This was another of the assorted comic books that my household ended up with two copies of. Not only did I pick the issue up the week it came out during my regular visit to the local 7-11, but my younger brother Ken also bought his own copy at some later point. I never entirely understood why he would buy up copies of the same issues that I had purchased apart from maybe wanting to be on a par with me. But this happened an awful lot. Ken was never anywhere as into reading comic books as I was. He had other interests, including STAR WARS and monster movies. So he would ultimately grow tired with his purchases and they’d wind up finding a new home within my collection years later.
This was the first issue of SUPERMAN in a long while not to be written by regular scribe Marty Pasko, whose work I enjoyed for the most part. Instead, it’s the work of one of the most accomplished writers of the 1970s, Len Wein. Len bounced back and forth between DC and Marvel during the decade, creating characters of lasting value at both companies. His work was never loud or aggressive, and he could tailor his approach to the preferences of the different editors that he worked with, in this case Julie Schwartz. But it was always well-crafted and enjoyable. In fan polls of favorite authors, he would often be overlooked in favor of other names, but during this period he had as solid a track record when it came to writing comic books as anyone.
Len took the opportunity of writing this issue of SUPERMAN to bring back a character not seen in many years. This was the Thorn, a creation of Robert Kanigher who had been introduced to inject some more color into the at-the-time-moribund SUPERMAN’S GIRL FRIEND LOIS LANE series. The Thorn was really Rose Forrest, whose father had been killed by an underworld gang called the 100 (because they boasted 100 members, naturally.) While not a violent person herself, this event triggered a split personality in Rose, causing her to don a disguise and go out and kick the crap out of members of the 100 gang as the lethal vigilante the Thorn. Rose and the Thorn was actually a reworking of a character Kanigher had years earlier created as a recurring foe for the Golden Age Flash,
In this story, troubled by her dreams and periods where she remembers nothing about her activities, Rose has sought out help from a psychiatrist, Doctor Brad Roberts. But as is all-too-common in the world of comic books, Roberts has fallen in love with his patient. He’s also invented a mechanism concealed within an pendant that is designed to prevent Rose’s Thorn persona from emerging, and he’s instructed her to wear it at all times. Unfortunately, the pendant’s subsonic buzzing has an unforeseen effect on Superman, causing him to react as his true self even when attired in his mild-mannered Clark Kent guise. Realizing that something is wrong, Superman seeks out the source of the noise, tracing it back to Rose’s necklace, which he proceeds to borrow from her, intending to destroy it.
Unfortunately, removing the necklace from Rose has unleashed her more violent side as the Thorn, and she races in pursuit of the Man of steel, outraged that he would steal the pendant from her. She’s paranoid, convinced that if Superman destroys the gem, she will cease to exist. So she ambushed the Metropolis Marvel and recovers the pendant–only to find herself unable to destroy it or get rid of it because it’s important to her other half, Rose.
Having recovered from the surprise attack, Superman uses his super-hearing to locate Rose’s whereabouts and confront her once again. Now, there’s no way that the non-powered Thorn poses any sort of real threat to the Man of Tomorrow. But she’s so out of her mind that she attacks him anyway, and it’s all that Superman can do to try to calm her down without hurting her. Before the situation can resolve itself, Superman and the Thorn’s attention is diverted by the appearance of the Sidecar Bandits, a criminal team that’s been robbing city busses and making their getaway on motorcycles. Seems like a low-rent problem for Superman, but right up the Thorn’s alley–and so she breaks off her scuffle with the Man of Steel in order to give chase.
This gives us the requisite action for the back half of the story as the two heroes capture the Sidecar bandits. During the fight, though, the pendant is destroyed by a stray shot, and the Thorn immediately regains her proper senses. She apologizes, then runs off, and Superman simply lets her go without pursuing. Later, he returns to tell Dr. Roberts about the harm his invention had caused and to give Rose a replica of the destroyed gem, just without the device inside it. But Roberts is bound by client confidentiality, so he can’t reveal the truth of Rose’s double-identity to Superman–and the big goof disregards the idea out of hand when it crosses his mind. You’d think that a guy who spent decades pretending to be timid and weak would understand the lengths that somebody might go to in order to conceal a secret identity. But this was a common super hero trope, and so the issue ends on that note.
The Tom Brevoort Experience 
Cou[le of thoughts: transference (clients falling in love with therapists and therapists falling in love with clients0 is apparently a big issue in that field.
Depending on the jurisdiction, some states have laws that give therapists duty to warn people a client has threatened in therapy, See Tarasoff v. Regents of the University of California, 17 Cal. 3d 425, 551 P.2d 334, 131 Cal. Rptr. 14 (Cal. 1976).
That is not quite the situation here and I wonder if that duty would apply if the potential victim were Superman?
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I really enjoyed the Rose & Thorn series and Swan drew both sides of the personality beautifully. Too bad they never had Thorn join any team but I guess if they did they’d have had to get rid of the personality disorder so there’s that. I did like Bendis’ use of her, where something that even she doesn’t know what it was made her immortal on one of her seemingly street level adventures.
