Legion Outpost: Steve Lightle, Sensor Girl, and Supergirl

Last month, I stumbled on this Legion Companion book, published by TwoMorrows and put together by Glen Cadigan. It is a fabulous collection of interviews with Legion creators from the earliest up through Zero Hour. I decided that the best way for me to digest this was not to read it front to back but to pick and choose which creators struck my interest in the moment. Last month I reviewed an interview with the man who drew the first appearance,  Al Plastino.  

This time I decided I would jump forward to the Baxter series and read a 2003 interview with Steve Lightle. This interview was done by Glen Cadigan. I love Lightle's art, in particular his Legion stuff so I dove right in. It is interesting to read how Lightle got given the book, why he left the book, and how he feels when people always want to talk Legion with him.

But this is a Supergirl blog. So what am I talking about here? Well, if you saw the title of the post, you know it is Sensor Girl.

I get the sense that as I read through this book there will be Supergirl nuggets for me to showcase here.

I was a big fan of Sensor Girl and I loved her original costume. There is something that just works there.

For me, back in the day, the thing that obviously intrigued me about Sensor Girl was the chance that she was Supergirl. Crisis was happening. Her first appearance was in Legion of Super-Heroes #14, which came out one month before Crisis on Infinite Earths #7.

There were rumors that writer Paul Levitz was planning on Sensor Girl actually being Supergirl. But I never heard anything concrete about that being the plan. So let's hear what Lightle recalls.

So this seems to be solid information.

Levitz wanted Sensor Girl to be Supergirl, albeit depowered to only have her enhanced senses. Looking back at Sensor Girl's early adventures, that makes sense. Her powers are such that they could be explained easily as super-hearing and super-vision.

But imagine that conversation between Jenette Kahn and Levtiz. He had planned this great reveal only to have it pulled out from under him.

So instead Sensor Girl became Projectra.

And those earlier uses of powers became her 'seeing through the illusion of the universe'. I suppose you have to explain them somehow. And given the mystical nature of Orando, I guess that works.

Lightle at least seemed to agree with the finality of Supergirl's death back then.

How interesting that he designed the Sensor Girl look thinking it was Supergirl. Would he have had it look different if he knew that it was going to end up Projectra? The universe will never know.

As for me, as I have said many times, I have come through to the other side about Crisis #7. It is such an important part of comic history. It made Supergirl so heroic in her sacrifice. It really is a powerful story. You can't top it. So I am glad in some ways that it happened ... even though it happened because some thought she was forgettable and expendable. I think had she survived in this depowered mode in the future, it would have diminished what she did.

As for Sensor Girl herself, I still love that original look.

Here is a Sensor Girl jack o'lantern I did a few years ago, perhaps my greatest carving of all time.

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