Earth-57 marks an interesting point in this series because it is the first time we’ve actively skipped a number. Season 1 of Supergirl in the Multiverse covered Earths 0-51 without any skips and January this year featured Earths 52-55. While I did skip around in February and March, those were for specific theming reasons, now that we’re back to going in order (sort of) we come to find that there is not currently a universe in the DC Multiverse with a designation of 56, but we do get an Earth-57. In short, it’s the universe where Superman marries Lois and Lana and Jimmy Olsen marries Supergirl, but it does get a tad more complicated than that.
The universe exists as told in both Superman’s Pal Jimmy Olsen #57 (1961) and Superman’s Girlfriends #57 (1965). The Lois Lane story is the later entry but I want to cover it first for reasons we’ll get into later. Lois Lane #57 takes place on Earth-1 (Pre-Crisis Earth-1), and Lois and Lana are babysitting a Super-Tot who they think is their Superman that has been de-aged. They both hypnotize him (as a toddler) in hopes that he’ll marry them once he reverts to his old self. This does happen, but not the way they expected, the Super-tot they were sitting was actually the de-aged Superman of Earth-57 (it wasn’t named as such at the time, but is the canon designation) and through a viewer in the Fortress Lois and Lana witness Superman of Earth-57 marrying both Lois and Lana and Superman of Earth-1 mentioning that on that universe, bigamy (having 2 wives) is legal.
Jimmy Olsen #57 has a slightly less convoluted plot but there are still some hoops to jump through. Jimmy visits Midvale orphanage to write a story (Linda is there although she has been adopted by the Danvers but this isn’t really relevant). Jimmy unknowingly exposes Linda to red-k which makes her forget that she has superpowers (which k still trying to figure out why she never realized she was wearing a wig) and then the pair fall madly in love and get married. Linda eventually remembers that she has super powers and comes up with a plan to slowly reveal to Jimmy her existence as Supergirl (this story takes place just before her existence is revealed to the world) and then also Linda, as Supergirl, would also confess her love to Jimmy. This puts Jimmy in a pickle and also points to the fact that these 2 Earth-57s cannot exist together at once. Jimmy is conflicted because he is stuck between his wife Linda, and Supergirl who is also confessing her love to him. The conflict being that Jimmy can’t be married to both Supergirl and Linda (which wouldn’t be the case if this universe had legalized bigamy. Of course there is a happy ending with Linda revealing to Jimmy that she’s Supergirl and they continue on with their happy married life.
As with all my Supergirl in the Multiverse posts, this is my own artwork. Supergirl is shown bridal carrying Jimmy Olsen with a wedding finger on her hand. Jimmy is holding a camera and the pair are floating in the air. The background shows a skyline including the Daily Planet and the midground has a suburban home with a mailbox that reads “THE OLSENS”. The top right corner has a motif of Supergirl’s symbol with a 57 on top of it.
Supergirl Vol. 8 has been continuing on for the past year now and just this week saw the release of the first collected edition of the series thusfar. Supergirl Vol. 1: Misadventures in Midvale collects the first 6 issues of Supergirl vol. 8. Issues 1-3 had a consistent team of Sophie Campbell providing writing and art, Tamara Bonvillain on colors, and Becca Carey lettering. Issue 4 would have Dave Sharpe filling in for lettering, before Carey took back over. Issues 5 and 6 would see Rosi Kampe, and Paulina Ganucheau helping Campbell with art and issue 5 had colorists Kendall Goode and Marissa Louise fill in for Bonvillain.
As the title suggests, Supergirl: Misadventures in Midvale does in fact cover some misadventures that happed to Supergirl while she was in Midvale. The first 4 issues that are collected here share the title with the collected edition and tell the story of Lesla-Lar causing mischief in Midvale posing as Supergirl until the real Supergirl is able to convince her that there is another way and begins helping her become her own hero.
Lesla first encounters Supergirl on one of Supergirl’s weekly visits to Kandor. Lesla is caught in the crossfire of a crisis and is heroically saved by the girl of steel. This leads Lesla on a path to leave the bottle city, go to Midvale, hypnotize the Danvers, and pose as Supergirl. As Supergirl, Lesla-Lar has been helping the people of Midvale, but she is also creating crises to create events that would let her preform heroic deeds.
