Sigh, Atlantis - Secret Origins #11

Ancient Histories

Secret Origins #11

Cover Date: February 1987

Released: 13th November 1986

Half of this book is about something that doesn't exist, and I'm not talking about the Hawkman origin!  And yes now is the time I need to talk about Power Girl's post-crisis origins.

With the Crisis, it was determined that Superman would be the only Kryptonian. ANd to be fair the pre-crisis universe was awash with survivors from a world that apparently exploded with (almost) everyone dying in the process. Supergirl had it the worse what with her being wiped from reality, and Power Girl only survived with this sudden change in her origin. Why she wasn't also got rid of like most of the other Earth-2 characters, like poor Helena, I'm not sure why maybe because she was so tied up with an active team (though not for long).

So we start with the classic origin, dying world, desperate scientists, last hope, a surviving cousin. With poor Kara still trying to come to terms with the loss of everything from the Crisis, trying to find some comfort in the pod that bought her to Earth (hopefully fully working after its shenanigans in Showcase). In frustration, she knocks on the side of the pod and we transition to the second part of the story and her post-crisis origins.

And yes now we need to talk about Atlantis! From a magical hologram (magigram?) of Arion reveals that Kara isn't from Krypton but from Atlantis. For it seems the spirit of an evil magician banished a century ago has somehow found a way to possess the baby Kara and with time will be able to possess her body to continue his evil schemes. ANd yes I'm aware that means again somehow this issue connects with the previous one, which would be even better if I'd ever planned these things.

To stop the evil spirit from finishing his plan they encase Kara in a giant red crystal which is thrown through time, disguising itself as the pod for Superman to find. It's not mentioned why the pod was so convinced it tried to capture her in a Kryptonian reality, a method actor I guess! Anyway, after revealing this new origin, which somehow left her with her Kryptonian power set, she gets a fancy magical belt buckle to remind her and we're done!

As you might expect I'm not a fan of the Atlantis origin, there are many other better options that allow Kara to continue as is. The Legion has Mon-El and Andromeda, Daxamites that do exactly the same job of replacing a Kryptonian (Superboy in this case) whilst still keeping the power set. Now not that anything good doesn't come out of it, see next week for that, but it's telling that for the most part this Atlantis origin really doesn't play much of a deal until it's retconned again as we get closer to yet another Crisis. But we'll get to that in good time!