Although the Superman comic books were aimed at kids, the Superman newspaper strip necessarily included many adults in its audience.
And that meant that more sophisticated themes were sometimes explored — themes such as class, for instance.
“Myrtle Pepper (also a name for what we call allspice) received Kryptonian powers from an emergency transfusion of Superman’s blood. (Yes, that IS She-Hulk’s origin, albeit 20 years earlier),” wrote Matthew Peterson. “For most of the summer of ’57, little Miss Pepper tried and failed to make her super-identity work out. She even managed to put out a massive fire before it spread and destroyed the city, only to have her costume burned off her invulnerable body, leaving her starkers when The Man of Steel arrives to help.”
“This is a long one! 102 panels, lasting 17 weeks,’ Randy Sadewater noted. “It’s a fun one. Myrtle Pepper is a hoot. Superman has his hands full.”
Superman regards Myrtle as, frankly, too common to serve as a superheroic role model for young people. He undertakes her instruction in language, deportment, and ethics.
“I’m unwittingly responsible for her superpowers, so it’s my responsibility to teach her to use them with discretion,” Superman thinks.
Rereading the story now, it’s clear to see that it was inspired by the hit Broadway musical about class distinctions, My Fair Lady, which had opened a year before and ran for 2,717 performances. The show was based on George Bernard Shaw’s 1913 play Pygmalion.
Like Prof. Henry Higgins, Superman attempts to teach Myrtle the refinements he thinks she’ll require. Like Eliza Doolittle, Myrtle has a witty, feisty spirit and no trouble at all telling Superman off whenever she thinks the circumstances warrant it. The strip winks at its inspiration by having Superman fly Lois Lane to see My Fair Lady.
The extended tale includes clever touches. Although Superman insists Myrtle does no endorsements, she has a contract she can’t break, so she ends up in a cigarette commercial. To screw up the Premo Cigarette ad being filmed on NBS TV, Superman has Myrtle inhale deeply and then flood the studio with her tobacco smoke.
Myrtle is not overly impressed by her acquisition of superpowers and has no intention of fighting crime.
Myrtle becomes romantically interested in Superman, finally turning to a disheartened Lois Lane to help her win the Man of Tomorrow. But Superman is an all-super business with her, and then the tables are turned. As Myrtle becomes intrigued by another man, Superman realizes that he might well marry her, in part because her superpowers would protect her from his many enemies. Eventually, however, her powers wear off.
The concept of a female version of a male superhero was nothing new — Mary Marvel, Hawkgirl, Bullet Girl, Pat Savage, and others had been created more than a decade before. Wonder Woman was a variation on the Superman theme (her original name — “Suprema” — lacked only one letter, after all).
But while an inevitable idea, the “Super-Girl” was also an evolving concept at DC Comics. How to handle her?
DC also tried a tragic, magically conjured Super-Girl in Superman 123 (Aug. 1958), before finally introducing the familiar continuing Supergirl feature a few months later in Action Comics 252 (May 1959). She was made Superman’s first cousin to eliminate the possibility of any romantic interest
That Supergirl, Kara Zor-El, was never introduced in the Superman newspaper strip, perhaps because the vivacious Myrtle Pepper had already covered that ground.
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