Symbol Pending - A Power Girl Blog

Your Mother Should Know Starman #18 Cover Date: January 1990 Released: 28th November 1989 ⋅ Writers:  Roger Stern ⋅ Pencilers:  Tom Lyle ⋅  Inker:  Scott Hanna ⋅ Colourists:  Carl Gafford ⋅ Letterer:  Bob Pinaha ⋅ Editors:   Brian Augustyn / Katie Main   Continued from Starman #17. You can sometimes tell just how week-to-week this is by the stupid decisions that I make about how to handle the material, like how the last issue I completely skipped the soap opera parts of the story. The thing is those aspects make up some of the best parts of the story, though the superheroic aspects (and Power Girl) are incredibly solid as well. So to make amends for such an oversight I'll try to cover both halves of the story this time around. The first half of the soapy part is Starman's mom worrying about where William, Starman, is after being missing for almost half a day. His sister, Jayne, who knows about his secret, is trying to cover for him being missing...

Deadly Attraction Starman #17 Cover Date: December 1989 Released: 31st October 1989 ⋅ Writers:  Roger Stern ⋅ Pencilers:  Tom Lyle ⋅  Inker:  Scott Hanna ⋅ Colourists:  Carl Gafford ⋅ Letterer:  Tim Harkins ⋅ Editors:   Brian Augustyn What could be more appropriate as we barrel towards Christmas than a Star to light our way? We start with Power Girl at the Paris Embassy doing some heavy lifting of equipment, and a Wally that's actually okay! All friendly and nervous just trying to get along with Pee Gee for a change, it's a nice change of pace from the jerk Wally we normally get from the JLE. Well, that's enough of them as Kara jumps in a teleporter to o back to New York to catch a shower, unfortunately, the beam gets hijacked by someone nefarious! The said villain, one Doctor Polaris knocks Pee Gee out with a blast of energy, using these circumstances to his advantage, though I'm not sure why he plays the innocent bystander for almost a whole page e...

No More Teachers' Dirty Looks...?! Justice League Europe #6 Cover Date: September 1989 Released: 1st August 1989 ⋅ Writers:  J.M. DeMatteis / Keith Giffen ⋅ Pencilers:  Bart Sears  ⋅  Inker:  Pablo Marcos ⋅ Colourists:  Gene D'Angelo ⋅ Letterer:  Bob Lappan ⋅ Editors:   Kevin Dooley / Andrew Helfer Power Girl wasn't in issue #5, last appearing in  Justice League #4   I've mentioned several times, in different ways that filler, or breather, issues like this one can be quite fun. But also how that leaves very little to talk about. Basically, the majority of the Justice League go to a night school to learn French, as do members of the Injustice League. Slowly the Injustice boys figure out and try to leave before the JLE finds out and a brief fight breaks out before the teacher shuts the fight down and everyone gets arrested by the police. All through the story, the teacher does your usual teacher things stopping people talking, chewing gu...

Bialya Burning! Justice League Europe #4 Cover Date: July 1989 Released: 30th May 1989 ⋅ Writers:  J.M. DeMatteis / Keith Giffen ⋅ Pencilers:  Bart Sears / Keith Giffen ⋅  Inker:  Pablo Marcos ⋅ Colourists:  Gene D'Angelo ⋅ Letterer:  Albert DeGuzman ⋅ Editors:   Kevin Dooley / Andrew Helfer Continued from  Justice League Europe #3 . Normally I don't talk much about covers, I'm never sure what counts as a "good" cover, but I do appreciate how they placed the speech bubble to cover up Power Girl so Queen Bee's statement works at first glance. Of cause I can't let it pass without pointing out how few female heroes we currently have on the team! (At the moment a 100% female support staff so they have that at least!). We start by laying out everything hinted at in the last issue, that Jack O'Lantern is working for Queen Bee leader of Bialya, one of the many, many fictional Middle Eastern countries that seemed to spring up during the 80s. They a...

