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

[Jim Kelly]

After a disappointing adventure with her Super-Cousin, Linda Lee Danvers returns to the Stanhope campus. Well, at least she can hang out with her latest good looking but vapid boyfriend--Nick Gray--just watch out Linda, later in the story you're going to find out he's the campus miscreant called Red Rebel.

Like at Midvale Orphanage, at Stanhope, there's a hollowed out tree for one of Linda's robot doubles. But checking the tree, Supergirl finds robot Y-5 is not there. Tracking the attractive automaton, she finds her stand-in time-wasting like a bump on a log on a log. The robot explains that some force willed her to leave the tree. Next, an orange energy being shows up, calling itself "Topar."





Opening up the ground beneath them, Topar asserts that a mere girl has no business with super-powers and that soon she'll realize that and give up hers.

[Jim Kelly]

The next days on campus, the Stanhope Sensation finds herself being framed for several misdeeds. She catches one of her Supergirl robots, G-9, in the act of more vandalism. Like Y-5, G-9 was being controlled by Topar.





But what reason is behind this? Perhaps it is Kal-El out to punish Kara Zor-El for her super-goof in their previous team-up. On another planet, when the Girl of Steel fired her heat-beams at the super-villain Vulinec, he used his shield to bounce them back at the Action Ace. She was in the doghouse with Clark and he even threatened to bar her from the Fortress of Solitude.

[Jim Kelly]

Suspecting that Topar might be a super-robot, the Blonde Blockbuster uses a super-magnet on her nemesis, which reveals the Robot Teacher from Krypton is really the being called Topar.

The teacher then reviews its origins for the Stanhope Super-Student.

After its first lesson plan for the Last Son of Krypton, the Robot Teacher headed for the stars and improved on its programming, to give itself even greater powers. In these past years, the Robot Teacher has instructed and tested hundreds of inter-galactic super-warriors and champions. The teacher then discovered Supergirl, but it was not programmed to accept that a female could use her abilities properly. And so the robot set out to prove she was emotionally incapable.

[Jim Kelly]

The Robot Teacher then admits that Supergirl has proven her worth as a super-being and waves good-bye.

[Jim Kelly]

SUPERMAN'S GIRL FRIEND, LOIS LANE 93 (July 1969)--"The Superman-Wonder Woman Team" by Kanigher, Novick and Esposito; on sale May 13th, 1969:

Lois Lane has a nightmare that the Man of Steel has married the Amazing Amazon but, upon waking, she's comforted by the fact that Diana Prince, known to the world as Wonder Woman, has lost her powers and is therefore unlikely to get hitched to Superman.

However, the Mod Mistress of the Martial Arts proposes on live T.V. that she and the Metropolis Marvel should put on "a one-man, one-woman circus for charity!"



Secretly, the cashiered Amazon asks Lois to borrow the priceless Mercury Stone from the Metropolis Science Museum, as it will allow her to defy gravity at her charity performance. Trusting in Ms. Prince, the reporter honours the request and the circus crowd are amazed by the High-Flying Sensation.

Lois looks on as the Man of Tomorrow gives his circus partner a hard smack on the lips and, that night, she has another dream of a Superman-Diana Prince wedding.



After that, the Red and Blue Blur and the New Wonder Woman make a public show of their romance. And when the two are engaged in super-hero deeds, the de-powered princess is able to power up, apparently thanks to an Amazon bracelet activated by the Caped Kryptonian's x-ray vision. This seems to make her more powerful than ever.

It looks like the Super-Couple are bound to be married, as the would-be bride shows off her new house to the Pride of Pittsdale. Suspicious, Lois later investigates the dark manor and spies Diana Prince trapped inside the basement. Diana has been kept there captive by the woman pretending to be her.

In fact, the Wonder Woman pretender is Ar-Ual of Krypton, an escapee from the Phantom Zone. When Ar-Ual corners them in her basement, she threatens to kill Lane and imprison Prince in the Phantom Zone, before Superman bursts in and saves the day. The Action Ace had come looking for Lois to tell her that he wouldn't marry Wonder Woman, because he cares too much for the Daily Planet reporter.



