Action 316 – Zigi and Zagi make trouble for Superman, and Zor-El makes a decision

Supergirl’s story gets the cover spot on Action 316 (Sept. 64), but Superman still has the lead spot.  Once again, both stories are by Dorfman and Mooney.

Learning of the escaped con aboard the spaceship, Superman flies out to Zigi and Zagi’s homeworld.  The crook gets knocked unconscious during the landing, but at least that alerts the boys that he is there.  Thay make him invisible for a while, to taunt Superman, but eventually send him back to Earth.

The story then becomes about Zigi and Zagi trying to matchmake Superman with their sister, Zyra.

Superman gets out of this by finding Zyra’s lost fiancee, re-uniting the couple.

Although Zigi and Zagi do not return, I am certain I have read something, likely by Grant Morrison, playing with the concept of these two.

Supergirl, living with Zor-El and Alura on Earth, is depressed by the absence of her adoptive parents.

Zor-El uses a time viewer to explore how their lives on Earth will play out.  It displays a future in which the Zygor, an alien monster, comes to Earth seeking vengeance on Zor-El, who had driven it away from Argo City.

The Zygor has the power to control the minds of Kryptonians, after eating a lot of red kryptonite (?), and forces Supergirl to choose between killing Superman or Zor-El.

Zor-El insists that they cannot possibly let this future come to pass, that he and Alura must return to Kandor, so the Zygor will never find them.  This allows the Danvers to come back, and Linda is also re-united with Dick Malverne and Lena Thorul.

At the end, we discover that the Zygor was actually captured by Zor-El many years ago, and died in captivity.  So the whole thing was a lie.  Alura agrees to keep Zor-El’s lie, as they will “all be happier that way.”

Which is likely the best she could make of things, after being so rejected by her own daughter, who prefers the psychotic Earthling Edna Danvers.

I am also fairly certain that the Zygor returns in a later story.

Action 315 -Superman meets Zigi and Zagi, and the revenge of Edna Danvers

Superman meets Zigi and Zagi, a couple of irrepressible alien kids, in the Dorfman and Mooney story from Action 315 (Aug. 64).

The boys have taken a spaceship and come to Earth to amuse themselves.  They do not really grasp the ways of humans, but are also not actively trying to hurt anyone or torment people, like Mr. Mxyzptlk.

Superman’s attention is drawn by the boys actions.  They have an invisibility ray they use to get away from him, as he acts too much like a typical adult.  There is also a convict who escapes, but remains a very minor player in this issue.

Superman does manage to corral the boys, and takes them to school.  But they prove far too disruptive, and are promptly expelled.

While they are sleeping, Superman recreates their home planet, so as they wake, they become homesick.  He has also found their spaceship, and sends them back to their home planet.

But none of them are aware that the escaped convict has snuck on to the ship, and is now on his way to an alien world.

The story concludes in the next issue.

Dorfman and Mooney do double duty on this issue, also crafting the Supergirl tale, which continues with the parent switch storyline.

The Danvers have been raising the identical double to Linda, called Dar-Lin (which makes it sound like they have southern accents when they address her.)  They worry that their mementos of Linda are distressing Dar-Lin, and pack them all away.

Dar-Lin’s parents disappeared during an exploration of the caves below Kandor.  Hard to believe anyone could get lost in the caves between the city and the bottle.  Even the map makes it look like a fairly small area.  Her parents get rescued, and Dar-Lin leaves the Danvers.

Although Edna Danvers actions get blamed on a spine from a fish, I think she just loses it. After all the couple has given up, being trapped in a bottle could drive anyone insane. She adopts a disguise, and contacts Zor-El and Alura, pretending to have found an antidote for kryptonite.

She actually leads them to kryptonite itself,and gloats as they slowly die.

Supergirl shows up, furious.  She saves Zor-El and Alura, and has the Sueprgirl Emergency Squad cart Edna back to Kandor.  This is the final appearance of her Emergency Squad.

The last few panels have Edna use the fish spine excuse, and Supergirl forgives her.  A kind of let down from the intensity of the climax.