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"Superman: "Powerstone"": This story is reprinted from Action Comics #47.

Superman #252 is an issue of the series Superman (Volume 1) with a cover date of June, 1972. It was published on April 4, 1972.

Synopsis for Superman: "Powerstone"

This story is reprinted from Action Comics #47.

Criminal mastermind Luthor has discovered a process for using electricity to enhance his own strength. But he still lacks one key component that could make him Superman's equal; the Powerstone! To get that, needs the Man of Steel's help.

A few days later in Metropolis, millionaire Brett Calhoun announces to the city that he would be giving away three million dollars to any man that could prove he was the richest person alive. It is odd enough to get every reporter in the city on the case, including Clark and Lois of the Daily Planet. Police are keeping reporters out, but Lois manages to sneak inside through a window. Inside, she sees Calhoun with the other millionaires, seated at a table, when suddenly, Luthor enters the room! He planned the whole thing, blackmailing Mr. Calhoun to set it up, so he could steal the fortunes of the wealthiest men. His electricity treatment has allowed Luthor to send small surges through the room, paralyzing anyone they touch, including the young lady reporter. When Superman smashes in through the ceiling, Luthor gives him a choice: Either help him by retrieving the Powerstone from Skull Valley, or watch Lois die.

Into Skull Valley Superman flies. He finds the Powerstone where Luthor said it would be; inside a cavern, encased in the forehead of a large idol. He rips the stone out of its casing, triggering a cave-in. But Superman manages to escape with the stone in time.

Luthor is pleased to have the Powerstone in his hands at last. He reneges on the deal, saying with his new power, he can conquer the world. But Superman has tricked him. It was not the real stone Luthor is holding, but a replica that Superman made. The real Powerstone is hidden where Luthor could never find it. Luthor's super strength diminishes, the electric hold he had on the millionaires and on Lois fades. Police are called in and Luthor is arrested.

Appearing in Superman: "Powerstone"

Featured Characters:

Supporting Characters:

Antagonists:

Other Characters:

  • Brett Calhoun (Single appearance)
  • Digby Masters (Single appearance)
  • Von Schmertz (Single appearance)
  • Kettering (Single appearance)
  • Scarletti (Single appearance)

Locations:

Items:


Synopsis for Superman: "When Titans Clash!"

This story is reprinted from Superman #17.

In early February 1942, Luthor is sentenced to death in the electric chair, but the criminal genius has prepared for this event, and instead of killing him, the electrical energy restores Luthor's artificial superpowers. Laughing maniacally, he smashes his way out of the prison, eludes Superman, gathers his henchmen, and robs the Elkhart Express on the outskirts of Metropolis. Superman shows up; he and Luthor duke it out inconclusively; Luthor escapes.

The next day, Luthor in a fake beard, posing as Carlyle Allerton, prominent authority on ancient stones and their mystic powers, easily dupes Superman into handing over the Powerstone. This immediately saps most of Superman's power, into Luthor, who now can also grow to giant size. So can his clothes. Superman remains invulnerable enough to survive being smacked with a steel bridge but has trouble crawling out from under it.

Next day, Lois & Clark blunder into Luthor's gang's hideout, an abandoned factory; Kent is tossed into a pit, gets lucky, climbs out, changes clothes, bluffs his way past Luthor's gang, frees Lois, and confronts Luthor, whom he dupes into dropping the Powerstone. Superman quickly grabs the stone, frees Lois, frees Luthor's hostages, and rescues Luthor's gang, as Luthor cravenly blows up the factory to cover his own escape.

Appearing in Superman: "When Titans Clash!"

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Synopsis for Doctor Fate: "The Fire Murders"

This story is reprinted from More Fun Comics #57.

Fires of unknown origin kill a series of wealthy men and women, some of whom are known to Inza Cramer. She ascertains that each of them had received threats, and had refused to pay for protection. When she tells Dr. Fate what she knows, he is attacked by a fiery globe! Fate magically sends that globe straight back to where it came from, plus takes flight and follows it. On a rocky coast he finds an isolated steel castle. This is the stronghold of a sorcerer called Mango the Mighty, and it is defended, with a flock of Maylayan Poison Bats, a giant flying fireball, and an undead army called the Legions of the Styx.