As mentioned above, Supergirl is able to get her identity back from Lesla and while there are tussles between the two, Supergirl doesn’t overpower Lesla with a punch but with a hug. Kara realises that Lesla more than anything else just needs a friend, and even after the Kandorian council sentences her to 10 years in a cognitive correctional facility, Kara instead offers to take Lesla under her wing and keep an eye on her for her sentencing.
Lesla does begin her superheroic journey as the hero Luminary in part 4 of Misadventures in Midvale and of course a crises happens but Supergirl and friends are able to take care of it. Issue 5 lets Supergirl take a back seat in the story and instead focuses on the 4 super-pets that are common characters in the series; Krypto, Streaky, Kandy, and Tinytano. This is a relatively isolated story but it does mention the fallout of issue 4 and leaves you with a cliffhanger for issue 6. Issue 6 too is relatively isolated and tells a story of Supergirl encountering Nightflame of the Innerverse. This theme of single issue stories building on a larger narrative is true of all the stories in this collection. Even the 4 issues making up the Misadventures in Midvale story each tell their own story with their own plot and antagonist. You get the Titano issue, the Satan Girl issue, and the issue where Supergirl and the L.L. girls go to a goth bar.
The cast of the series for the most part is Supergirl and girls with the initials L.L. which has been a common theme with Superman and his supporting characters like Lois Lane, Lex Luthor, and Lana Lang (even Supergirl was named Linda Lee for a while). Supergirl’s crew also has Luthor, although Lena is much less villainous than her dad, Lesla-Lar, and a new character introduced Luna Lustrum. Aside from Kara’s ever growing fleet of L.L. girls, Jeremiah and Eliza Danvers are also present living in Kara’s childhood home in Midvale. The aforementioned Super-Pets are also all over the series, Krypto the Superdog (needs no introduction), Streaky the Supercat (not Kryptonian but very super in his own way), Kandy the Superbunny (Lesla’s pet bunny who grew and got powers along with Lesla when coming to Midvale), and Tinytano (Titano the giant monkey with Kryptonite eye beams but now he’s tiny.
This series is great and it continues to be wonderful past the issues collected here but this is a wonderful start. This series is also a great entry point for new Supergirl readers and Sophie Campbell does a great job of sprinkling in bits and pieces of Supergirl’s long running (nearly 70 years!) history all while building up a new history and status quo for the maid of might. Campbell definitely shows a firm grasp on Supergirl’s history and if you’re familiar with that it reads as fun Easter eggs, (issue 6 is particularly full of references) but this story doesn’t rely on knowing all of Supergirl’s history and can be enjoyed just the same by readers new to the character.
As a collected edition, this is fairly bare bones. For the most part the six issues are just reprinted without changes. I did notice that the “to be continued” blurbs from each issue did get removed but some of the editor notes that mentioned “see last issue” were still intact which feels counterintuitive to me. Before each issue you get both the Sophie Campbell cover as well as the Artgerm cover each presented without any cover dress so you can appreciate the art all by itself. In the back we get a handful of pages of cover galley and a few sketch pages from Sophie Campbell. The advertisement for other Supergirl trades is the same as the set from the Universe End trade and I think it’s a great set to show readers a wide array of Supergirl stories. The story is fun when it needs to be and heavy when it needs to be, there’s action, there’s dialogue, and there’s a fully formed supporting cast, this truly is a Supergirl story for everyone.
If you haven’t read any of this series yet you absolutely should. I’ve read a lot of Supergirl stories and Campbell writes some of the best Supergirl stories that I’ve ever read and I continue to enjoy the title every month. Here’s to many more stories yet to come.
