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

[Jim Kelly]

"One morning in Metropolis, on an imaginary day that may, or may not, ever happen . . ." Perry, Lois and Jimmy all get salary increases, but not Clark Kent. While his co-workers go out to celebrate their good fortune, Kent switches to his union suit and joins his cousin, who has summoned him to the Fortress of Solitude.

Just as Clark's poor job performance lost him a raise in pay, Superman's poor job performance has met with disapproval from Kandor's elders. His employment review finds him wanting in key areas and if he doesn't address these issues in the next six months, he'll be replaced by another Kryptonian.

The problems the Man of Tomorrow has failed to solve:

1. Restore Kandor to normal size

2. Find an antidote to green Kryptonite

3. Wipe out crime and evil

4. Guard Against . . . [not visible]

Kara Zor-El doubts that her cousin could complete these jobs in a century let alone half a year. However, Kal-El has a plan. He has constructed a Brain-Evolution Machine that will increase his mental power a hundred times. The machine is powered by all varieties of Kryptonite, so there is a danger, and the Maid of Might volunteers to take his place, as "the world can't afford to lose Superman!" But the Action Ace insist it's up to him to take the risk.

The Woman of Tomorrow flips the switch and, under maximum power, the World's Greatest Super-Hero can hardly stand the pain before the machine explodes and as the dust settles two Supermen emerge from the wreckage--Superman-Red and Superman-Blue.





They set out to enlarge the bottle city, but first they must create a world for the Kandorians to inhabit. At the fringe of the solar system, Red and Blue mould a planetoid that draws together all the Kryptonite in the universe. Once the matter has reformed into a giant planet it reverts back to its native state and is no longer harmful to Kryptonians. Enlarged on this new Krypton, the Kandorians are all Super-People under our yellow Sun and they set about rebuilding cities and krypto-forming landscapes such as they had on Krypton.

The Council votes whether to stay in this solar system or to return to the Rao system in another galaxy. They choose to get back to where they once belonged. Red and Blue have set the planet in orbit to return there.

Before the Superman twins can return to their to-do list, they get a call from Lori Lemaris and her friends in Atlantis. They also want to leave Earth for a world of their own.

The two Men of Tomorrow begin by finding a suitable planet with their Mind-Prober Ray, which locates the memorial planet of Krypton. Along with Kara and Krypto, their combined heat vision melts the polar icecaps and floods the entire memorial world.



They seem to have forgotten about Ronal's homeworld which is all water.

Red and Blue create a vortex in space that draws water from the ocean on Earth to the oceans on the new waterworld, dubbed Hydra. Not only do the mer-people make this interplanetary exodus, so does some of our sea life--which would seem to harm the Earth's underwater ecology, but oh well.

Note: In this story, Krypton was in another galaxy from ours. And yet the new planet is supposed to orbit from our galaxy to that galaxy, which doesn't make sense. If that could even happen, it would take billions of years. It seems more likely that Red and Blue opened up a warp in space that drew the planet into the Rao system.

[Jim Kelly]

Returning to the task of wiping out crime and evil, Superman-Red and Superman-Blue invent a line of anti-evil hypno-ray projectors which they launch into orbit around the Earth, erasing all thoughts of evil from the minds of criminals. Not only do the rays affect people at ground level but those in space, as well.

As it relates to the Superman Revenge Squad, some of this was already covered in post #308.

Now turned good, Lex Luthor develops a super-serum that cures every known disease. It even works on Lex himself, growing his hair back. The scientist is pardoned and then greeted by his sister, Lena Thorul, who has been informed of her brother's identity by the Twin Supermen.



Supergirl releases all the Phantom Zone criminals into the material world, because they are no longer evil. They want to journey to New Krypton and so does she. The Legion of Super-Heroes appear at that moment to give them all a free ride to their new home.

With all these problems resolved, the next thing for the Look-Alike Marvels is to get married (to other people, not to each other). The Red One chooses Lois, while the Blue One chooses Lana. As Lois is going to get married, Lucy decides she can now marry Jimmy and they have a triple wedding.





