The Daring new Blog of Supergirl

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.

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.

Adventure Comics #397 is notable for a few reasons, the extremely iconic cover, the Supergirl/Wonder Woman/Morgana team-up in the main story, but today we’ll be talking about the backup feature and the introduction of a certain foil to the girl of steel, Nasty Luthor. In short, Nasthalitha Luthor is the niece of Lex Luthor via an un-named older sister that Lex has of had. This is of course a separate sibling to Lena Thorul but a note from Mike Sekowsky on the letters page in Adventure Comics #401 mentions Nasty’s parentage is Lex’s unnamed older sister and a European gentleman she lives with abroad. Unlike the other female Luthor we know, Lena Thorul, Nasty does take after Lex Luthor and generally acts as an antagonist in the Supergirl stories she shows up in.

Nasty Luthor, as mentioned above, first shows up in the back-up story from Adventure Comics #397 and would show up about a dozen more times in the title until Supergirl left the title for her own magazine after Adventure #424. Aside from a couple appearances in out of continuity stories, these Adventure Comics stories are all we get to learn about her.

Her first 2 appearances (Adventure 397 and 401) both take place in the Stanhope College era of Supergirl’s career and have a bit of a different vibe and aren’t really representative of the Nasty to come but are important to cover in the grand scheme of things. Her first story, being a back-up, is rather short. Here we are introduced to the character in a story aptly titled “Supergirl meets Nasty”. Here we are introduced to a new student at Stanhope College who turns out to be the niece of Lex Luthor and she has infiltrated the educational establishment to find out the secret identity of Supergirl. Nasty soon becomes very popular on campus and grows a following called Nasty’s Nasties who work together to terrorize the student population. Supergirl of course stops Nasty’s plan and prevents her from finding out her most important secret. Her next appearance was covered in full last week as part of Supergirl Surprise #11 but since it turns out the whole story was just a dream, I don’t count it as part of Nasty’s history and I won’t be covering it any further.

After this, Nasty would show up again in issue 406 in a story called “Suspicion”. This issue would also serve to lead into a new era of Supergirl’s life after her graduation from Stanhope and her start into the career world. During the graduation ceremony, Nasty notices Supergirl enter Linda Danver’s dorm room and Linda leave which sets her on the path to proving Linda is Supergirl.

She would eventually land a job in San Francisco at the K-SFTV News station along with Geoff Anderson, Jonny Drew, and of course Nasty who followed Linda across the country just to try to prove she is Supergirl. This seemed to be trying to create a similar supporting cast for the girl of steel that Superman had with Perry White, Lois Lane, and Jimmy Olsen. This K-SFTV crew would be a consistent feature in Supergirl’s life for the rest of her time in Adventure Comics.

During this time Nasty’s main role as a thorn in Supergirl’s side really came through. Many stories would have at least some mention of Nasty trying to prove that Linda and Supergirl are one and the same, but aside from a couple times Nasty doesn’t ever sure to be the true antagonist of the story. Adventure Comics 418 is particularly good in this aspect, as it tells a story of Nasty hiring a private investigator to follow Linda in an attempt to out her as Supergirl. Most of the other stories are fairly standard Supergirl stories just with a tv news station subplot, a lot of alien related stories but there were quite a few that just felt like Scooby-Doo plots. In issue 412, there’s a nice bit where someone else is dressed as Supergirl committing crimes which confuses Nasty since it goes against her Linda is Supergirl theory and that was a nice change from the norm.

Nasty of course never proves that Linda is Supergirl, but the pair do have a proper tussle in Adventure Comics #424 where Linda tells Nasty to back off and it does feel like a fairly solid send off to the character even though I’m upset that she never showed up again. The main reason Nasty stopped showing up is because Supergirl was leaving Adventure Comics for her own series which also meant she would be leaving K-SFTV and all her co-stars including Nasty.

That really is the end of Nasty’s story, but it’s not exactly the last time we see her. Grant Morrison would bring her back in some capacity in the pages of All Star Superman. Here Nasty would be little more than Luthor’s equally fiendish niece, although there is a panel where she is seen talking on the phone to her mother and we get a bit more information on Lex’s un-named older sister when Nasty says “mad at you” when Lex asks Nasty about her mother so that’s nice. Otherwise I personally don’t feel like this is a particularly good depiction of the character, she doesn’t really feel much like a go-getter in All Star Superman although maybe the lack of a Linda Danvers prevents her from having a motivation. Nasty would also appear in the animated direct to video version of this story as well and it’s fairly similar to how she was depicted in the comics.

She would next show up in Scooby-Doo Team-Up and it is perhaps my favorite depiction of Nasty Luthor. She shows up in digital chapter #74 (print issue #37), and she is masterminding a plan that involves hooking a holographic projector to Supergirl’s cape which shows her ghostly images of her parents. The ghosts of course bring in the mystery gang but clipping a small device to Supergirl’s cape does feel like a call back to the Adventures 401 story with the remote control car. The story is a good mix of Nasty being a proper antagonist in the story, while still being 100% focused on proving Linda is Supergirl and I feel like it’s done quite successfully, although her plan seems more like something Lesla-Lar or Black Flame would do.

The next couple external media Nasty Luthors I want to talk about aren’t Nasty but they do invoke the character to some extent. Lena Luthor, as seen in the CW Supergirl series is of course meant to be a version of Lena Thorul but it could be said that there is a bit of Nasty influence to her characterization as well. The other, probably more absurd, character is Lenny Luthor from Superman IV. Played by Jon Cryer, Lenny is a nephew of Lex who takes up in his uncles more fiendish ways and whenever I watch Superman IV I always think of Lenny as a gender swapped Nasty Luthor.

Nasty, to me, feels like a second attempt from DC to give Supergirl a Lex Luthor counterpart after Lena turned out to be more friend than foe. Nasty, similarly, doesn’t quite measure up to the arch enemy status and generally seems more like a nuisance than anything. Going back to the K-SFTV crew having a similar structure to the Daily Planet crew, Nasty almost fits the role of Steve Lombard while also having a bit of that Lana Lang to her as she tries to reveal Supergirl’s secret identity. I do also want to mention that, while everything lists her surname as Luthor, since her relation to her uncle is on her mother’s side it’s probably unlikely that she shares the family name. In all her appearances she’s only ever named “Nasthalitha” or “Nasty” and her having a different surname probably helped her integrate so easily into Stanhope and K-SFTV since Luthor is a household name of a super-criminal during the time of her appearances in comics.

I really love Nasty Luthor as a character and I would love to see her show up again. I think the dynamic with her and the current Lena Luthor would be interesting since they would be cousins and I feel like that could create some interesting storylines between the next generation of Luthors. I hope you enjoyed this in depth look at Nasty and if you’d like to learn more about other supporting cast members to the girl of steel check out my Friends and Foes page!