The (Power) Girl and her (Wild) Cat, part 1

The (Power) Girl and her (Wild) Cat, part 1

Happy JSApril to all who celebrate!

As Power Girl is mostly associated with the JSA, after a brief flirtation with the JLA, this blog covers a vast portion of the JSA post 1975 (with a few gaps that I'll get to). So I thought I'd take this moment to talk about a very important issue, my favourite JSAer!

After counting out the obvious candidates of Jay Garrick (Flash) , Alan Scott (Green Lantern), and Power Girl natch,  my favourite character might surprise you, being Ted Grant* (Wildcat)! Now this is from the 70s JSA, the first I really got to know, Yolanda Montez (Wildcat 3), Beth Chapel (Dr Mid-Nite) and Courtney Whitmore (Stargirl) are solid modern contenders and for the late 70s we obviously have Kara's bo Helena Waybe (Huntress). 

I need to stop before this turns into what have DC ever done for us? Basically, I love all the JSA members!

All-Star Super Squad, All-Star Comics #58 (February 1976)

With Power Girl being a later issue reveal the interactions between the two are quite civil. Well as civil as Kara can be in these early issues.

She is written as being confident, erring on the side of overconfident. In this issue is more that she knows exactly what going on here, I imagine her bored pottering around the Fortress watching everything unfold.

The real problems come in the next issue...

Brainwave Blows Up, All-Star Comics #59 (April 1976)

Though they snipe at each other throughout the issue, to the point that even Jay notices it, it's the ending where Pee Gee shows up a boasting Wildcat that we get the dynamic that will go on for the foreseeable future. I can almost hear the laughter track as the show freezes frames and jaunty music plays!

This is because both of them are larger-than-life stereotypes, Ted is your old-school brawler, tough but with a heart of gold, trying to (gallantly) protect "broads" even though most of those on the JSA are much more capable than himself (Wonder Woman, Hawkgirl and her Power Girl). Generally, I don't think in terms of accents but to me, Ted, like Ben Grimm, has one of those broad New York accents.

Power Girl isn't much better, being a 70s idea of a Feminist, she's brash overconfident and assumes that every MAN around her is trying to put her down. It doesn't help that for the early 70s JSA she's the Smurfette of the team, indeed when we get a second female hero (Huntress) she settles down and becomes a much more balanced character. but we'll get to that...

And this isn't just a JSA thing, there were a lot of characters introduced at the time who loudly proclaimed that they were feminists without doing anything different from the norm. At best it was male writers trying to be inclusive, at worst they were straw feminists for the (mostly male) characters to take down a peg. Personally, I take Pee Gee as the former, they over-compensated to make her rapidly fit in, and stand out, with the more established members of the team. We're expected to know the Star-Spangled Kid so he's not given such a big push so (in my opinion) doesn't stand out as much among the other characters.

When Fall the Mighty,  All-Star Comics #62 (October 1976)

And to finish out it's fair to point out that it's not just Wildcat that get's the sharp end of Kara's tongue, as seen her she even has a go at her cousin Superman here. Though to be fair emotions are high in this issue as Dr Fate is in a near critical condition with a good chance that he, the mortal side at least, could die from unknown circumstances.

Even then it's Wildcat that takes the brunt of her ire, though he (as usual) gives as good as he takes!

Next time we'll look at the softening of the relationship with the coming of Huntress, before closing out the month with what I think is my favourite story involving the two characters... 

* This might be a me thing, but even now I have to remind myself that Wildcat is Grant and not Kord, Blue Beetle. Basically, DC has too many Ted for their own good!