Red and his bride elect to journey to New Krypton, with Lois riding on Comet--as the Super-Horse will still have super-powers there. Krypto comes along also--no sign of Streaky, but maybe he went with Linda when she left (without a farewell to Enid and Fred).

There's no need for a Superman on Earth, so Blue dedicates himself to science and his family. He and Lana have a boy and a girl. His twin also has a boy and a girl with Lois.

But which one is happier with his lot? Lucy Lane Olsen wonders.

Note: The appearance of the Legion in this contradicts the happily ever after ending for everyone everywhere in the universe that this story paints--since if Red and Blue were successful, there would be no need for a Legion of Super-Heroes. Maybe the Legionnaires travelled from an alternate timeline. Of course, as an over-stuffed grab-bag of Super-lore, Dorfman could not have left out the Legion--he had to find room for them somewhere in the epic.

Several parts of this story have happened for "real" in different iterations of Superman. Superman being split into two twins (Red and Blue), all Kryptonite forming a new planet, Kandor enlarged, Superman trying to impose his will on the world to stop all crime, Superman getting married and having kids, etc., etc.

The Amazing Story is the gift that keeps on giving for those Superman writers stuck for more story ideas.

[Jim Kelly]

At the end of the Supergirl adventure in ACTION COMICS 300, the Man of Steel has summoned Comet to the Fortress of Solitude and, in ACTION 301, he asks the Super-Horse to go to the planet Zerox, the Sorcerers' World.



In a past adventure, the Action Ace was stranded there, as it has a red sun, but he was aided by the prime magician on the planet, Prince Endor.

Now Endor needs help as his leadership is threatened. Supergirl and Comet go to the Sorcerers' World world where the Steed of Steel takes the place of Pegasus. Once Endor has rode a flying horse, he has fulfilled the terms for him to continue in office. As a reward, Comet, whose real name is Biron, asks to be turned into a man.



Endor grants this wish, but the transformation is only temporary. From then on, whenever a comet passes nearby, Biron will transform from Super-Horse to centaur to human. But when he is out of his Super-Horse form, Biron has no powers. On Zerox, Biron saves the Girl of Steel from being turned into gold. She does not recognize the man who saved her.

Back on Earth, when next Biron takes human form, he scores a gig at a rodeo. After Linda goes looking for Comet and cannot find him, she asks Lena Thorul to use her psychic powers to locate the Thundering Thoroughbred--Lena senses he is at the rodeo. When Supergirl encounters Biron--under the name "Bronco Bill"--she is clueless.



Named King and Queen of the Rodeo, Supergirl and Bronco Bill kiss for the crowd.

Note: This seems to be the first appearance of Zerox, also known as the Sorcerers' World (in this story it's the "Sorcerer's Planet"), which will figure in the Legion's future and in other features. Superman talks about a previous adventure he had on the planet, but I don't think that was ever published. The writers like to do this--reference past stories, which sends us searching for those stories in other comic books, only to come up empty.

The dysfunctional relationship between Kal-El and Kara Zor-El pushes boundaries. But Linda making out with her horse jumps right over that fence. Surely, Mort Weisinger and his writers knew what they were doing--maybe they just wanted to see how far they could go and get away with it.

[Jim Kelly]

In ACTION 302, Comet comes under the control of an Atlantean wizard, but when he's in human form, the spell has no effect. While he's still a man, Biron dresses up as a fortune teller, so he can warn Linda Danvers what the wizard is forcing the Super-Horse to do.

Comet is again mentally manipulated when "The Maid of Menace" appears on the scene, in ACTION 304.



The super-criminal, who calls herself Black Flame, directs the Super-Horse to destroy the statues of Supergirl and Superman that stand next to the presidential monuments (possibly those at Mt. Rushmore).

Black Flame claims to be Supergirl XXV, the Girl of Steel's descendant from the year 4000.



