Back Issue Bin: Superman Family #215

Right now in Action Comics, Brian Michael Bendis is giving us The House of Kent storyline. In that arc, Superboy (Jon Kent) travels back from the future and meets Superboy (Conner Kent) in the present. 

With that plot wrinkle in mind, I thought it would be a good time to review Superman Family #215 in which a Supergirl from the future comes back in time to meet our Supergirl in the present.

As I have said in the past, the late 70s and early 80s are an interesting time in Supergirl's life. It was clear that DC kind of didn't know what to do with her and each writer put on the strip would go in their own direction. In short order she went from college grad/TV news team member to acting student to guidance counselor to soap opera star. In a couple of years from this issue, Paul Kupperberg puts her back in school as a grad student studying Criminal Psychology. Whew!

While the Linda Danvers aspects of the character were a bit malleable, it was clear in these stories that Supergirl herself was well established as a capable hero. No longer do we have her as a kid learning her capabilities. She isn't training any more. And New York City has embraced her as their hero.

Given that, I like this story for showing how Supergirl has a legacy, even in the far far flung future. Sure there are some Bronze Age leaps you need to make to have this story work. But otherwise, this is fun.

On to the book!

'Crisis at the Crossroads in Time' was written by Marty Pasko with art by Win Mortimer. This was the ongoing creative team for the strip at this point. Pasko was writing comics and television and so he was the one who brought Supergirl into NYC and made her an actress, an environment he was comfortable writing.

He also gave the strip a sort of city feeling and made Linda into a star. I like how he treated Kara during his brief stay writing her.

This story starts out with a bang. A day care center is being opened in NYC. And a bunch of male chauvinists who think women shouldn't be working set out to destroy it. The 'Righteous Knights', garbed armor and on steeds decide to keep 'the sluts' home.

The idea of a day care center being controversial feels a bit dated. But that said, we still have a long way to go in this world. And the idea that these men think the best way to go about spreading their message is in plate armor wielding lances should show just how foolish these men are.

And Supergirl wants no part of them. She smashes their weapons and dismisses their beliefs as self-righteous and sanctimonious hot air.

She even is able to unseat a few of them before they can damage the center.

Unfortunately one of them is able to toss a bomb into the day care center just as the riderless horse careen down the street.

Supergirl has to make a decision ...

Does she stop the bomb which will damage the empty building, despite its importance? Or does she stop the stampeding horses which could injure people on the street?

It's an easy decision.

She has to save human lives. And she can always repair the building.

In a nice bit of super-heroics and taking advantage of her Kryptonian cape with all it's fantastic properties, she corrals the horses.

Unfortunately, while doing that, the bomb goes off, nearly leveling the day care building.

 And then one of those odd Bronze Age coincidences.

Trapped within one of the columns of the building is a super-villainy looking person. They seem to be in suspended animation.

And then that person winks out and another villainy looking person appears. This one turns into a cloud of smoke and takes off.

Hmmm ... what are the odds that the one building marked for demolition by terrorists would be the same building where villains have been placed in stasis? In the Bronze Age, the odds were high!

Meanwhile, in Supergirl's civilian life, Linda Danvers gets the news that she is such a compelling actress that ratings on the soap opera Secret Hearts are climbing.

And the best way to get even better ratings is to have a 'witch type' on the show. And since Linda has the chops, she will become the woman America loves to hate!

That's right, Linda will be playing a villain!

 The villain from the pillar ends up terrorizing a flower show (really??).

His name is Toxus and he seems to have total control over pollutants in the air as well as having complete control of himself. So he is able to blind Supergirl with smog which includes lead particles. He is able to coalesce carbon soot into barricades. And he is able to sneak off again as smog himself.

Toxus ... not a bad villain name.

 Toxus mentions the day care center site in his ramblings so Supergirl goes off to investigate.

There, out of the same pillar comes a new Supergirl!

This is the Supergirl from 500,000 years in the future. She is a dead ringer for everyday Supergirl (as happened almost too much back then).

It turns out that spot is a localized time warp. 500K years hence, this Supergirl fights someone named Tal Belok. Belok sent Toxus his weapons into the past. At some point this Supergirl and Superman fought him and trapped him. Toxus was powerless in the future. Belok was powerless in the present. And so the two time swapped their prisoners.

But now the explosion has reverted things.

Okay, I don't know if you followed that ... because it took me a while to process as well.

 Then, for some reason, the Supergirl from the future thinks it is best for the two Maids of Might to swap times to fight their foes.

Supergirl will head to the future to fight Belok. Future Supergirl, despite being confused about 20th century life, will stay in the past to fight Toxus as well as imitate Linda Danvers.

Now that seems like making things too complicated. Time travel stories are tough. But couldn't both Supergirls fight Toxus in the present and then both Supergirls head to the future to fight Belok? And then just time their chronologic jumps to keep things tidy?

But they don't think that way. Linda agrees and heads to 500,000 CE. There she finds a weirdly volcanic Earth under an orange sun. She isn't quite as powerful.

And then Belok arrives. He has magma powers so he is immensely powerful in this future. Toxus is immensely powerful in the overly polluted 80s. No wonder Future Supergirl/Superman did the prison swap.

Alas, since our Supergirl isn't used to this world and her powers in this orange sun, she isn't having a good time of it.

I knew this switch wouldn't work neatly.

And to make matters worse, Future Supergirl isn't used to her jacked up powers under a yellow sun. As Linda, she rips her apartment front door right off the hinges. Suddenly, the soap opera writers know ... she must be Supergirl!

You have to love the craziness of the Bronze Age as all these story ideas of time-swapped villains, far flung futures, misogynistic knights, and Linda's job changes are all thrown out at rapid fire. This would be three issues in the current times ... at least!

But I find it fun and almost charming in its craziness.

The Future Supergirl's pant suit is reminiscent of the current show's costume. How prescient!

And Win Mortimer's pencils are there usual prettiness. The Linda scenes in particular are quite fetching!

But how will this all end? See you next week! Or maybe 500,000 years and a week hence!

Overall grade: B-

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