Earth-38 (or 3839 classically) is the designation for the miniseries saga by John Byrne, Superman Batman Generations. The Generations universe is told across 3 miniseries and tells of a universe where Superman and Batman enter the scene in the late 30s and age and change with the times as they would without the sliding timeline that has been common in western comics. The comics are told by showing brief vignettes of the characters lives before skipping forward decades or centuries at a time. Since the characters are able to grow and change, we get to know the children and grandchildren of these golden age heroes and see the torch pass down to new generations of heroes.
Kara Kent is the Supergirl of this universe and is the daughter of Clark (Superman) Kent and Lois Lane. Born in 1953, Kara would be given a necklace that emitted red solar radiation to help keep her powers in check until she was more prepared to use them for heroic deeds. It would be 1964 where she – alongside other young heroes; Bruce (Robin) Wayne Jr., Wally (Kid Flash) West, and Stephanie (Wonder Girl) Trevor – would join together as a brand new heroic team called the Justice League. Kara and Bruce Wayne Jr., having grown up together, would become romantically involved and get married in 1979 but their wedding would be unfortunately short-lived due to the villainous hands of Lex Luthor. The main thing that sets this Supergirl apart from other universe variants of the character is her wearing a wig when preforming heroics as Supergirl, opposite to the classical Linda Danvers wig that was quite common in the pre-Crisis era.
As with all my Supergirl in the Multiverse posts this is my own artwork. A short comic strip shows Kara Kent changing from her civilian identity to her super-heroic identity. Starting in the bottom left with Kara Kent ripping her shirt open to reveal her S-shield, 6 panels show the various steps of changing into her costume, and Supergirl flies off into the top right. A motif in the top right has Supergirl’s symbol with a 38 on top of it.
The Brave and the Bold is a title from DC that has appeared a few times throughout DC’s rich history. The title doesn’t have a specific star but is instead a team-up book and often has Batman teaming up with a fellow hero from across the DC universe. The book has not always been a Batman team-up book, it started with all manner of characters like the Challengers of the Unknown, Cave Carson, and the Suicide Squad. This book is also notable for being the debut of the Justice League and the Teen Titans, but that’s not who we’re here to discuss. Instead we will be looking at the issues that Supergirl appears in as a starring feature. Supergirl appeared in 3 issues of the initial run of the Brave and the Bold, issues 63, 147, and 160. She would also show up in the 2007 run of The Brave and the Bold but I’ll save that for another time and stick to the Pre-Crisis series instead.
The Brave and the Bold issue 63 presents us with a story of “Two Super-Chicks on a New Kick!” Supergirl and Wonder Woman are the stars of this particular issue and it’s here that the 2 mighty heroines meet for the first time. Bob Haney as writer and John Rosenberger as artist present this story called “The Revolt of the Super-Chicks” in 1965. After rescuing a couple of movie stars and getting no recognition for her amazing feat, Supergirl decides to give up the Superhero life and live as an ordinary girl. She takes a year off college and her foster parents send her on a trip to Paris where she takes up a job as a model, here she is much more recognized and idolized unlike when she was saving lives. Her cousin, Superman, is having none of this and sends the much more mature Wonder Woman after his young cousin to set her back on the path of heroics. The plan unfortunately backfires and Wonder Woman herself is caught up in the joy of living as a woman without any heroic duties. The pair continue on as normal girls and each find a charming young French man to woo over them, and both couples end up on the Ile d’Amour. Here we are introduced to the antagonist of the tale, Multi-Face, who can change is face to whatever he wishes. The two couples carry on with their dates but continue to be met with challenges only their super-powers can handle. A new conflict arises where each girl has a need to save the day, but are unable to show themselves as strong in front of their suitors. Even so, the heroines both continue to preform miraculous feats and find new ways for their companions to be distracted while doing so. Eventually however they both realize that they must work together to stop Multi-Face and go to their respective French boys and tell them that they no longer have time for love. And thus Supergirl and Wonder Woman are back fighting for Justice and Henri and Andre are left alone on the Island of Love as the heroes fly away.