Her back story is fascinating, but it's a pack of lies. She's actually Zora, a friend and assistant of Lesla Lar who has come from Kandor to take vengeance on the Argo City Ace.



Her unique powers come from the same cloud of red K. that gave Superman his ant-head in "The Invasion of the Super-Ants," ACTION COMICS 296 (January 1963)--see post #196.

Note: It's too bad they didn't stick with Black Flame being an evil descendant of Supergirl from the far distant future. That was a promising premise. I suppose they didn't want to tarnish the Supergirl name in any way (although the Supergirl feature is peppered with times where she went rogue). Having Black Flame in the year 4000, from the XXV generation, should hardly undermine Linda's legendary status.

[Jim Kelly]

On behalf of the United Nations, the Girl of Steel heads to three planets to deliver a proposed treaty of peace: Mutor, inhabited by the Plasmo people with protoplasmic powers; the Mole World, infested with savage metallic mole creatures; Erg, home of shadow people surrounded by intense radiation.

Returning to Earth, Supergirl believes she has a fatal touch, when she causes the deaths of Streaky, Krypto, Mr. Mxyzptlk, Comet and Superman.





In reality she has been duped by Sklor, a Plasmo agent. It's an elaborate plot to get the Blonde Blockbuster to enter the Phantom Zone voluntarily, so the planet Mutor may invade the Earth.

[Jim Kelly]

In ACTION 311, Comet flies back to ancient times and visits Circe who grants his wish to become human in the 20th century--although she prophesies he will come to regret his wish.



In the present day, Comet loses his memory and becomes a black stallion. When he meets an escaped convict called the Hooded Demon, the steed bursts into flame and then regains his silver hue. Trusting the masked hombre, the enchanted horse yields to the Hooded Demon.



A posse searching for the fugitive fire their guns and both horse and rider are shot in the shoulder.

[Jim Kelly]

Comet fully transforms into Biron and regains his memory, but has lost his powers. He dresses in the garb of the unconscious Hooded Demon and, borrowing a white stallion, Biron happens upon Linda Lee Danvers as she falls from a rock ledge--he lassos her, so she won't need to reveal herself as Supergirl. The stranger identifies himself as "Bronco Bill" Starr and they passionately kiss.





But through a series of misunderstandings, the Girl of Steel suspects that Starr is the Hooded Demon and that he has somehow put Comet under his spell. Unable to explain himself, Biron regrets his wish to become human, just as Circe foretold, and he beseeches the sorceress to return him to his former stallion state.

When the Super-Horse returns to Supergirl and the real Hooded Demon is arrested, Linda realizes that she falsely accused Bill.

[Jim Kelly]

In ACTION 312, Kara is convinced that a double 'L' curse awaits her. When she lectures at the new Intergalactic Space College, she's asked to test-drive a life-boat rocket but gets stuck in a cluster of Kryptonite meteoroids.



A spaceman comes to her rescue then leaves without saying a word. In fact, he's Biron having become human after an encounter with Halley's Comet.



Note: In his yellow space-suit, Biron (a.k.a. Bronco Bill Starr) resembles the Space Ranger (a.k.a. Rick Starr)--Jim Mooney had been an artist on Space Ranger's feature in TALES OF THE UNEXPECTED.

[marhawkman]

Note: It's too bad they didn't stick with Black Flame being an evil descendant of Supergirl from the far distant future. That was a promising premise. I suppose they didn't want to tarnish the Supergirl name in any way (although the Supergirl feature is peppered with times where she went rogue). Having Black Flame in the year 4000, from the XXV generation, should hardly undermine Linda's legendary status.

Nah, pretty sure the problem here is actually the Kryptonian equivalent of conservation of ninjutsu. IE editorial says Kryptonians have to be super-rare. Black Flame as a 25th generation descendant implies that in the far future Supergirl will probably have hundred of descendants. Having one of them be bad is a fine idea TBH, but it needs editorial to actually write descendants.

