Action 279 – Imaginary marriages, and the debut of Lesla-Lar
The Superman story in Action 279 (Aug. 61) is an Imaginary Story. That means it is not a Superman story that really happened. Just ponder that level of reality for a while.
Tired of having Lois Lane and Lana Lang fighting over him, Superman travels through time to get Hercules and Samson, and fobs them off on the women, in this story by John Forte. And indeed, the women fall head over heels in love with the doting heroes
The couples try to get married immediately, but discover they need to wait a week. The story then descends into a horrifying parody of marriage relationships, an endless outdo-the-other-couple cycle.
The heroes also find it extremely difficult to find fulfilling work, and Samson even loses his powers after Lana cuts some bubblegum out of his hair.
Superman returns Hercules and Samson to their own eras, as they just long to be rid of the women by now. With the other men gone, Lois and Lana start attacking each other again.
Geez.
Jerry Siegel and Jim Mooney introduce one of Supergirl’s greatest foes in this issue, the Kandorian scientist, Lesla-Lar. You just gotta wonder about that name.
Lesla-Lar looks exactly like Supergirl, which has become unsurprising with Kandorians. We discover that she was the one who stripped Supergirl of her powers, using a machine of her own invention. She claim to be jealous of the attention that Supergirl will get, one day, of the people of Earth, who have no idea that Lesla-Lar even exists. That really makes little sense. I prefer to think this was mistranslated from the Kryptonian, and she is jealous of the attention that Kandorians give to Supergirl, over her.
No longer having powers, Linda allows herself to be adopted at last. Fred and Edna Danvers are not named in this story, but they are the ones to take her home, and prompt her to change her hairstyle to a more teenage look.
As she sleeps, Lesla-Lar uses another of her machines to trade places with Linda. She acquires the normal range of Kryptonian powers on Earth.
Taking on the Supergirl identity, she comes to visit Luthor in prison, and even breaks him out, helps him commit and crime, and brings him back to prison to establish his alibi. At the same time, Linda is living Lesla’s life in Kandor.
Lesla-Lar switches them back after a day. For Linda, it was all a strange dream. For Lesla, the beginning of an evil scheme. The story continues in the next issue.