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

[Jim Kelly]

When SUPER DC GIANT S-34 reprinted "The Girl Who was Supergirl's Double," there was an interesting change in the caption for the splash panel.



The original reads, "Phantom Girl, Wonder Woman, Saturn Girl, Power Girl and Mighty Maid! Yes, readers, you've all read of these feminine marvels time and again!" The last two, "Power Girl and Mighty Maid," were actually just Lois Lane (Power Girl) and Supergirl (Mighty Maid) and neither was for real or beyond one story.

This caption was changed for the reprint to read, "Phantom Girl, Wonder Woman, Saturn Girl, Wonder Girl and Black Canary! Yes, readers, you've all read of these feminine marvels time and again!" Those last two, "Wonder Girl and Black Canary," were known in 1971, but not so much in 1963--Wonder Girl was still the younger Wonder Woman and Black Canary had yet to return from obscurity on Earth-Two.



When Lena wears a Supergirl outfit to a costume ball, Dick Malverne is convinced that she's the Girl of Steel and he can't be persuaded otherwise. In the end, Lena tells Dick that he's right, which leads into the next issue and "The Forbidden Weapons of Krypton."

In fact, when she said she was Supergirl, Lena was being thought controlled by Lesla-Lar from her secret laboratory in the bottle city of Kandor. The evil blonde then uses her exchange ray to trade places with Lena Thorul--leaving Lena with false memories of being Lesla-Lar.

[Jim Kelly]

Now, Lesla-Lar releases Kru-El, Jax-Ur and General Zod from the Phantom Zone.

Kru-El is a cousin to Jor-El and had a hand in developing the weapons that were contained in the chest that Jor-El launched into space, which then arrived on Earth, which then Superboy dumped in the ocean.





So Kru-El retrieves his arsenal of weapons from the ocean floor. One of the weapons can vaporize anything--but will it work on Superman and Supergirl? They draw straws to find out. Lesla-Lar is the loser and is disintegrated. Cruel irony that she was the author of her own destruction. The gun short-circuits and is useless after that.

The Phantom Zoners then launch an attack on Atlantis. When the Midvale Marvel comes to the rescue, Lori Lemaris lets her know that Lena Thorul was really Lesla-Lar and was destroyed--Lori having got the whole story with her telepathy. The Girl of Steel tries to get help, by breaking through the time barrier to reach Superman in the past or the Legion in the future, and finds that a forcefield prevents her from doing either, as well as preventing them from reaching her in the present.

Kru-El infects Kara Zor-El with the Plant Scourge--meaning any animal life form that comes near her will be transformed into a plant. The Girl from Argo City isolates herself on a coral isle, but uses super-ventriloquism to communicate with Luthor in solitary confinement. When he finds out that his sister is in the bottle city, he's desperate to get out of prison to save her.



Note: Super-ventriloquism is an amazing super-power, since it can be used to communicate privately over vast distances. It will be used in a similar way in "Superman Goes to War," SUPERMAN 161 (coming up in a following post).

[Jim Kelly]

In "The Super-Powers of Lex Luthor," Kru-El gives the prisoner the powers of a Kryptonian in return for joining forces with them against the Maid of Tomorrow. First, super-powered Luthor gets himself a set of fancy new duds.



Later on, with his super-hearing, he eavesdrops on the Phantom Zone criminals as they plan to double cross Lex, by bringing him and the Girl of Steel into a gold Kryptonite trap. Luthor doesn't fall for it and enlists the Blonde Blockbuster in his own double cross, as they pretend to lose their powers (the gold K. is fake), so the Phantom Zoners will allow the Man of Steel through the time barrier, in hopes the gold K. will rob his powers as well. Then all three turn their super-powers on Kru-El, Jaxur and Zod.



A bird destroys Kru-El's weapons belt which frees Kara from the Plant Scourge.

Exchanging an android duplicate for Lena Thorul, she's brought out of the bottle city and back to her routine existence, still unaware that her brother is Lex Luthor.

Note: In "The Great Supergirl Double Cross," ACTION COMICS 317 (October 1964)--by Dorfman and Mooney--Lena Thorul marries F.B.I. agent Jeff Colby. Linda stands up for her at the wedding as the Maid of Honour.

[Jim Kelly]

SUPERMAN 161 (May 1963)--2nd story, "Superman Goes to War" by Hamilton, Swan and Klein:

Perry, Lois, Jimmy and Clark take part in a war movie filmed in the Pacific. The producer, Harold Haller, is determined this will be the most realistic war movie ever filmed and he's spared no expense, enlisting army and navy ships, tanks, planes and armaments. When they reenact an attack on a small island, they are surprised to come under return fire with live rounds.

