Symbol Pending - A Power Girl Blog

Power Trip, Part IV JSA Classified #4 Cover Date:  December 2005 Released:  26th October 2005 ⋅ Writers:   Geoff Johns  ⋅ Pencilers:  Amanda Conner   ⋅     ⋅   Inkers:  Jimmy Palmiotti  ⋅  Colourists:  Paul Mounts  ⋅ ⋅  Letterers:  Rob Leigh   ⋅  Editors:  Harvey Richards / Stephen Wacker  ⋅  Continued from part 3 After all the weirdness of the previous few issues, we settled in to find out just what this was all about. Stop me if you've heard this one before, there was a multiverse including a second Earth, an Earth-2 if you will, and there was a bunch of heroes called the Justice Society of  America. When Krypton-2 exploded not only was Kal-L sent to Earth, his cousin sent his only daughter to Earth, who grew up to be Power Girl! Yes her classic origin is now back. We also learn Psycho Pirates (II it seems) background. His father was a psychologist and also the first Psycho Pirate who used a series of masks called the Medusa Masks, which did a single emotion each, and forged th

Beginnings Worlds' Finest #0 Cover Date:  November 2012 Released:  5th September 2012 ⋅ Writers:   Paul Levitz  ⋅ Pencilers:  Kevin Maguire   ⋅     ⋅   Inkers:  Wes Craig  ⋅  Colourists:  Rosemary Cheetham  ⋅ ⋅  Letterers:  Carlos M. Mangual   ⋅  Editors:  Wil Moss  ⋅  When the universe was rebooted into the New 52 it was decided that they wouldn't start with origin stories, instead starting with the heroes being already established. That was carried on to the second wave of launches including Earth 2 and Worlds' Finest, though the later cheated by flashing back to tell how they got to Earth Prime. Earth 2 only extends to a one panel cameo, we'll get to those before the end of the year, so let's look At Worlds' Finest #0. We start off with Helena going out on her first patrol, saving the traditional damsel from a couple of thugs, who as the woman names herself as Robin from Robin Hood. Apparently, she'd been watched by her mother, Selena Kyle née Wayne, wh

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. M

 Rebirth, part IV Worlds' Finest #4 Cover Date:  October 2012 Released:  1st August 2012 ⋅ Writers:   Paul Levitz  ⋅ Pencilers:  George Pérez / Kevin Maguire  ⋅ ⋅  Inkers:  Scott Koblish / Kevin Maguire  ⋅ ⋅  Colourists:  Hi-Fi Design / Rosemary Cheetham  ⋅ ⋅  Letterers:  Carlos M. Mangual   ⋅  Editors:  Wil Moss  ⋅  Continued from  Rebirth, part III . We start with the two going out to Tokyo bay, discussing possible Darkseid influence - something that Kara seems to be obsessed with. With the now kaiju villain attacking ships the two split up, with Huntress helping to rescue sailors in the water whilst Power Girl starts by stopping an oil leak from a tanker. Trying to lift it causes it to break, so she resorts to using her laser eyes to burn away the oil. We then flashback to their meetup in Rome, set up in last issue's London visit. Kara has her plan to get experts to work for her, buying a small Micronesian island for her business (all of which we've already seen). Overhe

Rebirth, part III Worlds' Finest #3 Cover Date:  September 2012 Released:  4th July 2012 ⋅ Writers:   Paul Levitz  ⋅ Pencilers:  George Pérez / Kevin Maguire  ⋅ ⋅  Inkers:  Scott Koblish / Kevin Maguire  ⋅ ⋅  Colourists:  Hi-Fi Design / Rosemary Cheetham  ⋅ ⋅  Letterers:  Carlos M. Mangual   ⋅  Editors:  Wil Moss  ⋅  Continued from Rebirth, part II .  We picked up from part 2 with Huntress having to protect Power Girl from the nuclear creature, using her athletics and crossbow to dodge around until Kara has recovered enough to grab the villain. Huntress then puts a crossbow bolt into the cooling pipes dumping radioactive water on top of them. Power Girl then does what all good Kryptonians do and yeets him away from the nuclear reactor. We also have some really good banter between the two characters, mostly about how invulnerable Power Girl is to just about everything. We then get another flashback to the early days on Earth prime, this time in London where they rightly complain abo

