821 – Lesla-Lar Timely Scheming

In Action Comics #281 (Aug 1961), the fourth installment in the long-running, multi-month story arc continues as Lesla-Lar masquerades as a recently-re-powered Supergirl. She goes with Superman to the Fortress of Solitude, while the de-powered Supergirl continues to live out her best life with amnesia in the bottled city of Kandor. While there, Krypto sniffs […]

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809 – Legion of Super-Villains and Luthor

No less than 7 months earlier, DC foreshadowed the Legion of Super-Villains and now we get their first appearance of the LSV in Superman #147 (June 1961). In prison, Luthor offers to repair other inmate’s radios, cobbling together a super-scientific device that can project his voice into the future for this hypothesized evil Legion to […]

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803 – Superman Changes the Past

Superman #146 (May 1961) has a great re-telling of Superman’s origin, deftly weaving in all sorts of facts and notes of the Superman mythos up to this point, but I found its second feature “Superman’s Greatest Feats!”. In it, we see Superman convinced by Lori Lemaris to try and save Atlantis from being sunk. Superman […]

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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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750 – Supergirl and the Legion

In Action Comics #267 (June 1960), the Legion of Super-Heroes makes a re-appearance in a Supergirl adventure. Confusingly Cosmic Lad, Saturn Girl, and Lightning Lad introduce themselves as children of the original Legion members. I guess maybe DC hadn’t figured out the timey-wimey-ness of it all. Interestingly, this is retconned a few years when the […]

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733 – Supergirl meets Superboy

DC continues to weave Supergirl throughout the Superboy family of books. In Superboy #80 (Feb 1960), Supergirl learns from Superman that he was lonely as a teenager without a playmate. Supergirl gets the bright idea to travel back in time to meet Superboy and play with him. What ensues is a cute story with the […]

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700 – Supergirl Meets Tommy

In the same issue that debuts Bizarro-Lois, Supergirl is told by her mentor, Superman, to practice breaking the time barrier. She races off a hundred years in the future and meets a genius orphan named Tommy. Supergirl saves his adopted parents from disaster and writes about it in her diary once she’s back. It turns […]

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693 – Rip Hunter, Time Master!

Showcase keeps cranking out characters, with Rip Hunter debuting in Showcase #20 (March 1959). Rip Hunter is a blonde, handsome, t-shirt-wearing, but sometimes shirtless scientist who invests a couple time spheres. With his companions Jeff, Bonnie and Corky they initiate a series of adventures across time. This first adventure lands them in the prehistoric days […]

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670 – Challengers Traveling in Time

In Challengers of the Unknown #4 (August 1958), it’s hard not to see Jack Kirby angling towards complex, fantastical world-building alongside and team-building between characters, as the Challengers find themselves traveling through time in a scientist’s “time cube”. Very Fantastic Four! And what I love the most are those giant, single-page splashes, like this one […]

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669 – Robin Meets Superboy

Oh, speaking of which, Adventure Comics #253 (Aug 1958) contains that promised story of when Superboy and Robin meet for the first time. Robin appears from the future to warn Superboy that a clock trophy given to him by a scientist is actually a kryptonite bomb that goes off and fatally wounds Superman years from […]

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