Supergirl's Big Brother is a Supergirl story published in Action Comics #303 (August, 1963). It was authored by Leo Dorfman and Jim Mooney.
Linda Danvers -Kara Zor-El/Supergirl's secret identity- is working around the house as her adoptive parents are away, when a stranger knocks on the door, claiming to be Fred and Edna's long-lost son Jan Danvers. Jan, a soldier, was reported killed in action some years ago, but the man claims it was a mix-up in the records: instead, he was wounded and shell-shocked and amnesiac, only recovering his memories one month ago.
Fred and Edna want to believe that he is their missing son, accepting the crescent birthmark on his forearm as sufficient evidence. Linda is still wary about Jan's story, but she decides to give him the benefit of the doubt for her parents' sake. As soon as Jan is left alone, though, he touches up the fake mark on his arm.
Jan moves with the Danvers, and suddenly Linda needs to hide her identity and her powers in her parents' house. Fred and Edna insist that their son can be trusted, but Linda is not so sure. One day, though, Linda must use her super strength to save Jan from being crushed by a car. Linda has no option but reveal her secret identity, and Jan starts gushing about how great is being Supergirl's brother, and how great it would be if he had powers, too. Nonetheless, Linda does not like how he is suddenly buttering her up, guessing he wants to cajole her into giving him powers, a sure sign that he should not have them.
Her suspicions are again raised when she learns that Jan's grandfather left him a $50,000 inheritance.
Tropes:
- The Air Not There: Subverted. When "Jan" flies for the first time, Supergirl warns him that his clothes are not friction-resistant, unlike hers, and they are catching fire. Jan ignores her warning since he is invulnerable, thus failing to notice his fake birthmark is being burned by the air's friction.
- Becoming the Mask: A con man called Biff Rigger masquerades as Fred and Edna Danvers' long-lost son Jan in order to steal Jan's grandfather's savings. Upon discovering Jan's adoptive sister is Supergirl, Biff tricks her into giving him temporary powers; yet still, he ends up using those powers to save her, at the cost of his own life. Before dying, Biff reveals he liked him having a family, and begs Supergirl to not tell the Danvers he wasn't their real son.
- Blackmail Backfire: Biff Rigger threatens to reveal Supergirl's secret identity to the world if she tells her parents that he is a crook impersonating their son, expecting her to comply and even make more power-grating pills for him. However, Kara retorts he better is gone when she gets back from her current mission. Kara starts thinking of a way to get rid of that crook, but she never gets to implement it because Biff dies shortly after.
- Bullying a Dragon: Biff rigger attempts to blackmail Supergirl, clearly not realizing what she has at least one dozen of ways to get rid of him without killing him (in fact, Kara and her cousin have mindwiped people for much less).
- Cain and Abel: Subverted. After catching Jan using his powers to steal, Kara decides to run a background check, discovering that the real Jan Danvers is dead. She is dealing with a fraud who is not her brother, adoptive or otherwise.
- Coincidental Broadcast: Linda and her mother are making dinner when they hear a radio broadcast reporting two tigers have escaped from Metropolis Zoo and asking -specifically- Supergirl's help.
- Conscience Makes You Go Back: After plundering a sunken ship as Supergirl is being killed by Kryptonite radiation, Biff is about to make off with the gold when he remembers Kara saved him from being crushed by a car. Unable to silence his conscience, Biff goes back and takes Supergirl away from the Kryptonite.
- Crisis Catch And Carry: When Supergirl is lying unconscious due to Kryptonite poisoning, Biff carries her in his arms back to the ocean's surface.
- Dangerous Clifftop Road: “Jan” is driving his father's car down a highway running along a high precipice, when he loses control of the vehicle and the car dashes off the cliff. Fortunately for everyone, Linda was sitting in the rear seat.
- Dead Person Impersonation: A drifter called Biff rigger assumes Jan Danvers' identity after the latter is killed in action in order to con Jan's parents out of their money, since Jan naively told him his grandfather left him $50,000.
- Death by Secret Identity: As impersonating Jan danvers, Biff Rigger learns Supergirl's secret identity. He intends to blackmail her, but ultimately he ends up sacrificing his life to save hers.
- Disposable Superhero Maker: Justified. Although Supergirl is able to make power-granting pills, she is not interested in mass-producing them because it is an experimental product whose effects only last one hour, and she cannot to be sure that people would not misuse their newfound powers. Moreover, the man who claims to be her adoptive brother decides to make one at his own risk, and he gets killed because he left out an important chemical, for which his invulnerability wore off too soon.