[Jim Kelly]

Nah, pretty sure the problem here is actually the Kryptonian equivalent of conservation of ninjutsu. IE editorial says Kryptonians have to be super-rare. Black Flame as a 25th generation descendant implies that in the far future Supergirl will probably have hundred of descendants. Having one of them be bad is a fine idea TBH, but it needs editorial to actually write descendants.

That's a good point. They did have the Superman of 2965 not long after this, but I guess he belongs in the imaginary story file. The Legion of Super-Heroes existed in 2965 and had nothing to do with that Superman. So the Legion's future was supposed to be the definitive timeline and we never saw any Superman or Supergirl descendants in those stories (not under Mort Weisinger). Introducing a family member that was for sure from their future might have tied their hands.

[Jim Kelly]

Zor-El and Allura After Life

ACTION COMICS 291 (August 1962)--2nd story, "The Bride of Mr. Mxyzptlk" by Siegel and Mooney; r. ACTION COMICS 373 [G-57] (March-April 1969)
ACTION COMICS 309 (February 1964)--2nd story, "The Untold Story of Argo City" by Dorfman and Mooney; r. ADVENTURE COMICS 316 [DC-10] (March 1972)
ACTION COMICS 310 (March 1964)--2nd story, "Supergirl's Rival Parents" by Dorfman and Mooney; r. ADVENTURE COMICS 316 [DC-10] (March 1972)
ACTION COMICS 314 (July 1964)--2nd story, "Supergirl's Tragic Ordeal" by Dorfman and Mooney
ACTION COMICS 315 (August 1964)--2nd story, "The Menace of Supergirl's Mother" by Dorfman and Mooney
ACTION COMICS 316 (September 1964)--2nd story, "Supergirl's Choice of Doom" by Dorfman and Mooney; cover art by Swan and Klein

When Mr. Mxyzptlk makes trouble for the Maid of Might, she stands up to him and her anger ignites his passion. To woo her, the imp brings back her Kryptonian parents from the dead. For the first time the mother gets a name--Alura.



Zor-El is happy to give away his young daughter in marriage to the bowler-hatted mischief-maker--but it's all a ruse to get Mxy to say his name backward and go back to the 5th Dimension.



Which undoes all his magic and makes everyone but Supergirl forget what happened. But Zor-El did this knowingly--choosing to go back to not existing, rather than existing under false terms.

Note: For Kara Zor-El's mother, sources vary on the spelling of her name. Sometimes it's Alura and sometimes it's Allura. Given the obsession with double 'L's, you would think it would always be Allura.

[Jim Kelly]

In reality, Mr. Mxyzptlk may have known something that Kara did not know, as the Girl of Steel receives sensations that her biological parents are not gone in "The Untold Story of Argo City."

Comet's E.S.P. picks up a message that they are "in the Zone." And the Daring Dame of Action and Adventure enters the Phantom Zone to search for them there.

Isolated from the other phantoms, she finds Jer-Em, an elder inhabitant of Argo City. Zor-El was able to pilot the planetoid across the galaxy until it arrived in a yellow sun system, where everyone became super-powered. But this was short-lived. Out of superstition, Jer-Em sabotaged the drive engines and directed the Argo back toward the red sun system. For his misconduct, he was sentenced to the Phantom Zone.

Zor-El discovered another Zone beyond the Phantom Zone--the Survival Zone--but he was unable to access it. As he and Alura watched others in Argo slowly die off from radiation poisoning, they prepared for their own death. But the Survival Zone projector had a delayed effect and they vanished into that twilight existence.



In ACTION 310, the Maid of Might goes to the memorial planet inhabited by robot duplicates of Kryptonians--first shown in "The One Minute of Doom," SUPERMAN 150 (January 1962).





There, in the replica of Zor-El's lab, the android duplicates assist Kara in trying to locate her birth-parents.

Back on Earth, in the Danvers' basement, Linda constructs a screen through which Zor-El and Alura are able to emerge from the Survival Zone into the material world.

Rather than remain as super-humans in the outer world, the two Argo City survivors choose to go into Kandor, to live with their own kind--leaving Fred and Enid free to be parents to Linda Lee in Midvale, as Zor-El and Allura are parents to Kara Zor-El in the bottle city.

