The Super-Men (and -Women) of All-Planets

[Jim Kelly]

SUPERMAN'S GIRL FRIEND, LOIS LANE 55 (February 1965)--2nd story "Superman's Secret Wife" by Binder and Schaffenberger; cover art by Schaffenberger:



In the dead of night, Lois Lane is roused from her sleep and summoned by Circe to a cave outside of Metropolis. There, in revenge for the Man of Steel spurning her affections, the sorceress reveals to the Pride of Pittsdale that Superman is married with children, a boy and a girl.

After Circe vanishes, Lois is trapped by a cave-in, but happily rescued by the Maid of Might.





When the Daily Planet journalist tells the Blonde Blockbuster that her cousin is married, Kara is sceptical as he never told her such a thing. Still, Lois is determined to uncover who is Mrs. Superman.

The next day, as Lois investigates seismic activity near Mount Whitehead, she finds the Action Ace carving a heart out of the mountainside. It's the day before Valentine's Day and the Champion of Justice has inscribed the stone valentine with these words:

"To my Valentine...my Darling Wife...with love from her husband Superman"

At first, Ms. Lane suspects her friend Lana is the Bride of the Red and Blue Blur. Then she believes it is her own sister, Lucy, who has gone behind her back and stolen the Action Ace from her. After that, Lois wonders if it might be Lori Lemaris.

Even though Lori is married to Ronal--it seems possible that if the merman has died, then Lori would get her hooks into her old college sweetheart. The resolute reporter hires a bathysphere to investigate Lori's undersea kingdom and spots two children that look exactly like the children she saw in Circe's crystal ball--wearing red super-capes. However, they also have fish-tails and Ronal is still alive. Superman is their godfather, who gave them the capes and now arrives with more presents.

With the presents there is a tag attached, but Lois can't read it underwater. She returns to the surface and, as she stands on the pier reading the tag, the shock sends her over the edge, into the ocean. Kara Zor-El flashes down to rescue the drowning damsel in time. Supergirl now reads the tag which says:

"To my Underwater Godchildren...from Godfather Superman and Wife"

Note: The two children look much more like Superman than either Lori or Ronal. Seems fishy that the mermaid who was so in love with Clark ends up giving birth to two children that resemble him.

[Jim Kelly]

Convinced Circe's story is true, the Midvale Miracle flies Lois to the Fortress of Solitude. They are going to check what the Forbidden Room there holds. Warning Ms. Lane to wait outside, in case there's any danger, the Girl of Steel breaks down the door.

Later, Kal-El himself comes out of the Forbidden Room and introduces Lois to his family--Mrs. Superman is Supergirl! The mother of his two little children! He explains, "I need a Super-Wife...you're too ordinary, Lois...and you have no super-brains...and you're not very pretty...frankly, you're the last girl I would want to marry!"





Kara is about to put Lois in suspended animation, when her cousin snaps out of his spell and stops her. In fact, three days ago, Supergirl encountered a red Kryptonite meteor in space that made her hate Lois and plot to do something that would break her heart. The Man of Steel was manipulated by super-hypnotism. The two children were simply robots.

Note: As Linda has only started classes at Stanhope a few months before this story, she can't be more than eighteen years old--and yet she claims to be the mother of Superman's children. The boy and girl look about four years old. Even if they are supposed to be two years old that would mean that Kara was pregnant with them when she was fifteen years old. Surely that's the most shocking revelation!

[Jim Kelly]

ACTION COMICS 322 (March 1965)--2nd story, "The Planet of Outcasts" by Dorfman and Mooney
ACTION COMICS 323 (April 1965)--2nd story, "The Kryptonian Killer" by Dorfman and Mooney

One day, the Girl of Steel encounters three alien women, who introduce themselves as Plant Girl, Time Girl and Music Maid. They invite her to come to the planet Feminax--a world populated by women, each with her own power.

But when the Girl from Argo City arrives on Feminax, Plant Girl reveals that she's actually Ran-Kor, from the planet Drob, who betrayed her people to invading space pirates. Time Girl is really Tempra of Simor, who assassinated President Varn on that planet. And Music Maid is Lattora who exterminated the sea life on her world's moon, just so she could have the moon for her own. All three faked their super-powers.