- Distinguishing Mark: Since Jan Danvers had a crescent-shaped birthmark on the back of his left wrist, Biff Rigger painted a fake mark on his forearm to impersonate him.
- The Drifter: Biff Rigger drifts into Midvale, prepared to convince the Danvers that he is his deceased son in order to con them out of their money; but since he has always been a wanderer with no family or home, Biff ends liking the lie of being Fred and Edna's son, and even sacrifices himself to save their adoptive daughter's life.
- Due to the Dead: Biff is given a hero's burial beneath the sea after sacrificing his life to save Supergirl's.
- Escaped Animal Rampage: Two tigers escape from Metropolis Zoo, and Supergirl is asked to capture them before they get someone killed. Supergirl uses a bunch of old rails to build a cage around both felines and flies away, leaving the rest to the zookepers.
- Evil Cannot Comprehend Good: When Supergirl berates her alleged adoptive brother over misusing his powers, Jan asks why anybody would not use super-powers for their own gain, since then said powers would be of no use. The fact that money is of no use when you have a Kryptonian powerset never registers with him.
- Heroic Sacrifice: Kara is trying to stop Biff from plundering a sunken ship, when she comes upon a cache of Kryptonite rocks and starts weakening. Biff feels tempted to let her die but his conscience will not leave him alone, so he gets her out of the ocean, dying as saving her life (since his powers wore off as he was swimming towards the surface).
- Hoist by His Own Petard: As soon as he finds out that Linda is Supergirl, Biff Rigger gives up his original plan to con the Danvers out of their money -which could have worked- in lieu of convincing Supergirl to give him superpowers. After managing to talk her into giving him one pill which grants powers for one hour, Biff uses them so carelessly that he burns off his fake birthmark, tipping off Supergirl that he is a fraud. Since his attempt to blackmail her into making him more super-power pills fails, Biff tries to make one pill, but he gets the ingredients wrong and gets killed when his powers wear off too soon.
- Identical Stranger: Biff Rigger is able to impersonate a total stranger like Jan Danvers, fooling even Jan's parents, because they look amazingly alike even if they are not even remotely related.
- The Joy of First Flight: After taking one power-granting pill, Biff Rigger immediately tests his newfound flight power, feeling exultant while he makes pirouettes across the sky, not even noticing his clothes are burning off due to the air friction.
- Just Between You and Me: When Supergirl confronts the man claiming to be her adoptive parents' son, after finding out that he is a fraud, the conman reveals his real name and tells her everything about who he is and how he pretended to be Jan Danvers to con her parents out of money.
- Killed Off for Real: Biff Rigger dies as saving Supergirl's life, and he has remained dead since 1963.
- Kryptonite Is Everywhere: Supergirl is about to stop Biff from plundering a sunken ship, but by lifting the vessel, Biff accidentally uncovers a bunch of Kryptonite rocks lying underneath by sheer chance.
- Last Request: Before dying, Biff confesses that he actually enjoyed posing as Jan because he has always been a rootless drifter, and he begs Supergirl to not tell the Danvers that he was not their real son. Supergirl fulfills Biff's last wish and never tells Fred and Edna the truth.
- Man on Fire: Played for laughs. When "Jan" tries his newfound power of flight for the first time, Kara warns him that he is going too fast and the friction is setting his clothes on fire. Her brother just laughs her warning -and the fire- off, since he is now invulnerable and his super-breath can puff the flames out.
- Mundane Utility: At the beginning, Linda Danvers is cleaning her house at super-speed, lifting easily a piano with one hand to vacuum the floor below the furniture. Later, she combines her heat vision and super breath to dry the laundry within seconds.
- Not Blood Siblings: Jan kisses Linda as a "present" for his kid sister. Linda blushes and enjoys the kiss for a moment before reminding herself that he is legally her brother. Meanwhile, the Danvers are watching the scene, finding it very funny.
- Outliving One's Offspring: Zigzagged. Before adopting Kara, Fred and Edna Danvers had a son called Jan who was killed on active duty as serving in the army. Then a man who shows up like Jan appears on their doorstep, claiming he was wrongly reported to have died. Then Linda discovers that man is an inheritance-seeking crook called Biff Rigger, and the real Jan Danvers is indeed dead. However, Biff dies shortly after, and since he gets killed as saving her life, Kara does not tell her parents he was a conman. At the end, the Danvers are aware that their son is dead, but they are wrong about the circumstances.
