Synopsis
Linda Danvers and her boyfriend Dick Malverne attend Midvale Orphanage's Annual Reunion. While giving a lecture, Linda finds out an orphan kid has been reunited with his birth parents, who weren't dead after all, and can't help but think about her own parents, Zor-El and Allura In-Ze, who got killed together with all the other Argonians when a meteor shower damaged the shielding covering Argo City's Kryptonite soil.
For the next nights, Linda is troubled for weird dreams from her parents floating in a blank space and begging for help. Feeling extremely disturbed, Linda starts wondering if they may be still alive and trapped in some kind of dimensional trap like the Phantom Zone. Finally, she decides she can't rest easy until she has checked. Linda changes into Supergirl, heads towards the Fortress of Solitude and activates a device which monitors the Phantom Zone. Nevertheless, she can't find her parents in there.
Berating herself for holding onto a foolish hope, Supergirl is leaving the Fortress when she bumps into Comet. Comet confirms she's getting faint telepathic messages. Thanks to Comet she mentally sees her parents telling her they're alive and in the Zone. Supergirl thinks that message may mean her parents are alive in the Phantom Zone... or the Phantom Zoners are setting a trap for her. Needing confirmation, Supergirl grabs the Phantom Zone Projector and streaks back to Midvale.
Supergirl asks her adoptive parents Fred and Edna to send her into the Zone to perform a secret mission, adjusting the controls so she'll be out of there in ten minutes. As soon as Supergirl emerges into the Zone, she bumps into four Phantom Zoners. Dru-Zod, Kru-El, Va-Kox and Jax-Ur probe her mind telepathically and state that her parents are indeed in the Zone but they'll never reveal their location. Supergirl scours the Zone, trying to ignore their taunts and gloating. Finally, she runs into an inmate who is willing to help her. Jer-Em blames himself for the demise of Argo City and wants to make up for his crime by telling her where her parents are. Sadly, Zod and his cohorts make sure to scramble Jer-Em's thoughts out of spite. Supergirl can barely understand the word "Survival".
Unfortunately, the ten minutes are up, and Supergirl is pulled out of the Zone by her adoptive parents. Supergirl is afraid of telling them about her birth parents' survival out of fear to hurt them, and flies back to the Fortress accompanied by Comet, intending to use Superman's Chronoscope to see images of the past.
Supergirl beholds her father and uncle talking after the latter builds a dome protecting Argo City, several months prior to the explosion. When Krypton exploded, only her cousin's rocket and Argo City made it out of the planet. Zor-El was chosen leader of the survivors, and he made sure that the food and water replicators worked and the now-radioactive soil was lead-shielded. Later he married to Allura, and Kara was born.
Still Zor-El was aware they couldn't wander around the galaxy indefinitely. He designed a jet-drive to guide Argo towards some habitable planet. When Argo came near from a yellow star, the Argonians discovered they developed powers in presence of a yellow sun. Zor-El was aware of it, having observed his nephew Kal-El on Earth. Zor-El planned to move the whole city to Earth and establish a race of super-beings.
Nevertheless, Jer-Em was incensed, thinking Kryptonians weren't meant to fly. He slipped out of the dome and guided the planet away from the yellow sun. The Argonians lost their powers and they couldn't guide their city back to the yellow star because the jet-engine was nearly out of power. Jer-Em was apprehended and banished to the Phantom Zone by the angry Argonians.
Soon afterwards, a meteor shower smashed holes in the lead shielding, and Kryptonite radiation started leaking out. Zor-El had discovered the existence of a pocket dimension which he called Survival Zone, so he developed a ray gun to teleport people in there. Zor-El and Allura tested the ray gun, but it apparently failed, so Zor-El destroyed the device, and he and Alura devoted their energies to save their daughter's life.
After Kara Zor-El was blasted off into space, Zor-El and Allura set up a disaster headquarters. Kryptonite radiation slowly killed every man, woman and child in Argo City until only Zor-El and Allura were left. Both spouses were waiting for the end in their headquarters, when their bodies started to fade. Zor-El realized their ray gun actually worked, but K-radiation caused a delayed reaction.
Supergirl turns off the Chronoscope. Now she knows her parents are alive after all. Kara wonders, though, why her parents waited years to contact her. Comet theorizes the Survival Zone drifts away and it hadn't come near from Earth until now.
Supergirl heads out of the Fortress. Somehow, she can feel her parents now. Supergirl doesn't know how she can reach them out and get them out of the Zone, but she promises to bring them back.
