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"When Superman Lost His Powers!": Perry White, Clark Kent, Lois Lane, and Jimmy Olsen are all in Mexico to explore an ancient Aztec temple for an article in the

Quote1 Listen... As everyone knows, Earth people can take several doses of polio vaccine and gain immunity to polio! Why can't we do the same with Kryptonite radiations? Quote2
Supergirl

Action Comics #262 is an issue of the series Action Comics (Volume 1) with a cover date of March, 1960.

Synopsis for "When Superman Lost His Powers!"

Perry White, Clark Kent, Lois Lane, and Jimmy Olsen are all in Mexico to explore an ancient Aztec temple for an article in the Daily Planet. When Lois brazenly enters the temple, not heeding its warning, they are all exposed to some strange vapors before they are attacked by a giant insect with a stinger. To his amazement, Clark finds that his super-powers are gone when the insect's sting actually manages to hurt him. When they are attacked by a giant spider and a fire-breathing dragon, Clark suspects that they were somehow transported to another dimension. They flee and seek cover in a cave, where Clark begins to generate a fever from his injuries, Lois suspects him of being Superman. However, when she is able to give him a shot of penicillin and the needle actually punctures his skin, she is fooled once more. Perry and the others leave Clark in the cave to take pictures, while Jimmy turns on his Superman signal watch and wait for Superman to arrive and rescue them.

After an hours rest and waking up alone, Clark changes into Superman and goes outside, where he uses a hollowed out egg to make a dramatic appearance. When the others ask Superman to fly them back to Earth, he suggests to them to stay for 48 hours to get a real scoop of a story for the Daily Planet. Superman manages to fake various super-feats to make them think he still has his powers. He saves them from the fire-breathing dragon by constructing a glider out of his cape. When Lois goes to check on Clark, Superman rushes across giant spider-webs to beat her to the cave and change back into Clark Kent. While Clark is shaving his face, Lois snips some of his hair to once more prove to herself that Clark can't be Superman.

Resuming his Superman guise, Clark fights off a sea serpent and later cooks fish that Jimmy and Perry caught. The latter the others assumed Superman did so with his x-ray vision, however in reality he just coaxed the fire-breathing dragon into cooking the fish with its fire-breath.

Changing back into Clark Kent, the group call it a night, however when they wake up they find themselves back in Mexico at the temple. Their guide tells them that they have been asleep for 2 minutes not 2 days, and when Jimmy checks the film in his camera, he finds that his pictures were ruined by water. Clark is relieved to learn that his super-powers are back to normal. The whole caper ends on an amusing note when Lois, who still had the lock of Clark's hair, tries to cut it again and finding it indestructible, confusing her considerably.

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Synopsis for "Supergirl's Greatest Victory!"

As the children of Midvale Orphanage enjoy a day playing outside, Linda Lee secretly uses her powers to insure that they have a good time. Later, viewing a chunk of Green Kryptonite crashing on Earth, Linda reflects on the events that led to her coming to Earth and becoming Supergirl. In recalling these events, she comes up with an idea to possibly counteract the effects of Kryptonite. Changing into Supergirl, the Girl of Steel flies to the Fortress of Solitude to tell Superman of her idea.

Kara suggests slow exposures to Kryptonite might eventually make them immune to its effects. Kal tells her that he's already tried this and it didn't work. Supergirl, having just recently arrive on Earth, suggests that since she is new to Kryptonite's effects maybe she can develop an immunity. Superman tries to dissuade her from trying, and changes the subject by showing her the various alien artifacts, plants and animals that he's brought to Earth from his various missions in space. Using her x-ray vision to see a special rainbow flower, she accidentally breaks open the display case of a couple of metal-eater alien creatures. The female escapes and burrows her way out of the Fortress, but Superman lures her back into her cage.

Leaving the Fortress, Supergirl decides to try and test her theory without Superman's help. She makes the earlier chunk of Kryptonite roll in a cave and starts testing her vulnerability. To her surprise the experiment works, and as time goes by she can get closer and closer to the Kryptonite without feeling ill or losing her powers. Superman uses his x-ray vision to check on his cousin and sees that she has succeeded. Deciding to burrow to where she is, Superman comes across another Kryptonite meteor deep in the Earth, and is immediately struck ill from it. Witnessing her cousin's plight, Supergirl goes to his rescue and finds that this Kryptonite has its full effect on her. The two narrowly cheat death by using their waning x-ray vision to melt enough of the cavern ceiling to cover the Kryptonite.

Investigating the Kryptonite bolder that Supergirl has been testing with, they discover the metal-eaters' cub burrowed its way to the Kryptonite meteorite and had been eating the Kryptonite boulder from the inside out, and the more the alien ate, the less powerful the Kryptonite became. Discovering the truth, they take the baby back to its parents and Supergirl jokes her attempt only laid an egg.

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Trivia

  • "Supergirl's Greatest Victory!" is the first story to introduce the idea of Kryptonians powered by yellow sunlight, to supplement the long-standing explanation of Krypton having high gravity and Earth having low. It was introduced here to explain why the people of Argo City did not gain superpowers after leaving Krypton, but would go on to define the entire Superman mythos.


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