They believe that there must be Japanese soldiers on the island who never learned that the war is over. Clark volunteers to carry a white flag of truce, but when he's clearly hit by fire he must pretend to be wounded. Using super-ventriloquism (which no one else can hear), he summons Supergirl to come to his aid. She pretends to give the reporter a blood transfusion, which will temporarily make him super. Thus Kent can go into action without raising suspicions.



However, the Man of Tomorrow figures out that these aren't Japanese soldiers but chlorine breathing aliens, who need their gas masks to survive in our oxygen-rich atmosphere. As Superman, he brings them to a dormant volcano, spewing chlorine gas, and they recount their origins.

They are from the far planet Zhor, which used to have an oxygen-rich atmosphere, but volcanic action over time changed the air to chlorine. Yet this happened over such a long period of time that they adapted and became chlorine-breathers.

On board a space exploration vessel in our solar system, they had to abandon ship when it was wrecked by a meteor. So they landed on this Pacific island, which still had weapons from the war, abandoned by the Japanese. And when the movie production began firing at them, they thought they were under a real attack and returned fire.





The Action Ace makes repairs on the Zhorian starship and sends them on their way. Clark Kent pretends not to remember his heroic exploits.

Note: The premise of a director making a war movie with the assistance of the U.S. Army and Navy sounds like something close to reality. I wonder if the editor and writer had a specific movie in mind or if it's an amalgam of several different movies. The name Harold Haller sounds like Arthur Hiller, but while he did war movies I don't think he did one exactly like this.

[Jim Kelly]

Note: The idea that an ordinary mortal might become super-powered by a blood transfusion from a Kryptonian has its origin early in the adventures of the Metropolis Marvel:

In SUPERMAN 6 (September-October 1940)--at the end of the 4th story (by Jerry Siegel and Paul Cassidy)--after being trapped in a stadium collapse, Lois Lane is in hospital, needing a life-saving blood transfusion. The Champion of the Helpless and Oppressed opens a vein and donates his blood, which conforms to all four blood types. In moments, Lois recovers and feels stronger than she's ever felt.

In ACTION COMICS 60 (May 1943)--1st story, "Lois Lane--Superwoman" (by Jerry Siegel and John Sikela)--after being struck by a truck, Lois lies unconscious in the hospital. The Man of Tomorrow appears to have given her his blood, after which Lois immediately recovers and begins to demonstrate amazing abilities. She makes her own costume (similar to the Man of Steel's), calls herself "Superwoman" and asks Superman to marry her. However, Lois wakes up in hospital, having gone through brain surgery. So it was all a dream.

In SUPERMAN 125 (November 1958)--1st story, "Lois Lane's Dream" (by Jerry Coleman and Kurt Schaffenberger)--Lois is unconscious in hospital, after falling off the ledge of a building, trying to get a scoop. As Lois has a rare blood type, the Man of Tomorrow has flown to the Chicago Blood Bank and back in time for her to get a transfusion. However, Lois dreams that it is Superman's blood and that she has gained super-powers. She makes herself a yellow and green costume, dons a red wig, and takes the name Power Girl. When Clark Kent is caught in a power plant explosion, Power Girl rushes him to the hospital and gives him her blood, then he becomes Power-Man. As Power-Man, Clark has a pencil-thin moustache which makes him look like artist Kurt Schaffenberger. And where Lois is a competent super-hero, Clark is a screw-up.

In SUPERMAN'S GIRL FRIEND, LOIS LANE 17 (May 1960)--2nd story, "Lana Lang, Superwoman" (by Siegel, Swan and Kaye)--Superman offers Lana Lang a transfusion of his blood. She accepts and becomes a Superwoman. He then does the same for Lois, who also gains super-powers. He does this to protect them from an attack by Brainiac.

In ACTION COMICS 321 (February 1965)--2nd story, "The Enemy Supergirl" (by Dorfman and Mooney)--Linda uses red K. to make herself vulnerable so she can give blood to an injured student named Debbie Porter. But this has the side effect of giving Debbie super-powers and she poses as an evil Supergirl, while also pretending to be unconscious in the hospital.

