The new Supergirl #1 has hit the racks including a new Lesla Lar, a character that writer/artist Sophie Campbell hinted would be returning when the book was first announced.
Today I look at Action Comics #281 as I continue my look at the first storyline pitting Supergirl against Lesla Lar, the story leading into Supergirl finally being revealed to the world at last in Action Comics #285.
I've covered the first two parts here and here in which Lesla Lar, a brilliant but jealous scientist in Kandor basically demolishes Supergirl's life. In short order she depowers Kara, brainwashes our hero into thinking she is Lar, and then swaps places with her on Earth. Lar then teams up with Luthor with the ultimate plan to kill Superman and Lex and rule the world. And frankly, she has been doing a fantastic job of all of it, only being temporarily derailed.
This issue continues that arc and that sort of happenstance. Lar swaps places, moves ahead with her plans, and is temporarily detained by ... get ready ... Krypto! Writer Jerry Siegel and artist Jim Mooney craft a completely bonkers story with the Lar plot taking up the front half of the story, including Kara thinking she's Lesla and then playing Kara in a Kandorian made movie. (Seriously, the identity swaps and plot turns in this whole multi-issue story are just pure Silver Age insanity.)
But it is the back-half that seems both out of synch with this story and yet completely in line with these early Action tales. Supergirl travels back in time and saves a town in early America from all sorts of natural disasters. It has nothing to do with the Lar story and feels almost like inventory pages. It also is exactly the type of 'guardian angel' story that dominated Supergirl's stories here.
Jim Mooney flourishes here, especially in the story in the past as he gets to put Supergirl through her paces. And his panel composition is great.
Jim Mooney flourishes here, especially in the story in the past as he gets to put Supergirl through her paces. And his panel composition is great.
Supergirl is in Kandor, thinks she is Lesla Lar, and then is cast to play Supergirl in a movie being filmed in Kandor. It is exactly the type of complicated identity switch and double switch we have seen in this story as it has moved along.
But this is truly just the most tangential side plot in this issue's story and this larger arc, here and gone again.
Walking the streets as Lesla Lar, our hero is noticed by a Kandorian movie director. He is making a movie about Supergirl fighting a robot named Atomo. How could he not hire someone who looks so much like Supergirl? (Of course, it is Supergirl!)
Back in the present, Linda again is powerless.
Last issue ended with Lesla in Supergirl's place and having fooled Superman so thoroughly that the Man of Steel has finally decided to reveal Supergirl to the world.
In the Fortress, Krypto arrives and immediately realizes that something is wrong. Supergirl isn't Kara.
How does the super-dog sniff out the truth? By sniffing. Lesla wears a different perfume. Now that is Silver Age sleuthing..
Peeking into Kandor using his 'Dog-Instinct' (is that similar to Super-Intuition?), he peeks into Kandor and sees the powerless Super
We then get a flashback.
Walking the streets as Lesla Lar, our hero is noticed by a Kandorian movie director. He is making a movie about Supergirl fighting a robot named Atomo. How could he not hire someone who looks so much like Supergirl? (Of course, it is Supergirl!)
Nothing says 'movie director' like a beret, sunglasses, and an ascot.
On set, Supergirl can't get the hang of the flying harness hence what Krypto sees in the above panel.
How good a boy is Krypto? He gets Superman's 'Exchange Ray' device and switches Supergirl and Lesla. Back on Earth, Kara regains all her memories as herself. Meanwhile the sullen Lesla is suddenly back in Kandor and on set.
I suppose Siegel needed to come up with some sort of reason why both would be in Supergirl outfits since this is Superman's exchange ray and not the one Lesla has been using which seems to switch clothes too!
It is crazy that Krypto can sense the difference but not Superman. Of course, Superman has occasionally been indifferent to Supergirl so subtle changes might slip by him.
Lesla had powers on Earth. Supergirl has been robbed of hers. So when switched, our Kara is still without her powers. Superman tries the bogus cure Lesla did last issue when she 'regained' her lost powers but it doesn't work. No powers means no announcement. Kara will need to live her life as Linda Danvers again.
Can I just say, I love this panel construction by Mooney with the characters positions copying each other. But Lesla's is one of giddy malevolence; Kara's is one of despondence.
It also shows that indeed they do look alike, completely similar.
