Wednesday, May 17, 2017

ITG's ABCs: Supergirl & Mon-El in Superman Family #189 (June 1978)


On this episode of ITG's ABCs (which is short for Anthology & Back-up Comics Stories), I'll be taking a look at a Supergirl short story from Superman Family #189!

Just in time for the Supergirl Season 2 finale, I'll be recapping this story, in which Kara gets into some legal trouble & receives some unlikely help in the form of Phantom Zone testimony from her once & future comrade in the Legion of Super-Heroes (and TV show co-star), Mon-El!

Download this episode HERE!

Scroll down to see images from these issues, and please be sure to check out previous episodes of I'm the Gun on iTunes & Google Play!

This episode's promo: Comics for Courage
(Thank you, Pat & Jarrod!)
Also, I'd love to hear from you!  Email me at: imthegun@gmail.com, or hit me up on Twitter: @imthegun

Thanks for listening!

Theme created using a sample of 'Shotgun' by Duran Duran

Surrendered to the Phantom Zone

What IS Snapper Carr up to?

Mon-El's memories to the rescue

Emergence from the PZ & threats

6 comments:

Anj said...

I have all these Superman Family books and the Supergirl stories are for the most part hit or miss. That said, their is a running long-term plot about the energy ball which is seeking revenge on Kara. I don't know if you know what that turns out to be ... so I won't spoil. And it did call back on a lot of Silver Age Supergirl stories which I loved. Usually Supergirl's history was just ignored.

Like you, I thought that Mon-El watching Supergirl so closely felt a bit stalkerish.

And you left out the very catty 'next time I see you Shyla I'll pull your hair out' comment from Kara, the most memorable thing about this for me.

Hope you review more!

marksweeneyjr said...

I haven't read 'em so I don't know for sure (though I've just ordered a bunch of S'man Family from around this time), but I've read enough comics over the years that I can guess the identity of that nasty ball of energy!

I did get a kick out of your own reaction to that 'catty' exchange on your blog review of the story - I kind of like that rarely seen side of Kara!

Anj said...

You'll love the 'blob' reveal. It's awesome.

Martin Gray said...

'Beware of the blob...'

Thanks for looking at some Superman Family stuff, Mark, it was especially interesting around this time, as the strips interacted with one another more. Silver/Bronze Age Supergirl remains my favourite version, I loved that her story developed so much - she went from orphanage to adoption to finding her birth parents were alive, she changed jobs seemingly every few months, she had a life in the 30th century as well as the 20th, Zor-El and Alura moved from Kandor to Rokyn, she got married....OK. we'll forget that last bit as it was pants, call it an aberration from the period when pre-Crisis reality was reforming into Post. Basically, Kara went on an awesome journey, always trying to make decisions to be proud of.

And if she very, very occasionally got catty, I can live with it! I also loved her line to Jax-Ur here, 'Tough for you, chubby'. And Lex Luthor was 'that bald bandit'.

The idea that the JLA, at this point, would give Snapper glowing references is a headscratcher - he's basically a nice guy, but so weak-willed.

I've never heard 'Daxamin' instead of 'Daxamite', did that show up anywhere else? And why did Superman and Supergirl not just bring the lead poisoning cure back from the 30th century?

I love that Jack Abel has Lesla Lar in the classic Jim Mooney one-arm-on-hip standing pose in the flashback.

It's fascinating to have Kandorians express opinions at the Els' laissez faire approach to imprisoning criminals in the Phantom Zone, JCH was terribly underrated as a writer. I don't remember him being anywhere near a fan favourite until The Ray mini-series with Joe Quesada.

So, what's next?

marksweeneyjr said...

I have never read, nor do I ever wish again to read, the word 'Daxamin' - I thought it was odd term, but forgot to point it out! And, yes, poor Mon-El, languishing in the Phantom Zone while his 'friends,' Supers-boy & girl travel willy-nilly between centuries - unforgivable!

I really did enjoy this story and expect to follow-up here at some point! Next up, however, after a diversion into The Darkness Within, it's back to late-70s DC anthologies with a look at our Princess of Power meeting both a familiar fellow female freedom fighter and a new, nefarious nasty Nazi!

Thanks for writing!

Panharith said...

It's awesome.

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