[Jim Kelly]

SUPERMAN'S PAL, JIMMY OLSEN 67 (March 1963)--1st story, "The Dummy that Haunted Jimmy Olsen" by Hamilton and Forte; 2nd story, "Leslie Lowe, Girl Reporter" by Dorfman, Swan and Klein; 3rd story, "Super Lucy Lane" by Siegel and Forte"; 3rd story r. THE SUPERMAN FAMILY 167 (October-November 1964); cover art by Swan and Klein:

When a ventriloquist's dummy runs out on him, Jimmy offers to take its place, in "The Dummy that Haunted Jimmy Olsen." But it's all a ruse by the ventriloquist, Verro, who is actually an alien in disguise. He wants Olsen to signal Superman and lure him into a Kryptonite trap. But the cub reporter is onto him.

[Jim Kelly]

After getting an offer to work at a rival newspaper, Jimmy has had enough of the shabby treatment he gets from Perry White and quits. However, a woman has in the meantime got the job at the other paper. This gives Olsen the idea that he could pose as a woman, "Leslie Lowe, Girl Reporter," and apply for the position he left vacant at the Planet. Then Leslie will self-sabotage in order to make Jimmy look good, so Perry will hire him back. But instead White seems impressed with Lowe's talents.



In actual fact, because Leslie is still wearing the Superman signal watch, everyone in the office knows that the beautiful red-head is really the cross-dressing Olsen.

[Jim Kelly]

Lucy Lane becomes "Super Lucy Lane" upon being exposed to red Kryptonite. This seems odd, since red K. usually has no effect on Earth people.





But there's a hitch--whenever Super Lucy uses her powers she's symbiotically connected with Superman whose powers are activated at the same time in the same way. This is an untenable situation for the Metropolis Marvel and he gets Jimmy to rob Lucy of her powers.

[Jim Kelly]

SUPERMAN'S PAL, JIMMY OLSEN 75 (March 1964)--3rd story, "When Supergirl Replaced Jimmy Olsen" by Siegel, Swan and Klein; cover art by Swan and Klein:



In the future, when the Girl of Tomorrow encounters red Kryptonite, she flies back to her home time period--but on the way back she sees Jimmy Olsen dead in a helicopter crash, 48 hours in the future.



Because of the red K., Linda has no powers when dressed as Supergirl, but all her powers come back when she's Linda. So to save Jimmy, she gets a job at the Planet, in hopes of sabotaging his career and getting him fired.

When that doesn't work, Linda buys an Arabian carpet and leaves it at Jimmy's desk, telling him a quaint man left it for him saying it's a flying carpet. Olsen tries it out and Linda secretly makes the carpet fly, in hopes the cub reporter will use that instead of the Flying Newsroom.



Eventually, the Miracle of Midvale is successful in driving Perry White to fire the freckled youth. But it turns out that the helicopter death she saw was really a crook posing as Olsen.

[marhawkman]

gotta say the old stories were weird in a good way.

[Thor-Ul]

After getting an offer to work at a rival newspaper, Jimmy has had enough of the shabby treatment he gets from Perry White and quits. However, a woman has in the meantime got the job at the other paper. This gives Olsen the idea that he could pose as a woman, "Leslie Lowe, Girl Reporter," and apply for the position he left vacant at the Planet. Then Leslie will self-sabotage in order to make Jimmy look good, so Perry will hire him back. But instead White seems impressed with Lowe's talents.



In actual fact, because Leslie is still wearing the Superman signal watch, everyone in the office knows that the beautiful red-head is really the cross-dressing Olsen.

Jon Kent needs his own Jimmy Olsen.

[Jim Kelly]

