No. of Pages: 32 | Characters: Batman (Bruce Wayne) | Superman (Kal-El / Clark Kent) | Brainiac 5 (Querl Dox) | Creators: Cary Bates | Robert Kanigher | Winslow Mortimer | Key Reason: | Plot: The Man of Steel returns to the estate of Clark Kent, with his wife asking him about the whereabouts of their 14-year old son, since he has come back alone. Superman strides up the stairs towards his son's room, while his wife calls out in vain, and knocks feverishly on the door for answers! He recalls the Father And Son Day, when Superman, JR. sought to vault over a pole with his hands and feet tied from a standing start, but his father stomped the ground...
Causing the bar to fall, even though the boy managed to clear with inches to spare. Not aware of what his father has done, the boy vows to make his father proud of him. Superman JR. hurls a 100-ton hammer, but The Man of Steel soars into the air and shatters the hammer! The boy can only wonder if his father is jealous of his super-powers. In the final event, Superman JR. is in the lead of a sprint, even though he's given his competitors a lead and is jumping while inside a sack! His father, however, sends some super-breath his way...
The boy is blown off the track and is disqualified. When the two meet with the reporters and TV cameras, Superman tells them that he and his son sought to entertain the audience, and insists that his son wasn't really going to be in competition against ordinary athletes. In the air, Superman tells his Super-Son that he is not to use his powers to discourage other teens from competing in sporting events, but use it to help people by fighting crime. Superman recalls how his son was sent running by some fake Kryptonite, while Batman's son managed to capture the fleeing gunmen. On this day, The Man of Steel took his son to The Fortress of Solitude, then left him to handle an emergency, and the boy sees another teenager in his midst. He strikes out against the other Superboy...
His father returns and shows him that the "Superboy" was a robot which was made to help him, but it and the Fortress was wrecked in the fight. Placing his son in a lead glass booth, he exposes the boy to Gold Kryptonite, and when they came home, his son is in tears over not being able to carry on the tradition of being Superman, while The Man of Steel calls out to him in vain. Superman's wife heads next door to the Bruce Wayne Estate, where The Caped Crusader is watching a western on the tube, and he soon heads for his JLA teammate's side. The tearful Superman tells Batman that he's taken his son's powers away... forever!
Since their estates are on the boundary between Gotham and Metropolis, Batman invites Superman and his son to join him and Batman JR. for some poolside fun. While the adults sit in the deckchairs, Batman JR. and Superman JR prepare to dive into the water (wearing their costumes of course!) Unfortunately, Superman JR. has forgotten that he has lost his powers and makes a belly-flop! The boy goes under, and fearing that his son will drown, Superman pulls the boy out, only to be rebuffed by him! He walks off with Batman JR, while The Caped Crusader is sure that Superman's son will come around, but The Man of Steel knows that he will never have his son's forgiveness. Riding on Bat-Bicycles, the two teens pick up their dates for a dance, with Superman JR.'s date wishing that she were out with Clark Kent JR., instead!
The emcee has the boys at the dance jump for a balloon, which contains a ring for their date, but as the girl is confident that her Superman JR. will win, it is Batman JR. who catches the balloon, leaving The Boy of Steel without a date. The following day, Clark Kent JR. gets a phonecall from his father, who is to sign Superman dolls made by the blind at the River's End Street Workshop, who contacted him via The Daily Planet. The Man of Steel signs the dolls at super-speed, only to be kayoed by a doll which contains green kryptonite!
The blind men are in reality a gang of crooks who planned to put Superman out of the way so that they could pull off the biggest holdup in history! Superman JR. has entered the store, and is also kayoed by a Superman doll with green kryptonite. Superman and son are placed on the back of a truck, where they are to be dumped, while the crooks plan to rob an armored truck carrying six million dollars. Suiperman JR. manages to get his hands on the wheel, to the crook's collective disbelief over his ability to recover from the green kryptonite!
The truck crashes, with a bruised Ex-Boy of Steel laughing because the crooks didn't know he no longer had his powers and is no longer affected by kryptonite! The Man of Steel takes his son to The Fortress of Solitude, where they enter The Bottle City of Kandor, and meet with The Science Council. It's Superman JR's 14th birthday, and he and his father are given matching bracelets to show that he is his father's son and heir! Upon regaining their normal size in the Fortress, they are set upon by an alien creature from Superman's interplanetary zoo!
To the boy's shock, The Man of Steel is knocked to one side, and he tells his son that it's up to him to save them. As the creature begins to claw at them, Superman JR. urges his father to move, but the boy is told that their fate is in his hands! Figuring that this will be their final moment, and knowing that he is powerless, Superman JR. vows to defends his father, whom he wouldn't trade for any other in the world. Clenching his fists, Superman JR. delivers an overhand uppercut which sends the beast into dreamland.
