• Supergirl and Team Luthor: A Super and a Luthor Working Together?

    In the wake of Superman’s perish during the Doomsday storyline a handful of one-shots featuring other Metropolis characters or the city in general reacting to a world without Superman. These specials included such titles as Superman Legacy, Newstime: The Life and Death of Superman, and the subject of today’s blog post; Supergirl and Team Luthor. For those that aren’t quite as familiar with the early 90s Superman universe you may be surprised to find out that the Supergirl and Lex Luthor in this comic aren’t the 2 that you would generally associate with those monikers. The DC Universe page from this issue actually explains them significantly better and more concisely than I could. “He’s Lex Luthor the Second, a young, attractive billionaire who heads the largest multinational conglomerate in the United States of America. She’s Supergirl, a gelatinous blob of protoplasm who can change the course of mighty rivers-as well as her own appearance.” The only major part left out here is that Lex Luthor II is actually just the real Lex in a cloned body acting as his own Australian son. For more info on Supergirl’s origin, take a look back at my last post about The Supergirl Saga.

    The book features 2 stories, a 38 page lead story and an 11 page backup, and 4 pin-up images. The lead story, “…The Future of Metropolis” is credited to Roger Stern writer, June Brigman layouts, Guice and Janke finishes, Albert de Guzman letterer and Glenn Whitmore colorist. The opening sequence is framed as a promotional video that Lex II is showing to the City Council to hopefully get the city’s support as Metropolis’s new protectors now that Superman was gone. I really like this sequence and think it helps catch readers up to speed on who Supergirl is and what she can do and the opening page mimicking the 50s Adventures of Superman opening. We’ve also got Supergirl saving a cat which I always like to see. When I was reading through this I was really hoping the whole comic would be framed like a video but where the story goes works pretty well and the 5 1/2 pages of faux promo video work great.

    The story then shifts to Lex pleading the council that his Team Luthor and Supergirl should get the same special police powers that Superman once had. He brings up the extra-normal threats that Superman previously faced off against that his team could once again help the Metropolis SCU were unable to face on their own. The council still seems skeptical but coincidentally there is a break-in at STAR Labs which gives Lex the perfect opportunity to put his team, Supergirl, and himself into action.

    All the while this is happening, the book splices in scenes of Supergirl helping the emergency services clean up after the destruction of Doomsday. We’ve also got a brief scene between Supergirl and Lois Lane where Supergirl complains about missing Superman and then after dropping Lois off at the Daily Planet realizes she was being rather insensitive seeing that Lois was much closer to the man of steel than she ever was.

    Lex and Supergirl show up at STAR Labs and make quick work of the fiends (The DMT specifically) that are looking to steal back their armor from the Lab. This encounter is not without fault though, extensive damage has be wrought to the facility and Lex Luthor has suffered a serious leg break. This leg break along with the public’s general disapproval of the destructive nature of their attempted heroic act has put Lex in a rather sour mood. He lashed out at both Dr. Kelley and Happerstein before settling into his office where he is met with his live-in superhero/girlfriend.

    Supergirl notices her partner is in a bad mood and uses her shape-changing ability to transform into what I can only assume is 3 pop culture icons but I only recognize Princess Leia (feel free to let me know who else is here). However none of these famous babes get Lex out of his funk but a quick change to Gretchen Kelley and a bit of motherly inspiration get’s Lex back to sorts. We also get to see Supergirl (still in Kelley form) go off on a couple of Lex Corp employees making blonde jokes and Lex proving to the reader that Lex II is just as cruel to his upper staff members as his father was.

    Lex meets with Dr. Packard of Cadmus Labs, gets an idea to clone his girlfriend, and then Supergirl saves one of the Team Luthor goons from an excessively dangerous training exercise before we land into the final scene of this first story. Here we see the home of George Markham, who had previously been the ire of Lex Luthor in a board meeting, and surprise guest Hellgrammite. Markham, terrified, lets spill that he hired the monster to kill Lex Luthor the Second. Upon this proclamation, Lex and his Team Luthor crew step out from the shadows with cameras catching him in the act like it’s an episode of To Catch Predator.