A Deadly Threat From Earth 2? Worlds' Finest #1 Cover Date:  August 2012 Released:  6th June 2012 ⋅ Writers:   Paul Levitz  ⋅ Pencilers:  George Pérez /  ⋅  Kevin Maguire   ⋅   Inkers:  Scott Koblish / Kevin Maguire  ⋅   ⋅  Colourists:  Hi-Fi Design / Rosemary Cheetham  ⋅ ⋅  Letterers:  Dezi Sienty   ⋅  Editors:  Wil Moss  ⋅  We start with Power Girl facing down with  Hakkou, that radiation man, and doing a pretty good job until she tries to touch the villain only to collapse in pain. So Huntress just steps up and just shoots him in the head, he flees and the women chase after him. We get another five-year flashback, to them burning their costumes. Then a skip to a few months later and Kara not being happy to be on Earth 0, wanting to just do something rather than just sitting around and gathering intel. We then flash to the near now where Karan Starr is running her business in Micronesia, showing that she is a capable businesswoman and smarter than she often lets on. She then di

  Rebirth Worlds' Finest #1 Cover Date: July 2012 Released:  2nd May 2012 ⋅ Writers: Paul Levitz ⋅ Pencilers: George Pérez / Kevin Maguire ⋅ ⋅ Inkers: Scott Koblish / Kevin Maguire ⋅ ⋅ Colourists: Hi-Fi Design / Rosemary Cheetham ⋅  ⋅ Letterers: Carlos M. Mangual ⋅ Editors: Wil Moss ⋅    Whilst I was planning to cover the New 52 this week, I thought it only fair to skip from the earliest comics to cover this issue. The reason being sadly the death of George Pérez this previous weekend (6th May 2022). From all I've heard Mr.  Pérez was a lovely man who really seemed to enjoy comic books and their fans. I don't think my word could ever do the man justice, but I'd like to dedicate this to his memory. Regardless of what you think of the New 52, you have to admire that it wasn't afraid to experiment and try new things. Things like World's Finest. I dipped into the New 52 when it launched but only a few of the comics I kept collection, a fewer to the bit

Nevermind Superman/Batman #27 Cover Date: August 2006 Released: 21st June 2006 Even though I'd thought I'd finished all the Pre-Crisis comics Randy Khoo on Twitter kindly pointed out a comic I didn't know about from 2006 that is ostensively set in the Pre-Crisis era. Almost immediately I tracked it down to find a rather pleasant surprise. Now technically Power Girl doesn't appear in the majority of the comic, at least in spirit, but it will become clearer as well get into the story and explain why I'm more than glad to cover the story. This is not a complicated story, not that that's a bad thing, the Ultra-Humanite has kidnapped Batman and Superman and put their mind in Huntress (Helena Wayne) and Power Girl. Our two heroes need to track their bodies down before they're forced to choose between their own minds or the dormant (but waking up) minds of our two female heroes. Whilst the comic had just come off of a long story of multiversal shenanigans, the da

  Last Days of the Justice Society Cover Date:  July 1986 Released:  24th April 1985 In my copy of Crisis on Infinite Earths Marv Wolfman declare that he didn't kill off the JSA in the Crisis, and he's right this is the book that killed the team and boy what a crazy ride it is! But as I'm apparently still not done with getting irked at Crisis fallout we get one doozy of a retcon. For we start with the JSA gathered at the graveside of both Helena and Dick Grayson. But I hear you say, metaphorical reader, Robin survived that disaster, didn't he? Well according to this no! Even worse we don't find out how he died during the crisis, just that between the last scene we saw him in and this funeral he somehow died. Also, the funeral mentions all the other JSAers that have been lost between their start and (then) current day. We also get the obligatory info dump about Infinity Inc and the sudden influx of new members. The plot starts off simple enough, Hitler has the Spear

Alley-Kat-Abra is the best btw Crisis on Earth-C-Minus Captain Carrot and His Amazing Zoo Crew #15 Cover Date:  May 1983 Released:  24th February 1983 Power Girl is in one panel, and she refuses to take place in a crossover with funny animal heroes. Next!

