Credits | Characters | Plot Summary | Comments | Reprinted In Supergirl Chronology | Legion Chronology Editor: Mort Weisinger Writer: Leo Dorfman Artist: Jim Mooney Feature Character: Supergirl Supporting Characters: Superman, Lori Lemaris, Lena Thorul Guest Legionnaires: Cosmic Boy, Lightning Lad, Saturn Girl Villains: Kru-El, Jax-Ur, General Zod (all three are escaped Phantom Zone criminals), Lex Luthor, metal androids of Asteroid X (in flashback), the Porcupine Planet (in flashback), a reptillian spider from the Flame Forest of Krypton Other Characters: Three Superman robots (destroyed), prison guards, a prison warden, a policeman, citizens of Metropolis, Marines "The Super-Powers of Lex Luthor" (13 pages) When three escaped Phantom Zone criminals seal off the Earth from Superman, and the Legion of Super-Heroes in the future, Supergirl seeks out the assistance of Lex Luthor, who agrees to help her in order to save his sister from imprisonment in Kandor. When Supergirl, who had been inflicted with the "plant scourge", fails to free him from prison, Kru-El frees him and gives him super-powers. Luthor joins the crooks but the Phantom Zone villains plot behind his back to use gold kryptonite against Supergirl, Superman, and Luthor. Luthor tricks them with fake Kryptonite so Superman and Supergirl can destroy the box of forbidden weapons used by the villains and return them to the Phantom Zone. Consequently, Luthor loses his powers, but he agrees to go back to prison peacefully after Superman agrees to free his sister Lena from the bottled city of Kandor.
This story is continued from the previous issue (Action Comics No. 297), which featured an appearance by the 20th century Mon-El, still in the Phantom Zone and not yet a member of the 30th century. Superman travels with three of his robots through the time-barrier and they are shattered beyond repair from impact with the force-field sealing off Earth from the past. Similarly, the Legionnaires cannot enter into the year 1963 due to the same force-field, which is around Earth in space as well as time. The Legionnaires use their cosmos-monitor (first named in Adventure Comics No. 325), which is combination of their old television trouble finder with the added feature of being a time-viewer. This device first appeared in Superboy No. 86. Since Lightning Lad is shown alive and well in this issue, which was has a cover date of March 1963, but was killed in the January 1963 issue of Adventure, this story must take place prior to this event. This makes sense since the Legion's timeline is slightly off when compared to 20th century events. Lightning Lad's death actually takes place in mid-2963 at the start of the team's second term year and the events of this story take place around the start of the year 1963. Therefore, Lightning Lad - from Supergirl's point of view - won't be "killed" by Zaryan the Conqueror for another several months. The chest and forbidden weapons are destroyed in this story although they should be indestructable since they come from Krypton. Superman, Supergirl, and Lex Luthor combine their heat vision to accomplish this, and, with three times the power, this "impossible" feat is accomplished. Combined heat vision has also been used to trim Superman's invulnerable hair (Superman No. 139). In this story, Supergirl creates a duplicate of the original Phantom Zone projector with the mind-over-matter helmet, although Superman has another, hand-held projector that he created as Superboy (as seen in Adventure Comics No. 300). Presumably, in the time that it would take Supergirl or Superman to retrieve the device, even with their super-speed, the escaped prisoners, who also have super-speed, could have escaped. In the last panel of this story, Supergirl is carrying Lena out of the Fortress of Solitude wrapped in a super-cape, yet both Superman and Supergirl are wearing their capes. The cape around Lena must come from one of Superman's robots, and is made of anti-friction materials. Also, Supergirl's belt is missing in this panel; maybe she used it to tie the cape around Lena. Super-DC Giant S-24 (June 1971) |
