The Superman Family #214 The Strange Revenge of Lena Luthor! / Horde of the Insect Queen! / Clark Gives Blood.. Superman Saves Lives... / Fear has Four Walls and no Name! / Caution: Physical Fitness can be Hazardous to Your Health!

Issue Description

Cover by Ross Andru and Dick Giordano."The Strange Revenge of Lena Luthor!" (Supergirl) written by Martin Pasko, penciled by Win Mortimer, inked by Vince Colletta, colored by Gene D'Angelo and lettered by John Costanza."Horde of the Insect Queen!" A "Mr. & Mrs. Superman" story written by E. Nelson Bridwell, penciled by Irv Novick, inked by Frank Chiaramonte, colored by Tom Ziuko and lettered by Ben Oda."Clark Gives Blood.. Superman Saves Lives..." A "Private Life of Clark Kent" story written by Bob Rozakis, researched by Laurie Rozakis, penciled by John Calnan, inked by Joe Giella, colored by Jerry Serpe and lettered by Milt Snapinn."Fear has Four Walls and no Name!" (Lois Lane) written by Paul Levitz, penciled by Bob Oksner, inked by Vince Colletta, colored by Jerry Serpe and lettered by Shelly Leferman."Caution: Physical Fitness can be Hazardous to Your Health!" (Jimmy Olsen) written by Martin Pasko, penciled by Jose Delbo, inked by Joe Giella, colored by Jerry Serpe and lettered by Shelly Leferman."Hembeck" written, penciled and inked by Fred Hembeck."DC Profile #87 Romeo Tanghal" text piece by Michael C. Carmichael."Daily Planet" Volume 81 Issue 16 for the month of October 1981 edited by Bob Rozakis, production by Jodi Saviuk and lettered by Typeset. Featuring an unusual teamup between Superman and the Joker in DC Comics Presents #41.

Notes:

In the story "Clark Gives Blood.. Superman Saves Lives..." it was noted in the credits "A salute to the 100th anniversary of the American Red Cross. Special thanks to Donna Kirdahy of Long Island Blood Services for her assistance!."Daily Star, Lana Lang, Insect Queen and Lois Lane of Earth-2.

Lex Luthor, The Insect Queen, even The Red Cross... whether they mean to or not, they all spell trouble for The Superman Family!

The Superman Family

Publisher

DC Comics

Volume Description

The Superman Family was a DC Comics comic book series which ran from 1974 to 1982 featuring primarily stories starring the supporting characters in the Superman comics. The term is often used to refer to the extended cast of characters (especially super-powered ones) of comics books associated with Superman.

The title was an amalgamation of the titles Superman's Girl Friend, Lois Lane and Superman's Pal Jimmy Olsen and the first series of Supergirl, therefore immediately becoming DC's flagship title with the highest sales for the remainder. The first issue, #164, took its numbering from the Jimmy Olsen title, which had reached issue #163 and thus had the most issues published (the Lois Lane series ended at issue #137, while the newly-launched Supergirl volume 1 series had only made it to #10). The three leads rotated new stories in each issue with reprints as a backup feature for other the characters (Issues #164-181). The Superman Family started as a 100-page format from issues #164-169. The quantity of pages dropped to 64-pages with issue #170 and dropped to 48-pages with issue #178. In 1976 (#182), The Superman Family became the first DC Comics to feature the 80-page Dollar Comics format. The new 80-page format featured all new stories for all the characters. Later the page quantity dropped to 64-pages starting with issue #191 and finally to 48-pages starting with issue #205. The series briefly featured a "no ads" and a wraparound cover format from issues #191-196. The series was published on a bi-monthly schedule until 1981, when the series was published on a monthly schedule starting with issue #207.

Other featured series in addition to:

* Lois Lane (166,169,172,175,178,181-222)

* Supergirl (165,168,171,174,177,180,182-222)

* Jimmy Olsen (164,167,170,173,176,179,182-222)

* "Superboy" (182,191-198) — The adventures of the Earth-One Superman as a teenage super-hero. This series continued from Adventure Comics #458 and led to the feature leaving the title for its own in 1980, The New Adventures of Superboy.

* "The Private Life of Clark Kent" (195-197, 199-215) — The adventures of Clark Kent in which he used his powers and skills without becoming Superman. This feature had moved over from Superman after #328.

* "Mr. and Mrs. Superman" (195-196, 198-222) — The adventures of the Earth-Two Superman and his wife, Lois. This feature had moved from Superman after #329. #200 of this series also had a story that dealt with a married Lois and Clark, but as part of an issue-long Imaginary Story set on Earth-1 at the turn of the millennium.

* "Krypto" (182-192) — The adventures of Superman's dog.

* " Nightwing and Flamebird" (182-194) — The adventures of the second Nightwing and Flamebird team of heroes (Van-Zee and Ak-Var) in the Bottled City of Kandor.

* "The Misadventures of Superbaby" (216) — A one-shot story featuring Superbaby.

DC published several other "Family" titles concurrent with The Superman Family: Batman Family (1975-78), Super-Team Family (1975-1978) and Tarzan Family (1975-76). As a rule, DC's "Family" titles contained mostly reprints, and featured a higher page count (and higher price) than DC's normal books. (In 2004, Marvel Comics paid homage to DC's "Family" titles with Spider-Man Family.)

In 1982, with issue #222, The Superman Family series was cancelled to make room for the Daring New Adventures of Supergirl, which briefly featured a Lois Lane back-up series. The Doom Patrol appeared alongside Supergirl in issues of both series.

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