Crisis on Infinite Earths #7-12 Cover Date:  October 1985 to March 1986 Release Date:  4th July to 19th December 1985 Infinity Inc #24-25, 27 Cover Date:  March 1986 to June 1986 Release Date:  19th December 1985 to 20th March 1986 A quick apology here but this one get's a little long, and a little ranty, with issue #7 being so important it didn't seem fair to tack it onto the end of the last blog. And being the end obviously the more important stuff comes towards the end. And for the first time, of many, here I do really like this series. It's obviously flawed, and I will mention a few of the here, but overall it tells the tale it was tasked with doing competently. Crisis on Infinite Earths #7 - "Beyond the Silent Night" ( October 1985) Have you ever watched a show and suddenly an underused character gets all the action and the best lines, before being killed off? This is what happens with Supergirl here, no use burying the lead here it's probably the second

Crisis on Infinite Earths is frustrating to talk about. Not because it’s bad, it’s a classic for a reason. Firstly it’s what I’d call a funfair comic, trying to include (and mostly succeeding) every aspect of the soon to be gone DC Universe. Also as one of the first event comics, along with Secret Wars, it ushered in a style of comics that you can say is perhaps now overused. With this rebooting the universe many better authors than me have spilled many words about the impact of Crisis on both the real and fictional universe. Finally, this Crisis doesn’t do Power Girl a service, she cameos in about half of the story but only really plays a part in the last few issues, still let’s look at the entire thing as a whole including her fleeting appearances in Infinity Inc. Crisis on Infinite Earths #1-6 Cover Date: May 1985 to September1985 Release Date: 3rd January to 6th June 1985 Infinity Inc #21-22 Cover Date: December1985 to January 1986 Release Date: 19th September 1985 to 17th October

Aftermath -- and Prologue Infinity Inc #11 Cover Date: February 1985 Released: 15th November 1984 So you've spent almost a year setting up your team, all the new backstories and the building threat of the one big bad. Now he's defeated what do you add now? More backstory! Yes, this issue tells the tale of how the Star-spangled Kid has reconnected with his partner Stipesy, just a few weeks ago, to help defeat a plot of some gangsters. It involves armoured automobiles and seems pretty solid, but it's totally out of the blue and brings all the momentum of the tales to a screeching halt. It's a shame as the issue has start's really good, and with a Power Girl moment to boot, with the now recovered Superman wondering if the Metropolis could ever forgive him for what he's just done. He even claims that it means that he's never really been at home on Earth, which works better for the juggle planet Supes compared to the more "down to Earth" modern Supes w

A Dark and Deadly Place Infinity Inc #10 Cover Date:  January 1985 Released:  18 th October1984 We start with a glorious splash page with a fourth world break, with Ultra-Humanite apparently addressing the reader. Instead, he's addressing our water affected JSAers and offers them more of the water so that the effects won't wear off again (maybe permanently, though it's not made clear). And whilst they consider whether to fight him of not the Infinity Inc began to gather around the mountain in ones and two's. As they do they share information to get all of them, and the reader, up to speed on what has happened over the last few issues. And all together and up to speed, they decide to just crash into the place to finally, finally, face the Ultra-Humanite. This genius of a plan is obviously come to by our one and only Power Girl, who's never been one to give up on a frontal assault! She does however get take out straight away by Superman melting her lead scroll tube, m

How Green Was My Victory Infinity Inc #9 Cover Date:  December 1984 Released: 20 th September 1984 We open by finding out what happened to the Star-Spangled Kid and Brainwave, Jr, no they weren't crushed by the avalanched caused in #7 but were instead transported to Limbo where they meet the original Brainwave. Old Brainwave is in his Golden Age Doctor Sivana look, which avoids confusion as he's also taken on exactly the look Junior is wearing here. After a quick round of explaining how he was a bad dad, and that Junior's mom is Merry and the sister of Star-Spangled Kid, Senior explains whilst he could transport them to Limbo none of them can leave. Obsidian and Jade are watched leaving the JSA headquarters by Harlequin, an old foe of the Alan Scott Green Lantern. But enough continuity references for this issue it's time for the main point of the story fighting Green Lantern in spaaaccceee..... First Starman has a go at defeating the Lantern but is caught by an illusion

Atomic Dreams - - Nuclear Nightmares! Infinity Inc #8 Cover Date:  November 1984 Released: 16th August 1984 We start with a bit of a double-dip as we get a (nice) full-page splash of the group of the heroes over the, apparently, unconscious form of Steve Trevor. We then go through how Diana wanted to gift him with immortality as she was watching him get older whilst she aged much, much slower. They then have a spat about whether to take him to a nearby hospital or to Paradise Island, Wonder Woman still being under the influence and all. After a quick scuffle, she flees in her invisible jet with Steve to get him looked after. Then talking of hospitals we visit Jay Garrick (Flash) recovering in hospital and talking with the Mayor from earlier in the story. Dr Mid-nite and Shiera rock up to find out what's happening, which helpfully means we can get an update in the story so far and Infinity Inc's involvement in the whole thing. The Alan Scott (Green Lantern) hijacks the signal, s