    We then cut to outside where Lex starts talking to Hellgrammite who is revealed to be Supergirl in disguise. That’s right reader, not only has Lex used inhumane means to put one of his staffers behind bars, he has also used the girl he proclaims to love to do so in a way that is obviously very painful for her. The Lex/Supergirl romantic coupling is clearly set up to be a bad encounter for Supergirl, but it’s handled quite well in this era and Lex really does cover his tracks rather well so it could be seen as a perfectly honest relationship from Supergirl’s perspective. I still don’t think she should be with him, although that is kinda the point.

    The backup story really leans into Lex acting like a proper gentlemen where we open to Supergirl thanking him for building a new homeless shelter down by the river. “Shelter” is written by Louise Simonson, with art by Denis Rodier, colors by Glenn Whitmore, and Albert De Guzman lettering. We find a crew of Underworlders (they’re like the sewer mutants from Futurama) trying to check into the newly constructed shelter. Shenanigans ensue, the Underworlders accidentally start a fire because one of them has weird hands and the other makes sparks when he gets agitated, the non-mutants start shooting the mutants, and Supergirl enters the scene.

    Once Supergirl shows up, she cools everyone off and stops the fire. Supergirl finds out that while the Underworlders did start the fire, it was only because everyone else in the shelter was accusing them of starting a flood that they had nothing to do with. Supergirl reports back to Lex that everything is all good now (aside from the gaping hole in the side of the building) but she still feels bad about the Underworlders and wishes to help them if she can. Lex on the other hand thinks of them too, but in a much more exploitative way. This story does feel a bit like a Very Special Episode, but it feels like we’re really getting to see that good ol’ Kent good heartedness that we love to see from people who wear the S shield.

    We close out the book with 4 pinups by John Byrne, Art Thibert, Kerry Gammill & Bob Wiacek, and Doug Hazelwood & Tom Grummett. the Hazelwood/Grummett piece almost looks like an homage to the cover to the 1988 cover to Power Girl #1. This pinup might be my favorite of the bunch but all 4 are rather good.

    I do want to make a mention about the art that is good all around but the coloring specifically (by Glenn Whitmore) was particularly striking and would often feature panels with spectacular lighting and monotone compositions that really pop. As I mentioned last week, I’ll be going through some more Matrix Supergirl stories in the coming weeks to shine some light on an odd period of Supergirl’s storied history.

  • Supergirl in the Multiverse: Earth-W-1

    We looked at the Webtoons branch of the multiverse a few weeks back when I covered the Red Hood Outlaws universe, but Wayne Family Adventures is where DC made it’s Webtoons debut. Wayne Family Adventures is a weekly web comic that has been published onto Webtoons (and recently re-published as DC Go comics) since 2021 and is continuing strong through it’s 4th season. The Wayne Family Adventures comic is a light-hearted slice of life comic where the Batman Family gets up to every day life and are much more open about their emotions and its a fantastic comic. There is a very clear tie to the James Tynion IV run of Detective Comics in the Rebirth era, for the most part the character roster is the same and the costumes and character interactions line up with this era of the comics. I’m particularly fond of Spoiler and Orphan in this comic although seeing all the characters interact in much less violent manner than they are normally depicted is a nice change of pace.

    Supergirl does show up in Mini-Episode 3 before the start of season 3, although it is a very brief appearance. Duke is training with Dick in the Batcave when he asks his older brother when he will get a Kryptonian or Amazonian partner and sites the various other Bat/Super/Wonder team-ups and Supergirl is shown alongside both Barbara and Stephanie as Batgirls as their Kryptonian partner. Aside from this single panel, Supergirl has yet to appear again, but with the series continuing on (and Episode 87 was completely set aside for “Kent Family Adventures”) I hope we get to see more Supergirl in future Wayne Family Adventures. Because of how Supergirl was introduced to the series (as a partner to Batgirls) I thought it was important to also include my favorite Batgirl (she’s also my favorite Robin) alongside Supergirl in this week’s drawing.

    As with all Supergirl in the Multiverse posts, this is my own artwork. Supergirl is flying through a clear blue sky while Stephanie “Spoiler” Brown is riding on her back like a surfboard and both girls are smiling. There is a Supergirl S in the top right with a “W-1” on top of it.

  • The Supergirl Saga by John Byrne

    In the Post-Crisis era of DC Comics, specifically in the first dozen or so years right after Crisis on Infinite Earths there was a clearly defined fact from editorial and the creative teams that Superman would be the sole survivor of Krypton and there would no longer be bottle cities or Phantom Zone criminals or super powered cousins. Even with this in mind, and the Kara Zor-El Supergirl dying in Crisis, this did not stop DC from bringing the maiden of might back into comics although she does exist in a different form. The Supergirl Saga from 1988 looks to introduce this new Supergirl to readers.

    John Byrne was the driving force behind the re-introduction of Superman in the post-crisis era where he did much of the writing and penciling of the titles for around 2 years (the Superman XL blog did a great breakdown of how many stories Byrne wrote and drew here). The Supergirl Saga was told across 3 issues, Superman (vol. 2) issues 21 and 22, along with The Adventures of Superman #444 between them. John Byrne wrote all 3 of these issues and did pencils for the 2 Superman books. Jerry Ordway has story and pencil credits on the Adventures issue, John Beaty inked on Superman, Dennis Janke inked Adventures, Petra Scotese colored all 3, and lettering was provided by John Costanza and Albert De Guzman on Superman and Adventures respectively. One of the main things I noticed about these books when tracking them down for my collection a few years ago was the really nice cover dress with the banner reading “The Supergirl Saga” at the top. This makes the storyline really easy to track down and spot in back issue bins, at least it would if Superman 22 (part 3 of the trilogy) also had the banner at the top, which it doesn’t for some reason. Everywhere clearly lists this issue as part 3 of the Supergirl Saga, but for some reason the cover didn’t get the memo.

    Again, this wasn’t a huge issue and these comics are pretty easy to find in back issues, but make sure you know what you’re looking for when searching for the final chapter. I would definitely recommend seeking out originals of these books too, especially those with Byrne pencils. Several years ago when I read these issues initially, I did so on the DC Universe Infinite app and wasn’t particularly wowed by the art and didn’t really get what the big deal about Byrne was, but when reading them in their original newsprint format, some of the artwork really pops (again, Superfan XL did a fantastic post about this subject). There is something about certain artists and how they approach comic book art that is clearly influenced by the final product and there are a few artists that really worked the newsprint into their artwork that doesn’t get translated when the comics get digitized and Byrne (especially here) is one of those artists., although I’m sure Scotese’s colors are a huge part of the difference too.

    The story begins on a desolate earth with a domed city and a Lex Luthor in charge of the final residents of this planet. These residents look to another world through view screen where they see none other than Superman. Superman is flying through the clouds when he notices that someone is following him. He expertly uses his powers to grab and confront this stalker and he finds out that he is facing a Supergirl. This introduction seems to parallel the cover to Action 252 which feels like a live homage without being too blatant.

    Here the Supergirl reveals she can shift her form and turn invisible, and above that she also reveals that she is Lana Lang. through some confusion which we later realize is amnesia, Superman and Supergirl realize that this isn’t the Lana of this earth, but that Supergirl is the Lana of a pocket universe that Superman visited briefly before. He also finds out that while it was only weeks for him, it had been a decade for the pocket universe.

