SUPERMAN FAMILY 211 (1981)
by Martin Pasko & Win Mortimer
The Supergirl era gets near its conclusion with a 4-part story that will give us the eventual fate of Lena Luthor.
Supergirl investigates an explosion in the New York City subway, without finding anything. She then switches to her secret identity to welcome Lena, who has just moved there.
Lena gets an intense mental flash (she’s a telepath, in case you forgot) which leads her to deduce Supergirl’s secret identity. After all those years it’s a very anticlimactic way to get there!!!
Supergirl suspects that Lena suspects, leading to this frankly hilarious panel (it’s not the first variation on the theme we’ve seen, but it’s always funny to me).
Also Lena is a widow now!!! Believe me I’ve done extensive research on HOW her husband died, but if I’m not mistaken he dies OFF PANEL before this story!!!
This comes out of absolutely nowhere, just like the fact that Lena is hired by Supergirl’s script writer!!!
Also the writer is a jackass, who lets Lena do all the work and gives her zero credit. Why do I get the feeling this is the only realistic part about the whole acting status quo?
Also apparently Supergirl is into hard rock. Surprisingly enough this DOES come up sometimes in modern stories, it’s very cool to see it this far back!
This issue’s villain is Mind-Bomber, who… ehm… bombs things with his mind.
Don’t get too attached.
You know, maybe it would be harder to guess a superhero’s secret identity if they had more than two ways to cover up the secret.
He disappears before she can catch him, but he tries another bombing the following day when Supergirl is at a charity race.
Dude, if your name is Mind-Bomber, you don’t really need to explain what your power is.
He manages to leave AGAIN, and Supergirl figures out the connection between the bombings: they’re in the same scripts of the soap opera where she’s currently acting.
She uses this to her advantage, by having Lena impersonate her and then arrest Mind-Bomber.
In addition to making things explode Mind-Bomber can also make himself invisible to the mind of a specific target, and that’s how he escaped so many times.
And then he gets killed! Told you not to get attached.
And so Supergirl learns that Lena knows her identity… in a throwaway one-panel flashback.
This just continues to be severely underwhelming, isn’t it?
We end with the double revelation that Mind-Bomber was the one planting the scripts ideas in Lena’s mind, as well as the fact that someone else knows Supergirl’s secret identity.
SUPERMAN FAMILY 212 (1981)
by Martin Pasko & Win Mortimer
There IS a reason for Blackrock being called “the Video Villain”, but it’s seriously undermining how powerful he actually is.
He’s a minor Superman villain who first showed up in 1976, so Supergirl already knows him.
He’s actually rather versatile: not only he can create anything, but turn himself into anything AND he can erase people’s minds.
Also Lena is Supergirl’s neighbor now.
I swear people in comics never figure out that when a telepath gets an headache it’s NEVER just a headache. Also notice everyone seems to be rather chill about the fact that Lena’s husband is dead, considering nobody ever mentions him.
We discover the reason why the script writer has been behaving erratically lately: he has a gambling problem and he owes a lot of money to questionable people.
This is relevant because it’s the reason why the writer makes a deal with Blackrock.
Thanks for summarizing Blackrock’s deal, Superman. Saves me the trouble of reviewing his earlier appearances.
The writer tips off Supergirl about Blackrock attacking a casino, so she rushes to fight him… and it doesn’t go particularly well.
While they fight the story finally remembers that Lena has a kid around, and we end with the cliffhanger of Lena being attacked in her apartment.
To be continued, of course.
Historical significance: 2/10
The beginning of the very last Lena Luthor story.
Silver Age-ness: 3/10
Nothing stands out too much.
Does it stand the test of time? 8/10
It’s fine if a bit rushed. But killing off Lena’s husband off-screen is unforgivable! It will get SOME significance in the last part of the storyline, but still…
Bonus: for whatever reason there was a challenge to readers to come up with personalized license plates for DC characters. Some are cute…
…but they probably didn’t think too much about this one.