Wowee what a doozy. As I began reading this, and even up to like halfway through I was convinced the story was going to involve Multi-Face somehow tricking the gals into giving up their lives as heroes by changing his face into that of the French suitors that we met in part one, but it was totally unrelated. Even on the island, which also stood as Multi-Face’s base was just a happy coincidence that everyone ended up there, Henri and Andre could’ve been portrayed as working as goons for the evil mastermind but were instead entirely unaffiliated. So we are instead left with the two most prominent and long standing DC Heroines deciding to give up the hero life to be pampered of their own free will, Wonder Woman herself barely needs a new dress and a kiss to convince her. Also Multi-Face barely uses his face changing ability, the most he does is change into a fox while saying “what a foxy idea”, he could’ve been any other mad scientist villain but instead he has budget Clayface powers that he doesn’t even use in his plans. Also there’s a moment in the story where supergirl uses gold to block Kryptonite radiation as opposed to lead which isn’t accurate. I tried to go into the story with an open mind and I’m quite fond of Pre-Crisis Supergirl stories, but I really could not get behind Kara deciding to not be a hero anymore just because she wants to be more in the public eye. It seems selfish and childish especially for the girl that worked tirelessly for years to be a great hero and train herself to be her cousin’s partner, the same girl who wept when her powers were stripped from her by Lesla-Lar before she could be revealed to the world. Hopefully the next two issues present a much more appealing girl of steel.
It would be over a decade before the Maid of Steel graced the pages of The Brave and the Bold again, but 1978’s “Death-Scream from the Sky” has Supergirl featured along with Batman. Cary Burkett writes with Jim Aparo and Jerry Sperpe on art duties. Opening with Bruce Wayne in a board meeting, the plot is soon thrust upon us as the Children of Light hijack the screen that Bruce was using to show a broadcast from the other side of the world using a new technology called Globe-Span. The Children of Light mention they have taken over Globe-Span and plan to destroy lives if their demands aren’t met. Bruce expertly sneaks away so that Batman can begin his investigation at the source; the Midvale STAR Labs facility where the satellites were manufactured. Upon entering however, he finds an unconscious Supergirl who was busy investigating herself. The pair work together and figure out there has been tampering to the satellites in the form of red sun energy that can take away Supergirl’s powers. The pair take their investigation to space in a more direct attack on the satellite. But with Supergirl being unable to get close to it on her own, Batman approaches himself in a space shuttle but he was unprepared for laser defenses and nearly lost his life if not for the quick reflexes and thinking of his Kryptonian companion. Back on earth the pair follow up on Supergirl’s lead, a young man she met at the New Athens school who was sapping her powers, Josh Kimble. His exposure to the red sun energy while working on the satellite was the cause of Supergirl’s power loss, at his place they find a note that says “Light is Under the Sun.” Batman’s deductive reasoning of course leads the pair to Le Soleil a club in Gotham. Here they find none other than Dr. Light, and Batman easily takes card of Light and his goons while Supergirl has to race a radio signal into space that Dr. Light transmitted. Supergirl of course wins the race and Batman of course takes care of Dr. Light’s terrorist gang and the day is saved.
While this issue definitely felt more like a Batman story than a Supergirl story, Supergirl was still given plenty to do and both members of the team-up bring plenty to the table. Supergirl is often removed of her powers throughout this story which helps Batman to stay in the spotlight, but Supergirl still gets to race a radio transmission and she even uses her super speed and indestructible cape to save Batman’s life. Quite a fun little read and by all means a step up from the former issue that I covered, but at only 17 pages its a rather light read.
