Supergirl’s Family Vacation and References Galore

A couple weeks back DC released a brand new Supergirl Graphic Nover targeted towards young readers. Supergirl’s Family Vacation was written by Brandon T. Snider with art by Sarah Leuver and letters by Becca Carey, and before I get too far into this post I want to say this book was absolutely fantastic. A few months back I covered Supergirl’s Zoo-Per Heroes and that book definitely leans more towards elementary age readers and a while back I covered Supergirl Being Super (my personal all time favorite Supergirl book) which sits more along the High School age readers. Supergirl’s Family Vacation sits somewhere in the middle although probably leaning more towards Being Super, but even so I personally think this is a book that can be enjoyed by readers of all ages and I would easily recommend it to anyone. This is a fun family road trip adventure and Kara and Nat have a great Girl-Best-Friends vibe that I always love to see. This won’t be a synopsis of the book or really a review, but instead I’m going to take a different approach and run through all the references I can find that the creators seemed to cram into this book.

To start off, I’ll cover the main cast and where all these characters got their start. Of course we have Supergirl, and this is in fact the Kara Zor-El version of Supergirl who first showed up in Action Comics #252. We also have Superman and Lois Lane who have been in comics for nearly a century first showing up in Action Comics #1. Also in the main crew is Natasha Irons (also known as Steel) who first showed up with her uncle John Henry in his book Steel #1, and she would debut as a superhero in her own right in Action Comics #806 (I covered that along with the rest of the Supergirls story here). And filling out the cast is Jon Kent, now known as Superman (Tomorrow Man now) but this seems much more like his Superboy era. Jon first showed up as a baby in Convergence Superman #2 and would grow into the Superboy role during the 2016 Superman series.

The opening scene of this book gives us a quick look at Jon Kent’s bedroom and we get to see some fun little details. He is very clearly playing a green Gameboy and there in a Nintendo 64 in the corner. Also the stuffed animal on the ground is definitely a legally distinct purple Pikachu. This room of course exists in the apartment of Superman and Lois which has long been established as being 344 Clinton St. Apt. 3-D.

Next we get a view of Kara’s vacation plans which are to go to Argo City, the board doesn’t specifically reference anything else aside from the mention of the dome that the city has. Kara also holds up a sign that says “Join me!” in both english and Kryptonian (using the standard Kryptonian alphabet that started use in the early 2000s). In a further effort to convince her family, Kara talks about her personal feelings in regards to Krypton and we get a couple flashback images include a very clear homage to the cover of Action Comics #252 and while the Supergirl costume here matches the classic appearance, the rocket itself feels much more like the one designed by Bilquis Evely in Woman of Tomorrow. Kara also has a sunstone here and I’m pretty sure sunstones first got added to the Kryptonian mythos with the 2005 Supergirl series, although I could be mistaken. Sunstones are in fact pretty frequently used in both the 2005 and 2011 Supergirl ongoing comics.

There is a shot of Kara’s room and a shot of the Fortress of Solitude in pretty quick succession and both of these set pieces are full of goodies. Kara’s room has a signed and framed picture of Nightwing (which I can only assume Clark got for her) and it’s something I need in my room too. Her suitcase gets filled with SPF 1000 which I’m sure Krptonian skin needs, and a notebook that has a Legion logo sticker as well as a sticker based on the logo of the hero Vibe (probably most known now from the Flash TV show). A brief look at Kara’s phone shows a little orange cat charm which is almost certainly a reference to Streaky the Super Cat. The fortress is mostly labeled but there are a few specifics I’d like to break down. The costumes shown in the “Costume Vault” are (from left to right) Kal’s costume from Superman and the Authority, Superman’s costume from the early issues of the New 52 Action Comics, and the iconic Electric Blue suit. The interplanetary zoo up in the top right is showcasing a Kryptonian thought beast and most exciting to me is the inclusion of an omegahedron in the bottom left in the Trophy Room.

As the team’s road trip begins they stop at a gas station that is probably more full of references than I’m catching. This guy at the bottom of the page is clearly modeled after one of the aliens on the space bus in Woman of tomorrow, and the purple things that Jon wants feel sort of like Tribbles from Star Trek, although I could be wrong. There are also alien versions of sncks like the Pocky analogue named Perez (likely after George Perez). We also get a quick scene with Lobo (surely you know who he is) as well as aanother major character in this story Rori Dag. Rori was a character that definitley felt like a reference when reading initially, although I didn’t recognize them. Upon further research, Rori Dag is a member of the Green Lantern Corps who dates all the way back to 1969. The very brief article I skimmed about this character from the DC Wikia seems to line up with what is shown of them and their planet Rojira so I applaud the deep cut and research that the creators put into their inclusion.

Once we get onto Rojira, the references don’t seem quite as rapid fire, but they have by no means stopped. The hotel room the Kents are staying at feels a little like the hotel room from Superman II where Lois and Clark stayed while at Niagara Falls but it could just as easily be a generic hotel room. Kara also reminices here about the idea to change her name to Power Girl as well as Jon Kent doing a dance that seems to be flossing.

As the crew explores Rojira, we get a few more cute nods, they eat at a restaurant that seems inspired by Applebees or O’Charleys or some other American style restaurant named “Meat Disc Billy’s”. Nat and Kara go clothes shopping and the oufits they pick out feel like they’re referencing a specific anime but I couldn’t quite place it. My initial thoughts are either Utena or Sailor Moon. At the pool we see a Starro sunbathing, and Lois seems to be reading her own book “Life in the Fast Lane”, before pulling out a towel with branding from the 1989 Batman movie.

Later as Lois and Clark are getting ready for dinner, we see Jon wearing a Metropolis Monarchs baseball jersey. Kara is wearing a “Space Girls” shirt which is likely a reference to the band of the same name that showed up in the Peter David Supergirl series in the 90s. Kara also seems to be reading a book here but the text isn’t legible. It kind of looks like it could be Kamen Rider. A few scenes later we get Kara having super-charged powers and having flaming wings which is once again a reference to the earth-born angel era Supergirl from the 90s (although a similar reference also showed up in the Woman of Tomorrow book).

We also get a nice trio of Sailor Moon references near the end of the book. Both Kara and Natasha have a magical girl transformation sequence which isn’t strictly a Sailor Moon thing, but when paired with Kara wearing a shirt clearly styled off the Sailor Moon logo, it’s gotta be modeled after the Sailor Scouts.

There are 2 surprise villains that show up in the last chapter but I’ll leave those for you to discover when reading, but I was really impressed with the characters that showed up. We do also get a look at Rori Dag beginning his Green Lantern career once again referencing his mainstream comics continuity.

This was a fantastic read and I really enjoyed going back through it again searching for fun little Easter Eggs that the creators left. I’m sure there are plenty of little references I missed but I think I’m going to dive right back in and re-read looking for more after I finish up here. If you noticed anything I missed or think I got anything wrong, let me know, and if you’ve gotten this far without picking up this book, what are you waiting for?! Go to your local comic shop or bookstore or library and get your hands on this book! In the past few months we’ve gotten a plethora of Supergirl stories and, even with all the competition, this book might very well be my favorite one for the year.