Note: Laura Nyro wrote and recorded "Wedding Bell Blues" for her debut album in 1967, before the 5th Dimension covered her song on the album AGE OF AQUARIUS, released in May of 1969, with "Wedding Bell Blues" released as a single in September of 1969 which went to number 1 on the charts. Lead vocalist, Marilyn McCoo married fellow 5th Dimension, Billy Davis, Jr., that same year.

[Jim Kelly]

In "The Superman-Wonder Woman Team," Lois trains in advanced martial arts to bring her up to the level of Diana Prince; however, previous adventures established that Lois already had advanced fighting skills--including the Kryptonian martial art of Klukor, as seen in SUPERMAN'S GIRL FRIEND, LOIS LANE 78 (October 1967).

Ar-Ual was imprisoned in the Phantom Zone because, having discovered amazing scientific advancements on board a space probe sent to Krypton by a benign civilization in galaxy XX-7, she destroyed the treasure trove when she realized it would be taken from her by the state.

***

ADVENTURE COMICS 383 (August 1969)--1st story, "Please Stop My Funeral" by Kanigher, Mortimer and Anderson:

Streaky the Super-Cat makes a new appearance, but this is not the Streaky we know, as Supergirl is on the negative world, where people dead in our world are alive and people alive are dead. It's a crazy kind of metaphysics that I can't begin to understand.

[Jim Kelly]

ADVENTURE COMICS 384 (September 1969)--1st story, "The Heroine Haters" by Bates, Mortimer and Abel; cover art by Swan and Anderson:



It seems like Supergirl has become older but no wiser. When she was a high school student, she used the Fortress super-computer to find a match for Superman. Now that she's a college student she does the same for herself. Her computer date is on Torma--the second planet from star-sun 447B--and despite her cousin's protestations, the Blonde Blockbuster flies off to the planet to find her mate, Volar, alias Ren Uoxon.



They meet immediately upon her arrival on Torma and Volar takes the Woman of Tomorrow to meet the parents. But Linda is struck by how the mother is regarded as a servant and given no respect or recognition by her family.

[Jim Kelly]

It turns out that the world's male society regards all women as inferior--which explains the cold reception that the Daughter of Zor-El has received from the men folk on Torma.

This women-hating ideology was imported to the planet by an alien called the Visitor. Because he was jilted by one woman, he now preached that all men are far superior to women. To further enforce his dogma, the Visitor used a hypnotic Suppressor Beam that induced all females to undervalue their worth.



Meeting privately, Volar's father warns his offspring that Supergirl should leave the planet before the Caped Kryptonian sees what will soon become of the super-hero. But the change has already happened and the Maid of Might discovers that Volar is a female. Her father used his science to graft a living mask over Volar's face so she would appear male--and thus be respected by the men on Torma. But the mask no longer works and Volar is revealed for who she really is.





Kara leaves the planet, but Volar adopts a new costume and is determined to come out as female to her world, to lead other females by example.

[Jim Kelly]

ADVENTURE COMICS 385 (October 1969)--1st story, "Supergirl's Big Sister" by Kanigher and Schaffenberger; 2nd story, "The Jilting of Supergirl" by Kanigher, Mortimer and Abel; cover art by Swan and Anderson:



Just like how Clark met Mon-El, who he thought was his big brother, so Linda meets Kranna who says she's her big sister. Kranna shows off some super-feats to convince Supergirl that she's really a super-woman. And she claims to also be immune to Kryptonite.

According to her story, when a toddler, Kranna was abducted from Argo City by aliens and taken to Astrid VF-I, the planet of inter-stellar pirates. Kept prisoner inside the pirate king's palace, encircled by a Kryptonite barrier, as she grew up Kranna overcame her weakness to the green stuff and developed an immunity to all forms of the K-Metal.

