SUPERMAN FAMILY 213 (1981)
by Martin Pasko & Win Mortimer
The conclusion to the last storyline of Lena Luthor.
But first we have to deal with Black Rock.
Nice of Supergirl to summarize how his powers work, it saves me the trouble.
While his powers are not insignificant, this is a fight involving a pre-Crisis Kryptonian, so he gets his ass kicked for a few pages.
While his identity and motivations are revealed at the end of the story, I’m jumping ahead a little bit since honestly I couldn’t care less about this plot.
Good, so let’s focus on the stuff that is actually interesting. Turns out that in the cliffhanger of last issue Lena didn’t get attacked… she got an aneurysm (!!!!).
Turns out her dead husband, who used to work for the FBI, “appropriated” the file on Lena.
And since he stole an official record from a federal agency, he can obviously leave leave in his will as a gift to his mother.
Yeah, that is definitely how federal records works.
Sounds legit.
After a recap of Lena’s origin… the actual one, not the weird Lois Lane prequel… Supergirl has to pretend she’s learning all of this just now.
The possibility is raised that the same accident that gave Lena her telepathy powers could be causing her illness. Good stuff!
After the whole Black Rock situation is resolved, we end the story with Lena waking up from her operation… and realizing she might be Luthor’s sister.
SUPERMAN FAMILY 214 (1982)
by Martin Pasko & Win Mortimer
cover by Ross Andru
How typical. It’s the last appearance of Lena, but it’s her brother who gets the cover.
We begin with Lena being furious at Supergirl for not telling her years ago about her brother.
And honestly, can you blame her!?
For a moment I feared she would be mad at Supergirl for making her bald (which would be even dumber than Luthor hating Superboy, since Supergirl had even less to do with it)… but thankfully she has a perfectly legitimate reason for being mad!
This is a surprisingly mature and well-though argument. I have a really, really hard time not siding with Lena on this one.
On the other hand, Lena being afraid that being a mad scientist is hereditary… well you can’t win them all.
Lena is SO mad, in fact, that she’s getting more powers!
Luthor calls to defend Supergirl (now that’s something you don’t hear every day!), but highlighting the fact that basically EVERYONE except Lena knew about her brother is not helping.
Ironically, the only person Lena is not mad at is… Supergirl’s secret identity.
How very Spider-Man of her!
(Lena has conveniently forgotten the secret identity when she lost her powers)
Even Lex is bummed that his sister hates him. But another convict finds it intriguing.
Then Supergirl is called to have a TV appearance about some charity work and SUDDEN KRYPTONITE MAKEUP!
The makeup artist is working for Luthor, and that was a trick to capture Supergirl.
Supergirl is brought to a “dark and unfamiliar place”, where Luthor temporarily takes away her powers… but at the same time another Supergirl visits Lena at the hospital.
This is NOT helping Lena stay calm…
…to the point that she MURDERS SUPERGIRL!!!
Or not. The ACTUAL Supergirl is fine, even if without powers.
Except even THAT is not true, because Supergirl wasn’t actually depowered…
…she was actually hypnotized into thinking she was! I admit I did not see that coming.
That’s odd, Luthor has used red sunlight to depower Superman several times, so why didn’t he do it this time? Because it’s not Luthor!!!
Again, I completely didn’t see THAT coming. But I can proudly say that I did anticipate that Lena didn’t really get telekinesis.
And yes the actual bad guy was Lex’s cellmate, because at this point it couldn’t be anyone else.
And that’s how we end. Lena has lost her telepathy and is still mad at Supergirl, who wonders if the two will ever be friends again.
They won’t. This is the very last Lena Luthor appearance in her pre-Crisis incarnation.
Historical significance: 10/10
Lena was a major supporting character of earlier runs… perhaps THE Supergirl supporting character, since nobody else shows up that frequently.
So, even if this has zero impact on the DC Universe as a whole, I’m giving it a 10/10 significance for Supergirl. In fact, losing her only major supporting character is going to REALLY hurt in the upcoming new series, in my opinion.
Silver Age-ness: 3/10
The Super Crime Task Force being behind everything is as corny as it gets, but even with this the amount of realism is incredible considering where we started.
Does it stand the test of time? 9/10
The Black Rock plot is as generic as they come, and Supergirl being knocked out by Kryptonite makeup is cringeworthy, but the rest is golden. While it is a complete waste of Lena’s character… in the span of four issues she loses her husband, her powers and her best friend… but there are a lot of twist that are well integrated into the story and make perfect sense.
Lena’s reaction to how Supergirl has affecter her life is realistic and compelling, and there’s the additional tragic that the friendship between the two is completely ruined. Great drama!