They and other villainous women were called to Feminax--a.k.a Planet Z in sky sector Omega IV--by Queen Ravenne, a female criminal from the Xoran galaxy, to form the Sisterhood of Evil.

Ran-Kor dupes Supergirl into reviving Lady Macbeth, Lucrezia Borgia and Mata Hari, to join the Sisterhood.

In the next issue, these three fatal females from Earth's past imbue the Caped Kryptonian with their fiendish talents. She's sent to Earth, where she steals the U.N. defense plans for the Earth. Next she must embark on poisoning the other Supers. Supergirl concocts a poison to kill Kryptonians--first Comet, then Py-Ron a Phantom Zone criminal, and after him Superman.

In fact, the poison did not kill Comet, because the Kryptonite in the potion had no effect. But the Super-Horse faked his death, then flew into the past to get a non-lethal formula from Circe to replace the Kryptonian poison.

Later a Red and Blue Blur attacks Feminax causing environmental catastrophes that destroy all life on Planet Z. It's not Superman but Py-Ron, dressed as Evil-Man, who has destroyed the Sisterhood, believing that a good deed. But it's against the Man of Steel's code to kill and he returns Py-Ron to his living death, the Phantom Zone.

[Jim Kelly]

SUPERMAN 176 (April 1965)--1st story, "The Revenge of the Super-Pets" by Dorfman, Swan and Klein; 2nd story, "Tales of Green Kryptonite No. 2" by Binder, Swan and Klein; 3rd story, "Superman's Day of Truth" by Dorfman, Swan and Klein; 3rd story r. SUPERMAN 241 (August 1971):

Mark Dane, a man of great wealth, has died and to atone for the wrongs of his uncle, Cyrus Atwill, he has set aside in his will two million dollars for an animal shelter to be run by the Legion of Super-Pets.

Clark Kent doesn't know what bad deeds Cyrus Atwill committed in the past, so he travels into the 1860s with the Super-Pets--Krypto, Streaky, Comet and Beppo. Not with them is Proty II, who has remained in the future, and Super-Horse communicates mentally that the others were given temporary telepathic powers by Saturn Girl.





In the past, in his super-suit that resembles a circus costume and calling himself Superb-O, the Champion of the Oppressed auditions his animal act for the big top. Clark witnesses many acts of animal cruelty and one man is especially inhumane--this being Cyrus Atwill.

As payback, Superman and the Super-Pets prank Atwill to the delight of the distinguished Mr. Henry Bergh, the same gentleman who will found the Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals in 1866.

[Jim Kelly]

The second story in SUPERMAN 176 is the second in a series of stories about Kryptonite, with the story being told from the perspective of the green K. itself. This convention allows for a new perspective on Superman lore.

[Jim Kelly]

On a certain day, the Super-Cousins are bound by tradition to speak the truth. That day, they parachute into the bottle city for a solemn occasion. An elder reads from the Book of Deeds the story of Val-Lor:

"Long centuries ago, a ruthless swarm of alien invaders, called Vrangs, swept down upon our peaceful mother-planet, Krypton!"

As a peace-loving world, the Kryptonians knew nothing of war and could not put up a fight against the Vrangs. A conquered people, they were enslaved, tortured and humiliated, yet they bore it all without complaint, pretending gratitude for their menial treatment by their masters. Until, one day, a young man spoke up, "I will not lie! My name is Val-Lor! I hate and despise you Vrangs! I wish you were all dead!"

For this truth, the gallant lad was shot down in a volley of stun-rays at full power. Yet, in death, Val-Lor inspired a revolution. The masses of Krypton drove the Vrangs from their planet.

To mark the anniversary of the martyr's death, every Kryptonian is compelled to speak the truth on that day, just as Val-Lor did!

[Jim Kelly]

SUPERMAN'S GIRL FRIEND, LOIS LANE 56 (April 1965)--3rd story, "Lois Lane's Super Gamble" by Siegel and Schaffenberger:

In an "Untold Tale" that takes place just shortly after Lana Lang has landed her television job in Metropolis, Lois Lane is listening to some audio tape that Superman has given the Daily Planet. Lois learns that Ideal-Man, the hero of Knarp, will be switching places with the Action Ace for a temporary period. She splices the tape to make Lana think this switch is permanent.



