SUPERGIRL: ROGUE'S GALLERY: DRANG THE DESTROYER/DR. SUPERNATURAL!

[alschroeder3]

Lesla-Lar and Black Flame are interesting, but Kryptonian vs. Kryptonian is pretty evenly matched, and eventually denigrates to a simple catfight. Supergirl's an alien with immense powers: did she never face an opponent even mightier than her? One who brought out the sci-fi and fantasy inherent in the character, a space opera with a great villain?

Just ...once.

In a single story continued in three parts.

The last Supergirl opponent I'm going to consider from the Jim Mooney years. (Next will be from the Skekowsky years.) From Action Comics #329-331, four pages or less from each twelve-page installment. Let's voyage to the far end of the universe and meet..Drang the Destroyer, AKA Dr. Supernatural.

Linda Danvers and her sometime-boyfriend, Dick Malverne, watch a female magician named Fantasta. Fantasta hears Linda's comments that it's all faked, and makes Linda disappear from a cabinet. Fantasta tells Dick after the show that Linda went outside to get some air.

Instead, Linda is inside Fantasta's starcraft, and with a touch of her mystic medallion, Fantasta changes her into Supergirl.

That's hyper-speed even for HER. The Silver Age Superman and Supergirl could routinely travel faster-than-light, even travel between galaxies. But she's never been this far.

Supergirl says she can break out of this starship anytime she wants, and Fantasta answers...

It's not really sure whether she's in an alternate space-time continuum/universe, or the other end of this one. Either way, she doesn't know her way home. Wherever she is, she's so far even HER vision can't spot the Milky Way.

She returns, but realizes Fantasta's weakness is simple water which neutralizes her magic medallion. She defeats Fantasta, but...

Supergirl disguises herself in Fantasta's clothes and makes her wig look like Fantasta's hair, to try to fool Fantasta's organization, the Circle of Evil.

Note the art. Mooney used to do space opera for years, drawing the Tommy Tomorrow series, but rarely had a chance to stretch himself in the Supergirl series-- and the "drawbridge" below reminds me of Steve Ditko's Captain Atom and Starman space drawings.

Supergirl emerges from the ship--and then finds her super-powers are GONE.

She waits to see the Circle of Evil, and another agent of theirs shows up, with the costume of a defender of another galaxy, and their tradition is that the victor dons the victim's costume as a token of their victory.

Then another agent shows up...

Supergirl, as "Fantasta" claims to have destroyed Supergirl. After demonstrating her costume's indestructibility, she dons her own Supergirl costume again, and...

"Invisible"? TRANSPARENT, maybe...

The Circle of Evil assign "Fantasta" to capture Drang the Destroyer, and gives her a ship that has its controls locked on Drang's "Purple Planet"--so she can't back out.

Okay, yes, it's corny. But at least it's suspenseful...

We find out exactly WHY she lost her super-powers, even though she had them earlier.

Again, I'm not sure if they mean "universe" as a separate space-time continuum, or in an older sense, as in another galaxy, an "island universe". At any rate, she's a loooong way from home.

She meets three alien heroes from her own universe, that she had met before, but is drawn irresistably to the palace in the distance. Then Dr. Supernatural/Drang shows up--minus the armor and helmet that made him look so impressive before. (That was a misake, artistically. The armored, helmeted form was a lot more impressive than the big-domed robed look.)

After that demonstration, Dr. Supernatural's form seems to shrivel, grow feeble. He's an energy-form, not solid at all, but drawing too much power can temporarily deplete him. Sometimes he has to recharge. Supergirl meets two alien heroines from her own universe, who have been starving for days--and then some food is shoved into their cell, and the two heroines start to fight over it. They then come to their senses, because they don't want to "feed" Dr. Supernatural...

Because Dr. Supernatural literally feeds on the "energy" of "evil". (Hooo boy.)

Supergirl's super-powers are restored. She frees the other prisoners, but Dr. Supernatural tricks her into imprisoning them again, and...

Dr. Supernatural/Drang isn't so much invulnerable as he is intangible--which can be awfully frustrating to a Kryptonian used to being able to physically overcome just about anyone.

Supergirl frees the prisoners again, but Dr. Supernatural brags that the entire planet is their prison.

Then Supergirl is drawn into an illusion that Dr. Supernatural is burning Metropolis to the ground, with magical flames even her super-breath can't put out.

With the help of the other alien super-heroes, she builds a "time magnet" to try to draw the Legion of Super-Heroes into their time. But on the peculiar conditions on the Purple Planet, she can only draw from the past. She tries to summon Circe to fight Dr. Supernatural, but Circe declines, and returns to her time. With the help of the other heroes' abilities, Supergirl tries to claim she has Circe's wand and can work magic, and threatens Dr. Supernatural.

It doesn't go well.

The other heroes act like they're throwing in with Dr. Supernatural, and describe the worst deeds of the super-villains of their worlds...

Anyone remember an old book called "The Peter Principle"? Turns out it applies to super-cosmic-villains, too.

But, they couldn't give her an ending without a little foreboding...

Predictable? Yes. Corny? Yes. One-dimensional? Yes.

Able to give Supergirl a really good fight and almost destroy her?

YES.

I suspect, even thought this was published a year before the Galactus trilogy, that Drang/Dr. Supernatural was influenced by the more powerful and sinister villains that Marvel was creating to fight their heroes.

It was a good fight. Too bad she didn't have more like him to fight, interstellar foes with a good range of powers that were not exactly like hers, or a return bout or something.

Next: Supergirl's foes of the Skekowsky/Adventure Comics years.

Comments

[captainbellman]

Worth noting that Surya is the name of the Hindu God of the Sun?

[alschroeder3]

Although in this she had shape-shifting "evolution powers", transforming in and out of beast form, rather like Beast Boy--so no idea if that name is significant. She's not particularly sun-god like.