Action Comics #677 (May 1992)
Action Comics #677 (May 1992)
Lex Luthor II formally introduces his new girlfriend/business project: Supergirl! Superman doesn't take it well. (There's punching.)
Last issue, Supergirl arrived on Earth in a spaceship and immediately started making out with the slim, (seemingly) non-evil, hair-having Lex II because she mistook him for her beloved creator: a slim, non-evil, hair-having Lex Luthor from another dimension. She knows they're not the same person now, but still loves Lex II, because who wouldn't? He's so good and nice and Australian.
When Lex announces on TV that Supergirl is joining the LexCorp family (and also "joining" the LexCorp "family") (I have no idea what I mean by that), Superman starts worrying about what sort of info she'll share during pillow talk – remember, Supergirl lived with Superman's parents for a while, so she knows he's Clark Kent. Hell, she was Clark Kent for a while. So, Superman flies over to tell Supergirl she better be careful about what she says, and she's a little offended that he doesn't trust her. Things go downhill from there.
Superman and Supergirl fight for a few pages until Lex II butts in and says he's very disappointed in them. A guy from Lex's TV station recorded the whole fight and says it's gonna get killer ratings, but Lex confiscates the tape and promises to the ashamed Superman that no one will see it. (Presumably it joined the Luthor family's large collection of tapes of women being mistreated.)
Despite Lex's assurances, Superman still feels uneasy about him after this experience – he thinks young Lex sounded a little like old Lex for a second there. Eh, I'm sure it's just his imagination. Meanwhile, at the Luthor estate:
Huh? What could they possibly mean by that?
Plotline-Watch:
At the time of this Supergirl's introduction in 1988, her origin probably seemed a little convoluted: why did she have to be an artificial being created by an attractive Lex Luthor from another dimension? Why couldn't she simply be from that dimension's Krypton? Well, here's why. They planned it all along! (Not really, but I like to pretend they did.)
What they probably did plan all along is the dramatic conclusion of the Lex/Supergirl plot, which is still a couple of years away, but you can see the seeds in this issue: there's a scene where Supergirl demonstrates her shape-shifting abilities and Lex seems a little too curious about how they work, and starts thinking about what he'd do if he could duplicate them… (Nothing sexual, sorry.)
The Daily Planet gets picketed again, this time by people demanding they hire more black people. They have a point: I think Fran and Whit (he's half-Cherokee) are the only minorities on staff right now. Ron Troupe's sister is among the protesters and confronts Perry White, but Ron sets her straight – and reveals his massive man-crush on Perry.
Sam Foswell, the guy who fired Jimmy Olsen from the Planet, gets fired from the Planet. Apparently, he wasn't the most popular guy at the paper after causing that workers' strike (I thought that firing Jimmy Olsen would balance that out). Oh, well, there's always his old job at the Daily Bugle.
Clark pretends not to remember Lois' friend Ray (who he hates). It's okay to admit you feel threatened by Ray, Clark. After all, he gives Lois something you can never give her: exclusive access to corporate information about his workplace, LexCorp. Highly erotic stuff.
Wait, is that Jeb Friedman (Lois' other "friend" that Clark hates) sans ponytail on the right of that panel? Is Ray actually Jeb in a wig?! What kind of perverted comic is this?