A look back at an alternate Kara

I stumbled across this picture in my archives today, and I thought it was worth sharing.

This comes from a cover to a Superman Family issue #200 from three or so decades ago.

In this story, Linda Danvers is the governor of Florida and also Superwoman. She's probably mid to late thirties. She's living with a man, undoubtedly her husband. He looked like a normal suit-wearing middle class businessman of the time. Obviously intended to make us wonder who she'd marry.

Lois and Clark are also married and have a daughter (pictured in lower right corner) who is in the process of discovering that she's finally starting to manifest all of her father's powers in her mid-teens. An interesting story of its own.

I believe that everyone in this picture comes out of the Superman and Supergirl comics of the 60's and 70's. Some I recognize. Lana Lang. Jimmy Olson. Perry White.

Anyone know who Jimmy's girlfriend/wife likely is?

Then there's the bunch of men in the back who played some kind of role in their lives.

What is most odd is that Linda is appearing as Superwoman in the picture and not as LInda. Also Superman opening the curtain (so he appears twice), but I chalk that up to artistic license. But Kara is definitely part of the group, while Superman is outside of it, and Clark is in it.

Was there ever any indication how they could reproduce, or even have safe sex (under kryptonite, perhaps)? And Linda as governor? Hard to do a quick change if there's an emergency when she's in the middle of an important political meeting.

--Brantley

brantley wrote: Was there ever any indication how they could reproduce, or even have safe sex (under kryptonite, perhaps)? And Linda as governor? Hard to do a quick change if there's an emergency when she's in the middle of an important political meeting.

--Brantley

No, these were not topics in the comic books of the day.

Sex was outside the Code. Linda could have boyfriends, but they were mostly portrayed the way that prepubescent children think about boyfriends.

In this comic, she had an apparent husband, but she treated him in a strange, almost disconnected way.

Later on, alternate storylines depicted Lois dying during child-carrying, her body too frail to carry a half-Kryptonian child. Or in this comic, their daughter getting her powers in her mid-teens as kind of "growing up" thing, which avoided the previous issue. Many other spins, but it was always half human and half Kryptonian children with lesser powers.

I don't think Kara was ever shown as having a child in any alternate storylines.

The closest would be the Peter David character who was a combination of Mae and a very normal human girl -- Linda Danvers also I believe. Mae was a shapechanger who could mimic Kryptonian powers. This Linda was a somewhat depowered Supergirl, but in a later crossover with her and Kara Zor El, LInda has a child who exhibits Kryptonian-grade powers.

Anyway, the historians in the group can tell this better and more accurately, but I don't believe there are any other instances of Kara having a child. But she had plenty of boyfriends.

As far as careers... I'm not sure the ability to get away at any moment was a key thought for the creators. They instead liked the tension of her finding ways to get away and do her thing, and still get back and not be suspected. Which failed on a variety of levels, but that was often key to the story lines, which were usually focused on trivial details like that as opposed to major conflicts.

shadar wrote: I stumbled across this picture in my archives today, and I thought it was worth sharing.

This comes from a cover to a Superman Family issue #200 from three or so decades ago.

In this story, Linda Danvers is the governor of Florida and also Superwoman. She's probably mid to late thirties. She's living with a man, undoubtedly her husband. He looked like a normal suit-wearing middle class businessman of the time. Obviously intended to make us wonder who she'd marry.

Lois and Clark are also married and have a daughter (pictured in lower right corner) who is in the process of discovering that she's finally starting to manifest all of her father's powers in her mid-teens. An interesting story of its own.

I believe that everyone in this picture comes out of the Superman and Supergirl comics of the 60's and 70's. Some I recognize. Lana Lang. Jimmy Olson. Perry White.

Anyone know who Jimmy's girlfriend/wife likely is?

Then there's the bunch of men in the back who played some kind of role in their lives.