A Comet's Tale

ADVENTURE COMICS 293 (February 1962)--1st story, "The Legion of Super-Traitors" by Siegel, Swan and Klein; r. SUPERBOY 147 [G-47] (May-June 1968)
ACTION COMICS 292 (September 1962)--2nd story, "The Super-Steed of Steel" by Dorfman and Mooney; r. ACTION COMICS 334 [G-20] (March 1966)
ACTION COMICS 293 (October 1962)--2nd story, "The Secret Origin of Supergirl's Super-Horse" by Dorfman and Mooney; r. ACTION COMICS 347 [G-33] (March-April 1967)
ACTION COMICS 294 (November 1962)--2nd story, "The Mutiny of Super-Horse" by Dorfman and Mooney
ACTION COMICS 300 (May 1963)--2nd story, "The Return of Super-Horse" by Dorfman and Mooney
SUPERMAN 162 (July 1963)--The Amazing Story of Superman-Red and Superman-Blue" by Dorfman, Swan and Klein--Lois and Lana figures by Schaffenberger; r. 100-PAGE SUPER SPECTACULAR DC-18 (July 1973), BEST OF DC [Blue Ribbon Digest] 19 (December 1981); cover art by Schaffenberger
ACTION COMICS 301 (June 1963)--2nd story, "The Secret Identity of Super-Horse" by Dorfman and Mooney; r. ADVENTURE COMICS 390 [G-69] (March-April 1970)
ACTION COMICS 302 (July 1963)--2nd story, "The Day Super-Horse Went Wild" by Dorfman and Mooney
ACTION COMICS 304 (September 1963)--2nd story, "The Maid of Menace" by Dorfman and Mooney; r. DC SPECIAL 3 (April-June 1969)
ACTION COMICS 306 (November 1963)--2nd story, "The Maid of Doom" by Dorfman and Mooney; r. ADVENTURE COMICS 398 (October 1970)
ACTION COMICS 311 (April 1964)--2nd story, "The Day Super-Horse Became Human" by Dorfman and Mooney; r. ADVENTURE COMICS 390 [G-69] (March-April 1970)
ACTION COMICS 312 (May 1964)--2nd story, "The Fantastic Menace of the 'LL's'" by Dorfman and Mooney:

As befits any hero of classical mythology, the coming of the Super-Horse was foretold.

First, in "The Legion of Super-Traitors," Comet teamed up already with Beppo, Streaky and Krypto--when the Legionnaires gathered the Super-Familiars to fight the Brain Globes from Rambat--see post #157.

[Jim Kelly]

Next, in "The Super-Steed of Steel," Linda Lee Danvers has three different dreams of a Super-Horse named Comet. In one dream, Krypto and Streaky encounter the Super-Stallion in their past, during World War Two.





To get her mind off this dream stallion, Linda goes to the "Supergirl" dude ranch--named in tribute to her other identity. There she finds a horse that looks exactly like the Comet in her dreams.



He has markings on his back that resemble a comet. The horse is supposed to be too wild to ride, yet he's quite happy to have Linda saddle him. And he displays super-powers when alone with the Danvers girl.

[Jim Kelly]

Finally, "The Secret Origin of Supergirl's Super-Horse" reveals his back story.

It turns out that the steed was once a centaur named Biron. Circe fell in love with him and gave him a potion to make him fully human. But an evil wizard, Maldor, switched potions and Biron was transformed into a horse. To make it up to him, Circe gave him powers of the gods--the might of Jove, the speed of Mercury, the wisdom of Athena, the telepathic powers of Neptune, plus the immortality of all the Olympians.



Maldor sends the equine to a lonely asteroid in the constellation of Saggitarius [sic] until Kara's rocket breaks the spell that imprisons him there. Poor horsie, all alone for all those centuries.

Comet has contacted Linda telepathically through her dreams, because he's aware of alien invasion plans. They go to the Seattle World's Fair to prevent the invasion, as well as straightening out the Space Needle.



In "The Mutiny of Super-Horse," Comet is bought by a movie studio to appear in a science fiction film as "Super-Horse" opposite his leading lady, Liz Gaynor, who plays an Amazon type from Venus. Filming is on a jungle island east of Africa; Supergirl is on set as a technical advisor.

However, the Steed of Steel happens to eat some rare lotus that causes amnesia. As a result Comet forgets everything from his past, including Linda, and loses his super-powers. Liz Gaynor buys the stallion from the studio and keeps him on her private ranch. When the Girl of Steel is unable to jog Comet's memory, she's left heart broken.

[Jim Kelly]

As covered in post #306, the lead story in the 300th issue of ACTION COMICS was "Superman Under a Red Sun."

The Supergirl feature for that issue, "The Return of Super-Horse," brings back Comet, still on Liz Gaynor's ranch and not remembering who he had been or having had any super-powers. The silver stallion is stolen by crooks and Gaynor doesn't care, having gone off her co-star. After Comet escapes his captors, he's next adopted by a farmer who has a little girl, Bonnie.



When Bonnie is snatched and borne into the sky by a giant eagle, Comet takes flight to save her. And the Girl of Steel spying this, flies there to help save the child. His powers and memory having come back to him, the Super-Steed greets the woman of his dreams and with his telepathy recounts his origin story to little Bonnie.

Also in the 300th issue, there is a "Special Announcement!" of "the greatest IMAGINARY NOVEL of them all . . . 'The Amazing story of SUPERMAN RED and SUPERMAN BLUE!'"