    The pair are transported to the pocket dimension now and we get to properly meet Lex Luthor and Superman finds out the devastation that has happened to the world. Superman visits his pocket parents graves and recounts his previous adventure in the pocket dimension and we find out the pocket universe never had a hero other than Superboy. After this, Lex tells Superman of how his world came to be a desolated landscape. Apparently, after the deaths of Martha and Jonathan, Lex came to Smallville to see if his scientific genius could be useful in assisting Superboy and unfortunately Pete and Lana inform him that Superboy left for the future years ago and never returned. Lex went back to Superboy’s childhood home and started exploring his lab to see if he could find a way to reach Superboy in the future. Lex is contacted through a time viewer by a trio of characters who claim they are Kryptonians trapped in a Survival Zone.

    They convince Lex to release them and Lex hoping for a trio of superheroes, instead he meets the Phantom Zone villains. A gang of criminals too dangerous for Krypton, was sentenced to life in the Zone. In a cruel twist of fate, this allowed them to survive Krypton’s destruction. The Zoners make quick work of destroying the planet, taking out armies, felling cities, and eventually drilling holes to the center of the earth which evaporates the oceans and destroys the atmosphere.

    Smallville is saved by Luthor’s genius. He had previously built a protective dome around the city to fend off the criminals attacks. Thankfully his dome also protected against a lack of atmosphere and while billions died, Smallville survived. Lex took it upon himself to seek out the Superman who had once visited the universe long ago. Experimentation on Lana Lang imbued her with powers which Lex hoped would aid her in her trip to another universe but he would have to give her amnesia in case she encountered anyone fiendish before she met Superman.

    Now that we’re all caught up, Superman is ready to take the fight to Zod and his followers. Superman and Supergirl take on the trio head on but Supergirl suddenly turns to pink goo (more on that later). The Phantom Zone villains make quick work of the humans fighting against them but thankfully this is just a distraction so that Superman can get to work on Lex’s real plan. Superman heads towards Superboy’s lab where he finds a piece of Gold Kryptonite. Quex-Ul attacks Superman in the lab and would almost be able to overtake the man of steel if not for the gold rock he just found. The gold kryptonite negates Quex-Ul powers and now that Superman has the upper hand, he traps him in a box and flies off to meet the other villains.

    Zod and Zaora think they can make quick work of Superman but are quickly proven wrong when approaching him and the gold K in his cape. This too renders them powerless and now Superman has a box full of 3 powerless Kryptonians and a dead planet. He returns to Lex Luthor who with his dying breath explains to Superman that the Supergirl he met was not the original Lana Lang but instead a clone based on the Matrix of Lana’s DNA made out of protoplasm. He also tells Clark that Lana died soon after the Phantom Zone criminals escaped and that the Matrix Supergirl has no idea that she isn’t the real Lana.

    With the death of Lex, the planet is now devoid of all human life. As such Superman takes on the role of judge, jury, and executioner and kills the trio of fiends with green Kryptonite. Superman realizes that the Matrix is still alive, although very weak, and returns here along with himself to his own universe. Superman is broken up about killing the Phantom Zone criminals and lets the Kents know that he needs to take some time to think but also drops Matrix with them and Lana so that she can hopefully get a good upbringing in the same way he did.

    I feel like the ending comes rather quickly after the battle between the criminals and Superman begins and the destruction of Smallville to the killing of the criminals all seems to move rather quickly. It seems to not really give enough time to characters like Bruce Wayne, Ollie Queen, and Hal Jordan of the pocket universe since they’re killed off so soon after their introduction. The final issue not having the “Supergirl Saga” banner does make a bit of sense because she’s turned to goo and quickly taken off the board at the start of the third act of the story and Superman 22 really isn’t about Supergirl. I’m not certain another issue of the story was needed, but the pacing does seem a tad inconsistent.