When the blond Ideal-Man comes to Earth, Lois does everything she can to push her best friend into marrying the Champion of Knarp. She knows that Superman will be returning, so by hooking up Lana with Ideal-Man she will get rid of the competition for the Man of Steel's heart.

In reality, there is no such Ideal-Man, it's just Superman pulling a prank on Lois to teach her a lesson. Lana, who never did anything wrong, is the one who got caught in the middle with a false promise of matrimony.





Note: Knarp backwards is prank. All of Ideal-Man's powers are Marvelo-something--Marvelo-Breath, Marvelo-Strength, Marvelo-Hearing, Marvelo-Vision.

[Jim Kelly]

ACTION COMICS 327 (August 1965)--2nd story, "Supergirl...Fugitive from Justice" by Dorfman and Mooney
ACTION COMICS 328 (September 1965)--2nd story, "The Ordeals of Dimension Z" by Dorfman and Mooney

Deputies Stix and Hubro of the Inter-Dimensional Bureau of Investigation arrive on Earth in a trans-dimensional craft. They have a warrant to extradite Supergirl to Dimension Z. There she is really the criminal Serpena, who has escaped to Earth.

At her extradition hearing, Stix proves that the Maid of Steel has a transistorized energy-cell in her boot that gives her super-powers. When turned off, she is powerless. Moreover, in Dimension Z, Serpena developed a third eye at the back of her head and Supergirl has the same.

Superman is called as a witness and reports that his supposed cousin is a Jekyll and Hyde, guilty of many criminal acts.

She is led away in chains to the trans-dimensional craft.

In the next issue, it's revealed that this was all an elaborate set-up to get Supergirl to Dimension Z for the annual Contest of Peril, where a super-heroine must battle the fiercest creatures of their world.

Stix planted the transistor on her boot, which draws energy from a red sun and nullifies Kara Zor-El's powers. He removes it to give her back her powers for the ensuing battle, but she discovers her powers don't work in this dimension. In a vast arena, before a crowd of spectators, through her own cleverness, the Girl from Argo City defeats the Frost-Beast, the Flame-Monster and the Energy Creature.

According to tradition, the victor must spend a day with King Avro. The monarch turns out be a man with the head of a lion--it's a "Beauty and the Beast" scenario as the self-loathing ruler entertains his guest.

After the Caped Kryptonian enters a forbidden room decorated with images of a handsome youth, Avro reveals that was how he appeared before an evil wizard cursed him.

Later, Stix and Hubro tell Supergirl the one way that King Avro might end the curse. According to the wizard's book of magic:

Await the kiss of a mighty maid,
Who from another world has strayed,
With her kiss, O beastly lord,
What was lost will be restored.

For years, they have searched other dimensions for a heroine that could fulfill the prophecy, but she is the first to win the Contest of Peril.





However, when the Maid of Might kisses King Avro, he remains a "beast." Yet she regains her powers. "What was lost will be restored" was the super-powers. So Supergirl leaves King Avro in his cursed state.

[Jim Kelly]

ACTION COMICS 329 (October 1965)--2nd story, "Drang the Destroyer" by Dorfman and Mooney
ACTION COMICS 330 (November 1965)--2nd story, "Supergirl's Duel with Dr. Supernatural" by Dorfman and Mooney; cover art by Swan and Klein
ACTION COMICS 331 (December 1965)--2nd story, "Operation Satan" by Dorfman and Mooney:

If Dick Malverne was not so sweet on Linda Danvers, he'd probably regret inviting her to see Fantasta the Magician, as all Linda can do is make snarky remarks about the magic act rather than enjoy the show.

Fantasta puts the heckler in her place by making Linda vanish--and she never returns, not even after the show when Dick looks for her backstage.

In fact, the Cuddle-Bun Beauty is aboard Fantasta's spaceship, because the performer is a real spell-caster come to Earth to abduct Supergirl. On the world of Gotha, ruled by the Circle of Evil, Fantasta was set the task of capturing the Maid of Might, to prove herself worthy to join their ranks.



Fantasta allows her captive to leave the spacecraft but the Action Amiga is completely lost and seems to be in an entirely different space-time continuum. With no way home, Supergirl returns to the space ship and nullifies Fantasta's magic medallion with water, having noted that the necromancer has a fear of H₂O. The Circle of Evil does not allow defeat and so Fantasta is killed by her execution bird.

