SUPERMAN FAMILY #188 (1978)
by Tom DeFalco & Win Mortimer
Similarly to Jimmy Olsen, the Lois Lane serial also switched to a more serious tone that doesn’t leave me much to discuss or make fun of.
There are however a couple of stories that will later tie to the other series, plus it’s a very rare chance to review a DC comic written by Tom DeFalco, who I thought was straightly a Marvel guy.
You can immediately tell by the first page that this isn’t the Silver Age anymore!
In a surprising move, the fact that Lois Lane is one of the most famous people on the planet is actually brought up as detrimental to her going undercover. That’s pretty clever.
This looks like a job for… Who-The-Heck-Is-This Man, apparently!
Yes it’s the Human Cannonball (who I’ll just call CB because that’s what he asks for later) that saves Lois. Not that she needed much saving, because at this point of the series she solves her problem by kicking people. Like, a lot.
Is it just me or is Lois flirting with this guy far more blatantly than she does with Superman? Not that I blame her, everyone’s better than The Worst after all.
DeFalco was certainly aware of what that panel was suggesting, because it’s pretty obvious that CB understood she wanted to sleep with him.
We then cut to supporting character Tina Ames, who is going to be important soon, and who’s attending her boyfriend injured in a previous issue.
And guess who’s back! All hail Our Lord And Savior Professor Potter!!!
Come on, Professor Potter needs the help of Dr. Mid-Nite now!? That’s pretty lame.
After Lois tries to learn anything interesting about CB’s backstory, the new hero has to deal with a new menace: some kind of humanoid creature that blasts energy in every direction.
The suspense about its identity doesn’t last long. Just like most things in this run, everything feels very rushed.
See, this is why he should’ve used HIS technology to heal her! It would’ve done something absolutely ridiculous as a side effect, sure, but still!!!
This looks like a job for… anyone but CB. Man does he suck or what!?
Lois doesn’t have much more luck, even as she tries to use the device modified by Professor Potter to cure Tina. Luckily she crashes a window with her feet, which as we all know is painless (WTF!?).
But it turns out Potter’s invention worked (OBVIOUSLY), and Tina returns human.
Did I mention CB sucks?
Jumping ahead a little bit, next issue we learn Tina still has powers. Thought I’d mention it here since it has no impact on the following story but will come up in a future review.
SUPERMAN FAMILY #189 (1978)
by Tom DeFalco & Kurt Shaffenberger
cover by José Luis García-López
Okay this comic has no right to have one of the best covers I’ve ever seen! Just look at this thing, it’s GORGEOUS.
This one is a bit of a crossover with Action Comics: Superman had to deal with a red star exploding and almost destroying the Earth, but now we learn the same star also released a “star seed”.
Meanwhile Lois and CB are busting a gambling racket. Well, Lois is doing most of the work; told you she kicks a lot in this period!
Then CB gets yet another occasion to suck.
Come to think of it, CB is sort of a precursor to Booster Gold: a hero who is in it for the fame and has a tendency to embarrass himself. Just without an interesting backstory, cool powers, a distinct personality or funny moments, so… nevermind, he’s nothing like Booster Gold.
The two plots meet when the star seeds decide that it loves Lois Lane because… wait for it… she has a “stable psyche”.
There are not enough memes in the world.
The star seed is very protective of Lois, to the point of straight up murdering some criminals sent to silence her!
And also project itself inside the mind of Lois.
It doesn’t work, even though it’s more romantic than anything Superman has ever said to her.
But apparently all it takes to stop the star seed is just say “no”. See, he’s MUCH better than Silver Age Superman already!
And so we end with CB realizing that, if a star couldn’t make Lois fall in love, he doesn’t have a chance.
So… a sentient star with all the reasons in the world to hate Superman?
I like to think this is the pre-Crisis version of the origin of Solaris.
Bonus from issue #189: in the Supergirl story she’s trapped in the Phantom Zone, where the 20th century Mon-El (as opposed to the one in the Legion) makes an appearance.
Unfortunately she can’t tell him he’s going to spend the next 1,000 years in the Phantom Zone, so she has to “block her thoughts” (everyone is a telepath in the Zone) to prevent him from knowing.
Historical significance: 2/10
Like I said the whole part about Lisa will tie into a story I’ll review in due time.
Silver Age-ness: 7/10
Despite the presence of both Professor Potter and a star falling in love with Lois, there’s a distinct attempt to use reason.
Does it stand the test of time? 7/10
Brevity is the biggest trouble: there’s barely enough pages for any scene to go anywhere, everything seems to end abruptly. I can’t fault the comic for CB being lame because I get the distinct feeling he’s supposed to be lame.
Stupid Lois Lane moment
Kind of a strech maybe, but why does she keeps interacting with CB? It doesn’t look like she’s very interested in writing anything about him.