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Shh...! Don't tell Tracy!
The Silver Age Supergirl Omnibus v1 was published in 2016, and although I've read all the stories up until this point in Supergirl Archives v1-2, I will be reading the rest of the stories from the final third of the omnibus (Action Comics #286-307) for the first time, unless they have been reprinted elsewhere. Five of these stories (#286-287, 289-291) are written by Jerry Siegel, the other 17 (#288, 292-307) by Leo Dorfman; all of the stories drawn by Jim Mooney. We start this thread with an utterly fantastic (in both the literal and popular sense of the word) story, "The Death of Luthor".
ACTION COMICS #286: Dick Malverne has been invited into the Danvers' home for dinner and a pleasant evening watching television. The news reports that Superman and his robots are on a mission in space, "but we needn't fear a crime-wave while he's away! Earth will be protected by the equally mighty Supergirl!" While waiting for dinner, Linda saves dinner from being burned and her mother from being scalded with a blast of her frigid breath (which was her major at the orphanage). Edna Danvers proves herself equally proficient at exposition as her daughter by thinking, "Ha! Dick doesn't realize our daughter is secretly Supergirl!" and "Would he be surprised to know Linda is the one who is really super!" within the space of three panels.
LUTHOR'S ESCAPE PLAN: Luthor is currently being held in solitary confinement in Metropolis Prison because he has boasted that he would escape within 48 hours. "I've added some mouthwash they left for my supposedly sore throat into this cup of orange juice I hid," he thinks, "and now I'll drop in two aspirin tablets. Down she goes! Ha, ha! The chemicals and acids in this drink will help me out of this accursed prison soon... Very, very soon! And these two radio parts I hid previously in my shoes' holow heels will play a very important part in my escape!"
At this point, Jerry Seigel interrupts to ask, "Can you guess Luthor's amazing scheme?" Well, he drank a concoction of orange juice and mouthwash, so I imagine it has something to do with making himself sick. Later, in the prison yeard during an exercise period, Luthor continues, "Radio part 'A' in my left hand is the positive power-center, while radio part 'B' in my right hand is the negative!... I'm ready!!! I've become invisible!... As I planned, the vibrations of the prison siren's noon signal, amplified by the radio parts, transmuted the concoction I swallowed into a invisibility serum... ha, ha..." [DISCLAIMER: Before you try this at home you should know I consulted my scientific advisor who is of the opinuin that this plan will not turn you invisible... although the oragne juice and mouthwash cocktail may make you sick.] He hooks up with his gang (who are sitting around missing him), and declares the TV coverage of Supergirl to be a hoax on Superman's part, and sets out on a two-day crime spree.
DAY ONE: Lex lures Supergirl into a trap by detonating an explosive outside a cave near Metropolis. When she arrives on the scene, he blasts her with a remotely controlled cannon, but it doesn't destroy her so he's now convinced she is real and not a robot. "So what?! With my great knowledge of psychology," he vows, "I'll destroy her by playing on her feminine traits!"
DAY TWO: Luthor and and his men arrive at Metropolis National Bank with a copy of Brainiac's shrinking ray (how he managed to make a copy of the "space villain's" weapon is not explained), which he uses to shrink tot bank to toy size. One difference between Braniac's ray and Luthor's copy is that the effects of Braniac's are permanemt whereas those of Luthor's are only temporary. Another difference: "Though reduced in size by its compressed atoms, the bank is still as heavy as ever," so Luthor has to use a pair of "anti-gravity tongs" to carry it. As they are loading the bank into the getaway car, Supergirl arrives. One of Luthor's men hurls a "darkness genade" which, of course, has no effect on Supergirl's x-ray vision. Here's where Luthor's "great knowledge of psychology" comes into play.
At the top of a nearby hill, a "woman" loses control of her baby carriage in the darkness. Supergirl rushes off to stop the speeding buggy, but inside is a midget with a hunk of Green Kryptonite. (NOTE: The midget is dressed like a baby, but he has a moustache and is wearing a domino mask. I'm not sure how many people that would fool even if the street weren't still under the effect of the darkness grenade.) Apparently, "playing on her feminine traits" meant putting a child in danger, but I like to think Superman would have stopped a runaway baby cart, too. Supergirl has just enough strength left to unscrew the cap of a nearby fire hydrant. The rush of water washes away the Kryptonite and Supergirl resumes the chase.