    When reading through this story this time I noticed that while the Matrix Supergirl is extraordinarily different from the classical Supergirl, Byrne really added a lot of references to the Kara Zor-El Supergirl. First off, the domed city of Smallville, surviving after the destruction of the rest of the planet has a striking similarity to Argo City of the silver age. I mentioned earlier that her initially interaction with Superman mirrors the cover and introduction of Supergirl from Action Comics #252 with Superman looking equally as shocked in both instances. Zod and his cohorts call the Phantom Zone the “Survival Zone” when trying to convince Lex to free them, a clear reference to the Survival Zone which Zor-El and Allura survived after Argo’s fall (read more about the Survival Zone here) The last similarity I noticed is more retroactive, but it puts Matrix in a similar position to Power Girl where they are each the last survivor of an entire universe. This part of Power Girl’s story doesn’t really come into play until after Infinite Crisis however when she realizes she’s the last survivor of Earth-2 when Kal-El dies.

    There are a couple bits of convoluted storytelling here that kind of stick out when really paying attention. Like why does Supergirl need to look like Lana? Is it only because Superman wouldn’t trust her unless she was a familiar face? I think this would bother me less if she continued to have a similarity to Lana in continuing stories, but she doesn’t, she just sort of visually becomes the pre-crisis Supergirl up to and including when she would later merge with the earth-borne angel Linda Danvers a few years later. It also felt very convenient that the Kryptonite in the pocket universe didn’t affect Superman. This was probably something that was explored in the earlier pocket universe storyline but it just seemed like an easy out. Also if the Phantom Zone criminals got rid of all the Kryptonite, how did Superman find green-k to kill them at the end? I can believe Superboy having a secret piece of Gold K stashed in his lab that the Zoners could have overlooked, but Superman specifically uses Green Kryptonite when executing the criminals and it’s not explained where he found it. I also don’t understand why the green K takes them out when they’re powerless. The pocket universe is clearly based on pre-crisis continuity to some extent, and powerless Kryptonians weren’t affected by Kryptonite (except Kryptonite-X which took out Argo City).

    While I don’t love this story, I do really like the Matrix Supergirl and this story did a good job of setting her up. There is also something charming about a pile of goo that gained sentience and thinks it’s Lana Lang. Over the next couple weeks I’m going to cover a handful of other Matrix stories so if there are an that you;d like me to cover let me know!

  • Supergirl in the Multiverse: Earth-2052

    Earth-2052 is another universe that is currently undesignated but fairly recognizable as the universe that houses the Gotham City Garage. I did briefly consider naming the universe Earth-GCG although 3 letters felt clunky and for the most part I would like to keep the universes as numbers if possible so the designation comes from the first issue which lists the story as taking place 35 years after Luthorrise. Presuming Luthor’s rise to power happens in the same year the series started (2017) that will make the stories in this universe taking place in the year 2052. I also like that the designation is adjacent to 252 and the prevalence of Supergirl to the story seems reasonable that naming the universe after the girl of steel’s first appearance would be reasonable.

    The story of Gotham City Garage tells of a world that has fallen to destruction either by nuclear warfare or some sort of Darkseid affair or possibly both. With the whole world as a wasteland, Lex Luthor has stepped up and saved a single city to the ravages of the wasteland called The Garden where he has brainwashed an entire city to feign happiness and fall into line based on his will. Fear not however, there is a group of rebels working outside the city limits who have not fallen to Luthor’s brainwashing working out of a garage/bar where Gotham city used to stand.

    Supergirl in this story has a pretty interesting origin that helps set this universe apart from most others. She is still Kara Zor-El in this timeline, but instead of being raised by the Kents or the Danvers or any family that is generally associated with Supergirl, she was instead raised by Jim Gordon. Kara’s pod was intercepted by Luthor and he brainwashed her to not remember her time before landing on earth. This, along with the dome around the Garden simulating a red sun, Kara had no idea she was anything other than Barbara Gordon’s sister. Jim Gordon, tired of putting up with Luthor’s reign, helped his adopted daughter escape the Garden where he knew the yellow sun would give Kara powers. Kara would successfully make it outside the walls, find the rebellion, and successfully end Luthor’s tyranical rule. Also it’s revealed at one point she had a unicorn on Krypton which informed her unicorn tattoos she got when remembering her Kryptonian memories.