- Redemption Equals Death: Since he died in order to save her life, Supergirl forgives Biff for being a lying, grave-robbing crook and decides against telling her parents that he was a fake.
- Replacement Goldfish: Subverted. When Kara asks her adoptive parents why they never talked her about their son Jan, Fred and Edna admit they adopted her specifically because they needed to fill in the emotional emptiness left by Jan's death...but they never expected her to be like him.
- Reports of My Death Were Greatly Exaggerated: Subverted. Jan claims the reports of his death were a mistake caused by a mix-up in the records, but he is a fraud impersonating the real Jan, who is indeed dead and buried.
- Required Secondary Powers: Biff tries to make a super-pill to give himself Kryptonian powers; however, he uses the wrong mix of chemicals, and his invulnerability wears off when he is swimming through the ocean, leaving his body unable to bear the water pressure.
- Retirony: Before being killed in action, soldier Jan Danvers tells he intends to use his grandfather's inheritance to go into his father's engineering business when the war ends.
- Right in Front of Me: During a family trip, Jan Danvers says Supergirl is cute and he wishes he could meet her some day, completely unaware that the girl sitting in his father's car's rear seat is Supergirl.Jan Danvers: "I wish I could meet Supergirl some day! She's a living doll!"
Linda Danvers: "I wonder what my big brother would say if he knew that Supergirl was his own sister, Linda!" - Robbing the Dead: After Jan gets killed in action, Biff steals his locket in order to trick Jan's parents into believing he is their not-dead-after-all son.
- Saying Too Much: When Fred Danvers wants to talk "Jan" about his grandfather's inheritance, and Jan quickly blurts out "Oh, yes, fifty grand, wasn't it?", Linda notes that he looks very interested and he knows the exact amount.
- Secret-Keeper: Deconstructed. When their long-lost son reappears, Fred and Edna assure Linda that she can trust Jan with her secret identity. Linda ends revealing her secret, but she comes to regret it when "Jan" turns out to be a fraud impersonating the real Jan Danvers, and he tries to use the knowledge of her secret identity to blackmail her.
- Self-Disposing Villain: Biff gets himself killed because of his attempt to blackmail Supergirl and steal her secrets.
- Spanner in the Works: Biff's ploy to steal Jan Danvers' inheritance meets an unexpected obstacle when he learns the Danvers have an adoptive daughter that he knew nothing about. When he discovers her secret identity, his original plan is abandoned in favour of tricking Supergirl into giving him powers, which leads to his death.
- Speed Blitz: When the Danvers' family car falls off a cliff, Linda removes and hides her clothes and wig, leaps out of the rear seat, flies down the car and pick the vehicle before it can even begin falling down.
- Spotting the Thread: Supergirl figures out that the man claiming to be her adoptive brother Jan Danvers is a fraud when she notices that the crescent birthmark on his wrist, which he displayed to prove her parents his identity, has vanished.
- Surveillance as the Plot Demands: Biff Rigger gets a dying Kara away from some Kryptonite rocks and out of the ocean before dying. Right after that, Lori, Jerro and other Atlanteans arrive at the scene, explaining their monitor screens picked up that Kara was in danger. It must be noted that Kara was nowhere near from the sunken city, and still their monitoring systems instantly noticed and reported her plight.
- Tempting Fate: Prior to being killed in action, Jan Danvers talks about how he intends to go into engineering business after the war.
- Treachery Cover Up: Per his last request, Supergirl does not tell her parents that they were tricked by a conman pretending to be their late son.
- Unwitting Instigator of Doom: Jan Danvers naively told one man whom he had just befriended, and who looked right like him, about his family and his inheritance, even showing him his locket where he kept his parents' pictures. When Jan dies in battle, his new friend steals his locket and tries to impersonate him, causing Jan's parents greater grief and jeopardizing Supergirl's secret identity.
- What You Are in the Dark: While trying to stop Biff from plundering a sunken ship, Supergirl stumbles upon a cache of Kryptonite rocks. Biff is about to leave her to her own devices and make off with the gold, thinking happily she will never reveal his real identity to anybody now, but his conscience starts torturing him. Reminding himself that she saved his life not long ago, Biff leaves the gold and gets her away from the Kryptonite.
