We begin with "The Girl with the X-Ray Mind" by Leo Dorfman and Jim Mooney and reprinted from Action Comics #295 (1962). Linda Danvers's friend Lena Thorul has ESP powers and wants to join the FBI, but she has no verifiable past and cannot be accepted. Supergirl investigates and finds the reason why: Lena is really the younger sister of Lex Luthor and gained ESP powers through contact with a "space-brain" brought to Earth by Superboy.
Because of the Luthor family disgrace, Lena and her parents were forced to move from Smallville and change their last names to Thorul, though Lena never learned of her brother's criminal past and was told he died in an accident, not long before her parents died in a very real accident.
When the FBI learns the truth, they are adamant about not hiring her. Lena, however, pretends to infiltrate Bank Busters, a gang of bank robbers, and to use her powers on their behalf. When Luthor hears of it, he tells all to Supergirl and pleads with her to keep Lena from a life of crime. However, Lena was only playing along with the crooks to catch them in the act and helps Supergirl and the police capture the Bank Busters. Supergirl promises to tell the FBI about the case, in hopes that they will reconsider hiring her. But she gets nervous when Lena admits that she has Supergirl telepathically linked with Linda Lee Danvers and keeps Lena's family connection secret.
Next, we have "The Girl Who Was Supergirl's Double" by Leo Dorfman and Jim Mooney and reprinted from Action Comics #296 (1963). When Lena Thorul attends a costume ball dressed as Supergirl, a soiree also attended by Dick Malverne and Linda Lee Danvers, Dick is convinced by Lena's resemblance to the Girl of Steel and by the real Supergirl's appearance when thieves attempt a jewel robbery there, that Lena is really Supergirl.
Other circumstantial evidence, later on, hardens Dick's mistaken belief. Linda becomes jealous when Dick's affections are turned to Lena. Lex Luthor, in the meantime, asks Supergirl to give Lena some diamonds he created from coal lumps, as a secret birthday gift. When Dick sees one of the diamonds fallen into the coal-scuttle at Lena's house, he is finally convinced beyond any doubt that Lena is Supergirl. Lena finally "admits" that she is the Princess of Power, and the real Supergirl, listening in with super-hearing, wonders why Lena has told a lie. This story is continued.
That is followed by the continuation of the story, "The Forbidden Weapons of Krypton" by Leo Dorfman and Jim Mooney and reprinted from Action Comics #297 (1963). Lena Thorul actually told Dick Malverne that she had super-powers because her mind was controlled by a device operated by Lesla-Lar, who has recently broken jail in Kandor. Using her teleport ray, Lesla exchanges places with Lena, and imitated her, convincing Supergirl that a special serum had given her super-powers.
Later, Lesla-Lar used a Phantom Zone Projector to free Jax-Ur, Kru-El, and General Zod from the Zone. The threesome armed themselves with a cache of forbidden Kryptonian weapons and repaid her by destroying her with a disintegrator gun. Since Superman was in another time-era on a mission, the three villains set up a force-field that blocked time-travel, and the people of Kandor were made prisoners of their bottle.
Both Supergirl and the villains were stalemated when they tried to use their powers on each other, but the weapons gave the villains the edge. Kru-El infected Supergirl with a disease that turned living creatures near her into plants. But, when Supergirl told Lex Luthor that Lena was a prisoner in Kandor, he agreed to help her battle the three Kryptonians. This story is also continued.
We end with the story's final chapter, "The Super-Powers of Lex Luthor" by Leo Dorfman and Jim Mooney and reprinted from Action Comics #298 (1963). The warden of Metropolis prison refuses to believe Lex Luthor when he says that Supergirl wants him as an ally, so Luthor throws in with the Phantom Zone villains. Kru-El gives Luthor super-powers with a ray device, and, later, demonstrates a mind-over-matter helmet to him.
The Zoners, in a private conversation, plan to use Luthor to construct a magnet that will attract Gold Kryptonite to permanently remove Superman's and Supergirl's powers, but they also intend to strip away Luthor's new super-powers as well when they have it. Unknown to them, however, Luthor is listening with his super-hearing, and, once Kru-El drops the force-field so as to lure Superman into their trap, he switches sides again by using a fake Gold K meteor.
Supergirl, Superman, and Luthor triumph sending the Kryptonian villains back to the Phantom Zone destroying the weapons (and thus removing Luthor's powers and Supergirl's plant scourge), releasing Lena Thorul from Kandor, and returning Luthor to prison.
Edited by E. Nelson Bridwell.
Posts
No comments:
Post a Comment