5 things you probably didn't know about mars ravelo's darna

while reading through the first few issues of the original 1950's serial on video48, i learned some stuff that today's typical darna fan, having grown up on the TV series and/or mango comics revamp, may be surprised to find out:

1.) narda and ding were beggars. 

i wonder if narda knew "sa may bahay..."

narda would sing for pocket change while ding played the harmonica. they supported themselves as well as their grandmother this way.

2.) darna's magic stone was hallucinogenic.

the stone was actually three feet away; narda picked up a mushroom by mistake.

upon first finding the stone, which fell to earth from outer space, narda is approached by a gang of kids also looking for the meteor. not wanting to share, narda hides the stone in her mouth and proceeds to trip the f out (also, the stone stays in her system permanently. apparently darna's alien gut makes her constipation-proof).

3.) seeing narda transform for the first time, her grandmother's first words were, "SUSMARIA SANTISIMANG INA NG AWA!"

which, i think, is a phrase that ought to be used more often in mainstream entertainment.

4.) darna may be a martian.

women are from venus, men are from...wait.

she comes from the planet "marte," which is spanish for "mars." no idea if ravelo meant the actual planet mars, or if he was just making a reference to his own given name.

5.) darna is missing for more than half the entire story.

"sssssssscreen time!"

after the first chapter, darna abruptly disappears as the plot focuses on valentina's birth and career in small-town evil (bonus trivia: valentina's ultimate aim is to return the earth to the age of the dinosaurs). neither darna nor narda reappear until chapter 16.

considering that the series came out twice a week, that means the title character went AWOL for about two months.