By this time, on the outskirts of Metropolis, Luthor and his men have looted the bank which has returned to its nornal size. Luthor himself is driving the getaway car and, as Supergirl approaches from the rear, he reaches for his "nuclear Kyrptonite ray gun," which raises the question why he didn't simply use that in the first place rather than "playing on her feminine traits" (which didn't work, anyway). Unfortunately (for Luthor) he loses control of the car and shoots himself, killing himself dead. "Wait!" thinks Supergirl. "Luthor shouldn't be allowed to escape his life-term jail sentence through death! Give me a few minutes! I may be able to return him to life!" "Impossible!" declares a policeman on the scene (even though Supergirl's entire speech was within a thought-balloon. "But go ahead and try!" (There's some "super-thought-casting" going on here somewhere.)
First she goes to Atlantis, where, during a recent visit visit she "learned of an isotope element which may counteract the type of nuclear stun-shock which killed Luthor!" After she has successfully located the element, she thinks, "My super-vision reveals 'isotope element Z' alone won't do the trick! I'm off to a certain planet I observed recently in another galaxy!" When she arrives, she is attacked by a spaceship full of robots. "That planet's atmosphere was transmuted into crystal during a space war that may have ossurred eons ago! These robots are mechanical soldiers left over from that war! They think I'm their enemy!"
After the defeating the robots, Supergirl makes an astonishing discovery. "Hm-mm! This equipment is simple to understand! Flippping this switch should undo the harm done to that world!" [She flips the switch.] "Wonderful! By flippping that switch, I activated a device which caused the crystal to dissolve back into a normal atmosphere! Once again, the evolutionary process can begin on that world!" I can't even. There's a lot to unpack there, but I'm not going to be the one to do it. See what I mean by "utterly fantastic"?
Back on Earth, she combines the two rare elements, "creating plastic fibres of a new, miraculous substance! Watch what happens after i finish this cocoon!" Sure enough, it brings Luthor back to life. But is he grateful? No! He grabs a machine gun from a dozing police officer and fires it at her, saying, "You made me live again, so I'd be a gangland laughing stock!--Before i was respected! Now other criminals will laugh at me behind my back because I was saved by you!--Drat! The bullets only bounce off!" Well, yeah, genius... what part of "invincible" do you not understand?
Later, "at a hastily called meeting of gangland bigshots," they decide that Supergirl is "as tough a foe as Superman!" At the Danvers household, Supergirl tells Fred and Edna how happy she is to be able to operate in the open at last. I would be curious to learn how Supergirl related this story to her cousin: "Your arch enemy accidentally killed himself through no fault of mine, but don't worry: I brought him back to life to serve out his sentence!"
He hooks up with his gang (who are sitting around missing him), and declares the TV coverage of Supergirl to be a hoax on Superman's part, and sets out on a two-day crime spree.
Shouldn't he have wondered whether she was connected to the "Supergirl" (i.e. Lesla-Lar) that he met a few months ago?
Jeff of Earth-J said:
ACTION COMICS #286:
"The Death of Luthor".
Luthor and and his men arrive at Metropolis National Bank with a copy of Brainiac's shrinking ray (how he managed to make a copy of the "space villain's" weapon is not explained)
He and Supergirl are evenly matched. This sounds like what she just did with Brainiac-5’s shrinking ray last issue.
I'm not sure how many people that would fool even if the street weren't still under the effect of the darkness grenade.)
His darkness grenade sounds like what Dr Midnight used.
Apparently, "playing on her feminine traits" meant putting a child in danger, but I like to think Superman would have stopped a runaway baby cart, too.
Me too. I guess Luthor wouldn't save any babies.
"Wait!" thinks Supergirl. "Luthor shouldn't be allowed to escape his life-term jail sentence through death! Give me a few minutes! I may be able to return him to life!" "Impossible!" declares a policeman on the scene (even though Supergirl's entire speech was within a thought-balloon. "But go ahead and try!" (There's some "super-thought-casting" going on here somewhere.)
It sounds like a lettering or scripting error (her thought balloon should have been a speech balloon. She wouldn’t ask herself to give herself a few minutes), like the two sentences from Edna Danvers. One probably wasn’t intended to be used.
Back on Earth, she combines the two rare elements, "creating plastic fibres of a new, miraculous substance! Watch what happens after i finish this cocoon!" Sure enough, it brings Luthor back to life.