What is most odd is that Linda is appearing as Superwoman in the picture and not as LInda. Also Superman opening the curtain (so he appears twice), but I chalk that up to artistic license. But Kara is definitely part of the group, while Superman is outside of it, and Clark is in it.

Linda possibly hooked up with Bruce Wayne? He would be in on the family secrets and that could be Robin in the background.
Also Laura Van der Voort played the role of a governess as Kara in some sort of Smallville Futureworld (she smashed up a government building's stone wall with one angry punch.)

The characters in the background (left to right) are Lana Lang, Morgan Edge, Steve Lombard, Pete Ross, Perry White, Bruce Wayne, and Dick Grayson. I'm guessing about some of them, but they were all prominent supporting characters in the Superman comics of that time. The woman next to Jimmy is Lucy Lane (who I think had pretty much disappeared from the supporting cast by then).

In the story, Superwoman muses that her double career has kept her too busy to marry, and that her "relationships" have never lasted very long. I think it's implied that her current boyfriend (seen only in shadow) is Dick Grayson. (He says that it doesn't take a detective to see that something's on her mind.)

I'm thinking of putting together a post about Superman's "imaginary" super-daughters for the Silver Age Super Girls thread. There were actually quite a few of them.

argonaut wrote: The characters in the background (left to right) are Lana Lang, Morgan Edge, Steve Lombard, Pete Ross, Perry White, Bruce Wayne, and Dick Grayson. I'm guessing about some of them, but they were all prominent supporting characters in the Superman comics of that time. The woman next to Jimmy is Lucy Lane (who I think had pretty much disappeared from the supporting cast by then).

In the story, Superwoman muses that her double career has kept her too busy to marry, and that her "relationships" have never lasted very long. I think it's implied that her current boyfriend (seen only in shadow) is Dick Grayson. (He says that it doesn't take a detective to see that something's on her mind.)

I'm thinking of putting together a post about Superman's "imaginary" super-daughters for the Silver Age Super Girls thread. There were actually quite a few of them.

Thanks for clarifying... I was thinking husband due to the norms and Code of the time, given they seemed to share a house. Or maybe that was just my assumption.

Tks also for clarifying the other characters, or likely characters. You are a Scholar of the Genre.

The article you are considering would be interesting. I know Kal El had a number of "alternate universe" daughters (sons?). It would be interesting to consider their place in the El family roster given I assume most, if not all, are only half Kryptonian.

The other subject that never went beyond off-hand comments here and there was the obvious path to keeping the Kryptonian race alive. Kal El and one of the many versions of Kara Zor El.

I'm in the midst of rewatching the 2005-2010 remake of Battlestar Galactica, and I like one of the new President's primary goals when the 12th colonies were down to a population of 50,000 -- "we need to start having babies". Lots of babies. That's one of the primary ways humans deal with potential extinction. (Or any mammal. Like the coyotes in my neck of the woods. The more people try to wipe them out, the more pups I see.)

Maybe Kryptonians have different instincts, but that one seems pretty obvious when the race is down to a small handful of survivors. To hell with genetic diversity. Means nothing in an extinct race.

Agree with Argo's ID. I have that book somewhere but it has been several years since I last read it. Superman had several sons and daughters over the years. I think all of the girls turned out super but at least one boy did not. No story with a Supergirl and a non super boy or vice versa I have often though about writing one of those.
Maybe that could be a workshop some time.

In the else worlds universe, there was a 1/2 super daughter and a non super son.

ace191 wrote: In the else worlds universe, there was a 1/2 super daughter and a non super son.

I remember that... the setup is that Bruce Wayne's son (and the new Batman) is about to marry Lois and Clark's daughter (and the new Supergirl). Things start off very right (as these frames attest), but end very wrong, which I wont describe here.

It's worth it to read the dialog and study these frames to get a good idea of this alternate future.

Here are some wallpaper images extracted from that Elseworld issue.

There is another Elseworlds Finest issue that features Batgirl and Supergirl. Very unusual art. Here are a few pages: