Supergirl’s Best Friend: Lena Thorul

Lena Thorul was a fairly important character in Supergirl’s life in the Silver and Bronze eras and was even called Supergirl’s best friend as we found out in the Official Superman Quiz Book we covered a few weeks back (read about that here). Lena Thorul is the sister of Lex Luthor who, from a very young age, had her name changed to Thorul so as not to be associated with her more villainous brother. Because of how young she was when her parents decided to change their surnames, Lena is unaware of her fiendish brother and instead is lead to believe her brother was killed in a mountain climbing incident. The Luthor family’s newly aquired name, Thorul, is of course an anagram of Luthor which is pointed out more than once in the comics that Lena shows up in mostly by Superman and Supergirl to let the reader know who this mysterious girl is. If you are looking for info on the Lena Luthor currently showing up in Supergirl comics, this post is unfortunately not where you’ll find those answers. This Lena is Lex’s sister, while that Lena is his daughter. I do plan on covering Lex’s-daughter-Lena in a future post however so keep an eye out for that coming up!

I won’t be doing full synopses of all of Lena’s stories but I do want to go over some of the major beats and important parts of her life as she showed up in the pre-crisis era, including her first appearance. Although Lena is most often associated with the girl of steel, her first appearance is actually in a story from Superman’s Girl Friend Lois Lane #23, The Curse of Lena Thorul. This is a rather brief story that mostly involves Lois traveling to Cardiff to write up a story about witches and finds a librarian (Lena) who shares a striking resemblance to one Louella Thompson, a terrifying witch from centuries past. Lois is convinced that Lena is Louella reincarnated and even encounters some supernatural events over the next few days when writing up her article. Fortunately, Lois and Superman have to track down the recently escaped Lex Luthor who reveals that he is the cause of all the supernatural shenanigans going on and he did so as to not draw attention to his, now revealed to the reader, sister. Lex wants nothing more than to let his sister lead a normal life not burdened by his criminal acts and even allows himself to be jailed again by Superman once Lois promises not to run her story. This theme of Lex keeping his relationship to Lena secret is a constant thread throughout the rest of Lena’s appearances and it makes the greatest criminal mind of our generation seem almost sympathetic. Oddly enough, this reincarnated witch storyline would show up as a major plot line for Lana Lang being posessed by Isobel Thoreaux in season 4 of Smallville, to mixed success. I can’t imagine this is a direct reference to this story but it is odd to see that the idea of a reincarnated witch would happen more than once so closely related to Superman. It would be like if Lena Luthor from the Supergirl show suddenly became a witch 5 years after being introduced to the show.

After her introduction in Lois Lane #23, Lena would quickly find a new home in Midvale. A brief dialogue from Linda (Supergirl) Danvers in issue 295 of Action Comics reveals that Lena moved to Midvale “last year”, most likely having moved from Cardiff as she was shown living in during the events of Lois Lane #23. Lena seems to have made fast friends with Linda and this friendship would only grow from here. Lena would appear in issues 295-298 of Action Comics where we learn Lena has ESP or Extra-Sensory Perception. She is also trying to get a job at the FBI but is unfortunately denied the position because of her blank background check. This causes Supergirl to break the time barrier and go back to find out Lena’s past. Here we learn a bit more about her and Supergirl finds out that not only is Lena is Lex Luthor’s sister, but her ESP powers came from a science experiment gone wrong when they were younger. The story would continue with Lena joining a criminal gang which we find out is only done so that she could help take down the criminal gang and in doing so it puts her in a great position to get that formerly denied FBI job. The next 3 issues are all related and tell a story where Lena interacts with Dick Malverne a bit and even dresses up as Supergirl. The storyline would shift to Lesla-Lar showing up and Lena getting trapped in Kandor while Lex Luthor teams up with the girl of steel to take out the Phantom Zone villains in an attempt to save his sister. The story of course ends with Lena safely removed from the bottle city and thankfully still unaware of her criminal brother. This set of 4 issues really helps build up the character and helps define her place a lot better then her appearance in Lois Lane’s book and making Lena a contemporary of Supergirl’s feels like a much better fit for her.

