SUPERMAN FAMILY 165 (1974)
by Elliot S! Maggin & Art Saaf
cover by Nick Cardy
Supergirl begins her rotation on Superman Family with a writer I haven’t covered before: Elliot S. Maggin, better known by his pseudonym Elliot S! Maggin. The exclamation point makes all the difference.
Maggin is a widely celebrated and influential Superman writer. This might be somewhat controversial but I’m not a fan… he’s not a bad writer by any means, but I find him overrated.
The first thing he does, correctly in my opinion, is take Supergirl out of the university setting where she was stuck in her own series. Considering nothing came of it, it’s a good move.
One of the reasons I’m not crazy about Maggin’s Superman is that he’s a rather bland character in his hands. I do have to admit it’s a breath of fresh air after years of The Worst, though.
Supergirl is no longer in school, but she’s still in a school setting.
With the premise of Supergirl being an advisor to troubled teenagers, the main plot is naturally about the magic warrior princess of a lost Aztec village.
Tlaca, Princess Of The Golden Sun and later called Superior Girl, will be our villain of the issue. And she targets Supergirl because ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
As if THAT wasn’t enough, we also have the plot of an adopted student who is having trouble with her biological mother.
Superior Girl shows up, magically sensing Supergirl’s presence, so our heroine has to put all the acting lessons she took in university to good use.
Money well spent on those acting lessons, Supergirl.
Superior Girl has fire-slash-solar powers, so most of the story is a big dumb fight.
The fight is interrupted when Superior Girl has to meditate to regain her strength; Supergirl takes the opportunity to study the adopted girl’s case.
She might not be a great actress, but she’s a better journalist than her cousin!
In their second fight Superior Girl takes the student hostage, and she pulls out one of the best insults I’ve seen in a while: “Misbegotten girl of pig iron”. That’s almost at Doctor Doom levels of insults!
Superior Girl is actually a rather difficult foe, managing to keep up with Supergirl by teleportation.
Not sure why a sorceress magically powered by the Sun has to follow magnetic lines, but that’s why she loses.
Continuing the theme of the previous Supergirl series, Superior Girl won’t show up again.
And the adopted girl’s case is also solved quite nicely, if a bit anticlimacticly.
Bonus: we also have a nice recap of Supergirl’s career.
The fact that her entire history can be summarized in a page without missing much really showcases how Supergirl has not been used to her full potential thus far.
Historical significance: 5/10
Yet another change of status quo for Supergirl. Let’s hope it sticks.
Silver Age-ness: 8/10
Superior Girl comes out of absolutely nowhere and gets right back there.
Does it stand the test of time? 8/10
Despite my criticism of Maggin’s fame, the man sure can write. Supergirl has a distinct personality and voice, the new setting is interesting and could provide a lot of potential good stories, the action scenes are good and the social commentary, while not groundbreaking, is competent. Really my only complain is that the two plots… Superior Girl and the adopted girl… really don’t work together.