The final story this time out (issue 160) advertises “Together again — the team you demanded!” on the cover wo I imagine issue 147 was quite popular. Once again we have Batman and Supergirl, and with the same Burkett, Aparo, and Serpe team giving us a story called “The Brimstone Connection”. From the start of the issue, Batman is on the case of Brimstone, the mastermind behind stealing a secret new rocket fuel formula. Very soon however we learn that Linda (Supergirl) Danver’s father, Fred, has been kidnapped due to his work on this formula. The pair set off immediately to Mr. Danver’s study where Batman finds a clue. This clue leads to to “a seedier section of Gotham” and to Jasper Casbeer specifically. They find Casbeer but not before he burns the document showing the route for the formula. Thanks to Supergirl’s Super-recall she is able to expertly reconstruct it. Now they can lay a trap of a phoney formula and track it back to the source, Brimstone himself. Supergirl uses her Super-vision to keep track of the bait that finally leads to an old abandoned factory. Supergirl is taken away with a diversion of a plane taking off and Batman is soon trapped by Brimstone’s gang. While Batman can easily break from the ropes that bind him, the preassure plate he stands on is tied to a bomb that will kill Fred Danvers if Batman escapes. Batman is able to out-think this trap and free’s Danvers, then the pair radio for Supergirl. A clue points the team to a submarine where the criminals have used to get away, but a submarine is no match for the maid of might as she lifts it back onto land and incapacitates the crew and the ringleader. With another crisis adverted and the day saved, Batman suggests the three of them (Batman, Supergirl, and Fred Danvers) go get coffee to celebrate a job well done.
I enjoyed how much more the story this time focused on Supergirl, and having her father so directly involved with the plot made the stakes that much higher for long-time Supergirl fans. Supergirl was also able to use a wide array of powers this time out and even mentions at one point that Super-vision is required to keep track of the formula trail, cementing her as necessary to solving this particular case. We’re also given a very detective oriented Batman which I much prefer to a more brutal punching kind of Batman. I would say my main beef with the story is how they introduced the rocket fuel formula case to Batman. While on its own it makes sense that Batman could save a secret agent who tells Batman of this rocket fuel thing, I think if we just started with Linda coming to Bruce Wayne with her Dad being kidnapped it would’ve been a much more natural introduction to the conflict and would’ve saved a couple pages. Really fun story all around and probably my favorite of the 3 issues.
The original run of The Brave and the Bold is a series I’ve not really read much of so this little trip into the series was fun even with the rather disappointing first issue. The Supergirl/Batman team, especially in the bronze age, is dynamic and fun and they can play off each other nicely. The Batman/Supergirl dynamic would be played with again in the post crisis era which led to some nice scenes. Thanks for reading and feel free to email me at daringnewblog@gmail.com if you have any suggestions for other Supergirl things to cover.
Earth-37 was originally called Earth-61 and is often associated with the Thrillkiller Elseworlds stories. Thrillkiller, and its sequel Thrillkiller ’62 were written by Howard Chaykin and depicted a Gotham in the 1960s that featured that all so common, at the time, 90s gritty realism. Barbara Gordon, and her partner Dick Grayson, patrol the streets of Gotham as Batgirl and Robin and are up against corrupt police and fiendish foes and a Gotham far removed from its normal 60s representations. Earth-37 however, also includes one of Chaykin’s other DC works Twilight. Twilight, much like Thrillkiller, represents more DC Characters in a gritty 90s realistic way but this time its classic DC Sci-Fi characters. Twilight has charachters like Tommy Tomorrow, Ironwolf, and (most important to this week’s post) The Star Rovers.
Karel Sorensen was a member of the Star Rovers and first appeared in Mystery in Space #66. The Star Rovers were a team of space adventurers and mystery solvers. In Twilight, they are working on finding the secret to immortality and are on the trail of the Methusoloids when Karel is caught in an atomic blast that would have normally killed anyone else. Instead, Karel survives and gains godlike powers and becomes a deity as mankind unlocks the secrets of immortality. She would gain an immense galaxywide following and the space museum would become her base of operations and church.
As with all my Supergirl in the Multiverse posts, this is my own artwork. Karel Sorensen, former Star Rover, is depicted in the center of the page in her deity garb with lots of golds and whites. To the left you can see the Space Museum that would come to be her base of operations, on the right is Sorensen in her Star Rover uniform and a depiction of her getting caught in the atomic blast that gave her her powers. The top right shows a motif of a star (for her time as a Star Rover) with a 37 on top of it.
