Is it a bird? Is it a flying cow? No it’s…

I thought I was weird and could come up with a weird tale, but browsing the web this morning I bumped into this picture of a horse.

“If I were a man… If I were free to tell her of my real feelings, for a girl like that, I’d even give up all my super-powers!”

Okay… I knew immediately that this was Comet the Super-Horse. How did I know? Well once, many, many light years away I read comic books morning, noon and night spending all of my pocket money on them. I must have read thousands of the things, I devoured them, every last CAPITALISED WORD!!! The stories were at best outlandish and often complete nonsense. But what fun they were. These days I wonder if the writers weren’t high on some drug given to them by a being from the Fifth Dimension, or Aliens sent to confuse us earthlings, or maybe they were just plain silly. Whatever the reason, some of those stories were way too wacky and none more so than the tale of Comet the Super-Horse.

Super Horse didn’t come from Krypton like Krypto (Superman’s Super-Dog) and Beppo ( his Super-Monkey) who was a test animal of Jor-El's (Superman’s father) and ended up on Earth. Super-Horse wasn’t even like Streaky (Supergirl’s Super-Cat) who gained his powers from a radioactive experimental antidote to Kryptonite that Supergirl was working on. I’d always assumed that Comet the Super-Horse was a horse from Krypton that belonged to Supergirl before she made her escape and the planet exploded. But that wasn’t the case at all. Just how wrong can you be?

I did some digging and what turned up was even weirder than most of comic book stories I’d read. It may have been written in the psychedelic sixties but is that any excuse for unnatural relationships?

It turns out that Comet is not from Krypton at all. He first appeared in Action Comics #292 in 1962. Supergirl had been hit by Kryptonite rays and was falling to Earth. Out of nowhere came a white horse with superpowers that saved her life. Now bear with me please. Comet was originally a centaur named Biron who was in love with Circe the sorceress from Greek mythology. When he saved her life, she agreed to repay him with a wish. His wish was to become human. Which she did, but she gave him the wrong potion (actually it was switched by a baddie) and instead of a man, he was turned completely into a horse. (Are you with it so far?) There was no antidote to the potion so, as a kind of consolation prize, Circe bestowed super-strength, telepathy and immortality to Biron the horse.

So far all pretty believable, at least to a seven year old boy, but then Superman receives a summons for help from Prince Endor of Zerox. The prince needed a flying horse for some reason so Supergirl and Comet made the trip. Zerox was a planet of sorcerers (as so many planets are) and by way of thanks Prince Endor granted Comet a wish. Now luckily magic had changed since Biron was first turned into a horse, and Prince Endor could now reverse the spell.

Quick more drugs! Comet would not have super-powers and would turn into a human on Earth when a comet passed through the solar system. Upon returning to Earth, a comet just happened to enter the solar system and Comet became human. Comet gave himself the name “Bronco Bill2 and soon bumped into Supergirl in his manly form. And this is when she… well, I’ll leave the rest to your imagination. But suffice it to say that kissing and hay was involved. In a later story old BB (aka Coment the Super-Horse, aka Biron the centaur) had a bit of a fling with none other than Superman’s girlfriend Lois Lane. Of course neither of them ever knew that he was a horse - or at least if they did they never let on.

And that’s the tale of Comet the Super-Horse. Sorry I just had to share it with someone.