This villain also manages to kidnap Inza Cramer, but it works out badly for him. Fate rescues Inza, and transforms the sorcerer into a tiny statue of clay, which Inza seals in an ebony cabinet.

Appearing in Doctor Fate: "The Fire Murders"

Featured Characters:

Supporting Characters:

Antagonists:

Other Characters:

  • wealthy victims of Mango (several die)

Locations:

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Synopsis for Hawkman: "Meet Hawkwoman"

This story is reprinted from Flash Comics #24.

For a costume party, Shiera puts on a Hawk costume. Hawkman's hawk flock is still in the vicinity, they mistake her for Hawkman, and call her away to deal with a crime, in which a young couple are being shaken down by some racketeers. These weasels also mistake Shiera for Hawkman, but they manage to capture her. Hawkman is meanwhile alerted to this trouble, by his avian allies, and he swoops in to rescue Shiera. He puts the racketeers out of business, then lectures Shiera about getting into danger in the Hawk costume.

Appearing in Hawkman: "Meet Hawkwoman"

Featured Characters:

Supporting Characters:

Antagonists:

  • Bark Bennett
  • Clinky Cassell

Other Characters:

  • two young lovers

Locations:

Synopsis for Black Condor: "A Hundred Lost Scientists"

This story is reprinted from Crack Comics #18.

Over the previous few months, dozens of scientists (Prof. Steiner, Dr. Marsh, et.al.), are kidnapped by foreign secret agents. Meanwhile Sen. Tom Wright is having problems getting appropriations bills, for the FBI and Secret Service, through the Senate. Sen. Wright goes on a fact-finding mission, and pilots his own plane, looking over key defense plants from above. He finds a factory with way too many boxcars for its available storage track, and forms a suspicion about that.

That night, Sen. Wright returns to the plant on foot. He gets inside and while he's looking around, sees one boxcar seemingly vanish. Tom then finds a workman and pays him $100 to swap clothes with him, then snoops around, but is quickly caught by a supervisor, who pulls out a pistol and tells Wright to come with him. They go to the boss's office, and the boss turns out to be Jaspar Crow, who has his henchmen take the nosy senator out to the rail yard, and into a tank car. If he hasn't suffocated to death by morning that's too bad, because the car's going to be loaded with prussic acid.

Inside the tank, Tom changes clothes, then the Black Condor's Black Ray pistol, shooting yellow beams of energy, sears a hole through the side of the freight car. Condor flies onto the string of cars from which he saw one vanish, and gets atop the last car. Soon it "vanishes" also, down a boxcar-sized elevator, at least ten stories deep. At the bottom he finds a huge secret factory, making black market war materials for a foreign power. The freight car contains abducted scientists Steiner, Marsh, and others, who are put to work building submarines, for illicit export. Black Condor flies around, undetected, and finds a room where newly-arriving scientists are hypnotized into obedient laborers. Next the Condor flies into the girders above a huge laboratory, toiling inside of which, he finds Dr. Paige and the great Hans Erlicka, both of whom have been missing.

Condor changes clothes again, and approaches Paige as Tom Wright, and is soon able to verbally bring the scientist out of his hypnotic state. Paige then shows Tom where the captive scientists are barracked, and returns to resume his labors. Moving from cell to cell, Tom de-hypnotizes over a hundred scientists and gathers them together. But an alert supervisor in a watchtower notices something wrong: "Calling the leader! The men act strange … We think the trances are being broken by someone!" The masked face of Jaspar Crow appears on a large "televisor" screen, and gives the order to execute the scientists; the henchman throws an electrical switch sending thousands of volts through the steel shacks where the scientists are housed. Finding these empty, the guards pull out guns and start hunting for the escapees. The Black Condor has soon knocked them out and given their guns to the scientists, but now the bad guys have a howitzer-sized ray gun, shooting beams of energy at them. The Condor easily eludes the beams, which melt some girders, which fall onto some machinery, to destructive effect. The bad guys then hurry to load their disintegrator ray aboard a submarine, and get under way, announcing their plan to wreak havoc along the east coast. The submarine disappears through a sea-lock door, but the Black Condor's pistol, shooting a red beam, blasts open the lock door like a tin can. Just then the Condor is distracted by seeing the hypnotist fleeing on foot. He catches this guy and forces him to call the leader on a televisor screen, then to hypnotize him as soon as his face appears. This seems to work, but when "the leader" appears in person and is unmasked by the Condor, he turns out to be some flunky left behind by Jaspar Crow. He has however called the police, as instructed.