Lena would again show up a couple issues later in 300 and 301 of Action Comics, but only very briefly. These 2 issues mostly tell the tale of Comet the Super-Horse and Lena only shows up in a couple spots to show off her fantastical ESP powers. Her ESP powers do have a similarity to Comet’s own telepathic powers so her inclusion in this Super-Horse story is fitting.

Lena shows up again in Action Comics 313 and we get continuations of all the major elements of her character. She is continuing trying to get a job with the FBI when she is tasked with interviewing Lex Luthor. During this interview Lex reveals the truth to Lena about being her brother which sends Lena spiraling into a dissociative state where she gets temporary amnesia, ends up in Africa, and begins using her ESP powers to control the wildlife. Thanks to a gunshot, Lena’s memory is restored and she takes her Jungle Princess act into a circus performance in Metropolis. Halfway through her act as Jungle Princess, Lena is overcome with anxiety about the world finding out she’s Luthor’s sister and asks Supergirl to take over for her in the act. Meanwhile Lex Luthor is concocting a plan to escape from prison, but also to give Lena some flowers that wipe all traumatic memories from her mind meaning she no longer knows of her secret criminal brother. Lena would briefly appear in the next issue, 314, but only in a single panel as the story revolves more around Supergirl’s biological and foster parents. All the lists I’m referencing seem to say that Action Comics 316 also features Lena, however upon reading it, I only saw her name mentioned in a single panel by Supergirl and she doesn’t actually appear.

Given the lack of Lena in the past couple issues, I was happy to see the story in Action Comics 317 centers around her. The story introduced us to a new boyfriend of Lena’s, Jeff Colby, that seems to be a rather serious relationship. Throughout the story we’re introduced to Jeff via Lena having an ESP premonition that Jeff is about to be in a plane crash. Linda spots him with her super-vision and helps his parachute land near where the girls are having a picnic. Strangely enough Jeff doesn’t mention the plane at all and keeps it a secret from Lena leading Supergirl to do some investigating. Throughout the story we see; Supergirl finding out Jeff is a spy, Linda hypnotizing Jeff into falling for her, Lena now hating both Jeff and Linda, Supergirl realizing Jeff isn’t a spy and is instead a double agent working for the FBI, Lena planning a new life in Africa, Supergirl using a robot of Jeff to get Jeff and Lena back together, and finally a wedding between Jeff and Lena with Linda as the Maid of Honor. A truly bonkers story that requires a whole lot of just accepting how things play out and going with it.

It would be 5 years later before we saw Lena Thorul again, but she would be once again starring opposite of the girl of steel in Adventure Comics 387 and 388. It’s fitting that Lena has been absent for so many years because in this issue we are introduced to Val Colby who is the son to Lena and her now Husband we met in Action 317 which is a nice bit of continuity. Val is shown to have PK powers allowing him to lift things with his mind and see through walls and all other super powered things. Val received these powers not only by inheriting some of his mother’s ESP but also from a space rock given to him when he was younger by an anonymous donor (of course it was none other than his fiendish uncle Lex Luthor). Lex is also shown saving young Val from a car about to fall on him, which then leads Val to rescue Lex from prison after seeing him caged up on TV. Lex would attempt to lead Val onto a life of crime but between the young tot’s carefree nature, and a little help from Linda Danvers, Val eventually realizes that Lex isn’t a role model and has Supergirl take him back to his mom. Also due to events in the story, Val loses his powers and Lex even tells the young lad he was only acting like his uncle to use his powers for evil thus keeping his relationship to Lena a secret. While these two issues didn’t have much focus on Lena herself, it was nice to see some world building and see that Lena has a life of her own.

