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"Superman: "Superman's Toughest Day!"": Perry White gives Clark Kent the day off work at the Daily Planet, allowing for Clark to change into Superman and go on patrol. In order to keep a date with Lois Lane at a plastic factory, Superman sends off one of his Clark Kent robots to take his place.

Quote1 I-I'll change back to my identity as Linda and remain here, minus super-powers!... I want to be with the foster parents I love... and near you, my only living relative! Quote2
Supergirl

Action Comics #282 is an issue of the series Action Comics (Volume 1) with a cover date of November, 1961.

Synopsis for Superman: "Superman's Toughest Day!"

Perry White gives Clark Kent the day off work at the Daily Planet, allowing for Clark to change into Superman and go on patrol. In order to keep a date with Lois Lane at a plastic factory, Superman sends off one of his Clark Kent robots to take his place.

Superman then goes to the Fortress of Solitude to feed the animals in his intergalactic zoo and check on the Bottle City of Kandor. Superman then returns to Metropolis to go on patrol, and while the Man of Steel helps an ice cream truck driver keep his ice cream cold, the Clark Kent robot goes with Lois to the plastic factory. There the robot accidentally places his hands on plastic solvent causing the plastic skin that covers his robot body to melt, revealing his mechanical nature. To cover this up, the Clark robot puts his hands into his pocket while he tries to find a means to avoid exposing his true nature to Lois and the others.

Superman learns of the problem, but cannot get away from his tasks to replace the damaged hands, but trusts that his robot is smart enough to avoid detection. While Superman helps with a delicate brain surgery operation, builds a dinosaur themed playground for school children, helps the mayor of Metropolis (who's infected with Measles) give a speech at City Hall by building a quarantine bubble and stops a runaway test missile, the Clark Kent robot avoids any situation where he has to reveal his hands.

Lastly, when the Clark Kent robot is forced to take his hands out of his pockets to shake hands with the owner of the plastic plant, Superman has enough time to make new hands out of plastic and put them on the robot at such a fast speed so as not to be seen, saving the Clark Kent robot from accidentally exposing Superman's secret identity.

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Synopsis for Supergirl: "The Supergirl of Tomorrow!"

Lesla-Lar waits impatiently for Linda Danvers to fall asleep so that they can switch places once more. However, Linda spends long hours dwelling on her vanished powers and her return during time-travelling. Lesla ends falling asleep before Linda does, and when she wakes up, it's too late: it's the next day and Linda is already up.

After breakfast with her adoptive parents, she is visited by her cousin Superman, who has built a replica of a Legion of Super-Heroes Time Bubble for her. Kara decides to travel several thousands of years into the future, hoping maybe she'll regain her powers permanently, much to the chagrin of Lesla-Lar whose viewer can't see into the future.

Supergirl arrives at the future and finds out Earth is populated by mutated beasts after an attempted Martian invasion, and humans are despotically ruled by a criminal organization whose leader calls himself the All-Seeing Eye. Kara rounds up the monstrous Martian birds called Angarks and smashes down the All-Seeing Eye's criminal organization. Supergirl is happy to get her powers back, operate openly and be appreciated, but she feels she must return to her own time. Before leaving, though, she is shown statues commemorating both her cousin and herself. She notes, bemused, the inscription on her statue stating that she was more powerful than Superman.

Supergirl goes back to the present time and checks, desolated, her powers haven't returned. When Kal-El asks whether she'd rather live in the future as Supergirl or in the present as a normal girl, she replies she wants to stay with her adoptive parents and cousin.

Later that afternoon, Linda and her parents are enjoying a beach-picnic when she happens upon Dick Wilson, who has been adopted by the Malverne family. Linda and Dick spends the day together, and she finds she likes him quite a bit.

At night, Linda decides to give up her Supergirl identity altogether. However just before she can toss her costume down a well she realizes that her powers have mysteriously returned. She rushes to her cousin's side to show him, and the two happen upon a Green Kryptonite meteor which affects Superman but not Supergirl. Kara gets rid of it swiftly, but both cousins are more puzzled than ever: How has Kara gotten her powers back? Why is she immune to Kryptonite now?

Lesla-Lar, who is still spying on Supergirl, doesn't understand it either, and decides to use her power-stealing ray on Kara again. Nonetheless, her ray doesn't have any effect on Kara. Before she can investigate the issue further, the Kandorian police burst into her lab, having detected her use of forbidden ray weapons. Lesla grumbles about her shattered dreams of conquest as Lex Luthor mutters he can't complete the Kryptonite Ray without "Supergirl's" help. Lex wonders why she doesn't come to see him again, ignoring everything about Lesla posing as Supergirl and getting arrested.

Meanwhile, Superman and Supergirl mull over her restored powers. Superman thinks it'd be unfair to ask her to be his emergency secret weapon when he should now be her sidekick. All of sudden, Kara understands that inscription she saw in the far future.

Unbeknownst to everybody, Mr. Mxyzptlk teleported into Earth a few hours before, having come up with a plan to humiliate Superman: making a mere girl mightier than him. By chance, he chose the depowered Supergirl before returning to his own dimension.

Appearing in Supergirl: "The Supergirl of Tomorrow!"

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Trivia

  • Final 10¢ issue in series.


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