Last week I reviewed Action Comics #279, the first part of the Silver Age Supergirl story where she battles Lesla Lar. All this is in anticipation of the upcoming Supergirl title and Lesla being the main villain.
Today I am reviewing Action Comics #280, the second chapter of the multi-part arc. And much like last issue, this one goes at an incredible pace and is filled with standard Silver Age insanity, including throwaway science ideas, identity changes, and wild action.
But also, like last issue, there is some growth for the Supergirl character (or at least the idea of her given that Lar is impersonating her). Writer Jerry Siegel is using this big storyline to sort of mature Supergirl into something more than the orphan secret weapon. Last issue, Siegel had Linda get adopted. She ditched the braids. This issue, Superman recognizes how much Kara has grown in her 2+ years of comic history. Add to that the insane Lar who has aspiration and perhaps delusions of grandeur. She is truly wicked.
Jim Mooney is on art and remains the legend. His work on Lar and her facial expressions is just stellar. But Mooney gets to spread his wings a bit here too. We get a lot of crazy Kandor science. We get a three page basic retelling of the plight of Argo City and Supergirl's origins. Mooney is a master.
These images are scanned from my Supergirl archives so the colors are vibrant.
'Trapped in Kandor' starts with this splash page of Linda thinking she is Lesla watching a movie of Supergirl not realizing she is watching a movie of herself.
Want to understand the Silver Age in a nutshell? Read the text box near the title. Insanity.
To set the stage, last issue Linda was adopted by the Danvers but remains powerless. This issue opens with her basically mourning the loss of her powers, bemoaning her slow lifestyle as a student.
A Midvale field trip takes her to Metropolis where she sees Clark states he cannot figure out how to return his cousin's powers.
Cackling with glee on Kandor, Lesla watches the scene. Lar is the one who stripped Linda of her powers.
Mooney's work shines. Even in profile you see Lar's evil joy. And you feel how crestfallen Linda is.
But what do you think of casual Clark with the open shirt and loose tie! Insane!
That night, Lesla re-enacts her plan.
Lesla shrinks Linda down, places Linda in a 'brain command helmet' to convince our hero she is Lesla Lar, and then embiggens to take over Linda's place.
It seems like a bit of a convoluted scheme for the super-villain. Why not just kill the powerless Kara on Earth and just take her place? Why this flip-flop? Unless Lar takes some sort of psychological happiness from this? Or maybe her pride is too much to have the name Lesla Lar simply be erased?
Lar has some bold internal thoughts during the interaction. She says that she is smarter than Lex (perhaps proven by her creation of the 'power dampening ray). She also calls out Lex's clumsy plot of using Kryptonite meteors as his main weapon rather than something more elegant. She isn't shy.
She truly is an evil genius.
But again, there is something too fancy about the plan. Why not rob Superman of his powers and off him in private herself?
Like last issue, love how the evil Lar Supergirl has that same little finger quirk.
There is some craziness here. On Kandor, the brains of famous dead scientists are kept alive in jars and linked to writing implements so they can continue to share their thoughts. Crazy!
She then goes to an all senses movie theater where the viewers get an all-senses input viewing. She watches a movie about Krypton, showing Argo City, the soil becoming Kryptonite, Zor-El laying down the lead sheets, and then her own birth and early life.
Somehow none of this jars her memories.
This origin is about 3 pages of recap! If you needed a primer for Supergirl's origin, this is the story. Look at the cover! The Supergirl line on the cover is 'How Supergirl Came To Earth!'
On Earth, Superman is fooled by Lar and thinks it is her cousin.
But Lar doesn't want to pretend to be powerless. She wants to luxuriate in her newfound abilities. So she sets up some phony 'antidote' having Superman heat up some rock and breathing in the fumes to 'energize her super-cells'.
Of course this is a complete ruse. She has powers as a Kryptonian but she needs to have her story make sense. And despite his being unable to solve the powerless problem, instead of questioning how this whole thing worked, he accepts it.
This isn't the smartest Superman - fooled by looks and accepting of incredible turns of events.
But how cool that Superman is all proud of 'Supergirl' making a tourist attraction.
I suppose for her overly complex plan to come to fruition, Lar has to be the perfect Supergirl in Superman's mind. But once more, this seems ... well ... overly complex.
I did say there was some character growth. After her two 'wins' of creating a cure of her powerless state and then saving motorists, Superman finally thinks Supergirl can be revealed to the world (even if it is Lar).
But her plan becomes more nefarious.
She'll be revealed.
She'll let Lex kill Superman.
She'll secretly kill Lex.
And then she'll conquer the world !!!
Love that evil sneer on that last panel. She is diabolical.
So what do you think? Is Lesla Lar a tremendous arch-villain for the Maid of Might? Or does she create an easily escapable situation involving an overly elabortate and exotic death for Supergirl?
But 'jarred living brains' and a Supergirl origin recap for the win. Pure SilverAge goodness.
Overall grade: A
5 comments:
Supergirl's original series had gems too many people overlook and this is one of the best.
Silly Superman, does he not know the sound of his cousin’s heartbeat? Then again, clever Lesla may have duplicated it.
I wonder if the living brains will show up in the new book!
Those last two panels are extra creepy. If I didn’t know better, I’d say Lesla has a crush on Superman.
Thanks for comments.
Would love to see some Kandor/Argo nonsense in the new book. And the identity swaps are bananas here.
I never did like how poor Kara just sits there pensively waiting for Cousin Superman to restore her super powers (the blundering oaf could screw up a two car funeral truth be told) instead of grappling with the problem herself. Meanwhile Lesla Lar underwent the convoluted switch scenario to disguise from the Kandorian authorities that she'd achieved a means to escape, if she killed a depowered Kara and simply supplanted her on Earth she'd be "missed at muster" sooner or later. Hence the preposterously complex switcheroo. But for all her leering and sneering, there is something of the pathetic c-list cosplayer wannabee to Lesla Lar, her whole plot will founder due to a few mischances on Earth and sudden intervention of the Kandorian Rollers, shoulder rings, Captain Video ray guns and all. Not for nothing have I called Lesla Lar Supergirl's Answer to "Frank Grimes". Some people are just born chumps, that is Lesla Lar. She'll make one more appearance in the Silver Age (where she is ignominiously disintegrated by Phantom Zone escapees) before a last desperate revival in the Late Bronze Age. In all of it Lesla Lar remained inept, unlucky and easily defeated...but hey she still stands taller in the rankings than The Gyronaut. :) JF
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