Ten scenes of note from Supergirl's Family Vacation

When this book was first announced, I wasn't interested. I'm not a fan of the character, I wasn't familiar with the creators, I didn't recognize the other characters on the cover, the apparent sci-fi setting (Kandor? Outer space?) didn't appeal to me, and the apparent Adventures in Babysitting homage wasn't doing much for me.

Then I read a blog post about it—this one, to be precise—and learned that the rest of the/a Superman Family was also featured in it (That's actually Jonathan Kent and Natasha Iron on the cover, by the way), I saw how great Sarah Leuver's art was, and I read a few short scenes in the sample pages that made me realize that, contrary to my first impressions based solely on the cover, the book might actually be...delightful? (This instance also reminded me of the utility of comics blogs in selling readers on particular comics; I think comics has lost something fairly valuable as the number of active comics blogs have dwindled so precipitously.)

So, I read Brandon T. Snider and Sarah Leuver's Supergirl's Family Vacation, loved it and ended up reviewing it for Good Comics for Kids. 

It's great, and, if you are a Superman fan, or have any interest in reading more about him and/or his little cousin, you too should go read it. Now, preferably. And then you can come back here to read the rest of this post, which will have a couple of spoilers in it, but I promise not to include the big ones, as exciting as those are; the surprise villains of the piece are interesting choices, and the nature of their plot sort of informs the way much of the story unfolds.

1.) Two things of note here. First, I was impressed with just how stretchy that harness Lex wears actually is. Look at how far he dangles from her hand! It's almost like he designed and wears it specifically so that superheroes can comfortably pick him up by it and carry him around like luggage!

Second, Supergirl calling herself a "horse girl" is fun because, while I don't know if she knows Comet the Super-Horse here, the character has had a very long, very weird history with that particular horse. 

2.) When Supergirl arrives at the Fortress of Solitude, the departure point for her family vacation, we get this great, two-page spread of its interior. I love images like this in comic books and this one is just full of little Easter Eggs, like Kelex dusting the Phantom Zone Projector, the Thought-Beast in the zoo, the Supermobile in the corner and Superman's two best friends getting instructions. Batman and Wonder Woman, it turns out, will be acting as fortress-sitters. 

3.) Is there a better sentence than "We've got a perfectly good Supermobile"...? You'll notice that the Supermobile looks bigger than usual here. Rest assured, it still has its most distinctive feature, although that too works a little differently the first time we see it in action.

"There's a fridge in here," Jonathan shouts out the window of the Supermobile. "And a button with a big fist on it."

"Do not press that!" Lois replies.

4.) Okay, I will spoil this bit, but I did warn you.

Now, I was pretty surprised to see Lobo appear here, although I suppose I shouldn't have been. First, his appearance was somewhat presaged by a small pod of space dolphins the Superman Family sees out of the Supermobile window before they stop at an intergalactic gas station. Second, his well-advertised appearance in the upcoming Supergirl movie have all but linked the two characters in popular imagination. 

On one page, the four-armed alien behind the counter hears someone shouting, "Back off, ya filthy scuzzball!" off-panel. "Ugh. This guy again," he says aloud. "I gotta call a Green Lantern."

Superman, who is dressed quite dad-ishly in Clark Kent clothes, takes off his glasses, and tells the attendant he will handle it. Then we cut to the above scene, and our first look at Leuver's Lobo.

I like the big, bushy mustache. I've never really been sure if Lobo was meant to have facial hair or not. Simon Bisley always drew the dark markings around his upper lip to resemble some kind of paint, like makeup or maybe a tattoo, and seemingly of an entirely different texture than the character's hair and sideburns. I had long since come to regard Lobo's mustache as something akin to Groucho Marx's, a two-dimensional, theatrical signifier of a mustache more than an actual mustache.

Leuver's version of Lobo's stache, on the other hand, is clearly really facial hair. It makes him look more than a little "off" to me here, but also gives him a Yosemite Sam-like look, which seems appropriate, particularly in this book, where the character designs all seem to have been suggested by one Superman cartoon or another. (I'm curious to see what the character's mustache situation might be in the upcoming movie, which is the first time we'll see a live-action Lobo, as remarkable as that might sound.) 

Anyway, Superman confronts his occasional foe, switching into his Superman costume at super-speed when Lobo says, "Dat you, blue boy? I didn't recognize you without your cute little cape and shorty pants."

The confrontation lasts a few pages, during which Lobo threatens Superman's family, Supergirl in particular and then the Supermobile, before he is finally taken out. Not by Superman, but rather by Lois.