[Jim Kelly]

After Kranna has manipulated Kara into making diamonds out of coal, she shows her hand--this is what she was after all along. She is really Carol Benton, a regular Earth girl. Her rocketship was built by her scientist father and she used it to pull off her plot. But Supergirl was never fooled, she realized that the woman was a phoney because she never flew.

***

In "The Jilting of Supergirl," the story starts off with Superman jilting Lois Lane to go "out on the universe" with the super-woman of galaxy XL-9, Princess Vee-Raa . Seeing this, Linda pities Lois, but thinks to herself that she could never be jilted like that, since she has super-powers.



At Stanhope, Ms. Danvers meets a new student, Steve. She's impressed by him and they begin a whirlwind romance which results in him revealing that he's actually Prince Raynor from the Inner World. He knows that Linda is actually Supergirl and they go into the Inner World, where she is introduced to his royal parents.

It looks like wedding bells will soon be ringing for the happy couple, but the super-powered prince jilts the Argo City Survivor after she becomes powerless under their artificial sun--which Linda concludes must contain some red K.



Note: Among other realms at the Earth's core, previously discussed, Subbania had an artificial yellow sun [post #516] and Roban was lit by an artificial green sun [post #543]. The artificial sun in Prince Raynor's area of the Inner World has red, orange, yellow, green, blue and violet light which combines to create white light. It's unlikely there could be more than one centre of the Earth, so these must all be places inside the Inner World.

[Jim Kelly]

SUPERMAN 223 (January 1970)--"Half a Hero" by Bates, Swan and George Roussos; cover art by Swan and Anderson:



One morning, Clark Kent chooses to have his breakfast at a new coffee shop and uses his vision powers to repair a light fixture. When his brunette waitress hands him the bill, she says, "Thank you, Superman. Come again."

Later, as Clark meets Lois Lane in the arrivals area of the airport, some groupies descend on that popular folk-rock singer Daravon. But a blonde groupie gives Kent the eye and says in words he can only hear, "Nice to see you here, Superman."

In the evening, Clark decides to take in a picture at the movie theatre. He buys one ticket for MIDNIGHT COWPOKE, starring Dusty Hoofshod. Before the main feature, there's a newsreel of Superman in action. A strawberry blonde usherette whispers to C.K., "Pssst! You look terrific on film, Superman."

The mild-mannered reporter tries to find the mysterious usherette, but she's disappeared; however, as he leaves the theatre he's beamed up by a U.F.O. Inside the interplanetary craft, the occupants are the three young women of mystery, now dressed in matching colourful garments. The brunette introduces herself as Elura, the blonde as Alena and the strawberry blonde is Nula.



They say they are a female super-hero group, the Galactons and they've decided to let the Man of Steel become one of their members. As an initiation test, they take him to a planetoid in another solar system where he must face off against the Mumox, like a matador against a bull. The horned beast releases a gas from its snout which knocks out the Caped Kryptonian.

Reviving on board the Galacton ship, now in Earth orbit, the Galactons tell him that the Mumox gas attack has left him powerless under any other sun but Earth's. Enraged by the news, the Action Ace speeds away from the craft.

The next day, the Metropolis Marvel encounters a giant sized hypodermic needle that pierces the Earth's core, producing an infection of crystals that keep growing and multiplying, threatening to break apart the whole planet. The Man of Tomorrow reasons that x-rays could destroy the crystals if he had the assistance of others. He then encounters the Galactons who have come to help in the crisis. The four of them together destroy the mass of crystals.

But Kal-El has figured out that the three Galactons are actually Kryptonians. Nula is really Kara Zor-El, while Elura and Alena are two Kandorian women.



Without letting them explain their reason for the ruse, the Man of Might leaves for Kandor, where he's expected for "R-Day." To get in the bottle city, he uses a "micro-wave tunnel." There he finds that Kandor is suffering from a similar cystal menace.

