Action Comics #282 (Sept 1961) carries on with Part 5 of the continuing saga of Lesla-Lar v Supergirl, which is kind of just all over the place. Superman continues the “debugging” session of why Supergirl’s powers are missing in the present but have resurfaced in the past. He builds her a time machine to visit the future to see if her powers also resurface.
While there, she foils a forgettable plot by a would-be tyrant and her allies reveal that she is remembered as the “mightiest mortal who ever lived” and was “more powerful than even Superman”. How can this be I wonder?
After her 4-page time travel adventure, she returns to the present, where she is disappointed to find out her powers are still missing and she is just a mere mortal. She seems to finally accept her fate (despite evidence of her powerful future just panels before!) and goes to the beach with her adoptive parents. While there she meets with old flame Dick Wilson, now Dick Malverne after a recent adoption. She reconnects with him and wonders how Dick stacks up against her other “boyfriends” (Jerro the Mer-Boy and Brainiac 5). Those Supergirl writers can’t help but slip some romance into their stories – they know their audience.
Suddenly, just as Supergirl is about to toss away her costume forever, Great Scott her powers return! She races to tell her cousin and they chance upon a convenient kryptonite meteor, which seem to have zero effect on Supergirl.
The spying, scheming Lesla-Lar looks on in amazement from Kandor and tries to use her de-powering ray again on Supergirl, which has no effect. Using her ray results in the Kandor police capturing Lesla-Lar and destroying her de-powering rays which are “forbidden”.
Back on Earth, after a quick rescue and disposal of the kryptonite, the two kryptonians ponder the miracle.
Our readers need not ponder too long, a panel later it is revealed to us that Mxyzptlk is responsible. Exposition proceeds to explain to us that Mxyzptlk’s latest scheme is to humiliate Superman by giving a “mere slip of a girl” all the powers of Superman while still being invulnerable to kryptonite. By pure chance he had selected the de-powered Linda Danvers.
Superman wonders if he should now reveal Supergirl to the world, since she is now more powerful than he. He’s been teasing her with that for four months now!