The Amalgam Universe was born from the cross dimensional being known as Access during the pages of Marvel vs. DC back in 1996. This birthed a total of 24 one-shot comics spread across 2 waves that showed stories of characters that were amalgamations of characters from the DC and Marvel universes. The Amalgam universe has several numeric designations such as 1996, 962, 9602, and 496 as well as just being referred to as the Amalgamverse. My coverage of this universe will feature 5 entries for Supergirl in the Multiverse and my initial plan was to use some of these alternative number designations for each. However, to make categorizing them easier I will just be using what seems to be the most likely DC designation of 496.
As mentioned above, the Amalgam universe would take a character from the DC universe and one from the Marvel (sometimes more than 2 characters would merge). There are 2 canonical Amalgam characters that fit the Supergirl role, and the second of which is Mary Marvel Girl. Mary Marvel Girl is simultaneously the most in canon Supergirl in the Amalgam Universe while also being the least justified. First off, to allow Mary Marvel Girl to count, you first have to allow Mary Marvel counting as a Supergirl, which we did back with Earth-5. In addition to this, Mary Marvel Girl is also just one of many forms that Dial HUSK takes in her two appearances (X-Patrol and Exciting X-Patrol) and Dial HUSK is obviously meant to be an amalgamation of Dial H for Hero and the mutant Husk. Once we get past agreeing that this is technically a Supergirl, we are met with the only Supergirl who appears in an issue of the Amalgam line of books but even still she only shows up for 4 panels at the end of X-Patrol. In these panels we are met with a character who is of course an amalgamation of Mary Marvel and Marvel Girl. Her personality seems mostly derived from the cheerful kiddish nature of Mary Marvel, while also possessing “the wisdom of Minerva” as well as probably the rest of Mary Marvel’s pantheon of goddesses. Her powers mostly present as telekinetic and are visualized as pink lightning. Otherwise we never see this character again and don’t learn more about her.
As with all my Supergirl in the Multiverse posts, this is my own artwork. Mary Marvel Girl stands in the center of the panel with her right arm outstretched towards the viewer and her left hand against her head. There are traces of pink energy exploding out from either hand. The background is an ambiguous green space and the top right corner has a motif of Mary Marvel Girl’s symbol with a 496 on top of it.
While Supergirl and Lobo don’t necessarily have a storied past together, they have shown up together a handful of times together. Fairly early on in the development of the 2026 Supergirl film, Jason Momoa was cast as Lobo in the movie and while the movie is mostly based on Woman of Tomorrow, Lobo doesn’t appear in the comic at all. So given the fact that Lobo is going to be in the movie, I’ve been planning on covering the times that Lobo and Supergirl appeared together. In addition to that, recently it was announced that there will be a Supergirl and Lobo story in the June comic Summer of Supergirl Special #1, as well as that same story being told from Lobo’s perspective in Lobo #4 that same month so now seems like a better time than ever to talk about The Brave and the Bold (vol. 3) #4 and Supergirl (vol. 6) #26.
This iteration of The Brave and the Bold tells an overarching narrative throughout the first dozen issues where the heroes of the DC Universe are tracking down the Book of Destiny and I think it sort of resolves itself with the Challengers of the Unknown but it has been a bit since I’ve read the series so I don’t totally remember. Because of this, the story does not immediately open with Supergirl and Lobo and instead has a splash page of Batman merged with Fearsome Five member Tharok and 4 additional pages of Batrok and Blue Beetle (the 3rd one) fighting the Fearsome Five. By no means is this section of the book bad, it’s just not why we’re here. Before we get into the cover feature, the creative team on this book is pretty great on all accounts. Mark Waid and George Perez as storytellers, Bob Wiacek inks, Tom Smith colors, and Rob Leigh lettering.
Supergirl and Lobo actually meet up first in the issue prior where Supergirl tracks him down across 3 pages so that he can lead her to Rann to meet back up with Green Lantern who she got separated from in issue 2. Lobo agrees to work with Supergirl, and after seeing her S agrees to take payment after job completion. We get to see Lobo being absoutely despicable in these 3 pages but don’t worry theres a whole lot more of that to come. Supergirl is also wearing a leather jacket, a choker and some sunglasses to hide her Kryptonian identity but it creates a great look for her that is sadly limited to this Supergirl/Lobo story.