Supergirl arrives to explain that this was her reason for their hoax. She caused the crystalloid crisis at the Earth's core with a harmless compound, but this threat to Kandor is critical. And because they are both inside the bottle city, under an artificial red sun, they have no x-ray vision to destroy the crystalloid mass and they cannot return to the world outside because the micro-wave tunnel needs to recharge.

But as it's "R-Day" which is Release Day, Kal-El meets with the Kandorian Parole Board to decide which prisoners should be released from the Phantom Zone. One Phantom Zoner named Gor-Nu, Krypton's greatest bio-chemist, has the knowledge to destroy the crystalloid infection, drilling deep into the rock below the city to release a formula that kills off the crystals.

[Jim Kelly]

ADVENTURE COMICS 388 (January 1970)--2nd story, "The Romance Machine" by Bates and Schaffenberger; cover art by Swan and Anderson
ADVENTURE COMICS 389 (February 1970)--2nd story, "Supergirl's Jilted Boy Friends" by Bates and Schaffenberger:



Kimor Dinn is an egocentric rogue who enjoys breaking hearts and breaking banks. The interplanetary juvenile delinquent is serving time on the detention planetoid, Balton-IV, when the computer criminal Brainiac arranges his escape.



On board the Coluan's saucer-ship, Kimor's personality is transferred to a look-alike robot--while Brainiac arranges for the real Kimor to be jetisonned from the spacecraft in a pod that will land on a barbaric planet.

The Collector of World's plans to use the Kimor automaton to defeat Supergirl. This Kimor arrives as a new student at Stanhope College, going by the name Kimberly O'Ryan. As soon as Linda Danvers meets O'Ryan, she cannot resist him. Even though he treats her like dirt, she is a slave to him.

[Jim Kelly]

Likewise in her Supergirl identity, the Blonde Crimebuster is desperate to please the charming rogue.







Meanwhile Brainiac is actually setting up his Kimor robot for an explosive end. He has given the charming pawn a medallion as communicator, but it's also booby-trapped, triggered to explode when O'Ryan speaks the programmed words to Kara, thus completely disintegrating the model boyfriend right before Supergirl's eyes, so she will be consumed with grief.

However, the Computer Crook's plan goes awry--the programmed words are not spoken--and the Stanhope Sensation takes O'Ryan to an alien burial ground in space, where she shows him her rock garden of past boyfriends. She tells O'Ryan that he will also be turned to stone.

Brainiac then appears, having deduced that O'Ryan is the real Kimor, not the robot. The young rogue had pulled a fast one and taken the robot's place.

The Glaucous Coluan blasts the Caped Kryptonian with a liquid Kryptonite adhesive, then teleports back to his ship. Kara tells Kimor to throw his medallion to her. She can see there's an explosive device inside it and when it goes off it blasts away the green K.

Apparently, Kimor's charms no longer work on the Daring Dame as she takes him off to a detention farm.

Note: The first story in this issue is a continuation from the second story in the previous issue--"Lex Luthor's Nephew" (issue 387) - "The Kindergarten Criminal" (issue 388)--both by Dorfman/Mortimer/Abel.

Lena Thorul Colby's son, Val, demonstrates psychokinetic powers, after exposure to a space jewel that Lex gave him anonymously for one of his birthdays. In the Cyberno galaxy they use the gems to energize their living computers. Val Colby can levitate heavy objects with his mind and can fly under his own power. Lex makes friends with the boy and, in turn, Val transports Luthor in his cell to an island in international waters and outside the Girl of Steel's jurisdiction.

In the next part, Luthor takes charge of the boy's education. Meanwhile, Linda Lee Danvers poses as a castaway and washes up on the shores of the island, where she befriends the child. Later, as Supergirl, she moves the island within the 12 mile limit so she can arrest Lex.

[Jim Kelly]

Back in 2019, I said that the "Immortal Superman" didn't fit the parameters of the All-Planets concept as I originally thought of it and explained in answer to Lonewolf36, post #97.