But remembering who is who and who has powers and who doesn't and who knows what has become dizzying.
We all know about the science of the Silver Age. Supergirl has lost her powers because she was hit with a depowering ray from Lesla. Superman doesn't know that.
In an experiment, he takes Kara back in time and miraculously in the past, her powers return.
I have no idea why this would work. Her body is the same regardless of the time.
I do love how full of joy Supergirl is, flying around and giggling, leapfrogging mountains, and just having fun.
Superman leaves her there for a bit, setting a time for her to return via a time ray.
She's in the year 1692, in Pilgrim time, in a place known for the mysterious 'Golden Witch'.
Can anyone see where this is going?
Can anyone see where this is going?
And do you recognize the last panel? It is the one I use on my 'Best of' posts.
I think in her eagerness to use her powers again, and for good, she helps a town troubled by plague and therefore filled with people to do the tasks needed for survival like gather food and fuel and water.
Over a couple of pages, and with mad abandon, acting in the open and in full view, Supergirl brings the town water, fish and fruit, and even coal. She then shot puts hot coals from the burning pile down chimneys to heat the homes.
It is an insane turn. Remember, this is a Kara who has been chastised for Superman for even possibly exposing herself. To be juggling fire and tossing icebergs in view of suspicious people is crazy! Mooney really gives these pages energy, especially showing the shocked looks on the villagers.
Heck, she even gives the doctor quinine to help cure the town. (I love facts like 'I made it from the American Cinchona tree' embedded in comics back then. I used to say stuff like this back to my parents to try and convince them that comics were educational.)
No worries about mucking up the timeline here. She wants to save people!
And then the time ray kicks in and she vanishes right before everyone's eyes!
Seriously, I do wonder if this was a completely other story, drawn and ready, and inserted here.
Surprising no one, she turns out to be 'The Golden Witch' from the past. Heck, there's even a picture of her in a text!
But things aren't over with Lesla. Krypto's exchange is a temporary solution. As soon as things align, she'll make the same switch. And I also love how Lesla has an evil finger quirk, similar to Supergirl's finger to chin motion.
So this reads almost like two stories. But it continues to show how crazy Lesla is and how ready she is to take over. I can't help but love it.
Overall grade: A
5 comments:
I feel like it had been a while since Supergirl had done anything ‘super’ and that’s why they brought her back to a time where she could use her powers without exposing her secret identity or existence to anyone alive in the present.
As to why it worked, they went to a time before Supergirl lost her powers. She’d have them if they went back to a few days before Lesla used the ray or after the ray wore off (I seem to remember Superman bringing her to the far future around then and that working too) so even further back should work. It’s the same sort of thing as when they go to a time they exist in- the first version is the physical form and they become phantoms.
Good ol' Krypto had previously sniffed out a phony Superboy in Superman # 137, also written by Jerry Siegel.
This story did seem to veer off track here with this Golden Witch business. Maybe some padding to stretch the story to Action 285.
That's an interesting point regarding the 2 panels on page 5 of the story. Not only do Kara's and Lesla-Lar's positions parallel each other, but so do Lesla-Lar's viewer screen and the window Superman is flying out of.
The images here don't appear to come from the original comic and I was wondering if you ever picked up that DC Finest Supergirl volume, with stories from Action Comics 252 to 288, and also stories featuring Supergirl from Adventure Comics, Superman, Superboy, Lois Lane and Jimmy Olsen.
The panels are from the Archive version (don't own the originals ... yet).
I did get the Supergirl DC Finest!
I bought the DC Showcase Supergirl vol. 1 when it came out and also have the Action Comics # 360 reprint.
I think I own this issue as well...but since I am amidst a move, pulling it is a chore to be sure :) Ghod every time I see SA Lesla Lar (and apologies for being repetitive:) I am given to think "there goes a puffed up narcissistic loser, the first contrary breeze and she'll collapse like a house of cards"! Supergirl doesn't even know Lesla exists, the impotent rage of the villainess wannabe is real. Supergirl's manic burst of altruism in what I can only assume is Colonial Massachusetts was fun to read, and I agree that Mooney pulled out all the stops in those panels. It's scenes like that that tell me but for her incurable boy-craziness, Supergirl's empathy and altruism make her a prime candidate for the Convent, a veritable "SuperNun". :) JF
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