Cleopatra of the Potomac
Cleopatra of the Potomac
The identity briefly adopted by British college student Lilibet Winsor after coming into contact with a mystically-empowered scepter once belonging to Cleopatra VII, Queen of the Nile. Winsor, who may be descended from the historical Cleopatra, is an exchange student from London to the New Athens Experimental School in Florida when her art class visits the campus museum exhibit at which the scepter is on display. After the scepter leaps out of its display case and into her hand, Winsor finds herself able to command anyone to do her bidding. Winsor subsequently costumes herself as Cleopatra, with her friend Danny at her side garbed as Marc Antony, and goes to Capitol Hill in Washington D.C. in order to demand that she be crowned Queen of the United States of America! The U.S. Congress quickly passes a resolution to abolish the U.S. Constitution and cede control of the nation to Winsor. The only vote against the resolution is Congresswoman Barbara Gordon, secretly Batgirl, who had just returned to Washington from a visit to the New Athens School where she had encountered Winsor and the enchanted scepter. Upon seeing a television news report about this alarming development, New Athens counselor Linda Lee Danvers (a.k.a. Supergirl) immediately departs for Washington. Once she has arrived in Washington and consulted with Congresswoman Gordon, Supergirl confronts Winsor and finds herself immune to the scepter's effects. However, she is soon subdued by her cousin Superman, who has come to Washington along with his teammates in the Justice League of America to attend the coronation of the new American monarch. Supergirl escapes from the JLAers' clutches and regroups with Batgirl. The two heroines conclude that they are unaffected by Cleopatra's scepter because of a declaration made in their presence by Winsor at New Athens: "...I wouldn't want it to control the mind of anyone at New Athens." This realization leads to a ruse in which Batgirl pretends to be the historical Cleopatra resurrected and seeking to reclaim her scepter from the "usurper." In the end, all is put right when a frustrated Winsor gives the scepter to Supergirl, who flings it into the sun (SF No. 171/1, Jun/Jul 1975: "Cleopatra-Queen of America").