There's a closeup of her finger pushing a button inside the Supermobile ("BOOP") and then we see this version of the vehicle's punching feature in action: 

5.) The only thing I don't like about Natasha Irons being Steel in the mainstream comics is that I think, more so than other "duplicate" characters, her appearances seem to come instead of those by Steel John Henry Irons, instead of in addition to them. For example, I don't think I've seen John Henry on the Watchtower or interacting with any characters on the current, massive Justice League line-up, although I have seen Nat.

Anyway, here Supergirl makes a good argument for them both being Steel at the same time: "If there can be three Olivias in my class, there can be two Steels." Sure. I mean, these days, we've got, what, eight Green Lanterns from Earth? Three Flashes? (Or is Barry retired at the moment?). Two Batmen? Two Supermen? Two Wonder Girls? And I can't keep track of who's Robin and who isn't month to month anymore...

6.) So that third panel there, the one of Superman as Clark Kent dancing? That's easily my favorite panel of the book...and one of my favorite panels ever. Leuver just plain draws the hell out of the big guy dancing, and doing so with such passion, such wild abandon and with such good moves. Like, one, two or three of those various Clarks dancing would have sold the gag perfectly well, but all seven of them there? Wow!

As funny as Clark's dancing scene is, though, I love the set-up, in which Superman says, "Wait! This is my jam!" 

For some context, Superman is on an alien planet he has only ever visited one single time before, and he is eating dinner alone in an empty restaurant with Lois, while an alien band plays music in the background for their amusement.

What are the chances that Superman has ever even heard this particular song before, let alone it actually being his jam, and one that he can dance to in such a fashion?

Lois' thought cloud makes it clear that Superman/Clark is acting out of character here, as if he's been exposed to "red-K", the variety of kryptonite that effects Kryptonians in random, unpredictable ways, like giving Superman the head of an ant, or making him grow into a giant or shrink into a dwarf, or rapidly age or grow a beard and so on. 

How Superman is acting in this passage seems akin to a human being getting drunk—indeed, in addition to his bad table manners and lack of inhibitions here, Lois will have to help him walk out of the restaurant, and the next morning he will appear hungover—but I suppose it will depend on the age or experience of the reader to recognize that. 

In any case, it's hard to imagine Superman drinking alcohol at all, let alone enough to get drunk (and he would have to be under a red sun in order for alcohol to even affect his Kryptonian physiology, I imagine), so I guess we'll just go with red kryptonite can affect Superman the way strawberry frozen margaritas affect me...

7.) I mentioned this moment both on Bluesky and in my GC4K review, so I'll at least drop the art here. This is the climax of a sequence in which Lois tells her husband she's off to enjoy a spa day, and, in actuality, she gets to investigating what's really going on with the seemingly too-perfect planet, she fights some robots hand to hand and she ultimately frees a whole stampede of alien animals, one of which is psychic, and is thus able to explain the political situation on the planet, and how Superman is in danger. 

The juxtaposition of those two panels—crusading journalist Lois Lane ready and eager to overthrow the corrupt regime on another planet, a completely smitten Superman taking her in—are about as eloquent a delineation of the modern Superman/Lois Lane dynamic as I have ever seen or can even imagine. 

8.) Up until the climax, we've seen Nat wearing either mechanics' style coveralls (as on the cover) or various street clothes. During the occasions in which she had to fight, she uses special gauntlets. Here, though, she dons a Steel-esque costume. 

I like the contrast between the shiny, metallic silver and the girlish pink (In the current DCU, her Steel costume is a duller, more iron-like gray armor with a red and black cropped hoodie over it). And I love that not only does she get a very brief magical girl transformation sequence, but that it begins with her holding up a disc with an S-shield on it, in the same pose that the Power Rangers used to hold aloft their "morphers" to morph into their costumes.

And if this particular costume doesn't seem as practical as her DCU one, what with her head exposed, don't worry; later, as she's about to go into action against one of the surprise villains, her head and hair also get encased in protective metal. 

9.) Nat's not the only one who gets a disc and a transformation sequence. Supergirl does as well, and it results in a new costume. I really like it, especially how it has so many similar elements to her regular costume yet simultaneously looks so distinctly different.

I'm not sure how I would feel about it being a new, semi-permanent costume—those starfield elements have proven to be hard for some artists to draw well in the past when we've seen them in other folks' costumes—but as a new, temporary, leveled up costume here? It works quite well.

10.) Finally, during the book's epilogue, we see a trio of familiar Green Lanterns in a single panel, including one of the breakout stars of last summer's Superman film, Guy Gardner.