As you may be aware, I’m a huge fan of the DC Super Heroes and a huge fan of LEGO so the (short-lived) LEGO line for the girls is quite a treat for me. The line ran from 2016-2017 and had 10 main sets spread across 2 waves. This will be a pretty broad look at the line but I’d like to showcase all the sets and try my best to give a good look at everything the line had to offer. For those unaware that this line existed, it was part of the initial Super Hero Girls run when the series had webisodes posted onto YouTube. The series also exists adjacent to the LEGO Friends line. LEGO Friends is a LEGO property that aims to target more specifically to girls and does so by having brighter colored bricks and “Mini-Dolls” as opposed to the iconic Minifigures. The “girl” LEGO sets also tend to feature more stickers than standard LEGO sets and it’s not necessarily because they use fewer printed bricks, but more so as a way to portray a lot more intricate details. I unfortunately didn’t get any of these sets as they were coming out since I was in college and I’m not positive I was fully aware of them at the time. Getting these sets on the secondhand market isn’t actually as bad as some out of production LEGO sets so I have been able to get them without having to spend too much over original retail and I was even able to get most of them new in box!
As I mentioned, the series had 10 sets in 2 waves, but there were also 2 promotional items that came out. The first promo, and unfortunately the only LEGO DC Super Hero Girls set I don’t have, was produced for the 2016 NYCC and was a Batgirl Mini-Doll. Seeing as it was just the figure and not even a different variant from what we would get in the full set later on I’m not too upset about not having her as part of my collection. The next promo set was a proper set, although still rather small, and released as a polybag in 2017. This set featured Krypto in a little flying car and a Kryptomite with a jet-pack. The remainder of this blog post will look at all the mini-dolls, then all the vehicles, and then a quick little look at at least one fun feature of each set.
First up all our Hero Mini-Dolls. As you can see, some of the characters have different costumes, this is because these characters appeared in multiple sets. I will be referring to them as “A-Costumes” and “B-Costumes” where the A-Costume will be their main costume and the B-Costume will be a variant. Some of the characters also have little cellphone accessories that are fun little unique pieces exclusive to this line. First up is, of course, Supergirl! She first showed up in her A-Costume in 2016’s Super Hero High School (41232). Her B-Costume is from the next year’s Lena Luthor Kryptomite Factory (41238) and features a sleeveless costume and pants and a 2-color cape that is achieved by having both a red and a blue cape element included with the set. Batgirl is next, and if you count her NYCC appearance, she is the mini-doll with the most set appearances. Her A-Costume, with the black pants, is from Batgirl Batjet Chase (41230) and her B-Costume uses lighter purples (aside from her reused cowl from her A-Costume) and came with Batgirl Secret Bunker (41237). Wonder Woman seems to be the only one of the main 4 to not get a cellphone accessory but I may just be missing the piece. She shows up in her A-Costume in Wonder Woman Dorm (41235) and then later in a darker colored costume in Eclipso Dark Palace (41239). Our last figure with 2 variants is Harley Quinn. She first shows up in Harley Quinn to the Rescue (41231), and then in her pjs in Harley Quinn Dorm (41236). Poison Ivy would show up alongside Supergirl in Super Hero High School (41232). Bumblebee would get her own set in 2016, Bumblebee Helicopter (41234). Steve Trevor is the only civilian to show up in the series, and he shows up in his Capes & Cowls work uniform with Harley in Harley Quinn to the Rescue (41231). Flash, the second of 2 boy Mini-Dolls in the line, is part of the Eclipso Dark Palace (41239) set and features him without a mask on which seems bonkers to me. Last up for the hero team is Krypto who appears more than anyone else in 3 sets: Lashina Tank (41233), Krypto Saves the Day (30546), and Lena Luthor Kryptomite Factory (41238).
Now for the baddies! Lena Luthor is the only of the bad guys to show up more than once, but she reuses the same look in both Super Hero High School (41232) and Lena Luthor Kryptomite Factory (41238) where she faces off against Supergirl both times. Eclipso seems like the other main bad guy seeing as she gets her own palace (41239) where she’s up against Flash and Wonder Woman. Her Mini-Doll also features 2 cape pieces, one attached at the neck and one at the hips, both of which seem exclusive to this figure. Mad Harriet and Lashina are both members of the Female Furies and appear in Batgirl Secret Bunker (41237), and Lashina Tank (41233) respectively. Absolutely brutal that Lashina gets paired up with the dog instead of proper super heroes like all the other villains. Last up are the Kryptomites who appear in several different colors and in every single set in some variety and quantity.
