Starman, volume 1 #18 - Your Mother Should Know
JANUARY 1990
28th NOVEMBER 1989
YOUR MOTHER SHOULD KNOW
Only a few issues in and we're in the second part of a two-part story!
Doctor Polaris, who may or may not be a Magneto expy, has captured our two heroes. But enough of that let's have some family drama!
Yes, we're in the late 80s so we're in full A-plot, B-plot territory with full-on soap opera goodness! For now, let's get the family drama out of the way first.
Momma Starman, Marie (Payton), is still recovering from the death of her no-good husband who she's only just buried. It even affects her forklift certification at the warehouse where she works so much! All the while she's worried that her son (Will) has gone missing, despite the efforts of his sister Jayne, who knows about Will being Starman. After the rest of the story momma finds out that Will is Starman, only to throw him out when she finds out he told his dad, who you'll remember she had issues with.
Back to Power Girl and the plot though, they escape from Polarisis capture, because being a proper villain he leaves them alone. They escape by Starman heating up the room enough to burn out the machinery holding them. This is when Power Girl is still at her most (not) Kryptonian maximum, just it's only the month before she's depowered for a vague amount of time.
The rest of the comic is an extended fight sequence between the three, being magnetism in a comic Dr Polaris is very powerful and seems to have the upper hand. He is defeated by Starman tricking him by assuming his face and voice, something already established earlier in the comic, and slamming Polaris into power lines.
The day saved Pee Gee gives some words of encouragement, whilst a soldier perves at Kara, and gives Starman a kiss probably on the lips (it's a little unclear) before flying off to go back to issues of JLE.
It's ironic that the issue ends with mentions of the JLE because this isn't that Kara. The Power Girl in this (and previous) issue is more who I like to call Auntie Kara, the mentor of Infinity Inc. who helped those young heroes grow into their roles. And that makes sense because this was the Pee Gee that Starman met during his first event (Invasion).
It means that you get fun interactions between the two heroes, between moments of soap opera drama, and I've got to admit I'm definitely here for it!
Power Girl Hair Length - Shoulder length
I loved this volume of Starman as well as JLE, and the different versions of PG never bothered me. My head canon is JLE has "Kara annoyed by family-like siblings" while this is "Kara who isn't getting her buttons pushed." And the pragmatic reality was fine, the different writers wanted to write her their way. Ah well. I also thought there was some potential for a relationship between Kara and Will, since he can hold his own in power levels, but also his temperament allows him to defer to Kara as the more experienced hero. How about you? Did you want more of this pairing?
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