Another Fine Mess! Justice League Europe #3 Cover Date: June 1989 Released: 25th April 1989 ⋅ Writers:  J.M. DeMatteis / Keith Giffen ⋅ Pencilers:  Bart Sears ⋅  Inker:  Pablo Marcos ⋅ Colourists:  Gene D'Angelo ⋅ Letterer:  Albert DeGuzman ⋅ Editors:   Kevin Dooley / Andrew Helfer Continued from  Justice League Europe #2 . We start with a quick recap of the last two issues, revealing that our heroes are clued in that those they were fighting were formally part of the Global Guardians. Flash is his normal irritating self in a, which I think of a Josie and the Pussycat moment. Yeah, I know no one cool will get this, basically, one of the characters (Alexander, no really I didn't need to look it up :D ) states she is in the movie because she was in the comic book! No, really the movie is fun, go look it up! The team basically splits into three-ish groups, a bunch of them go off and do nothing so we can ignore them! Captain Atom meets a Frenchman w...

Somebody Up There Hates Us! Justice League Europe #2 Cover Date: May 1989 Released: 28th March 1989 ⋅ Writers:  J.M. DeMatteis / Keith Giffen ⋅ Pencilers:  Bart Sears ⋅  Inker:  Pablo Marcos ⋅ Colourists:  Gene D'Angelo ⋅ Letterer:  Bob Lappan ⋅ Editors:   Kevin Dooley / Andrew Helfer Continued from  Justice League Europe #1 . We start on something a little unusual, Captain Atom out of costume pondering the events of the previous issue. Flying back to the embassy he jokes with Catherine about how well things are going before getting Sue's help on looking up Neo-nazis and fringe groups, apparently, Sue is the resident hacker (for the 80s at least) hence her being accepted to the help on the team. In probably the least realistic (sadly) part of this story about superheroes there are only three such groups existing, though she does look for groups with metahumans I guess? He then summons the other heroes, including our reason to be here Pee Gee who...

With a Vengeance! : The Price of Our Sins? Superman / Batman #24 Cover Date:  January 2006 Released:  29th March 2006 ⋅ Writers:    ⋅  Pencilers:  Ed McGuinness    ⋅  Inkers:  Dexter Vines  ⋅   ⋅  Colourists:  Dave McCaig  ⋅  Letterers:  Richard Starkings   ⋅   ⋅  Editors:  Eddie Berganza / Tom Palmer, Jr.  ⋅ We're coming into the last two issues of a Six part series that ended up with Batman ending up in a parallel universe, remember we're still a few months from the return of the multiverse so they have to cheat a little here, as we'll find out soon enough! We start with Superman freeing Darkseid from the Souce Wall, the end of the universe that tends to trap those stupid enough to try and pass through it. Darkseid, being Darkseid has been in this kind of mess before. Also being Darkseid he rewards Superman's rescue, apparently due to the instance of Metron, by emb...

How Ya Gonna Keep 'Em Down On the Farm After They've Seen Paree? Justice League Europe #1 Cover Date:  April 1989 Released:  28th February 1989 ⋅ Writers:   Keith Giffen / J.M. DeMatteis  ⋅   ⋅  Pencilers:  Bart Sears    ⋅  Inkers:  Pablo Marcos  ⋅   ⋅  Colourists:  Gene D'Angelo  ⋅  Letterers:  Bob Lappan   ⋅   ⋅  Editors:  Kevin Dooley / Andrew Helfer ⋅    So I owe this comic an apology... That being that all through the last post about JLI #24 about how all of the plot development set up about Pee Gee was going to be ignored going forward to her being a part of JLE. Well, at least she name-drops the Lords of Chaos a couple of times! Actually, she seems really intimidated about joining the JLA, giving it some real cache that doesn't seem to be something if you look at it from the outside.  The first half of the issue is introducing all of the main charact...

Across a Crowded Room… Justice League International #24 Cover Date:  February 1989 Released:  13th December 1989 ⋅ Writers:   Keith Giffen / J.M. DeMatteis  ⋅   ⋅  Pencilers:  Ty Templeton    ⋅  Inkers:  Joe Rubinstein  ⋅   ⋅  Colourists:  Gene D'Angelo  ⋅  Letterers:  Bob Lappan   ⋅   ⋅  Editors:  Andrew Helfer  ⋅  Let's start with a little story!  When I was a lowercase symbol I wasn't really into superhero comics, reading 2000ad, Transformers, and Spider-man and Zoid, meaning I can honestly say I read Grant Morrison before they were cool! A sign of how out of the loop I was about super comics I knew about Detective deWolf and Sin Eater, but not about Venom, a character I completely missed until I got into comics proper at the turn of the millinium! The one superhero comic I did get was DC Action, a reprint comic in the UK with the hottest DC stories from...