Some for consideration
Atom King, Electroman & Green Lantern (Action Comics #386) - distant future

I . . . wanted to stay away from heroes in other centuries--unless they have an attachment to the 20th/21st centuries.

I wish I could have found a way to justify the inclusion of “The Home for Old Super-Heroes”--in ACTION COMICS 386 (March ’70), by Cary Bates, Curt Swan and George Roussos, with a cover by Swan and Murphy Anderson. The three part Immortal Superman story in ACTION COMICS 385 - 387 is one of my all-time favourite stories. But try as I might, I just couldn’t find a good reason to go against my self-imposed rules to include it on my list. Unfortunately.

Which is true. Most of this adventure happens in the far future and I didn't want to deal with so many of those stories--having enough tales of the present day to deal with. But now that I've wandered so far off my original topic, I'd like to talk about this epic odyssey which is "one of my all-time favourite stories" of Superman.

The Immortal Superman Trilogy

ACTION COMICS 385 (February 1970)--1st story, "The Immortal Superman" by Bates, Swan and Roussos; cover art by Swan and Anderson
ACTION COMICS 386 (March 1970)--1st story, "The Home for Old Super-Heroes" by Bates, Swan and Roussos; cover art by Swan and Anderson
ACTION COMICS 387 (April 1970)--1st story, "Even a Superman Dies" by Bates, Swan and Roussos; cover art by Swan and Anderson:

[Jim Kelly]

January 12th, 1970, meeting the President of the United States in his office, the World's Greatest Super-Hero is informed of the top secret Vortex Experiment that depends on the space-time continuum remaining undisturbed, so the Man of Tomorrow must not fly into the past or future for the next 24 hours. While Clark may trust the leader of the free world, the President appears in shadow which gives this scene a sinister tone. Since the real life President at the time was Richard M. Nixon, the Vortex Experiment could be one of his dirty tricks.

Even as the two most powerful men on Earth shake hands, a disembodied mechanical hand is inscribing on the door of the Fortress of Solitude an urgent message from the year 101,970. The Action Ace must head to that year, in answer to the request for his assistance.



He can't do so under his own power, so he elects to use a defective Legion Time Bubble. However, when he arrives 100,000 years in the future, he has aged for every year that has passed. Of course, despite his grey hair and wrinkles, a test proves "the aged Man of Might is still the super-strength champ of all time."

The Metropolis Marvel has been summoned to the 1,020th century to solve the disappearance of currency from the Monetary Reserve Chamber, which holds monies from throughout the galaxy. Other super-champions have tried to solve the mystery and were left in a coma. The Aged Superman agrees to babysit the bank vault for the next 12 hours and discovers that an energy entity has been devouring the bullion.

Once the entity is destroyed, the Kryptonian Crimebuster leaves in the Time Bubble, hoping to return to 1970. However, all of his attempts to break the time barrier into the past are unsuccessful. He does not know that the Time-Trapper has put up a barrier--like the old Iron Curtain of Time the Trapper once used to bar the Legion from going back into the past.



Although he can't go back in time, Kal-El can go forward and, when he travels further into the future, he revisits Metropolis. Humanity has so fouled the Earth with pollutants, that cities are built miles above the uninhabitable surface. When he's spotted by the local police, he's mistaken for the Superman Gang--a trio of criminals who dress in the same costume as his. Hiding out in the Metro-Museum of Ancient History, he's located by the three Multiple-Men. They each have a set of 25 super-powers. Happy to meet a Legend, the heroes douse the Champion of Justice in three noxious gases, which are intended as gifts.

The Old Superman escapes the museum, to get some fresh air, but he falls unconscious and is whisked away by a flying medical wagon. The Last Son of Krypton awakens in a medical theatre, where tests by the doctors prove that the vaccine gases have given him immunity to Kryptonite, magic and Virus X. He can never die. No force in the universe can harm him. All his friends died ages ago. But he will live forever. He is "The Immortal Superman."