The escaped submarines, armed with disintegrator ray weapons, are lurking off the Cape Hatteras coast, and a large number of Coast Guard ships are approaching them. One sub surfaces and fires on one of the patrol ships, sinking it. This is observed by a Coast Guard patrol plane, which flies in to attack the sub, but also is disabled by the ray. The Black Condor arrives in time to yank the pilots out of the falling plane, and land them safely aboard one of the approaching warships (of which there are at least four). There he borrows four heavy bombs, and flies off to attack the submarines, and picks them off one by one.

Soon Wendy Foster and her father are delighted to read in the paper about how Tom Wright single-handedly smashed the scientist-kidnap ring AND got the FBI's funding appropriation doubled.

Appearing in Black Condor: "A Hundred Lost Scientists"

Featured Characters:

Supporting Characters:

  • Dr. Foster
  • Wendy Foster

Antagonists:

Other Characters:

  • Professor Steiner
  • Dr. Marsh
  • Dr. Paige
  • Hans Erlicka
  • scores of other scientists and engineers

Locations:

Items:

  • Black Condor's Black Ray pistol
  • Jaspar Crow's crew's disintegrator ray cannons

Vehicles:

  • illicit submarines (four destroyed)
  • Coast Guard surface warships, 5 or more (one destroyed)
  • Coast Guard patrol plane (Destroyed)

Synopsis for The Spectre: "The Return of Zor"

This story is reprinted from More Fun Comics #57.

Using telepathy, Zor commands world-renowned scientist Professor Dale Ericks to build a mechanism of unknown purpose, which then activates itself and projects Ericks across the depths of infinity, to the weird castle where Zor is imprisoned, and then compels Ericks to free Zor from a paralysis ray. Ericks' reward is to take Zor's place. Once free, the evil spirit travels to Earth and murders Police Sergeant Dexter, and frames Jim Corrigan.

Zor battles the Spectre, in a fierce exchange of comets, but Zor has more powerful knowledge of physics. Zor then enlists the aid of murderer Pedro Gonzalez, by magically interrupting his hanging. Pedro kidnaps Clarice Winston and ties her to a log and sends it over a waterfall. The Spectre is prevented from interfering by an invisible wall created by Zor. The Voice tells the Spectre that evil is vulnerable to the mystic Ectobane Tree. The Spectre zooms to the distant country of Lugania, magically harvests some Ectobane trees, rapidly builds a coffin, returns to the waterfall, paralyzes Zor, and places him inside it. He then rescues Clarice by reversing the waterfall, and transforms Gonzalez into a tree. Zor is then banished to the depths of the universe.

Appearing in The Spectre: "The Return of Zor"

Featured Characters:

Supporting Characters:

Antagonists:

  • Zor
  • Pedro Gonzales (transformed into a tree)

Other Characters:

  • Wayne Grant
  • Professor Dale Ericks (paralyzed and displaced to the far side of the universe)
  • Sergeant Dexter (Dies)

Locations:

Items:

  • Ectobane Wood

Synopsis for Starman: "The Menace of the Invisible Raiders!"

This story is reprinted from Adventure Comics #67.

A new super criminal, the Mist, is stealing American secrets, and already has accumulated quite a few. He's embittered because he and his inventions were scoffed at by the military during the First World War. With his Inviso-Solution he can render people and even airplanes invisible. The Mist and his band of Living Shadows plan to steal all of the U.S.'s secrets and sell them to its foreign enemies. He also intends to bomb U.S. factories in Pittsburgh and Bethlehem from invisible planes. The Mist's hideout is in Gigantic Cavern, Kentucky, and he has some invisible single-engine bombers down there, plus a secret hangar entrance, too. And a space-ship.

