Polite Dissent

For this week’s installment of Lois Lane Friday, not only is Lois Lane present (and super-powered), but Lana Lang as well! From 1960, I give you:

“Lana Lang Superwoman” The first story from Superman’s Girlfriend Lois Lane #17 (also reprinted in 80 Page Giant #3)
Jerry Siegel, writer
Curst Swan, penciler

Out of the blue, Superman offers to give Lana Lang super-powers and flies her to Metropolis Hospital to get a transfusion of his blood. Hearing the news, Lois Lane is crushed. Later, as Super-Lana is showing off her abilities, Superman offers a transfusion to Lois as well. Now both women have superpowers and compete with each other over who can do the most good.

Superman still won’t tell the women why he gave them super-powers; all he tells them is that he must fly off to another galaxy for a while. A short time later, both Super-Lana and Super-Lois find themselves drawn to an abandoned mill. Just as the women enter the mill, it explodes without warning in “a tremendous explosion that no human being could survive.”

Superman arrives and tells them the full story. A week before, he had encountered the villainous robot Brainiac, who informed him that he would destroy the entire Earth unless Superman met his challenge. Brainiac’s challenge? He would lure Lana and Lois to a mill where he had hidden a bomb. When the bomb went off, Superman had to be in another galaxy. His Superman robots could not intervene, and he could not tell anyone about the challenge. If the girls somehow survived, then Brainiac would spare the Earth.

This explains why Superman gave the Lana and Lois superpowers, so they could survive the bomb. He also timed the transfusions precisely:

And I gave each of you just enough Krypton-type blood so that you would have super-powers, until…right this second! Girls, I’m sorry but you are no longer super!

As the story ends, Lois and Lana sadly hang up their costumes.

These Lois Lane comics are just filled with great Silver Age stories. Another super-transfusion, and a real one this time. Of course, no needle can penetrate Superman’s skin, so he has to puncture his skin with his fingernails for the transfusion to take place. Now, is only Superman’s skin invulnerable or are all of his tissues? Can normal needles puncture his veins or does he has to rip them open with his fingernails too? I sure hope not, because that would be extremely messy. (“Sorry about the blood on the floor and the walls Doctor, but it was an emergency.” “Dammit Superman, you know no Earthly cleaning supplies can get your Kryptonian blood stains out!”)

That was pretty clever of him timing his transfusion just right so the super-powers would wear off at precisely the right moment. Still, one has to wonder: Super-Lana and Super-Lois were both doing good and saving lives, would it have killed him to let them keep their powers just a little longer?