I don’t care how fast Supergirl is, Luthor would be brain dead before she returned from Atlantis (did she check in with Jerro while she was there?) and outer space.
I would be curious to learn how Supergirl related this story to her cousin: "Your arch enemy accidentally killed himself through no fault of mine, but don't worry: I brought him back to life to serve out his sentence!"
He wouldn’t have done anything differently. He’s the perfect boy scout, remember?
The Baron said:
He hooks up with his gang (who are sitting around missing him), and declares the TV coverage of Supergirl to be a hoax on Superman's part, and sets out on a two-day crime spree.
Shouldn't he have wondered whether she was connected to the "Supergirl" (i.e. Lesla-Lar) that he met a few months ago?
They dropped it like a hot rock at the end of the Lesla-Lar story. Why would they spend precious pages dealing with it now?
ACTION COMICS #287: I am very familiar with this story from the LSH's POV, but this is my first time reading it from Supergirl's. Linda Danvers' girlfriend Margie invites her to join her Superman fanclub. (Linda thought it was going to be for Elvis Presley, but joined anyway.) The keynote speaker for Linda's first meeting is Lois Lane. "I'll pretend to be just as thrilled as the others!" thinks Linda. (I think Linda has Lois' number.) After protecting the secret entrance to her tunnel to the Danvers' basement from being discovered by forest rangers clearing a diseased stump, Supergirls responds to a call from the Legion of Superheroes. I love it when the Supers fly by clearly designated years in the timesteam; in this case, she passes the years 1980 and 2000. (Oddly, the Legion's era is referred to as the 21st century througout this story.) She joins the Legion as they fly off on a mission. "Quick!" Saturn Girl exposits. "Into our space-ship! The solar system is threatened by a peril only you can overcome! You have many super-powers while we have only one power each!"
The menace which the Legion brought Supergirl from the past to combat is the Positive Man, described as "a destructive force which was once--human!... [He] was once an alien scientist who blew up his oplanet while creating a Doomsday bomb! The explosion transformed him into this terrible menace! Envious of all life, he roams the cosmos jealously, destroying inhabited worlds!" As if to punctuate her point, the Positive Man changed course deliberately and wiped out a nearby populated planet, then heads toward Earth again. Because the Positive Man is "not a material object, but a force composed of positive ions," her strength is useless.
"I recall that when Positive Man was created," (she recalls), "the same explosion also affected a wild animal being studied for intelligence by scientists, converting it into a negative creature!" She lures the two together, killing them both. "Hooray!" she celebrates. "The two were drawn together like the positive and negative poles of a magnet attracting each other! As a result of this fusion, they're disappearing! The contact was so terrific, they cancelled each other out!" I guess the "code against killing" does not extend to non-humanoid sentient life.
Rejoining the Legion, they return to Earth where the Legionnaires discover they have all lost their powers. Fearing a "crime-wave" from the "underworld" if word gets out, Supergirl agrees to "fake" their powers until such a time as they might return. She soon meets Whizzy the telepathic cat, Streaky's descendant, which "gained the ability through the process of evolution." (No explanation is given from Whizzy's ability to fly.) Cosmic Boy is called on a mission to protect "chemically-manufactured" androids from being stolen, and Supergirl, unseen, uses her "super-vacuum-breath" to fake Cosmic Boy's magnetic power. Next, she fakes Sun Boy's powers with luminous powder and heat vision.
Just when we start to think this will becaome a formulaic plot in which Supergirl fakes the Legionnaires' powers in turn until they return, it is revealed that, while Supergirl was battling the Positive Man, a non-super-powered chameleon race took the Legion's place. They are currently biding their time until they get their hands on the Phantom Zone projector, which they use to send Supergirl and Whizzy away at the next meeting. Unable to communicate with the real world as a phantom, Supergirl uses Whizzy's telepathy to communicate with the owner of the android factory she saved earlier in the story. He builds a "chameleon man" android who reports to the Legion clubhouse and activate the "return" switch on the Phantom Zone projector. After capturing the alins and freeing the real Legion from where they had been imprisoned, Supergirl returns to 1962 and wonders what will happen the next time she's summoned to the future by the Legion.
Jeff of Earth-J said:
ACTION COMICS #287:
(Oddly, the Legion's era is referred to as the 21st century throughout this story.)
Jerry Siegel wrote this one. Maybe he was trusted to “edit himself” and just didn’t know about the 30th century.