The vehicles, somewhat in order of release. Most sets come with some sort of vehicle adding to the play features and giving the Mini-Dolls something to interact with. In Batgirl Batjet Chase (41230) you of course get a Batjet as the main feature of the set. This Batjet has a single cockpit seat in the purple bat shape, we get a couple mounted stud launchers, and at the bottom is a net launcher. Harley Quinn to the Rescue (41231) uses the same net launcher that Batgirl has but in red this time and the little rocket Harley uses is pretty small since the Capes and Cowls Cafe is the main feature of the set. Super Hero High (41232) has a couple smaller vehicles given to Lena and Poison Ivy but both are pretty nice since Lena’s hover ship has a claw out the front and Ivy’s motorcycle can be launched out of the schools tower in a cool way. If you were thinking that the Lashina Tank (41233) set would have Lashina in a tank, you’d be correct. Even though it’s the main feature of her set, it’s still a rather small build because of how small the set is. Similarly, the Bumblebee Helicopter (41234) is another small set with another small vehicle. Closing out the vehicle lineup for the first wave is a motorcycle from Wonder Woman Dorm (41235). It uses some pretty standard motorcycle LEGO bricks but with a mixture of stickers and transparent elements you get a very Wonder Woman branded build. Krypto Saves the Day (30546) is a polybag and the smallest of the Super Hero Girls sets, but features some cool elements including 2 custom printed elements.
Harley may have the short one of the stick in the vehicle department since her vehicle in Harley Quinn Dorm (41236) is also rather tiny, just being a skateboard pice with some handlebars. Batgirl on the other hand, gets a Battruck with built in jail cell that can transform into another Batjet in Batgirl Secret Bunker (41237). Lena Luthor Kryptonite Factory (41238) gives both Supergirl and Lena a boat, and while the factory is obviously the main sell, Supergirl’s Super-Boat is a pretty solid build and could be a nice polybag on its own. Eclipso Dark Palace (41239) also features a good guy and a bad guy vehicle. Eclipso gets her own small jet and Wonder Woman gets her iconic invisible jet that utilizes a lot of transparent bricks and even has a second cockpit seat to be used by Flash who also appears in the set, although any Mini-Doll can copilot.
The Batjet set is fairly simple and doesn’t seem to offer anything overly memorable to me. It does however feature the only Kryptomite specific vehicle so that’s nice to see, they’re usually just on their own or with a jet-pack as is show in Krypto Saves the Day.
The Capes and Cowls Cafe features some cool elements including an arcade cabinet, a coffee maker, and a breakaway window. I want to talk instead about this custom printed 2×2 tile that seems to be mimicking a comic cover. I’ve not been able to pin down if this is supposed to be a direct comic reference or just a generic overall reference. The circle in the top left and the starburst behind the issue number has the same vibes as the Johnny DC line of comics from the early 2000s that targeted young audiences, titles like Tiny Titans and Supergirl: Cosmic Adventures in the 8th Grade were part of this line.
Being the largest set of the first wave and the main locale of the series as a whole, Super Hero High School has a lot of cool features and Easter eggs, but my favorite is the play feature where the whole tower opens into a ramp and releases Ivy’s motorcycle that was hidden inside.
Lashina’s set features a tank that I showed earlier, but one thing I didn’t note is that it features a little cage in the back for Krypto who also came in the set.
As I mentioned at the start, I got all of these sets secondhand, and while I was able to get a bunch still in box, there were a few I got used and already put together. Most of the used sets I got were complete or only missing a couple inconsequential pieces, this Bumblebee set I got was the most incomplete. When I got it I got it with just the helicopter itself and the Bumblebee Mini-Doll (without her wings though) and I’m missing the chest, the yellow cord, and the Kryptomites. I think this set is the only one with red Kryptomites which is rather tragic. I probably will look into replacing this set at some point with a more complete or hopefully in box version.
