This Is Not My Life is a 2010 Supergirl storyline written by Kelly Sue DeConnick, originally published in Supergirl (Volume 5). It was the last arc of the series, which ended to make way for the New 52.
Synopsis
Lois Lane and her niece Edna are entering a Metropolis tram car when a young girl hurriedly jumps into the car without paying the ticket, intending to run away from a squad of MONQIs, the robot soldiers of Professor Ivo Amazo. Fortunately, Supergirl and Starman arrive, drive the monkey-looking robots off and save the falling tram car.
This battle is observed by an unknown couple and a disgusted Professor Ivo, who looked to "extract" something of that young girl his robots were chasing. He laments her loss because she was full of potential, but he states he'll find new subjects to experiment with.
Supergirl rips off the car's doors, letting the passengers come out. After the rescue, Lois tries to make a joke about how Supergirl could have saved her breakfast, too. Supergirl is still tense, though, and thinks Lois is serious, prompting her cousin's wife to apologize. As the rescued girl (that is muttering "going to seed" over and again) is taken away, Supergirl and Starman talk about what being an outsider who doesn't quite fit in is like, and then they fly off.
The next day Kara-as-Linda is working as an intern at the Planet when she is called in to Lois' office. Lois again apologizes for the coffee joke and explains she needs her help. The girl being chased by the MONQUIs is Charlize Yue, a Stanhope College student gone missing. It turns out several students with similar backgrounds have gone missing: brilliant, legally emancipated and with no living relatives.
Lois smells a story, but she needs Supergirl's help. She asks Kara to go undercover as a student at some colleges to try to dig something up. The next college orientation is going to be at Stanhope College, in where Kara will pose as "Linda Lane". Kara grumbles about being chosen because her parents are dead, and Lois replies she asked her help because Kara has good investigative instincts, is well equipped to handle herself... and because, frankly, Lois thinks Kara could use a little fun hanging out with people her own age.
Kara makes her way to the college grounds and meets Shirley, her roommate for the weekend, and a 5th year senior called Henry Flyte that makes Linda pretty angry. Later that night, Henry brings "Linda Lane" and Shirley to his "Silk Pajama Society" headquarters. Since Linda previously berated him for making jokes about Charlize Yue, he shows Linda a complicated chart using the information of the missing students that shows that Flyte will be the next student to go missing. And he doesn't want to go the police because he wants to solve this mystery.
Linda tries to show him he isn't trained or qualified to solve that case, but while she talks, he goes in a closet... and disappears.
Kara thinks Henry Flyte has been kidnapped, but it turns out that Henry was merely trying to trick Kara/Linda into thinking he was grabbed while he slipped into some of the catacombs below the college. Kara and the other students go down into the tunnels in search of Henry, and they discover he has been actually kidnapped.
Phillip Gardner and his wife -the couple who were working with Professor Ivo and who turn out to be the administration of Stanhope College- catch Lois snooping around their file room. She starts asking questions, first subtly and later bringing up Charlize Yue, until she is shown the door.
Lois's investigation scares the Gardners and they decide they must push the timetable up. Miss Gardner calls Ivo and tells him he needs complete the "upload" that night. Ivo protests he needs more children to complete his experiment, but his employeer doesn't want to hear it. He wonders where he will find more appropiate candidates when he notices Linda/Kara and the crew of students wandering around the tunnels and decides they'll suffice.
Down in the catacombs, the group of students is surrounded my a mob of rats. Supergirl scans them and discovers they are robots. Thinking quick, Kara douses the rats with some nearby water to make it appear that someone else's dropped flashlight shorted them out, while she circles at superspeed, blowing them up them with heat vision.
While the students are wondering how a battery-powered flashlight could have caused the whole mob to explode, Linda blocks a passageways's door to prevent more rats from entering and finds an excuse to break away and put her Supergirl costume on.
Meanwhile, Ivo is dragging Henry in his lab, ready to toss him into a glass pod, when Supergirl bursts into his lab.
Supergirl finally faces Professor Ivo down. Ivo orders his MONQUIs attack her and runs off while she batters her robotical minions down. When Supergirl catches up with him, he has jumped into a giant robot and confronts Supergirl. Although he tries -and believes- to seem intimidating, Kara tells him he looks "like a horny toad at a Gundam convention". He doesn't take her bantering kindly, and they beging fighting.
In the meantime, a journalism student called Ngoze Onwualu meets Lois. Ngoze was always chasing Yue academically, but never managed to beat her. When Yue went missing and later turned up in Metropolis, Ngoze felt guilty and scared, so she did some digging and decided to share her info with Lois.
It turns out that a secret society, The Order of Ponce De Leon, founded by Ivo when he was a student, has been receiving funds from the University. The order's goals were to eventually unlock immortality.
Ivo reveals her plan while Supergirl is trashing him. He isn't trying to beat her but just stall her until the upload of the minds of the captured students is complete. He plans to create "a permanent catalog of the best of humanity's intellectual potential". It is his "gift to the species". However Supergirl manages to stop him with a bit of help of the other students. Ivo and his backers are arrested.
Two weeks after orientation, Linda goes back to the campus to greet Henry. She lets him know she isn't going to head to Stanhope the next year because her life is a bit pretty complicated at the time and she needs to take a little time off.
Then she asks him not to forget her, and kisses him.
Issues
- Supergirl (Volume 5) #65 (This Is Not My Life, Part 1)
- Supergirl (Volume 5) #66 (This Is Not My Life, Part 2)
- Supergirl (Volume 5) #67 (This Is Not My Life, Part 3)
Notes
- "Supergirl: This Is Not My Life" takes place concurrently with the "Superman: Grounded" storyline.
- "Supergirl: This Is Not My Life" is the final story arc of Supergirl's fifth solo book prior to the New 52 universe.
Recommended Reading
- Supergirl Recommended Reading
- Action Comics (Volume 1)
- Adventure Comics (Volume 1)
- All-Star Comics (Volume 1)
- Supergirl (Volume 1)
- Superman Family (Volume 1)
- Supergirl (Volume 2)
- Infinity Inc. (Volume 1)
- Power Girl (Volume 1)
- Supergirl (Volume 3)
- Supergirl (Volume 4)
- Supergirl (Volume 5)
- Supergirl and the Legion of Super-Heroes (Volume 1)
- Power Girl (Volume 2)
- Supergirl (Volume 6)
- Worlds' Finest (Volume 1)
- Supergirl (Volume 7)
- Supergirl: Woman of Tomorrow (Volume 1)
Links and References
  This event or storyline is specifically related to the character of Supergirl and/or her supporting cast. This template will automatically categorize articles that include it into the Supergirl Storylines category. |
 This event or storyline is specifically related to Superman, or to members of the Superman Family. This template will automatically categorize articles that include it into the Superman Storylines category. |