Linda disguises herself as the dead Fantasta and continues on course to Gotha, but when she arrives there her powers don't work. As Fantasta, she claims to have disintegrated Supergirl, but kept her costume as a trophy. Changing into those clothes, the fake Fantasta is given another mission--go after Drang the Destroyer. More evil than the Circle of Evil, Drang has refused membership in their elite group.



In a spaceship locked on course for the Purple Planet where Drang resides, Kara only has her magic medallion and her execution bird.

Note: Every assassin from the Circle of Evil travels with an execution bird which will kill them if they fail in their mission.

[Jim Kelly]

In the next issue, a force projection of Drang the Destroyer threatens Supergirl, saying that he knows who she is and he was the one who removed her powers. On the Purple Planet, the Woman of Tomorrow discovers three other super-heroes that preceded her, all imprisoned by the super-villain. They are heroes from her universe that she has met before:

Lux, of the dark planet Gur, who can turn any object into a source of light;
Multiple-Man, a one-man police force, who can multiply his body at will;
Mask-Man, who can mold his face into any shape.

The prisoners warn her against Drang and Dr. Supernatural, but the Girl of Steel in pulled by an irresistible force toward a palace. Entering one room in the palace, Linda seems to be in a lecture room at Stanhope College and she thinks she has awakened from a delusion, but this is the delusion, as the energy form of Dr. Supernatural appears, announcing that he and Drang the Destroyer are one and the same.

With a wave of his hand he makes Superman appear, who is destroyed by the execution bird. But this is just another illusion. However his magic feats seem to have weakened Dr. Supernatural. When Supergirl is dragged away by the guards, she meets two more imprisoned super-heroes that she knows:

Surya of the Evolution World, who can evolve into any prehistoric beast;
Strella of Planet Y, who can turn her hands into living flame.

Dr. Supernatural gives Supergirl back her powers, only because he feeds off her energy. And to do so, he must manipulate her into committing diabolical acts.

[Jim Kelly]

In the third and concluding chapter, to escape the Purple Planet, Kara and her Super-Friends construct a time magnet in hopes of bringing the Legion of Super-Heroes from the future.

This doesn't work, because on this world the time-magnet can only attract people from the past. They materialize Circe, but when she finds out they want her to free them from Dr. Supernatural, she flees back into the past, because interfering with another sorcerer brings seven years bad luck.

Three of the super-heroes turn heel and tell Dr. Supernatural of three past super-villains from their worlds:

Dynar from Planet Y, who can construct force-field with hyper-energy;
Voltan from Multiple Man's world, who can seal people into cocoons and hatch them as giant insects;
Raptor from Mask-Man's planet, whose vibro-vision can shatter a city.

Hearing of these villains, Dr. Supernatural uses the time-magnet to bring them to the Purple Planet, so he can feed off their evil acts. But so much energy is more than the wicked wizard can handle and he explodes, the blast destroying the other super-villains, as well.

Strella, Multiple-Man and Mask-Man weren't actual turncoats. It was all a plot to overload Dr. Supernatural with more energy than he could contain.

When the super-heroes all return to their worlds, Supergirl detects a lingering trace of evil super-energy, which could eventually produce another menace.

[Jim Kelly]

SUPERMAN 180 (October 1965)--2nd story, "The Girl Who Was Mightier Than Superman" by Dorfman, Swan and Klein:

A series of encounters with superior women leads the Man of Tomorrow to Florena, the island of women. It's all a mantrap, as the Florena females have only faked having hyper-abilities. They wanted to excite Superman's curiosity so he would follow the breadcrumbs to their South Pacific home.





They use an artificial Kryptonite barrier to keep him there long enough for one of them to win him as her spouse. Orella has set it up so she is the chosen contender for Super-Bride.

They come from a race of warrior-women on the planet Matrion. In battle with other planets, they would capture soldiers and each decade choose the bravest of their prisoners to mate. All the girls that resulted from these unions remained on Matrion, while the boys with their fathers would be sent to one of the moons. Over the centuries, some of the women became strong of mind yet weak of body. These inferiors were shipped off the planet and voyaged through the cosmos until, nearly out of fuel, they crashed to Earth.

