853 – Gold Kryptonite

Adventure Comics #299 (June 1962) has the imaginary tale “The Unwanted Superbaby!”, in which authorities discover baby Kal-El has super-powers before the Kents can adopt him. The result is that Kal-El grows up resentful of Earth people, who only take advantage of him and mis-trust him. Eventually he leaves Earth, despite thinking wistfully back towards […]

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832 – Supergirl Restored

Action Comics #284 (November 1961) wraps up the long-running Supergirl serial of stories that began in early 1961 with a carryover of the last three effects of red kryptonite from the previous issue, one of which is to turn her into a mermaid. Jerro takes this opportunity to propose, which leaves Supergirl briefly speechless. The […]

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827 – Supergirl Power Debugging

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 […]

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800 – Mon-El

Superboy #89 (April 1961), expands the Superboy/Superman/Legion mythos yet again by introducing another important character: Mon-El, also known as Lar Gand. After crash-landing on Earth, Superboy rescues the amnesiac young man who seems to have all the powers of a Kryptonian, carries a letter written in Kryptonese from Jor-El, and a locket expressing their love […]

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770 – White Kryptonite

A new form of kryptonite is introduced in Adventure Comics #279 (Oct 1960): Superboy is yet again thrust into the distant future and must prove he wasn’t just a myth, that he actually existed in the past. He finally convinces folks when he uses a piece of white kryptonite from a museum to kill all […]

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762 – Blue Kryptonite

Blue kryptonite makes its first appearance in Superman #140 (August 1960), when Superman and Supergirl take on the entire Bizarro world of imperfect Supermen and Lois Lanes. This time a seemingly human child is born to Bizarro No. 1 and sent to Earth, where Supergirl helps care for him. Supergirl falls into the path of […]

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756 – Kryptonite Kid

Superboy #83 (July 1960) introduces a new Super-villain in the form of Kryptonite Kid. known in the future as Kryptonite Man. He starts out as a juvenile delinquent on the planet Blor, volunteers for a space mission, and is given powers by having his rocket pass through a “strange space cloud”: the ability to project […]

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732 – Superboy Meets Lex

In Adventure Comics #271 (Feb 1960), Superboy meets a new kid in town: Lex Luthor. This is the first comic that uses his full name in the story (though it was mentioned in a previous letters column. Lex starts out as a really smart guy who is also a Superboy fan. He ends up saving […]

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711 – Green Arrow In Continuity

Another noteworthy event in Adventure Comics #266 (Sept 1959) was the establishment of Green Arrow and Speedy into the mainstream DC continuity. We already had an inconsequential story of Superboy meeting Oliver Queen as a boy, but this time we see not one, but two instances of DC weaving Green Arrow into their growing stable […]

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696 – Kryptonite Suit

Superman #130 (May 1959) gives us a tale on how kryptonite has affected Superman throughout his life, as he lays dying next to a chunk of kryptonite he was not able to melt or crawl away from. It includes the first time we see Superman’s kryptonite-shielded suit, including how television played a role in helping […]

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