Captain Comet's Rehab Squad: In Search Of

• Credits: by Libbylawrence
• Published: April 11, 2000
• Link: Captain Comet's Rehab Squad: In Search Of

March, 1986: Valor (Lesla-Lar) learns how she gained a body with Captain Comet's help. Jimmy Olsen, tracking down TNT and Dan the Dyna-Mite for a Daily Planet story, teams up with Valor and watch as Dolphin and private investigator Angel O'Day are both kidnapped by different parties mistaking each woman for the other. They learn Doctor Cyber wanted Dolphin, while Doctor Phaeton wanted Angel. In New Triton, Atlantis, Phaeton explains that Dolphin is Angel's older sister Angela, whom he transformed into a water-breather. After the heroes defeat Phaeton and his super-villain thugs, Jimmy meets Dan Dunbar (Dyna-Mite) and brings him to the surface. Rehab Squad members: Captain Comet, Cheetah II, Dolphin, Rick Flag, Golden Glider, Goldstar, Lyla (Harbinger), Starman, Tina the Robotgirl (joins the team), Valor. Villains: the Cadre, Captain Cold, Crazy Quilt, Deep Six, Doctor Cyber, the Enforcer, Phaeton. Guest appearances: Dan Dunbar (Dyna-Mite), Stephanie Edge, Jerro, Lois Lane (a young blond woman with the same name as Daily Planet reporter Lois Lane), Dr. Will Magnus, Angel O'Day, Platinum, Sam Simeon, Superman, Perry White. Note: This Phaeton is the Earth-1 counterpart of the Earth-2 Phaeton, who appeared in Batman #53 (June-July, 1949). The Earth-1 Batman had a case early in his career (probably before Robin became his partner) that was very similar to this story, in which Batman is converted into a water-breathing merman and visits a city like Tritonis, home of Lori Lemaris, but he is later never sure if it was all a dream or not. [“Captain Comet's Rehab Squad: In Search Of”]

• March, 1986: Captain Comet uses his mental powers to help Valor (Lesla-Lar) probe her memories to discover her origins. She learns that she may be the daughter of Nim-El and thus a cousin of both Supergirl and Superman, explaining her close resemblance to Supergirl. After she attacked Supergirl and her original body was destroyed, she later possessed the dead body of a powerless Supergirl clone (killed by the super-villainess Psi) created by the Council. After Lesla-Lar merged with the Supergirl clone, her Kryptonian essence empowered the body, while the vestiges of Supergirl's memory and will caused her to reform from her criminal ways, also causing amnesia and identity problems until now. [“Captain Comet's Rehab Squad: In Search Of, Prologue: The Life of Lesla-Lar”]
• When Perry White at the Daily Planet demands him to write the story on the Outsiders and Cave Carson, Jimmy Olsen instead decides to track down a few forgotten heroes. Rick Flag hires Lois Lane (a protege of the Daily Planet's Lois Lane with the same name) and Stephanie Edge (Morgan Edge's niece) as the Metahuman Rehabilitation Agency's new public relations agents (he is later revealed to have hired these young women while under the control of Karin Grace, Goldstar). As Valor is trying on an old Supergirl costume, Debbie Domaine (Cheetah II) teases her about the old-fashioned look but assures her that she won't tell anyone about it. Dr. Will Magnus has replaced Robotgirl's clunky old robotic body with a sleek, feminine-looking robotic body, and Robotgirl takes the name Tina after the nickname of Platinum of the Metal Men. Jimmy Olsen meets with Superman and discusses his ideas for tracking down two old heroes called TNT and Dan the Dyna-Mite, whom Superman explains were forced to split up years ago after their powers went awry. TNT went to live in Kandor, while Dan went to live in Poseidonis in Atlantis. Giving Jimmy pills allowing him to breathe underwater temporarily, Superman delivers Jimmy to the Meta-Human Rehabilitation Agency (MHRA) so Dolphin can bring him to Atlantis. Superman then goes to a JLA meeting. Jimmy Olsen meets Valor and is shocked by her resemblance to the deceased Supergirl. Jimmy and Valor leave in search of Dolphin, who left on a shopping trip. [“Captain Comet's Rehab Squad: In Search Of, Chapter 1: The Comic-Book Quest”]
• Dolphin wonders about her origins. As Dolphin is shopping for clothes at Lacy's Department Store, she is observed by a super-villain group whose employer wants her. Two groups of super-villains attack Lacy's just as Valor and Jimmy Olsen arrive but fail to keep Dolphin from being kidnapped. At the MHRA, while Captain Comet is away at a charity event, Valor explains that the super-villain group they spotted was the Cadre and devises a plan to track them down using their energy signature. Valor, Starman, Robotgirl, and Goldstar track down the Cadre's signal to the lair of Doctor Cyber, only to find that the Cadre kidnapped the wrong woman – private investigator Angel O'Day, who looks just like Dolphin. The Rehab Squad defeats the Cadre. At the MHRA, Jimmy Olsen shows the returned Captain Comet a videotape from Lacy's showing Dolphin being kidnapped not by the Cadre but by the Enforcer and Crazy Quilt, and they realize the villains each took the wrong woman. Captain Comet, Jimmy, Cheetah II, and Golden Glider visit Angel's apartment in New York City and meet Sam Simeon, her talking ape partner. [“Captain Comet's Rehab Squad: In Search Of, Chapter 2: Mistaken Identities”]
• As Captain Comet and the others discuss motives for Angel O'Day's kidnapping with Sam Simeon, the Enforcer, Crazy Quilt, and Captain Cold show up and fight the team. Golden Glider, conflicted between helping Captain Comet, whom she loves, and her brother Captain Cold, does nothing. Dr. Phaeton (an old Batman villain from Atlantis), subdue both the heroes and the villains working for him with a special weapon. Jimmy and the heroes awoke under a special dome under the sea in the city of New Triton. Phaeton explains that Angel's father once crossed him, but since his hired villains mistakenly took Dolphin instead of Angel, he left a note for Angel telling her that he has Sam. Golden Glider awakes in a separate chamber with her brother Captain Cold. Meanwhile, in New York, Angel finds Phaeton's note about Sam's kidnapping, and Valor and her team prepare to head for Atlantis. In Atlantis, Dr. Phaeton reveals that he has killed over 40 citizens of New Triton as part of a scheme to rule all the cities of Atlantis. He explains that he was originally a merman from Tritonis who used science to convert himself into an air-breathing man to live on the surface. Angel O'Day's father once talked wealthy men out of backing his research years ago, so Phaeton took revenge on him by converting his three-year-old daughter into a water-breather. Years later he was captured by Batman for other crimes and imprisoned until recently. Meanwhile, O'Day gave up on finding his older daughter and raised his younger daughter Angel. As Angel O'Day with Valor and Starman arrive, Phaeton explains that Dolphin is Angela O'Day, Angel's older sister. Phaeton's allies, Deep Six of Apokolips, arrive and battle the heroes. Golden Glider convinces Captain Cold to join her. Jimmy Olsen meets Dan Dunbar, the former Dyna-Mite. Valor meets Supergirl's former merman boyfriend Jerro. The team and Jimmy, with Dunbar, return to the surface. [“Captain Comet's Rehab Squad: In Search Of, Chapter 3: The Secret Origin of Dolphin”]