Lex Luthor gets super-powers (and a really ugly costume)!
This issue starts with Superman and the Legion separately trying to reach Supergirl to help her but being kept out of the ‘present’ time by the Kryptonian time barrier. Lex is not released from prison to help Supergirl but does escape when Kru-El gives him Kryptonian-like super-powers. He agrees to help the Kryptonian criminals in their bid for world domination. Lex joins the super-villains at their island base where they show off their toys super-weapons to him.
One of the toys super-weapons the Kryptonians show Lex is a ‘mind-over-matter‘ helmet which can create anything that the wearer can imagine. Keep that in mind because what they ask Lex to do is create a machine that can find them gold Kryptonite so that they can remove Supergirl’s powers. Why they couldn’t just use the ‘mind-over-matter‘ machine to create a gold Kryptonite meteor near Supergirl is beyond me. They could have created a machine that is designed only to kill Superman and Supergirl. Or they could re-create Krypton orbiting around Sol. Or they could…well, you get the idea. A machine that can create whatever you can imagine is a bit dangerous, storyline-wise. Thankfully the Legion comics don’t have to deal with such a stupid thing. Lex does as asked and creates a machine (the hard way) that retrieves some gold Kryptonite from the bottom of the ocean.
Superman is then let through the time barrier so that he and Supergirl can be exposed to the gold Kryptonite. Obviously the Kryptonian villains double-cross Lex and expose him to the gold-K as well. Surprisingly Lex and the Super-cousins didn’t loose their powers! Lex overheard the Kryptonians planning their double-cross and so Lex retrieved fool’s gold-K instead.
Supergirl then uses the ‘mind-over-matter‘ helmet to create a Phantom Zone projector which she uses to send the three Kryptonians back to the Phantom Zone. With the rest of the super-weapons destroyed Supergirl is cured of her ‘animal to vegetable’ disease and Lex looses his super-powers (and is promptly returned to prison). Superman then retrieves Lena from Kandor.
On my patented Supergirl Wink © scale this issue gets:
7 Winks