Just when we start to think this will become a formulaic plot in which Supergirl fakes the Legionnaires' powers in turn until they return, it is revealed that, while Supergirl was battling the Positive Man, a non-super-powered chameleon race took the Legion's place.
This makes more sense. IIRC, the Legion members were generally born with their powers on their various planets.
They are currently biding their time until they get their hands on the Phantom Zone projector, which they use to send Supergirl and Whizzy away at the next meeting.
Did she meet anyone else in the Phantom Zone? This issue was cover-dated April 1962. Mon-El debuted and was sent to the Zone in Superboy #89, cover-dated June 1961.
"Did she check in with Jerro while she was there?"
She did. Jerro helped her uncover the isotope.
"Did she meet anyone else in the Phantom Zone?"
She did not. At one point she observes, "Strange... the Zone's empty except for you and me, Whizzy! I guess, as the years went by, the phantoms who were confined here were released one by one as their sentences were completed!"
[With regard to "Supergirl's Greatest Challenge"] Did she meet anyone else in the Phantom Zone?"
She did not. At one point she observes, "Strange... the Zone's empty except for you and me, Whizzy! I guess, as the years went by, the phantoms who were confined here were released one by one as their sentences were completed!"
This would be easier to address if it weren't for a couple of snags.
Presuming Supergirl's encounter with the Legion in this tale is contemporaneous with Legion continuity at the time, then Mr. Willis is correct: Mon-El should've still been in the Phantom Zone. He wasn't permanently released from the Zone until Adventure Comics # 305 (Feb., 1963).
Another individual still imprisoned in the Zone at the time was the Mighty Gazor, whom attempted to destroy Krypton with his earthquake machine. (Gazor was old and infirm; it was one of those "If I'm going to die, I'm taking the world with me" things.) Gazor was thwarted by Jor-El, and the villain received "the longest Phantom Zone sentence."
We learn all this when Phantom Girl uses her lesser-known power to enter the Phantom Zone and meets the Mighty G, in "The Eight Impossible Missions", from Adventure Comics # 323 (Aug., 1964). According to the story, Gazor is the only prisoner remaining in the Zone. Phantom Girl reflects that all of the other "Kryptonian criminals sentenced here were released by Superman when their sentences ran out!"
A couple of problems with that.
Snag one: Previous stories establshed that Jax-Ur, who destroyed Krypton's inhabited moon, was awarded a life-sentence in the Phantom Zone. So, he would not have been freed from the Zone, as his sentence wouldn't expire. We can explain his absence from the Zone in Adventure Comics # 323 easily enough, though: at some point, Jax-Ur escaped from the Zone and eventually died in the millennium between Superman's time and the Legion's era. And Phantom Girl's thinking that Superman had released all of the other Zone prisoners was just a blanket statement.
Snag two: this one is tougher to reconcile. When Mon-El was freed from the Phantom Zone, in Adventure Comics # 305, we see there are several criminals still imprisoned in the Zone. (Mon makes one last visit there to thumb his nose at the villains who tormented him for over a thousand years.) It's difficult to reconcile the presence of those criminals with an absence-of-life Zone a mere eighteen issues later. It rather undoes P.G.'s assertion that all the other Zoners, except Gazor, had been freed by Superman. One could come up with a "well, maybe" or two to explain it, but they'd be clumsy.
Perhaps, the best explanation for Supergirl and Whizzy being alone in the Phantom Zone is that the Zone is a big place. The other denizens just weren't anywhere around Supergirl and Whizzy at the time, and the Girl of Steel jumped to conclusions as to why she didn't see anyone else.
ACTION COMICS #288: The title of this issue's story is "The Man Who Made Supergirl Cry" but, surprisingly enough, it is not Superman. It is the Danvers' wedding anniversary. Fred's name has changed to "Robert" for this story, and he has acquired the power of telepathy. Linda rips up some napkins to make a tapestry for her mother, and for her father she builds a crappy little bridge out of toothpicks. For someone who can squeeze coal into diamonds, these anniversary gifts seem particularly lame. Meanwhile, "fugitive from justice" Joe Hall" makes his way to the Danvers' house. Here is where Robert/Fred's hitherto unknown power of mental telepathy kicks in as he reads Hall's mind and discovers he plans to murder them and steal their cash and their car.