Fortunes of War Starman #6 Cover Date:  Janurary1989 Released:  29th November1988 ⋅ Writers:   Roger Stern  ⋅ Pencilers:  Tom Lyle  ⋅     ⋅   Inkers:  Bob Smith  ⋅  Colourists:  Julianna Ferriter  ⋅ ⋅  Letterers:  Bob Pinaha  ⋅  Editors:  Robert Greenberger  ⋅  Continued from Starman #6 So whilst the cover isn't a lie its tie into the Invasion! is very minimal. Blue Beetle is just there to provide a lift to bring Starman back to his hometown to carry on with his own plots. Okay, to be fair the Power Elite at the bottom are the main baddies through the back half of the story.  But a quick aside as to the weirdness that is Invasion! the whole invasion! is over by part two, the heroes win and the aliens leave Earth alone. This comic comes between part two and three and I know what you're thinking, how can there be a part three if the Invasion! is over in part two? Well as it happ...

 Don't You Know There's a War On? Starman #5 Cover Date:  Holiday 1988 Released:  25th October 1988 ⋅ Writers:   Roger Stern  ⋅ Pencilers:  Tom Lyle  ⋅     ⋅   Inkers:  Bob Smith  ⋅  Colourists:  Julianna Ferriter  ⋅ ⋅  Letterers:  Bob Pinaha  ⋅  Editors:  Robert Greenberger  ⋅  Continued from Firestorm #80 (sorta). We start before the previous issue picked up with Starman having been captured by a group of government-created single-powered heroes called the Power Elite. The vaguely military supes have some very Aliens-tinged conversations where we pick up the single character trait that each of them has. Alas, the only power the only female trooper seems to have is to just be around as the token female. One of the Power Elite however is an alien shapeshifter apparently placed there before the Invasion! began. They contact the Khund commander, our aliens for the issue (apart ...

Journey to Eden Firestorm #77 Cover Date:  November 1988 Released:  12th July 1988 ⋅ Writers:   John Ostrander  ⋅ Pencilers:  Joe Brozowski   ⋅     ⋅   Inkers:  Sam De La Rosa  ⋅  Colourists:  Nansi Hoolahan  ⋅ ⋅  Letterers:  Duncan Andrews  ⋅  Editors:  Dennis O'Neil  ⋅  Apart from the dodgy gender politics of her early appearances Power Girl rarely gets to deal with any kind of political issues. And in case anyone is confused I mean politics as in the societal sense, the kind of things a certain type of fan decries as being shoved into modern comics when it's been a thing since Captain America punched Hitler on the cover of his first comic! Personally, I have no problems with such things in comics, I wouldn't be spending so many words on it here if I didn't, I might not want it every week but I enjoy media to sometimes challenge me to think about a subject. Which is good as Kara ...

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 ...

Order and Doom Doom Patrol #14 Cover Date:  November 1988 Released:  26th July 1988 ⋅ Writers:   Paul Kupperberg  ⋅ Pencilers:  Erik Larsen  ⋅  ⋅   Inkers:  Jim Sanders  ⋅   Colourists:  Michele Wolfman  ⋅ ⋅  Letterers:  John Workman   ⋅  Editors:  Robert Greenberger  ⋅ Continued from here . We open with a lovely full-page splash of a bandaged Pee Gee telling the Patrol what a massive threat Pythia is to all reality, though spoilers she never shows up in another comic! For anyone, interested Pythia was the title of the Oracle of Delphi, which is why the name will be reused later for one of the Amazon, and by later I mean this very month which might explain why the Lord of Chaos didn't return. Several of the Patrol seemed to be a little too wrapped up in their own subplots to take it seriously until Kara gets a little miffed about how they're not taking this as seriously as they should. Cliff...

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 ...