Lena would appear again in a Supergirl story now in the pages of Superman Family 168. This story is somewhat of a sipiritual successor to Lena’s second appearance which was titled The Girl with the X-Ray Mind and the story from Superman Family is The Girl with the See-Through Mind. Here we see Lena helping Linda teach a class on telepathy and we’re introduced to a young girl named Jan who, much like Lena herself, has psychic abilities. Jan is very adamant about not wanting her abilities that we come to find are empathic in nature. Unfortunately another woman is in trouble and Jan is the only one who can point Supergirl in the right direction to save the day. Supergirl gives a speech to Jan about how even the maid of might sometimes feels othered and like she doesn’t belong but she knows that with her powers she can help those in need. This seemed to be what Jan needed to hear and the trio of super powered girls goes off to fight a would be magician and save the damsel that Jan was empathically linked to. This is a nice story that calls back to Lena’s first two appearances with a magical villain and a telepathic girl. The issue of Superman family also has a 2 page spread going over Lena’s full history for any new readers that may be unaware of the ESP powered sister of the greatest criminal mind.

The next story with Lena is a short Lex Luthor backup from Action Comics 486 and it’s a rather sweet story that shows Lex escaping from prison, heading to Midvale, and secretly giving his nephew a present. For only being 6 pages, this story does a lot in showing Lex’s care for both his sister and his nephew and also shows the reader that Val has continued to grow up since we last saw him and we also find out he’s even come to like Batman more than Superman.

Lena would show up again for 4 Supergirl stories in Superman Family from issues 211-214. The first 3 issues seem to be building up the friendship between Lena and Supergirl where Lena even finally connects the ESP dots of Linda being Supergirl. Lena moves to New York and starts working alongside Linda at GBS as a secretary for the writer working on Linda’s soap “Secret Hearts”. Lena would become a confidant to the girl of steel and I really started to feel her as a best friend to the girl of steel. We also had a couple moments of Lena and Supergirl working together to save the day and it could’ve been a nice direction to take the Supergirl character that gives her someone that she can always rely on that isn’t her cousin or her parents. Unfortunately, come issue 214, Lena finds out that her brother is Lex Luthor and knowing that everyone knew except her, including her best friend and her husband, sends her over the edge and comes to resent Supergirl. While she does seem to calm down a bit by the end of the story, this drastic turn in Lena’s character seems a bit out of place and I can only think it was some editorial mandate to keep Supergirl a bit more as a solo heroine. This final issue also reveals Lena had some selective amnesia resulting in her once again not knowing that Linda is the girl of steel. Looking at the dates on these stories it looks like they were published soon before Supergirl (vol. 2) started getting published so I could believe someone trying to get to a more blank status quo before the new series starts.

Unfortunately this would be the end of Lena in the pre-crisis era. Her first appearance is relatively unnecessary to her overall arc and it’s once we get into her appearances in Action where we start to get some proper development. Lena is a girl with ESP powers who wants to join the FBI. Unfortunately we never see her actually employed by the bureau but she does get married to someone working there. This marriage would also be a very important part of her development as a character and we would see Lena go from Thorul to Colby and even see her have a son and watch him grow up through the course of her appearances. We even saw Lena develop her ESP powers and mentor another young girl with growing psychic abilities. Lena, Lex’s sister, has shown up a few times since in comics and it looks like she was an antagonist in the Rebirth era Superwoman series as Ultrawoman. Lena has also shown up in a few elseworlds stories like DC Superhero Girls, and Cosmic Adventures in the 8th grade, but I think her most prominent appearance has been on the CW Supergirl show where she was portrayed by Katie McGrath. I do think based on the current ages of Supergirl, Superman, and Lex Luthor in comics it makes much more sense for Lex’s daughter Lena to be a peer to Supergirl as opposed to his sister so most likely we won’t see Lena Thorul again but I am excited to see the friendship between Supergirl and Lena blossom.

Thanks so much for reading! I hope you learned something about Lex Luthor’s sister, I know I did. If you have any comments or questions or if you think I overlooked any Lena appearances let me know by writing an email to daringnewblog@gmail.com.