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As Ross Andru had just come back to DC right before this (and he and Mike Esposito had done many of the Rose & Thorne stories in Lois Lane, I wonder if he was not why these characters were brought back,
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I always liked Thorn — I would often buy LOIS LANE just for the back-ups. Unfortunately, she doesn’t get to do much here besides snarl at Superman. Still, it’s a pretty clever story, as you would expect from Wein.
Gotta love the Sidecar Bandits. You almost have to root for any ordinary crook who tries to make a go of it in Metropolis, knowing it’s only a matter of time before Superman shuts them down. Keep hope alive, Sidecar Bandits!
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I thought they had almost a Kirby “InterGang” Vibe. It was kind of a call back to a very different world not so long ago.
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Maybe its just me but considering how powerful the pre-crisis Superman was suppose to be how could he be stunned or make grunting/pain noise from either the falling water or I-beam? Neither should have bothered him ( He should have had the same non-reaction as Superman in Superman Returns ( 2006 film ) bullet to the eye scene ). Thorn’s fight with Superman almost mirrors the one with Guardian in Superman Annual#2 ( August 1988 ).
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I think the water and struts panels could be read as grunts of annoyance and frustration, a sort of “Hey! What in Rao’s name is going on here?!”, rather than pain. If someone managed to get a bucket of water dumped on your head, and then jumped out and hit you in the face with a pool noodle, you might make some sort of exclamations, even if none of that actually hurt.
Rather, the plot logic holes I see there, are how does Thorn manage to have a water tower rigged with explosives, how did she catch up to the flying Superman in minutes, and it’s real good timing to have the water tower drop just at the right moment to hit Superman. Also, when Thorn throws the smoke-bomb at Superman and helpfully tells him the smoke’s got lead particles, he doesn’t have to just stand there in it. He can easily fly upwards – or towards her last known position.
While I understand the ending was meant as a wink, I concur it doesn’t work well. The punch-line requires Superman to be holding a massive idiot-ball, which makes the joke fall flat for me.
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One, he should be fast enough to catch the water tower and put it either back on the roof on put on the street; second once again fast enough to avoid the I-beam hit to the chin, three those are comic book pain sounds he is making and four he saw both the water tower and I-beam coming so he wasn’t startled. I agree with you on the plot logic holes. Writers do tend to forget he has super-speed ( Like they do Wonder Woman, how else to explain any writer thinking a non-super-powered Cheetah could be any kind of threat to a super-powered Wonder Woman ( I-Ching era Wonder Woman yes ).
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I would bet that last-panel gag was meant to be amusing more than anything else. Still pretty dumb of Superman, but I expect the irony of Superman having the same reaction to Rose that others have to Clark was meant to cause a chuckle.
I missed this run as it was coming out — I’d started buying Bat-books due to Englehart, and would follow Wein from ‘TEC to BATMAN — but I didn’t start buying Super-books regularly until 1980. I started getting FLASH on Richard Howell’s recommendation, which led me to SUPERBOY, because I enjoyed Cary’s FLASH, and from SUPERBOY to ACTION for the same reason.
I think I got the “Let My People Grow!” story new, thanks to promotion of it somewhere. But I had to go back and pick up the rest of Len’s run later.
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It isn’t just that Superman of all people should have figured out that Rose & Thorn were the same person because of his own secret identity, but add Diana Prince or 2 wigs as disguises female heroes he knows ( Diana Laurel Lance/Black Canary II ( blonde wig as Canary ) & Linda Lee Danvers/Supergirl ( brown wig as Linda ) ) one would think a guy who is suppose to be super-smart in the pre-crisis DC Universe would easily figure it out. Plus with his better than human vision, surely he would see here face is the same.
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I liked Rose and Thorn as well and wouldn’t mind seeing what they’re up to post-Bendis, as I assume she is no longer connected to that particular incarnation of the Legion of Super-Heroes.
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DC doesn’t seem to like alternate timelines so each Legion gets put on a separate Earth so it’s probable you’ll get your wish. Or Rose just gets immortal two years from the ever present now. Of course, she could already be immortal and just not know it due to the slow aging of characters.
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Why is it that Superman has so many run-ins with Motorcycles or sidecar drive by shootings? I recall the classic Jimmy Olsen cover where Jimmy is telling his “pack” to “Gun him down!” It was obvious to me that he meant “Run him down”…as they had no guns on that cover! Why the editor didn’t catch that, I’ll never know….
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Why does Superman so frequently get run down or drive by shootings by motorcycles or side cars? I recall the classic Jimmy Olsen when he tells his “pack” to “Gun him down!” on the cover…but it’s pretty clear what he meant to “Run him down!” Do you recall? Why the editor didn’t catch that, I’ll never know…https://www.comics.org/issue/23791/cover/4/
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