Symbol Pending - A Power Girl Blog

Power Trip, Part II JSA Classified #2 Cover Date:  October 2005 Released:  24th August 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 little walk and talk as Mr Terrific and the Flash (Jay Garrick) discussing how Power Girls powers are  fluctuating   like crazy and that because she's still (relatively) young she want to figure this out by herself. They we're going to examine the pod that Power Girl arrived to Earth (or at least this century, almost barely her being Atlantean), when they discovered it's been seized by Checkmate and Director Bones. Power Girl however is still feeling a little sorry for herself on the Daily Planet globes in Metropolis. She's soon joined by Jimmy Olsen who snaps her pictu...

Girl Power, part 1 Supergirl (volume 5) #5 Cover Date:  October 2005 Released:  10th August 2005 ⋅ Writers:    ⋅ Pencilers:  Ian Churchill  ⋅ ⋅  Inkers:  Norm Rapmund  ⋅   Colourists:  David Moran / Beth Sotelo  ⋅ ⋅  Letterers:  Richard Starkings / Comicraft   ⋅  ⋅  Editors:  Jeanine Schaefer / Eddie Berganza  ⋅  If you wonder why the writer isn't mentioned, please read this first . This starts so well with Courtney (Stargirl) and Kara (Supergirl) talking among themselves, sounding as close to teenagers when written by middle-aged men! Meanwhile, most, of the JSA are fighting Solomon Grundy. A big deal is made about the absence of Power Girl, her lack of presence is felt strongly in this first part of the story. This is probably the last nice thing I'll say about this issue. The first cracks show when they talk about Power Girl's relationship with Kara and the rest of the Super Family. No...

In Search of... JSA #76 Cover Date:  October 2005 Released:  3rd August 2005 ⋅ Writers:   Geoff Johns  ⋅ Pencilers:  Ken Lopez  ⋅  ⋅   Inkers:  Fernando Blanco  ⋅   Colourists:  John Kalisz  ⋅ ⋅  Letterers:  Rob Leigh   ⋅  Editors:  Peter Tomasi / Harvey Richards  ⋅  Continued from JSA #75 So 'erm apparently Atom Smasher is... alive and well, that whole heart thing being some kind of magical metaphor or something... This is an issue where we finally get Infinite Crisis starts to show its influence on the title, and this being the JSA we get several storylines weaving together, none of them yet being related to each other. The main story is members of the JSA, Alan Scott (Green Lantern), Jay Garrick (Flash), Ted Grant (the real Wildcat), Michael Holt (Mr Terrific) and Carter Hall (Hawkman) fighting, and generally losing, against an OMAC. It's complicated but OMACs are nano-machine that can...

Power Trip, Part I JSA Classified #1 Cover Date:  June1988 Released:  1st March 1988 ⋅ Writers: Geoff Johns ⋅ Pencilers: Amanda Conner ⋅     ⋅   Inkers: Jimmy Palmiotti ⋅  Colourists: Paul Mounts ⋅ ⋅  Letterers: Rob Leigh ⋅  Editors: Harvey Richards / Stephen Wacker ⋅    Remember last issue when I said that when a character gets a focus issue it was normally there last? Well, Power Girl not only buck that trend, but she also gets four issues all of her very own!   The reason for that is that despite it not being mentioned anywhere, this four-part series is a lead into Infinite Crisis and fixes the thorny issue of Kara's origins. Though it's probably worth mentioning that whilst thanks to blog time it's only been a month or so, in real-time it's been nineteen years since her Atlantean origin was established. This means almost a generation of readers knew this as her origins, well sort of it seems like it's very rarely mention...

  Black Vengeance, Part III JSA #75 Cover Date: September 2005 Released: 7th July 2005 ⋅ Writers: Geoff Johns ⋅ Colourists: John Kalisz ⋅ ⋅ Pencilers: D on Kramer / Leonard Kirk / Stephen Sadowski ⋅   Inkers: Keith Champagne / Michael Bair  ⋅ Letterers: Rob Leigh ⋅  ⋅ Editors: Peter Tomasi / Harvey Richards   ⋅  This is not a Power Girl Story! I know I've been saying this a lot, but all team books occasionally take time out to focus on a single character. And as is common it often seems to happen when the character is on the way out, and this issue it's poor Atom Smashers time. We get flashes of his past from a young kid deciding to do good, joining the JSA and eventually being offered a chance to help Black Adam, all done in a suitable sepia tone. Finally, he grows to giant size, well beyond his normal limits, and takes on the, also suitable gigantic Spectre. In the end, Atom Smasher chooses to sacrifice his life so that Spectre will stop looking fo...

Threads! Power Girl #1 Cover Date:  June1988 Released:  1st March 1988 ⋅ Writers:  Paul Kupperberg  ⋅ Pencilers:  Rick Hoberg   ⋅     ⋅   Inkers:  Arne Starr  ⋅  Colourists:  Julianna Ferriter  ⋅ ⋅  Letterers:  Bob Pinaha   ⋅  Editors:  Robert Greenberger   ⋅  After what seems like forever of her either being in a team or hardly appearing at all, it's nice to see an issue around just Power Girl! And I've got to say this issue introduces a lot of things that I consider the standard from Power Girl '09. To start with we're in New York City, and yes I know the JSA was generally in New York but to me, it never felt like it was the focus, whilst from the first page, New York is front and center!   We start with her day job as the head of Starrware, dealing with a potential takeover bid from top software company owned by Sayles Wilde. Karen, as Kara's in her civilian identity (for a...

  It's A Grimmworld After All Infinity Inc #50 Cover Date: May 1988 Released: 26th January1988 ⋅ Writers:  Roy Thomas ⋅ Pencilers: Vince Argondezzi ⋅   ⋅   Inkers: Tony DeZuniga ⋅ Colourists: Liz Berube ⋅ ⋅  Letterers: Jean Simek ⋅ Editors: Roy Thomas ⋅  In what's the dying embers of Infinity Inc, a comic that doesn't quite fit in a post Crisis world, Power Girl weirdly is bought back into the folds for this weird little tale. We start our tale with Skyman (aka The Star-Spangled Kid) and Jade, Jade having given a lift for Skyman back to his pad. In the elevator, he's confronted by a bunch of characters from fairytales. Falling out of the lift he's caught by Power Girl, who didn't see or more importantly hear anything he just encountered. We get a brief mention of her trip to Skartaris (Warlord) and a meeting between Kara and Jonni Thunder (a character I wished I'd seen more of), whilst Sylvester get changed into his Skyman costume. Power Girl ca...

Ancient Histories Secret Origins #11 Cover Date:  February 1987 Released:  13th November 1986 Half of this book is about something that doesn't exist, and I'm not talking about the Hawkman origin!  And yes now is the time I need to talk about Power Girl's post-crisis origins. With the Crisis, it was determined that Superman would be the only Kryptonian. ANd to be fair the pre-crisis universe was awash with survivors from a world that apparently exploded with (almost) everyone dying in the process. Supergirl had it the worse what with her being wiped from reality, and Power Girl only survived with this sudden change in her origin. Why she wasn't also got rid of like most of the other Earth-2 characters, like poor Helena, I'm not sure why maybe because she was so tied up with an active team (though not for long). So we start with the classic origin, dying world, desperate scientists, last hope, a surviving cousin. With poor Kara still trying to come to terms with the ...