    As with all my Supergirl in the Multiverse posts, this is my own artwork. Supergirl from Gotham City Garage is riding a motorcycle towards the viewer on a cracked road. There is a wasteland all around and a domed city in the background. A s-shield with a 2052 on it is in the top right corner.

  • Supergirl Surprise #16: Supergirl (Vol. 6) #15

    Last month for Supergirl Surprise I made reference to the H’El on Earth storyline when I covered Issue 24 of this series. And now the random number generator has given us a story right in the middle of the H’El crossover. This comic has Argo flashbacks, H’El giving some major red flags, and a brief trip to Kandor so follow along as we look at “Into Kandor” by Mike Johnson, with Mahmud Asrar doing pencils and inks, Scott Hanna and Marc Deering helping with inking, Dave McCraig colors, and Rob Leigh lettering.

    The story opens with a flashback to Argo city where we are introduced to a childhood friend of Kara’s named Tali. Tali seems like she could be a fun character to follow up on and she’s referenced as being Kara’s best friend. The pair are flying Tali’s new aircar through Argo and Kara very nearly annihilates a sky bridge. The pair safely land and we find out that Tali and her family are moving to Kandor. This flashback fades into Kara in her undersea fortress reminicing about her past where H’El appears out of nowhere.

    The following pages are full of H’El presenting Kara with an absurd amount of red flags that Kara doesn’t pick up on because she’s blinded by the notion that H’El can actually bring Krypton back to life. The most egregious red flags that I noticed were the panels shown above where H’El refuses to tell Kara the details of his plan because he’s worried if he tells her she wouldn’t agree to follow along, and him shrinking her down into Kandor without warning.

    Once we get into Argo we find out that H’El isn’t able to shrink into Kandor the normal way and instead has to astral project. Again, this feels like a red flag. Once in the bottle city, Supergirl quickly finds all the Kandorians in stasis (this was normal for this iteration of the city) and is then met with H’El astral projecting himself into the city but instead of looking how we’ve come to know him, he is apparently seen as how he looked before Krypton was destroyed.

    H’El actually says here that he is presenting himself in this form so that Kara would trust him more (RED FLAG). Some Brainiac robots attack, Kara finds Tali in stasis, and the pair make their way to Kandor’s Central Power Station to get what they came here for. In what could have easily been a reference to an omegahedron, H’El tells Kara that the Quantum Crystal that is powering Kandor is what they need to take to see his plan through. Supergirl initially pushes back against this plan because the Kandorians need it to survive, but H’El manipulates/convinces her that the bottle city of Kandor will no longer exist since it will be properly sized on the newly restored Krypton if H’El’s plan works.

    Kara is back to full size out of the bottle, H’El is back to his disgusting self and Kandor is without power. H’El starts monologuing because he thinks Kara thinks he looks gross now after seeing his “original” body, but he uses this pity to convince her to carry through with his plan that he hasn’t told her any details about. And then they kiss for some reason.

    There is a lot of the New 52 Supergirl series that I didn’t enjoy when reading it, and H’El on Earth is pretty close to the top of parts that I didn’t like. I don’t like H’El and I don’t like him being presented as a romantic interest for Supergirl and I didn’t like Supergirl being on the wrong side of the story for so much of it.

    As I mentioned earlier I really liked Tali’s introduction here. I always love seeing Kara’s life on Krypton and pre-explosion Krypton in general. Tali and Kara seem to have a great friendship and with her being one of the in-stasis Kandorians she does potentially still exist in current canon and could show up again with the prominence of Kandor in current Supergirl comics. She has a similar vibe to Thara Ak-Var who filled a similar pre-destruction Kryptonian friend of Kara. She would also come back into Kara’s life through Kandorian shenanigans during the New Krypton saga. Unfortunately we haven’t seen Tali again since this appearance (unless she showed up again later in the H’El arc that I’ve forgotten).

    I didn’t notice any particularly interesting ads this time out so I will be signing off here. If you would like to check out the previous Supergirl Surprise entries, check them out on their dedicated page here.