Meanwhile, her parents are watching her, longing for the day when they are together again.
Several days go by, but Kara doesn't receive further telepathic dreams. She's also worried about her birth parents' return affecting her relationship with her adoptive parents, who continue being extremely loving and supportive.
Kara heads towards the Fortress of Solitude to ask the Kandorians to aid her. The people of Kandor are thrilled at the news and pore over all bit of available information on Zor-El, Allura and the Survival Zone. Kandor's hyper-speed computers deduce an ion-storm caused the Survival Zone drift towards New Krypton, a memorial planet built by Superman and Supergirl.
Kara streaks towards the planet, and upon landing she meets two robots she created in her parents' likeness. Both androids lead Supergirl to an experimental lab. Kara picks up a thought-casting helmet and manages to contact her parents, but she can barely see them or understand them, so she comes up with the idea to use a vibro-projector to send herself into the Zone. Her Allura Robot warns her that her plan is deadly dangerous because the vibro-projector isn't perfected yet, but Kara doesn't care and orders her to shoot. Her robot obeys but she shoots the Zor-El Robot instead, which is obliterated.
Kara's mind is still reeling when she sees her parents disappearing. She manages to make out they are drifting back towards Earth due to the cosmic storm, and she will need several rare elements to build a ray gun.
Supergirl flies back to Earth and her home in Midvale. As her adoptive parents are away, gone to the cinema, Kara builds an hyper-sensitive radar in the lab basement. The device manages to detect her parents' shilouettes and translate their thoughts into sound. Zor-El tells her how to build an ionic ray to release them from the Zone.
Kara sets to work, and is so engrossed in her task she doesn't notice the basement door opening and her adoptive parents entering the room. Fred and Edna figure out their daughter is trying to bring her birth parents back and are afraid of losing her, but they stand back and keep quiet.
Supergirl activates the machine but something goes wrong and the ray starts killing Zor-El and Allura. Kara is wondering what to do when Fred Danvers rushes forward and manipulates the controls. Kara panics, but being an electrical engineer, Fred knows what is wrong. He turns a dial to full power, and Zor-El And Allura's molecular structures become stable again. Kara is surprised, but Fred explains there was a power blownout in Midvale. Said blackout got them back home early, since the theater shut down, and nearly caused her ray to fail. Kara then confesses she was afraid to tell them she had found her birth parents again.
Zor and Allura finally step out of the Zone and hug their daughter sobbing while the Danvers try to pretend they aren't heart-broken over their return. Kara takes her birth parents outside to teach them how to use their new powers and show them around.
Back home, Zor-El announces his plans to move his family to his nephew's Fortress of Solitude the next morning. He admires how well the Danvers are taking the news until his wife urges him to use his super-senses and see their real reaction: they're utterly miserable. Not wanting to make anybody unhappy, the Els consider several options before taking a decision.
Supergirl goes back home and finds her birth parents left suddenly. They asked her to meet them at the Fortress of Solitude, so Supergirl heads towards the place. Once there, she finds her parents used a shrinking ray on themselves and entered the Bottle City.
Zor-El and Allura explain they don't believe they can fit among Earth people. And they didn't want to take her away from her adoptive parents. So they'll live in Kandor and she can alternate between staying with them and her foster parents. And if she ever needs help, she can count on them.
Kara hugs them crying and after going back to Midvale she can't help but think how lucky she is.
Issues
- Action Comics #309 (The Untold Story of Argo City)
- Action Comics #310 (Supergirl's Rival Parents)
Recommended Reading
- Supergirl Recommended Reading
- Action Comics (Volume 1)
- Adventure Comics (Volume 1)
- All-Star Comics (Volume 1)
- Supergirl (Volume 1)
- Superman Family (Volume 1)
- Supergirl (Volume 2)
- Infinity Inc. (Volume 1)
- Power Girl (Volume 1)
- Supergirl (Volume 3)
- Supergirl (Volume 4)
- Supergirl (Volume 5)
- Supergirl and the Legion of Super-Heroes (Volume 1)
- Power Girl (Volume 2)
- Supergirl (Volume 6)
- Worlds' Finest (Volume 1)
- Supergirl (Volume 7)
- Supergirl: Woman of Tomorrow (Volume 1)
Links and References
Template:Supergirl Links
  This event or storyline is specifically related to the character of Supergirl and/or her supporting cast. This template will automatically categorize articles that include it into the Supergirl Storylines category. |
 This event or storyline is specifically related to Superman, or to members of the Superman Family. This template will automatically categorize articles that include it into the Superman Storylines category. |