Superman Family

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

The Superman Family
Cover of The Superman Family #164, the initial issue published under that title. Art by Nick Cardy.
Publisher	DC Comics
Schedule	Bi-monthly and monthly (varied durring the run)
Format	Ongoing while in publication
Publication date	April-May 1974 - Sept 1982
Number of issues	59 (#164-222)
Main character(s)	Lois Lane Supergirl Jimmy Olsen

Superman Family was a DC Comics comic book series which ran from 1974 to 1982 featuring primarily stories starring 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 with the second series of Supergirl, therefore immediately becoming DC's flagship title with the highest sales for the remainder. The three leads rotated new stories each issue with reprints for other characters. In 1976, SMF became the first DC Comics 80-page Dollar Comic consisting of 64 pages of new stories. It became a monthly series in 1981 starting with issue #207.

Other featured series in addition to Lois Lane, Supergirl and Jimmy Olsen included:

"Superboy" (#191-196) - 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" (#195-199, 201-222) - 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" (#195-199, 201-222) - The adventures of the Earth-Two Superman and his wife, Lois. This feature had moved from Superman after #329.
"Krypto" (#182-190) - 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.

DC published several other ... Family titles with a similar format to Superman Family. These included Batman Family (1975-78), Super-Team Family (1975-1977) and Tarzan Family (1975-76). Marvel paid homage with their 2004-present Spider-Man Family.

In 1982, the series was cancelled to make room for 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.