirl's Rogues' Gallery, in the wake of the success of the TV show. Mike Sekowsky created a villainess for Supergirl of necessity; after all the Kryptonite on Earth had been turned to iron, but Superman's abilities were shared with the Sand-Superman/Quarmmer, Supergirl would have been unstoppable, and therefore, totally boring in her own stories...

Unless there was some way to reign in her powers, too.

Long before a certain princess from Tamaran came to Earth, or even the swords-and-science swordswoman in the mid-seventies called Starfire, there was another Starfire, one with impeccable fashion taste and utterly and completely ruthless. (Not sure if she's before or after the Teen Titans' Russian Starfire, later Red Star.) A Bond villainess aimed at the super-set.

Let's meet...the EARLIER Starfire.

We first meet her talking with her hired gigolo (not for her, for her victims), Derek.

ALL the super-heroes? Flash? Green Lantern? Aquaman? The only thing I can figure out is that pill acts sort of like Amazo or the Parasite, and absorbs any unusual power within the person who ingests it.

Starfire is going from taken advantage of rich women to conquering America, and then the world? And destroying the superhuman protectors while she's at it? At least she doesn't think small...

Derek has Starfire's goons beat him up, and Supergirl rescue him, and as she bends down to see if he's all right, he steals a kiss. He continues to try to date her, and they even go out a time or two. She regretfully tells him that, although attracted to him, she has to use her super-powers to help others, so can't devote all her time to him...he sighs, agrees, and slips her the pill in a farewell drink.

Then Starfire's goons show up and give her a machine-gun barrage. Her indestructible costume covers most of her, but she is shot a glancing blow and she finds out she's powerless--the hard way. Derek can't find a pulse, and thinks his work is done.

He's a better lover than a doctor, though, and Supergirl gets up in a few minutes, and finds her way to her Stanhope headquarters. Her powers come back, but she doesn't know what's happened to her. She journeys to Superman's Fortress and visits the Kryptonian scientists in Kandor.

They give her the bad news. The date/powertheft pill will cause her powers to fade out occasionally for the foreseeable future. But...

A lot of her costumes after that had thigh-high boots and long sleeves, to cover the exo-skeleton when needed...which tended to be whenever the writer thought the story needed some suspense. Obviously her head wouldn't be invunerable during those periods.

Meanwhile, Derek is rewarded...in a manner of speaking.

Starfire's ruthlessness made her rather fascinating. She was similar to the Wonder Woman foe Doctor Cyber, but much less averse to publicity...

We first saw her on the French Riviera, and she is mentioned multiple times as appearing in Paris. She may have picked her first target America, but chances are she's French. And like another villainess, Cruella De Ville, she has ties to the fashion industry.

Her "army of women" are mostly models, it seems.

Although she was always impeccably, fashionably dressed, and always in a different outfit, she was not afraid of getting her hands dirty. The de-powered Supergirl fought Starfire---and found exoskeletons are not a match for a strong knowledge of the martial arts, in the hands of an expert.

Oh, and Derek had a twin brother, Rodney, whom Starfire somehow convinced that Supergirl, despite the super-cousins' code against killing, killed his brother.

He found out the truth...painfully.

Supergirl defeated Starfire repeatedly, during the Stanhope years. After Supergirl graduated, and took her first job in San Francisco, Starfire came back for one final return bout. In this scene, the two Sekowsky additions to Supergirl's Rogues Gallery, Starfire and Nasty, are in the same scene, as is a fake "monster".

Professor Krangle had been killed in a previous adventure, but Starfire brags she has his formula, and can still depower the superhuman population.

She is defeated yet again at the end of his story, of course. We never saw her again.

Her pill only worked part of the time on Supergirl, and the effects eventually wore off. In a year or two, Supergirl was wearing a low-cut Super-blouse and red hot pants, and small soft shoes, not boots. She obviously wasn't wearing an exoskeleton any more.

If she survived her last encounter, it must have galled her that ANOTHER beautiful alien who could fly and send out eyebeams took the Starfire name--one that barely kept any clothes on. (K'oriand'r did work as a model for a while, though.)

Still, Starfire had style. Let's forget the super-powerlessness pill, which is sickeningly suggestive of a date-rape drug. But a well-dressed, wealthy criminal overlord with a sense of style and flair for total ruthlessness...has possibilities.

I can see her played very well on the TV show. As an orchestrator behind the scenes in the underworld, yet famous, fashionable, and able to move in high society circles, she could become National City's Lex Luthor.

She just needs a new name. Starflame? Starflare? Jeweleye? Starjewel?

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halloweenjack

Don't forget that Red Star also used the name in his first appearance. WRT this one, I'd suggest Stareye, although there's also a minor World of Warcraft character with that name.