Getting into issue 4 proper now, the Supergirl/Lobo story opens with the pair arm wrestling which Supergirl only agreed to so they would get back on track to getting to Rann and finding Green Lantern. Lobo wins and they continue on their way before soon getting lost in some hedge maze that doesn’t make sense in physical space. Lobo uses his expert tracking super power to find their way out and meet Destiny who gives them some plot which Lobo doesn’t care about so he goes off to find his bike. Supergirl has a bit more knowledge on what’s going on and how to fix whatever overarching plot is happening and the Main Man picks her up and they go back into space, have a little heart to heart, and Lobo drops her on Rann and proceeds to split without getting proper payment since Supergirl assures him the payment was her letting him win the arm wrestle earlier in the story.
We get some absolute banger bits of dialogue throughout this story which I’m going to run down here starting with; “Take y’r x-ray vision off my package f’r one minute and see what you can see.” “That was my microscopic vision.” which points to Supergirl having quick wit as one of her super powers. Supergirl will later ask Lobo “why do you always lead with your face” with the response from the main man of course being “It’s my best feature.” Supergirl absolutely pummels Lobo screaming “Stop calling be “blondie” “babe” or especially “toots” got that?”
I mentioned briefly in the synopsis that the pair have a heart to heart on their final stretch to Rann. Here Lobo sheds just the smallest amount of his tough guy persona letting Kara know that Supergirl has nothing to worry about in regards to her future but he makes sure to not get too sappy at the end by gassing himself up asking Supergirl if she’s just trying to be like him.
There’s a really nice dynamic presented in this issue between the Main Man and the Maid of Might that really works. Lobo is convinced he’s the center of the universe and makes sure Supergirl knows it. Supergirl is in her rebellious teen era but she’s still trying her darndest to be a great hero nonetheless. These competing egos are constantly getting pushed over the edge by Lobo hitting on Supergirl (who is 16 at this time) and Supergirl thinking he’s the most vile piece of work she’s ever seen. All in all a great read and the Supergirl/Lobo moments work perfectly fine in isolation even if some of the larger plot gets lost reading this issue by itself.
Moving onto “Survivors” from Supergirl (vol. 6) #26, presented by Tony Bedard writing, Yildiray Cinar penciling, Ray McCarthy inkng, and Rob Leigh lettering. It seems like Lobo (which yes this story features the New 52 twink version of the character) has landed on earth where he is tracking what seems to be the standard Lobo but I haven’t read any New 52 Lobo comics so I can’t really confirm what his story line was going through. What I can say however is that his informant points him towards Shay Veritas.
Supergirl has also gone to find Dr. Veritas in the Block but as a friend seeking answers to her absolutely bonkers set of circumstances she had been through in the previous few issues which is actually explained pretty well across a 2 page splash. After telling her whole life story while getting some tests run, Shay gets a call from Lobo’s informant who we saw earlier and she seems to be double timing Lobo since she gives Dr. Veritas warning about the incoming intruder. Veritas sends Supergirl to take him on and very quickly the battle seems to end in favor of Supergirl who seems to have killed Twink Lobo.
Against all odds however Lobo does get better and this story continues on for the next couple issues before leading into the Red Daughter arc. Much like the earlier story, I do mostly want to take this story on by itself and look at how Supergirl and Lobo interact here. Supergirl herself is in a pretty rough state going into this story and her emotions seem to be a bit on edge and she doesn’t seem to have a full grasp on her powers leading to her supposed murder of Lobo. Lobo on the other hand seems much more driven and formal about his bounty hunting than his former counterpart which is definitely a change of pace from what I’m used to in regards to Lobo.
It does seem there is a bit of the writer trying to insert some of that Lobo hitting on Supergirl flair that we got in The Brave and the Bold, but it doesn’t really land for me. We’ve got Lobo referring to Supergirl as “Honey” and calling her cute, but it doesn’t really read as flirtation. We do get Lobo at one point thinking to himself “blondie’s coming. Leading with her chin.” which does have a nice parallel to the other story with Supergirl asking why Lobo always leads with his face. Lobo in Supergirl #26 being driven also has a bit of inverse similarity to Supergirl being so driven while her partner has his own thing going on in Brave and the Bold #4.
