Secret Origins #26

THE SECRET ORIGIN OF BLACK LIGHTNING

The origin story of the Black Lighting.

THE SECRET ORIGIN OF MISS AMERICA

Circa Late Spring, 1941, on Liberty Island, reporter Joan Dale was gassed and abducted for experimentation by Agent X, for a rogue U.S. War Dept research operation called "Project M." By mistake. They thought she was "John Dale." Then they strapped her to a molecular condenser, and imbued her with a super power: she could transmute the composition AND change the form and function of anything she pointed at. This too was done by mistake; they'd meant to imbue her with super strength. Returning Joan to the bench was a third mistake; the Project M geniuses erroneously believed that she'd been mentally vegetablized by the treatment.  Upon awakening, after being covertly returned to the same bench from which she'd been abducted, she remembered only a hallucination, about receiving her abilities from the spirit of Lady Liberty.  Early in her career, Miss America encountered and defeated Ramon (and his Latin Rhythym Makers), a spy with a squadron of robot-drone dive-bombers. Ramon managed to knock her out with a pistol, but then stupidly didn't shoot her before stuffing her in a trunk and tossing it in the Potomac River. She easily escaped by turning the trunk into seaweed. Ramon's big scheme was to attack a U.S. military base in the DC area, but Miss America blew up his planes in mid-air, then inexplicably ran out of power, THEN fought Ramon hand-to-hand and defeated him anyway.  Miss America's solo career as a mystery woman ran from May to early December 1941, when she was recruited for Uncle Sam's attempt to defend Pearl Harbor, which was successful on Earth-X, but which failed on New Earth.  Miss America could turn a tree, or presumably anything else, into air. She could point at a pair of bundist thugs and turn them into seagulls, and back again. She could turn an albatross into a levitating "glider" to zoom around the sky in, with five full-grown superhero friends. She could create her costume & mask out of street clothes or thin air.