There are a few of the Super Hero Girls sets that have some advertised connect-ability but the best connections come with the two dorm room sets that clip into the Super Hero High set. Pictured here is both dorms clipped into the High School, and the way the clips are set up it seems like they planned on doing more, so perhaps we would’ve gotten dorm rooms for all the girls if the line continued.
Even though the Krypto Saves the Day set is just a polybag, I really like the build and both the custom printed bricks are exclusive to this set. The S Shield printed 1×2 slope has a lot of potential for use in any Super Family related builds, and the wing with series logo on it is just a neat piece for a collection. Both of this elements are exclusive to this set but thankfully you can still get this set in new condition for right around retail price so go wild if you want any of these elements. Also the set has a pink crystal element that would imply that pink-kryptonite is canon in the Super Hero Girls universe.
For Harley’s Dorm set the wildest part to me is the inclusion of the Mjölnir piece. This was one of the sets I got secondhand so I always figured it was mistakenly paired with the set or maybe the previous owner decided Thor should take a whack at the hammer-bell game. Upon researching though, the set does in fact just come with Thor’s magic hammer.
The Batgirl Secret Bunker set has quite a few fun play elements and cool features and I also think Mad Harriet’s inclusion is the most absurd for the line. All that being said though, the part that exited me the most when putting this together was the little bench press section. Not only is the dumbbell represented by a set of purple skateboard wheels, they’re held up by a single black skeleton leg! Absolutely bonkers instance of nice-parts-usage in an otherwise pretty standard line of LEGO sets.
There’s a cool section in the Kryptomite Factory that represents Lena’s lab that has a few interesting elements. There’s a screen with Krypto, a Kryptomite, and a Brainiac symbol on it. Unfortunately it is a sticker as opposed to a printed tile so it’s a bit less exciting. There’s also a brick built microscope in here that’s very effectively portrayed.
Last up is the Eclipso set. Once again, as the largest set of the wave, it’s a very intricate build with lots of play features. My favorite portion on this one is the Eclipso Jet I showed earlier being able to sit on top of the set and also serve as the spire for the palace.
Thanks for sticking around! I know this post was a bit longer than I normally go but I hope you enjoyed. If you have any of these sets I’d love to hear your thoughts. You can send those thoughts to daringnewblog@gmail.com and stay tuned for more posts coming soon!
Rounding up our little trilogy of homage universes we come to Earth-36. Earth-36 is a bit more fleshed out in the proper DC multiverse unlike the previous Earths-34 and 35, but it’s still fairly bare bones. Thankfully, the universe is analogous to Big Bang Comics. Big Bang Comics was a series that was published by Caliber Comics and later Image and the series tried to recapture Golden and Silver age concepts and vibes in their comics. Each issue would be an anthology with a rotating cast of characters like Ultiman, The Knight Watchman, Thunder Girl, and many others. While generally when looking into these characters, their first appearances are often listed as Big Bang #1 but nearly all of these characters have their roots in earlier books. Heck, Dr. Weird dates all the way back to the 60s!
Ultiman (Chris Kelly) is of course the Superman analog for this universe and his daughter, Christine (Ultragirl) Kelly is the Supergirl analogue. Both these characters, along with Youngblood surprisingly, first show up in the very short lived Megaton Comics. Ultragirl gets her origin in issue 1 where we see that she is the daughter of a well known superhero “Ultraman” (this would change to Ultiman in the shift over to Big Bang). Ultraman had been an astronaut exposed to some radiation and, in classic superhero fashion, got super powers instead of dying. Unfortunately for young Christine, her father became addicted to the super-heroics and would have to preform more and more dangerous experiments to recharge his irradiated cells. It was during one of these experiments that Christine came into the room and was flooded with radiation that gave her the same powers as her father and seemingly killed Ultraman. Christine would go on to be a hero as Ultragirl, team up with Megaton, and once making her way over to Big Bang Comics she would be part of a future team called the Pantheon of Heroes.
As with all my Supergirl in the Multiverse posts, this is my own artwork. This drawing is an homage to Superman #1 and shows Ultragirl flying above a city with her right arm angled down. The top right shows a motif of Ultragirl’s U symbol with a 36 on top of it.
The Daring New Blog of Supergirl 