Liz Perske is many things, world traveler, art connoisseur, investor, one time wife of Lex Luthor, and for the purposes of this entry, she is Supergirl’s mentor. Liz Perske first shows up in the 1994 Miniseries and probably has Roger Stern, and June Brigman to thank as creators (writer and penciller respectively). In her initial appearances, issues 2 and 4 of this mini, she mostly serves as a catalyst to help Matrix start looking a bit more into if Lex II actually has her best interests at heart. Surprisingly enough though, she wasn’t merely tossed to the side once Peter David’s ongoing Supergirl title got started and she would have irregular appearances and we did get to learn a bit more about her. While she seems to be set up as a major confidant and companion of Supergirl at the end of Supergirl (vol. 3) #4, she only has around 10 appearances.
We’ll be taking a look at her appearances a bit out of order, and instead try to piece together her life based on what we do find out in the pages of these Supergirl books. In Supergirl (vol. 4) #17 we get re-introduced to Liz Perske and find out that she is friends with none other than Dick Malverne’s own mother when she comes to Leesburg to visit the hospital bound Mrs. Malverne. We find out that Elsa and Liz were classmates in college together, but not much more is explored about the character. A good amount of her earlier appearances mention that she is the 3rd wife of Lex Luthor. The Superman Secret Files and Origins issue from 1999 has a 4 page called “Chance Encounter” that seems to feature both Perske and the Contessa (a later wife of Lex) which seems fascinating to me but I cannot for the life of me find a way to read this story.
After this, chronologically, we get to the first meeting of Liz and Supergirl in Singapore. This is a chance encounter, as Perske was just in the country on business, when she tracks down Supergirl to tell her the concerns she has with her relationship to the son of her ex husband wondering “how much his heir takes after him”. Matrix seems skeptical at first, but pictures of a suspicious man following her at least gets Supergirl to pay a bit more attention around Lexcorp. This would lead to the maid of might trashing various Lexcorp facilities, realizing Lex was no good, and throwing him out a window.
After Matrix settles down, she seeks out Perske again and wants to learn from her and wants her as a mentor to help deal with the “Luthor’s of this world”. We would see this relationship in full form in Showcase ‘95 #1 (although briefly) which I covered last week.
The way Linda (not Supergirl at this point so Elizabeth Perske doesn’t recognize her) reacts to seeing her former mentor aboslutely makes it seem like she has not seen her since she merged with Linda. I do like Liz asking Dick if she is “addled”.
It would be about a year and a half until we would see the former wife of Luthor but she would show up seeking out Linda, not Supergirl. Liz was once again in town visiting her old friend Elsa – issue 29 for those keeping track – when she notices the angel statues in her home. Elsa informs Liz that they were made by Linda and gifted to her son. Liz is quite taken by the craftsmanship on display and this would lead to her helping Linda get a gallery showing in Paris.
This arc is told across issues 33-35 of the series and Perske’s involvement starts with her coming to Linda’s apartment to meet with her but after asking to use the restroom Linda quickly realizes her Supergirl costume is still hanging up in there and rushes in front of the older woman. Linda would stay backed up in the toilet until the end of the issue, but only as a cover while she was out Supergirl-ing. The end of the issue has Elizabeth Perske finally able to use the restroom and letting Linda know she’s got a gallery booking in Paris the next week.
The Paris show opens thanks to Elizabeth Perske and Dick Malverne and the show seems to be going good until Linda remembers she had a Supergirl commitment at the same time on the other side of the planet and once again uses the bathroom excuse to sneak away prompting Liz to mention “perhaps I should put her together with my gastroenterologist. From here Liz and Dick have to contend with none other than Parasite destroying Linda’s art show for really no reason. The pair hold their own fairly well but the statues are all destroyed by the time Supergirl enters the scene.
Supergirl and Parasite continue fighting for the rest of the issue and much of the following issue while Liz is left behind picking up the pieces (literally) of Linda’s show while she and Dick assume she is either still in the toilet or too embarrassed to see her show in this state. In a surprising turn of fate however, there are buyers lined up to buy all the remaining statues at significantly higher prices. Linda finally makes an appearance at the end of the issue where she gets the bad news – all her statues went ka-blooey – and the good news – she’s got boko amounts of money now.
I really enjoyed this story arc for Liz and I like how her and Linda played off each other and I wish we could’ve gotten a bit more of that. Perhaps as an artist myself, I just want to see more of Linda pursuing her artistic career. The next time Liz shows up will be her last appearances (issues 53 and 54) and it once again plays up the art connoisseur side of Perske when Linda finds a young artist in New York who also has a bit of a specialty for angel statues. This similarity, along with the kid’s mom being wrongfully (or so it seems) against young Art pursuing his artistic talents, leads Linda to reach out to Perske again to get the young lad set up with a personal studio.
Turns out that Art’s mom wasn’t totally in the wrong, seeing as how Art’s statues have the nasty habit of coming to life and being somewhat demon-esque. Thankfully Supergirl enters the scene to save the day with a bit of a back and forth dialogue (pictured above). Art’s mom tells Liz that his sculptures come to life when he’s sleeping, Buzz tries to kill the kid, and the day is saved by Linda (not Supergirl) faking being killed by the demon sculpture. This action causes Art to snap out of his dream-state and all the sculptures go back to being clay and marble.
The story ends with Liz revealing that she’d always known that Linda was Supergirl, which must account for her not being upset every time she ran off to the bathroom. I do really enjoy this reveal about Liz, it lines up with her first encounter with Supergirl all the way back in Supergirl (vol. 2) #2 when she was able to spot Supergirl even when she wasn’t in her Supergirl costume. This issue (vol. 3 #54) is unfortunately her last appearance, but I’m not sure where else her arc could go.
Elizabeth Perske is a great companion to the Matrix Supergirl and serves as a nice look into the past of Lex Luthor. It did seem to have some inconsistency about exactly what her role in society was, be it traveler, investor, or just general billionaire. I like seeing her as a role model and mentor to Supergirl and the one page in Showcase where we see them working together (before Mae jumps out a window) was a great dynamic that we didn’t see again. Her finally landing as an art connoisseur in her appearances written by Peter David felt like a great solution to who Perske could be and gave her another reason to work with Linda and Supergirl. Since the current Supergirl no longer had any ties to Lex Luthor romantically I can’t really see any situation where Liz Perske would show up again unless the 90s Linda Danvers were to also show back up or if she were to show up in a cameo capacity along with images of Lex’s other former wives.
One last thing I wanted to note is that I did see some discrepancies in Perske’s list of appearances. League of Comic Geeks is my main source for tracking character appearances and it usually works pretty good, but the Secret Files issue as well as Supergirl #53 were not listed for her but they were listed on the DC Wiki. This does mean that potentially there are additional Perske appearances that I didn’t cover here so if anything seems missing please let me know.
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