The Superman Family #219

So somewhere along the way the brain trust at DC decided to combine, Superman's Pal Jimmy Olsen, Superman's Girl Friend Lois Lane, and Supergirl into one super book, and thus was born The Superman Family.  Now the Superman Family was actually a pretty anthology book, containing several stories each month.  Issue #210 which was published in 1982 has a distinctly 70s feel to the stories.  Because it's anthology I'm going to devote a post to each of it's stories.  We will start with the cover story featuring Supergirl.

Ah the Master Jailer, for those who don't recall he was Conduit before Conduit.  Don't remember Conduit, you're probably better off.  Let's just say the Master Jailer was an old pal of Clark Kent's from Smallville who went bad.

Our story start's with Linda on the set of her soap opera "Secret Hearts."  Yes, once upon a time Linda Danvers aka Supergirl was a soap opera star.

Oh no!  Who would have thought that being in front of a camera all the time would somehow jeopardize her secret identity.  No one knows why Linda didn't show up on camera and the director seems suspicious.  Luckily Linda has a plan.

A little super speed aided sabotage and the problem is solved.

Yep the chroma-key device blocked out everything colored blue.  No one seems to notice that Linda's skin is not blue.

Supergirl ducks out the investigate the cause of her disappearance but the investigation is interupteted by ...

Yep at the absolutely worst time Supergirl goes intangible.  Luckily, her lungs aren't intangible and using her superbreath she rescues the kids.  Don't think about it, just go with it.

Supergirl tracks the energy making her disappear to a high-rise apartment but sees nothing suspicious.  So she returns to GBS where she's informed of her character's newest villainy.  Stealing her aunt's mortgage money!  Also they're going to make a doll  action figure from based on her character.  But just then she starts to disappear again.

She returns to the apartment where we find out that nobody's perfect.  Also following the guild of calmatious intent supervillian handbook, the bad guy has left a note.

Did you know New York Bank has over $120 million dollars in deposits?  And evidently a wide variety of toaster overs.

Oh no! It's her cousin Superman's old foe the Master Jailer.  FYI: The Master Jailer had first appeared in 1979 just three years before this comic, so old may be a bit of an exaggeration.

The Master Jailer captures the security guard  and proceeds to start robbing the place.

Just then Supergirl bursts in.  But how is that possible?  Linda Danvers and Supergirl in the same place at the same time?! Impossible you say?  Read on!

Yep. It's one of the fleet of Supergirl and Superman robots.  And here's the thing, by 1982 a Superman robot was a rare sight so what is the canonical in story explanation for the retirement of the robots is "THEY TEND TO MALFUNCTION DUE TO THE POLLUTION IN THE AIR."  Yes they may be able to fly into space but a little smog will cause them to go cablooie.

The robot battles the Master Jailer but Linda can tell it's slowing down.

Damn air pollution.  Luckily shrapnel from the robot avoids all the bystanders and simply smashes the Master Jailer's phantom device.  And because he discovered it by pure accident, he'll never be able to duplicate it in a hundred years.  Leaving Linda intangible maybe forever.  But wait a minute, he said he couldn't duplicate it but didn't he already create a duplicate that he left at the apartment?  Don't think about it...

A fun if not terribly engaging story, but just the first of many in this issue of the Superman Family.

Next time stories from Earth-2 featuring Mr. and Mrs. Superman.  In which we discover that Earth-2 Clark Kent has an eye for detail.

He seems to be the same person.

Bonus: Cube Lube!