Supergirl stars in "Return of the Black Flame" written and penciled by Mike Sekowsky and inked by Jack Abel. Supergirl is contacted via news station by a mysterious person who asks her to go to a specific address because she is the only person who can help her out. Supergirl heads to the place, not knowing it is a trap of her old enemy, Black Flame.
Black Flame broke out of jail in Kandor and left the Bottle City, managing to enlarge herself afterwards. She then acquired a spaceship, went to a warp portal in the Phantom Zone, and took on three super-criminals from the Phantom Zone: L. Finn (a leprechaun), the Toymaster and the Inventor. She then tricked Supergirl into coming to the house which they use as their headquarters.
Kara realizes too late it is a trap, and is sprinkled with Green Kryptonite. Rather than waiting until the Kryptonite dust takes effect, Black Flame orders her subordinates to take Supergirl to a room where she can torture her before killing her.
Supergirl comes to and sees she has been made to be a "pin" in a bowling alley with Green Kryptonite bowling balls. The Phantom Zone criminals throw ball after ball at Supergirl. However, although she gets hurt, the constant battering shakes the Kryptonite dust off the ropes binding her. Kara manages to free herself and attack, but one of the allies of Black Flame is some kind of sorcerer and freezes her.
Then she is placed in a deathtrap with Gold Kryptonite slowly stealing her powers, and a Green Kryptonite spear is set to be launched through her body once she loses them entirely. But Supergirl manages to reach a remote control for Toymaster's miniature robots and uses them to cut her free. She recovers her powers once she is away from the Gold K, and uses the toys to capture the three Phantom Zoners while she herself takes care of Black Flame. Later, Black Flame is taken back to Kandor and the three other villains are returned to the Phantom Zone.
I think Sekowsky was just new to the Super-mythos, as he gets a few things wrong in this story. First, Supergirl is exposed to Gold Kryptonite, but somehow instead of immediately robbing her of her powers permanently she retains them claiming that prolonged exposure is needed. This contradicts every other story featuring Gold Kryptonite. Secondly, Black Flame recruits three inhabitants from the Phantom Zone to assist her, but none appear to affected by either Green or Gold Kryptonite. It should therefore be assumed that either not all Phantom Zone inhabitants are Kryptonian, or Sekowsky just messed up. Additionally, Supergirl sends the villains into space at the conclusion of the story. The caption indicates that this is toward the Phantom Zone. No mention of the Phantom Zone projector is made during their release or return which either casts more doubt on whether they are really from the Phantom Zone or Sekowsky once again messed up.
Edited by Mike Sekowsky.
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