November 1952: A Superhero Supplanted


The convention of the female counterpart who mirrors the male hero is a long-running one in superhero stories, and includes Pat Savage, Catwoman, Mary Marvel, Hawkgirl, Doll Girl, Fly-Girl, Batwoman, Batgirl, Power Girl, Supergirl and others.
Captain Comet had two of them — first the alien mutant Radea and then, in Strange Adventures 26 (Nov. 1952), the futuristic Miss Universe.
With Captain Comet off in space and a giant meteor threatening Earth, Zackro uses his new “time hook” to fetch a beautiful superwoman from 100,000 A.D., an era in which fashion apparently runs to green swimsuits.
Dubbed “Miss Universe” by the newspapers, her exploits make Captain Comet seem old hat.
“She acts like a true champion of humanity — and yet somehow I don’t trust her!” the Man of Destiny thinks. “Or am I giving vent to jealousy? I wonder…”
It’s the same reaction the overshadowed Scarlet Speedster would have in another Broome story, The Mystery of the Elongated Man, in The Flash 112 (April-May 1960).
When the fiery meteor menace causes global warming, Captain Comet and Miss Universe simultaneously figure out how to stop it.
“Her mind works like lightning,” Comet thinks. “It’s the equal of my own!”
As Captain Comet and Miss Universe team up to stop global catastrophe in a subterranean inferno, Comet and Zackro begin to realize that the super-heroine is primarily concerned with saving trees and other vegetation.
When Miss Universe is overcome by the heat, Captain Comet discovers that she exhales oxygen. He saves her by sending her back through time, realizing that she is in fact a super-evolved plant being from a world that will someday occupy Earth’s position in space.
Another “time hook” would be spotlighted in the recurring “Time Pool” adventures of the Tiny Titan, the first of which, The Secret of Al-Atom’s Lamp!, appeared in The Atom 3 (Oct.-Nov. 1962).

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