It's their hope mating with the Man of Steel will revitalize their genetic stock, making them stronger and able to return to Matrion. To win Superman as her mate, Orella must defeat him in a series of challenges. Their elder, Sophroni, who is the last survivor of the original Matrion outcasts, imposes strict rules on the contest.

It seems that Orella has won the Man of Might fair and square, but Superman uses the wedding rituals of Matrion to expose Orella's ruse. When Sophroni discovers that the young warrior was using a bracelet to siphon off powers from the Action Ace to herself, the elder declares the contest null and void and grants Superman his freedom.



At story's end, flying through the universe, the Caped Kryptonian witnesses that Matrion has become a lifeless planet and the women of Florena have no homeworld to return to.

[Jim Kelly]

THE BRAVE AND THE BOLD 63 (December 1965 - January 1966)--"The Revolt of the Super-Chicks" by Bob Haney, John Rosenberger and Win Mortimer:

Supergirl and Wonder Woman were teamed up for the first time in THE BRAVE AND THE BOLD 63, but under very strange conditions that could only happen in the 1960s--and with Bob Haney as writer.

Linda Danvers all of a sudden decides she's fed up with the square super-hero life. She wants to find glamour and romance like a normal girl and she heads to Paris.

Superman is dumbfounded and does a fly-over of Paradise Island (no man may land on the island of women) to ask Wonder Woman to go to Paris and talk some sense into his cousin.

Supergirl has become a fashion icon and attracted the attention of a young Parisian, when Princess Diana arrives. But rather than convincing Linda that being a super-heroine is her top priority, the Amazing Amazon is also won over by the couture and amour of Paris.



With their new paramours (Henri and André), the ladies head for Ile d'Amour.





Now, you would think this is all some kind of hoax that Supergirl and Wonder Woman have cooked up. On Ile d'Amour is a super-villain named Multi-Face--so-called because his visage keeps changing--maybe this is all their way to trap him. But while they do come in contact with Multi-Face and his henchmen, it's pure happenstance. They really have been seduced by good looking men and designer fashion!

[Jim Kelly]

SUPERBOY 126 (January 1966)--1st story,"The Wild Teen-Agers" by Binder and Papp; 2nd story, "Krypto's Family Tree" by Binder, Swan and Klein:

Jonathan and Martha Kent seem to have become youthful after exposure to a space jewel.



Even though they later revert back to their silver-haired appearance, Clark is adamant that they remain housebound. In fact, he knows they are only aliens posing as Ma and Pa Kent. When their secret is revealed, they tell Superboy that they are Vanie and Raldo, two teen-agers that couldn't get married because of a family feud.

The feud erupted over a dispute between their fathers, Karnark and Mazol, who were partners in science. They each developed rival theories about Superboy's appearance--both imagining the Boy of Steel as a freak, but in two completely different forms.

Their association sundered, Karnark and Mazol refused to let Vanie and Raldo see each other. So the star-crossed lovers ran away from home to get hitched and rocketed to Earth to hide out from their families' interference. Once they saw what Superboy really looked like, they realized both their fathers were wrong.

Later, they got a radio signal that the two families had patched up their differences and it was okay for Vanie and Raldo to return to their planet. However, they had no working rocket to get them there. If they could make it to the Asteroid of Hearts, they could catch a rocket to make it the rest of the way home.



Knowing that Clark intended to take Jonathan and Martha via spacecraft to the Asteroid of Hearts for their wedding anniversary, Vanie and Raldo took their place.

The Red and Blue Blur decides to take both his parents and the star-crossed lovers to the Asteroid of Hearts, towing them in twin space pods.



Note: On the Asteroid of Hearts light rays from the distant past are captured, so sweethearts can see famous couples from history. It's like a sexy drive-in theatre in space. In this story, an Editor's note says that television didn't exist in Superboy's day--yet in some prior stories, they do have T.V.

[Jim Kelly]

In "Krypto's Family Tree," when the Dog Knight displays an irrational fear of insects, the Master of Steel uses the Mind-Prober Helmet to revive his pal's memories of their home planet.

The Caped Canine's father was Zypto who originally came from Zaro City. The Super-Dog's grandfather Nypto defeated alien raiders. Great grandfather Vypto evaded telepathic hounds and led the police to stolen loot, but was frightened by his master's painting of an insect.



Note: This family tree completely ignores any female dogs--yet Krypto must have had a mother!