Hunting high and low - JSA Classified #3

Power Trip, Part III

JSA Classified #3

Cover Date: November 2005

Released: 21st September 2005

⋅ Writers: Geoff Johns ⋅ Pencilers: Amanda Conner ⋅  

⋅ Inkers: Jimmy Palmiotti ⋅ Colourists: Paul Mounts ⋅

⋅ Letterers: Rob Leigh ⋅ Editors: Harvey Richards / Stephen Wacker ⋅ 

We start with a very dodgy supervillain, Doctor Houngan, fighting against Huntress, the Helena Bertinelli variety, putting on a good show until Plasmus tries to basically melt her. Luckily at that point Power Girl turns up to save the day! Power Girl then give our plot summary to Huntress as she looks more and more confused as to why she's come to Gotham and tracked her down.

Meanwhile Psycho Pirate turns up to the site they're taking Power Girls bioship to, fighting both the Checkmate troopers and Mr Terrific and the Flash (Jay Garrick). It goes as badly as you'd expect with Psycho Pirate turning everyone against each other whilst he claims the ship for whatever he has planned.

Meanwhile Power Girl is flying alongside Huntress trying to explain why she sough her out, with them admitting that they don't really know each other well and that neither of them are all about the "Girl-talk". All this good character interacting is a little spoiled by Huntress claiming that all the boys like her whilst most of the girls don't. It's obviously what they're implying and it seems really out of the character fir the DC universe as whole. The next page does a little to make up for it as the two talking it out a little and decide to start from the beginning. 

Unfortunately at this point we have the baddies of the issue show up, this time the Crime Syndicate, evil version of the main Justice League members at this point from the Anti-matter universe (that isn't an alternative Earth for... reasons). Or if it hadn't been hammered into us before the illusion of the villain team. This time around whilst Huntress can't see the visions she can see something is up, and is even attacked by one of the illusions. Things are getting even weirder with a cavalcade of characters related to the Superfamily, including Captain Marvel, and well it's a lot of references packed into one page!

Surrounded by hand of people trying to gain a piece of her Power Girl cries out for them to leave her along, inadvertently knocking back Huntress who was trying to help her what with whatever she was seeing happening. And finally Psycho Pirate turns up to claim the unconscious Power Girl. We see him talking to Lex Luthor as to whether her will has been broken, as he's apparently been manipulating things behind the scene, and goes to look at Power Girl who's been chained up in her bioship.

And we end this issue on one of the best Crisis call-backs you can get "Worlds lived... worlds died... but you survived!"

Maybe it's because I've been hip deep in stories that have clunky plot structure, but it's nice to have a story that chugging along at a more or less perfect pace. And that odd lines asides the interactions between Huntress and Power Girl is pretty solid, it show how the two are at this point more or less the same kind of personality. If anything I kind of wish we had more of there interactions, but alas we're getting to the back half of the story and things are rumbling towards the end!