Ted Knight and Doris Lee are touring Gigantic Cavern, when Ted is contacted by Woodley Allen, via a flashing signal in his Gravity Rod. Ted does his hypochondriac act to ditch Doris, his new fiancee, and slips away to change clothes, then waits until nightfall, powers up his Rod, and flies off, following Allen's signal. Doris and the tourist group, and one guide, are trapped belowgrownd, by an artificial cave-slide, induced by the Living Shadows. Allen and Starman's meeting is interrupted by a radio news report of the cave-slide, and Starman flies back to Gigantic Cavern, like a bullet! Exploring the deeper parts of the cavern, he encounters and brawls with a bunch of invisible thugs, and eventually gets knocked out. At the Mist's direction, the Living Shadows get rid of Starman by dropping him into a very deep pit. And when she talks back defiantly to the invisible goos, Doris is also flung into the pit. But Starman recovers his senses and Gravity Rods his way out of there, catching Doris also. She tells him about the bombers, and Starman pursues and intercepts them, somewhere between Kentucky and Pennsylvania, and blows up all of the dive-bombers in mid-air; no parachutes are seen.

Back in the cavern, the Mist grabs Doris, and tries to escape in his personal spaceship, which Starman also intercepts, and also destroys. The Mist is punched unconscious and left behind in a disabled, plummeting spaceship, and afterward is presumed dead.

Appearing in Starman: "The Menace of the Invisible Raiders!"

Featured Characters:

Supporting Characters:

Antagonists:

  • The Mist (First appearance) (Apparent Death)
    • his Living Shadows (many die)

Locations:

Items:

Vehicles:

Synopsis for The Ray: "Music Hath Charm"

This story is reprinted from Smash Comics #17.

Happy Terrill investigates some ship sinkings, suspecting Dock Commissioner Jennings of being in on the mischief (which he is). By following the commissioner, the Ray is able to learn that a clarinetist named Stradivous, operating at a remote lighthouse, is using hypnotic music and conventional radio waves to mentally control first the radiomen then the crews of the targeted cargo ships. The Ray saves a ship loaded with gold from crashing, by turning off its engines, then, using his powers in an innovative new way, un-hypnotizing the crew. Then he visits the lighthouse hideout of the crooks, and gets captured, but Stradivous has carelessly left the transmitter on, and his music draws a police boat to the lighthouse.

Appearing in The Ray: "Music Hath Charm"

Featured Characters:

Antagonists:

  • Dock Commissioner Jennings
  • Stradivous
    • his gang

Other Characters:

  • harbor police, NYPD

Locations:

Items:

  • Stradivous' clarinet

Vehicles:

  • cargo ships (Destroyed)
  • police speedboats

Synopsis for Superman: "Superman's Greatest Feats!"

This story is reprinted from Superman #146.

After Superman saves Atlantis from an atomic testing, Lori Lemaris begs him to try and change history so that Atlantis will not have sunk. Despite his knowledge from a trip back to Abraham Lincoln's time as Superboy that history cannot be changed, Superman agrees to try. He goes back in time, prevents Atlantis from sinking, rescues Christians from the Colosseum, saves Nathan Hale from being hung by the British, rescues General Custer and his men at the Little Big Horn, stops John Wilkes Booth from shooting Abraham Lincoln, and builds a fleet of space arks which save the population of Krypton before their homeworld explodes. But, when he sees baby Kal-El in the arms of Lara at a time in which he still exists materially, he realizes that he cannot be in his own universe, where such a paradox would be impossible. Instead, he learns that he has gone into a parallel universe, where history can be changed. Since his existence there creates cosmic disturbances that threaten that universe, Superman returns to the Earth-One plane, and tells Lori that he cannot change their history--but in that other universe, Atlantis never sank and the people of Krypton live.

Appearing in Superman: "Superman's Greatest Feats!"

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Notes



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