80-Page Thursdays: Superman Family #188!

I know this title was pieced together from the other Superman books, but sometimes it still feels weird to have continued stories in an 80-page book! That should've been plenty of room! From 1978, Superman Family #188, featuring stories by E.Nelson Bridwell, Tom DeFalco, Gerry Conway, and more; and art by Ken Landgraf, Win Mortimer, Kurt Shaffenberger, and more.

It's election day for the science council in Kandor; and Superman and Jimmy Olsen visit to check it out. Unfortunately, some Kandorian separatists--whose goal is "to free Kandor of its bottle" but by any means necessary?--attack the family of Superman Reserve Squad member Van-Zee: he was also up for the council spot, but more importantly, was the current Nightwing! He's helpless with his family held hostage, and while he and Flamebird fight the original duo of Supes and Jimmy, the separatists use the enlarging gas to make them giant-sized! Relatively. They're still in the bottle, just big enough to lord it over everybody. The heroes have to fight the giants for a couple chapters, and Jimmy and new Flamebird Ak-Var have to start out resenting each other and then work through it.

Also this issue: Lois meets superhero wannabe the Human Cannonball, but he's not "The Mutant Menace of Metropolis!" Superman has to stop an alien disease, Krypto saves a train from a rockslide in remarkably difficult fashion, and Supergirl is on trial for banishing Shyla to the Phantom Zone back in Superman Family #183: she had served her sentence in the Zone, did Supergirl have the right to put her back in, even if she was a menace? Kara pleads no contest, but she has something in mind that her cousin can't see...or does he? 

Luckily, I do have the next issue, which features the conclusions to both the Superman and Supergirl stories.