Slightly Misplaced Comic Book Heroes Case Files #69: Comet

I pride myself on an excellent recall ability.  Stuff I read tends to stick to one degree or another, so many times when I write up one of these Case Files, I’m going by memory off some character I remember reading about at some point in the past.  Sometimes that gets rough when it comes to finding images for said characters from Google Images, as is the case with this week’s entry.

See, I can ask for images involving a character named Comet associated with Supergirl, but most such images show the Superhorse from the Silver Age.  I actually had someone else in mind.

See, there used to be a Legion of Super-Pets, featuring Krypto the Superdog and various other flying animals.  One of them was Comet.  He was a Superhorse.  But he wasn’t from Krypton.  No, he was born on Earth and was originally a centaur who was accidentally cursed to go all-horse by the witch Circe.  And given how screwy the Silver Age was, it probably wasn’t the same one that messes with Wonder Woman all the time.  Attempts to turn him back were unsuccessful, so the witch gave him superpowers to compensate.  Because, you know, if I am going to be turned into a horse, if I can at least get some heat vision out of the deal maybe it won’t be all bad.

No, check that.  It is still bad.

Silver Age silliness meant Comet, as Supergirl’s pet horse, was able sometimes turn into a human, posing as a rodeo star (obviously).  And in that form, he could try to romance Supergirl.  And in some really, really screwy stories, Lois Lane.

I really wish I was making all that up.

But no, there was a second Comet, who was sort of horse-ish, so let’s talk about that one.

After the original Crisis that killed the original Supergirl, writer Peter David wrote a different take on Supergirl.  I covered Supergirl for this site before, so I won’t get too much into her, but I do need to discuss Comet, since Comet is the one with the name in this article title.

See, that series came up with the concept of the Earth-Born Angel.  There were three at any given time, each of which was created when someone would sacrifice his or her life for a person who was a lost cause, and then the new combined being would be granted nifty powers based on whatever angel they represented.  Supergirl was the Angel of Fire.  A character named Blithe that at first seemed to be a villain was the Angel of Light.  And then there was Comet, the Angel of Love.

So, who was Comet?

Comet was two people.  One was a jockey named Andrew Jones.  He was trampled by a horse, but like some sort of Steve Austen type, someone could rebuild him due to having the technology.  Rebuilt as something with horse DNA (because why not?), Jones broke with his organization and became a superhero.  While doing the superhero thing, Jones tried to save a woman named Andrea Martinez from an avalanche which allowed the two to become the aforementioned Angel of Love.

What was Martinez’ deal?  Well, she was a stand-up comic who outted herself as bi to her parents, who promptly rejected her.

As a combined being, Comet could change back and forth between the male Jones/Comet, and the female Martinez.  In hero-mode, Comet could fly and had some ice powers, including ice vision.  Why ice?  I don’t know and neither did he.  Or she.  Or both.  Furthermore, as the Angel of Love, Comet could make other people feel warm towards himself (herself?).

That’s actually where the problems came in, because Supergirl thought he was hot and the feelings were mutual until two things happened.  1.  Supergirl learned the love might have been an unintended side-effect just from being close to the Angel of Love, and 2.  when she learned Comet was sometimes female, that didn’t really do much for her.  She may have been a Supergirl, but she wasn’t going to string along someone else since she didn’t swing that way.

That actually allowed the third Angel, Blithe, to exploit the spurned Comet and cause him (her?) to manifest further Angel powers, becoming a winged centaur.

But, you know, Angels are generally not all bad, so the three ended up teaming up to take down a nasty demon thing, and then Comet and Blithe found love with each other, since apparently Blithe did swing both ways, and everyone lived happily ever after from there.

And by that I mean I’m pretty sure we haven’t seen these characters much since then.  Heck, even that Supergirl got replaced with a different one.  Oh well.