Robert/Fred clues Linda in and they look at him funny, causing him to grab a loaded shotgun from its wall mopunt. Then, working at super-speed, Linda moulds Robert/Fred's shatter-proof glass paperweight into a bullet-proof shield. Apparently it's invisible, too, because although it stops the shot, Linda convinces the criminal that the gun was loaded with blanks. As the police lead Hall away, the Danvers family discusses how fortuitous it is that Robert/Fred has developed mental powers. An hour later, he begins to hear voices. They hypnotize him into collecting Supergirl's tears.
Meanwhile, Supergirl is pursuing a pair of "helicopter bandits". One of the props of a four-engine airlines clips the helicopters rotors. Not only does the airliner suffer no damage, but the helicopter bandits reamin completely unaware of what has happened; their helicopter begins to lose altitude, but they have no idea why. Before they can figure it out, Supergirl attaches herself to the spinning shaft with her feet and replaces the missing rotors. If she had simply rescued them, she might never have learned the location of the secret cave hideout.
By the time she returns home, Robert/Fred has smashed her souvenir cabinet, which heblames on the wind. Although Supergirl is "the mightiest female of all time," thinks Robert/Fred, "at heart she's as quick to cry as any ordinary girl. I must catch her tears before they evaporate!" When he points out to her that she can reapair all of her things at super-speed she feels better and stops crying. But the voices tell him that she "must be made to cry again and again... and each time you must collect the tears." They direct him to her secret closet, which is filled with "space jewels" Superman once gave her. Surprisingly, Robert/Fred does not think, "Waitaminute... she has a secret closet filled with space jewels and she gave me a crappy bridge made out of toothpicks?" Instead, he places the blue space jewel under her pillow.
The blue jewel gives off a bluish radiation (which she apparently does not notice) and "unlocks her subconscious memories" causing her to dream. she dreams of Argo City and the death of her parents, wakes up crying, and Robert/Fred collects some more tears. Up until this point, I had assumed that the "voices" were the ones who supplied him with his newly-discovered latent telepathic powers, but no! When the voices find out about them, one of them says, "Too bad we didn't know before that you had extra-sensory powers or we would have hypnotized you long ago!" So now I'm really confused... and curious.
The next day, when Linda comes home from school, Robert/Fred greets her with the news, "I just received a call from the hospital! They said mom was killed in a auto accident!" Then he puses and thinks, "Now witch her weep!" Before she does, however, Edna walks in the door from a trip to the grocery store and robert/Fred doubles down that the phone call must have been fron "a cruel practical joker." But then Linda cries tears of happiness and Robert/Fred gets his teas anyway.
At that point, the voices reveal themselves to be three Phantom Zone criminals led by Jax-Ur. Supergirl's power of super-exposition has apparently rubbed off on Robert/Fred as he explains to them who they are: "I can'r see you, but you're the worst criminals who ever lived! You can observe anybody, anytime, from your twilight world! If you escaped to the real word you'de have super-powers and could rule the universe!" Their plan is for Robert/Fred to combine Supergirl's tears with a "chemical formula" they will dictate. "So powerful are her tears," they explain, "that they will activate the mixture into causing a hole in the Phantom Zone!"
This they now do. But, just in case Superman has "something rigged to alert him the instant they appear," they shove Mon-El throught he hole first. The power od super-exposition must have rubbed off on Jax-Ur because, as he's shoving Mon-El through the hole, he explains to him who he is: "Who cares if you die out there? You're not one of us! You were Superman's friend when he was Superboy! Superboy had to send you here because it's the only place you could stay alive!" Mon-El immediately flies beneath the ocean, presumably to avoid any contact with lead.
Jax-Ur appears from the Phantom Zone and hits Robert/Fred, threatening to kill him unless Supergirl cries "gallons of tears." Just as she is about to comply, Mon-El returns from the botom of the ocean with one of the many chunks of Kryptonite Superman has tossed there over the years and drive Jax-Ur back through the hole into the Phantom Zone. Then he hurls the Kryptonite into space and returns to the PZ himself. But what about Robert/Fred's psychic powers? Where did they come from? I don't know, but Robert/Fred reveals, "I've discovered something! I can't receive extra-sensory thoughts any more! Jax-Ur's blow must've robbed me of my psychic power!" giving Supergirl the final zinger 9such as it is): "Be glad you're rid of it, Dad! As you see, instead of a blessing, it almost became a curse! And I certainly won't cry over your loss!"
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