SUPERMAN FAMILY 208 (1981)
by Jack C. Harris & Win Mortimer
Supergirl’s status quo has been rather consistent during her run in Superman Family: she’s been working at the fictional New Athens school since issue 165.
But for the remainder of the series (which isn’t that long) she’s moving to a place where superheroes are rare… in DC Comics at least.
The teaser actually gives us an overview of what she’s been up to in her career.
This is probably a testament of how little thought was given to her Linda Danvers identity.
Clark Kent is always a journalist of some kind, but what does Linda do for a living? It can honestly be anything depending on the month!
It doesn’t help that she doesn’t seem to be all that great at her current job (school counselor, in case you forgot).
Also I’m calling bulls#it on the idea that a school counselor has a contract that allows her to “make her own hours”.
She gives her own boss a piece of her mind (that’s going to help keep her job for sure)…
…and that catches the attention of the publicist who is somehow part of the supporting cast, giving him the idea that Supergirl should get into acting.
This feels incredibly forced. I mean sure, her boss is a jerk, but still…
And so Supergirl quits her job…
…to then lounge in her apartment in her underwear (but still wearing the wig? WTF!?) and giving her cousin a call through super-ventriloquism. (!!!)
Please take a moment to appreciate the fact that Superman can have two different conversations simultaneously while also typing.
I do like this dynamic between Supergirl and Superman! It really helps that we’re in the 80s now, so he’s almost entirely grown out of being The Worst.
I said ALMOST because his answer is… weird.
Supergirl’s dilemma is a classic one for superheroes: being a school counselor she was doing some kind of community service, so quitting that to get into acting feels selfish.
He should probably tell her that she’s not selfish since she’s already doing enough as Supergirl… and instead he basically talks about himself.
Yeah that’s… not really applicable to her situation, Supes.
And OF COURSE she immediately lands the job, because that’s how acting works.
Maybe they recalled that in Action Comics #335 she was already world-famous and Miss United States? Of course not, nobody ever referenced that story.
So that’s the excuse to move to New York City. And of course she has to be seen as Supergirl before she moves there as Linda, because “it will be less suspicious”.
Shockingly, the largest city in the country has more crimes to stop that a small college city in Florida. Although there ARE other DC heroes operating in New York… it’s not everybody like at Marvel, but there’s a few.
Wonder Woman had already left the city at the time, but the Teen Titans are still there.
Her first case here involves… a terrorist attack on a New York skyscraper at the hands of terrorists.
Let’s just skip to the end of that plot, okay? It’s just 3 pages later.
It was pretty much an afterthought anyway. The main takeaway is that Supergirl a New York actress now.
Historical significance: 1/10
This sets up the new status quo for Supergirl… which will last until the end of this series, only to be changed AGAIN in her follow-up series.
Silver Age-ness: 6/10
It would’ve been a near zero if it wasn’t for that super-ventriloquism scene!
Does it stand the test of time? 5/10
I could see a version of this that works. There’s a good story to be told about Supergirl betting bored of her job and struggling with the idea of abandoning her current status quo, and the scene with her talking with Superman almost works.
I think changing her from a school counselor to an actress is a very bad move with almost no redeeming qualities. The previous job provided many opportunities to give her something heroic to do, but an actress? There are only so many ways that are not incredibly contrived to link that to super-heroing.
And it goes without saying that you couldn’t possibly do the New York scenes that way today!