These 2 stories are by no means the only comics where Supergirl and Lobo meet up, but they are the most direct interactions between the two. The fight from Supergirl 26 does get referenced later on in Justice League United when Lobo shows up to fight the team while Supergirl is a member. On the other hand I don’t think there is much more Supergirl/Lobo action in the Pre-Flashpoint era, although there does seem to be a bit of an overlap with Lobo and Matrix, but nothing quite resembling a team up. The Young Justice series was running concurrently with the Supergirl title in the 90s and with both being written by Peter David, there were crossovers a couple times and Lobo (in his Slobo phase) was part of that team for a bit and it’s possible they saw each other then. Both Supergirl and Lobo were present during the Sins of Youth story so once again it’s possible there was some interaction. My research does point to Superman the Man of Steel #20 being the first comic where they are both present but I wouldn’t call it their first meeting seeing as they’re on separate planets. More recently I do they were both a part of House of Brainiac from a couple years back but no major interactions from what I remember.
I think Lobo can fit quite nicely into the Woman of Tomorrow story, he’s got the grimy sort of style to him that can fit into that story without too much changing. I think if anything specific from these comics were to show up in the movie, it would be the arm wrestling scene which I feel could translate quite well into live action. Lobo is not a character I particularly care for, and I don’t think I’ve ever read one of his solo books but I do like him as a supporting/antagonistic character to the Superman family and don’t mind him showing up from time to time.
The Amalgam Universe was born from the cross dimensional being known as Access during the pages of Marvel vs. DC back in 1996. This birthed a total of 24 one-shot comics spread across 2 waves that showed stories of characters that were amalgamations of characters from the DC and Marvel universes. The Amalgam universe has several numeric designations such as 1996, 962, 9602, and 496 as well as just being referred to as the Amalgamverse. My coverage of this universe will feature 5 entries for Supergirl in the Multiverse and my initial plan was to use some of these alternative number designations for each. However, to make categorizing them easier I will just be using what seems to be the most likely DC designation of 496.
As mentioned above, the Amalgam universe would take a character from the DC universe and one from the Marvel (sometimes more than 2 characters would merge). There are 2 canonical Amalgam characters that fit the Supergirl role, but I am also going to be putting together 3 of my own amalgamated Supergirls. This is the last of my original Amalgam Supergirls, with Spidergirl! Young Spidergirl, Mayday Ross, hailing from the near future, comes to meet Spider-Man (well he was still Spider-Boy back then) who she claims is her father and Mary Jane “Insect Queen” Watson is her mother. The young bachelor, Pete Ross of course wants nothing to do with this supposed daughter and tries to brush her off but Spidergirl still jumps into the scene and becomes a hero in her own right.
It would later be revealed, after one crisis or reboot or possibly when heroes got reborn, that Spidergirl wasn’t actually the daughter of Spider-Boy but is the long lost cousin of Mig-El Gand the Spider-Boy 2099. Cir-El Gand was taken from her family as a baby and locked in stasis until she was found by the Legion of Galactic Guardians 2099 and now meeting her cousin as the new Spider-Boy, she too undergoes the Super-Spider transformation allowing her to become Spidergirl and join the Legion herself. Unfortunately for her, on a mission back to the early 21st century she gets captured by the Futuresmiths and they brainwash her into believing she was the daughter of Spider-Boy. Now that she’s got her memory back to sorts, she returns to using the name Cir-El, but adopts the surname of Parker to honor the fallen scientist who fell in the creation of the Super-Spider. Cir-El Parker would return to the future and continue on in the fight against evil along with the rest of the Legion of Galactic Guardians.
As with all my Supergirl in the Multiverse posts, this is my own artwork. Spidergirl is crouching while sticking to the side of a building. There is a city scape behind her including the Daily Bugle building. The entire scene is skewed making Spidergirl look upside-down. There is a motif of Spidergirl’s S with a 496 in the top right corner.
The Daring New Blog of Supergirl 