Note: By this time, there is no reference to Kryptonite radiation endangering Argo City per se--the ground has simply turned radioactive due to the nuclear explosion. Given the elderly Jer-Em must be from the House of Em, this suggests he and Dev-Em are related.

[Jim Kelly]

Although Kara promised to visit her biological parents in Kandor, it seems like this rarely happened, given that, in ACTION COMICS 314, Allura is pining for her daughter. The doctor fears she will die from the heartbreak of losing Kara.

As Allura lies in her hospital bed she watches Supergirl riding Comet the Super-Horse against what appear to be the Brain Globes from Rambat. But this can't be what happened in "The Legion of Super-Traitors," ADVENTURE COMICS 293; in that story it was Saturn Girl who rode Comet, not Supergirl.





Allura then flashes back on the early life of her daughter, in Argo City. The child was born under the constellation of the ancient goddess of beauty, Kara--and so that was her given name. Her first pet was a six-legged Lumir. Allura would read bedtime stories about Krypton to the young Kara.

Once Linda and the Danvers discover that Allura's life is in danger, Fred and Enid willingly exchange their lives for those of Zor-El and Allura.



In the outside world, Zor-El and Allura join Supergirl as super-heroes--saving the world from an invasion of liquid flame people.

Note: In this story, it's made out that the only way for Kandorians to live on the outside is if they use the Exchange Ray--but there have been other stories where Kandorians can remain in the outside world at full-size and stories where regular sized people shrink down to live in Kandor--the story of Van-Zee and Sylvia being an example of both. As well, after Lesla-Lar was disintegrated, they were still able to use the Exchange Ray to get Lena back to the outside world with an android duplicate.

[Jim Kelly]

Living in the bottle city, the Danvers have lost their daughter. To make up for their loss, they take in Dar-Lin, a Kandorian orphan who looks exactly like Linda Lee Danvers--she even has a Campus Cuddle-Bun--Fred must be so pleased. But can Enid really be happy?





Dar-Lin's parents, Zantor and Rena, were presumed dead when they went missing three years before. They kept their expedition hush-hush, so no one knew that they were lost in the caves under Kandor, where they remained in suspended animation. When they awaken, they signal that they are alive through a locket they left with Dar-Lin.

Now that the surrogate daughter is gone, Enid sinks into a depression and is infected by the poison of a Srang, which causes one to hate whatever they are thinking of at the time. Her hatred for Zor-El and Allura overtakes her and she poses as Bira, a Kandorian scientist.



Coming to the outside world she leads the two to a cache of green K. at a memorial built to Superman and Supergirl by aliens in gratitude to the Super-Duo for saving their planet. The K-Metal is being stored there for later disposal.

Supergirl arrives just in time to save her biological parents and chews out Enid, who's escorted to Kandor by the Supergirl Emergency Squad.

Note: The complex caves below Kandor--yet contained within the bottle--figure in other stories. The naming conventions are all over the map at this time as there's no family name given for Zantor or Rena yet their daughter is named Dar-Lin.

[Jim Kelly]

All is forgiven, after Enid recovers from the poison in her system.



But the Girl of Steel is still conflicted over leaving her adoptive parents in Kandor. Zor-El says they should consult the super-computer and its predictive program to see what should be the best outcome. From the cybernetic display, the Blonde Blockbuster learns of the Zygor, an alien monster that threatened Argo City in the past--when the city was roaming through the cosmos.



The prediction program shows Zor-El being killed, when the Zygor tracks the Argoan scientist to Earth. Zor-El and Allura suggest that this would not happen if they returned to Kandor. So Supergirl decides it's best to exchange parents again.



What the Miracle of Midvale doesn't know is that the Zygor was captured and put in the Phantom Zone; then later, kept in the Kandor zoo, until it came to the end of its natural life. Zor-El and Allura created a false narrative to spare their daughter any feelings of guilt in returning them to the bottle city.