As the boy wonders how he was able to do this, Superman tells his son that during the meeting with the Science Council, they gave him cosmo-kinetic bracelets, which would siphon all of his super-powers and transfer them to his son... permanently! The boy wonders how his father could have made such a sacrifice, and he learns that any dad would have done the same. Once outside The Fortress, Superman JR. wants to race his father, but The Ex-Man of Steel no longer has any super-powers, but will be on his son's side, cheering him on from his retirement! The boy vows to continue the Superman tradition, while his father wonders how The Caped Crusader will take it when he learns that he's retired before Batman did!
The Legionnaires Who Never Were! - Saturn Girl and Princess Projectra have been sent after the space renegade Pozr-Du. After spotting his parked ship, they approach only to be hit by a blast from the villain's gun. The two fall from the sky and are rendered unconscious. When they awake hours later, they find that Pozr and his ship are gone. Returning to Legion headquarters to report their failure, they suddenly find their cruiser surrounded by the H.Q.'s energy-grappler. The girls are ordered to identify themselves over the radio. They are confused, but comply with the request and ask permission to land. Their request is refused, but the ship is brought to a landing dock by the energy-grappler. The heroines leave the ship only to find themselves at gunpoint, surrounded by Legionnaires.
Karate Kid says that the two of them must be crazy spies to try to infiltrate Legion Headquarters by pretending to be two Legionnaires who don't even exist. Projectra demands that they get a chance to prove that they really are Legionnaires. She takes them to the clubhouse's archive computer, which has pictures and data on all members, but discovers that Saturn Girl and Princess Projectra are not included. There are two blank slots on the board, but Karate Kid explains that they have just admitted two new members - two male members - and their data is not yet in the computer. Next, Projectra takes the others to the Legion's Hall of Trophies, but she and Saturn Girl are upset to discover that none of their own awards are present. The two girls try to demonstrate their powers but find they no longer have them. Karate Kid presents to them the new Legionnaires, who turn out to be male versions of the heroines: Prince Projectur and Saturn Lad. The boys demonstrate the super-powers of illusion-casting and telepathy before the girls are imprisoned in the team's detention sphere.
Projectra wonders if Pozr's weapon might have caused them to have a weird but realistic dream. Saturn Girl theorizes that they have been hurled into a parallel dimension in which they don't exist. When Projectra notices that Karate Kid has left them their flightrings, she comes up with an escape plan. She and Saturn Girl use their rings to propel them in opposite directions, putting pressure on the elastic detention sphere. Finally, it snaps and the girls are free to discover what has happened to them. Projectra asks Saturn Girl to stay in hiding while she tries something. The Princess makes her way to Karate Kid's quarters and asks him to tell her if the whole thing is a hoax. When the Kid acts distressed that an enemy spy knows his real name, she begs him to remember that he once confessed his love for her. She then kisses him. When the two part, Karate Kid turns away and tells her it was a nice try, but he doesn't know her. Before he can try to re-capture her, however, he blacks out. Projectra had stopped by the equipment lab earlier and concocted a knockout serum that only works on Earth people and had coated her lips with it. She had also slipped a miniature device on his neck when she kissed him, which she then checks. Projectra tries to return to Saturn Girl but finds her missing; instead, she comes upon Prince Projectur.
The Princess finds that she has regained her power and creates an illusion of an alien gas-creature threatening her. When her boy double tells "Jeckie" not to panic and then races to her rescue, she drops the illusion and snatches a mask off of "Projectur" revealing Brainiac 5's face beneath. He admits that he had used a device to simulate her power. When she asks why, he tells her that the new archive computer predicted that she would break down in a time of crisis and jeopardize other members. They had to check the accuracy of the computer by putting her through a test, which she has now passed. Saturn Girl arrives, saying that she had previously only made Projectra think she had lost her power.
Sun Boy had been disguised as "Saturn Lad" and Chameleon Boy had been Pozr. They ask how she figured out she had been hoaxed and she tells them how she put a truth disc on Karate Kid's neck which indicated that he was lying. Also, Brainiac 5 had called her "Jeckie" when he thought she was in danger, a nickname only her friends would know. Karate Kid comes up to embrace Jeckie and says that tomorrow he is going to order the new computer dismantled and repaired. Mon-El breaks in and says that he will issue the order, since it is past midnight on Karate Kid's last day in office. At a ceremony the next morning, Mon-El is sworn in as the new leader, with Element Lad as his deputy. Projectra asks Val if he is sorry he's no longer leader and he wishes he had left office a week ago so he wouldn't have had to put her
through that ordeal.
