Symbol Pending - A Power Girl Blog

  THE CRATER THAT WAS KEYSTONE CITY SHOWCASE #99 Published:  17th January 1978 Cover Date: A pril 1978 Cover Artists:   Joe Staton / Dick Giordano Writer:   Paul Levitz Penciler:   Joe Staton Inker:   Dick Giordano Colourist:   Adrienne Roy Letterer:   Shelly Leferman Editors:   Joe Orlando Introduction Apart from a few pages, we're well out of the formation of the rebooted Pee Gee, instead, we see how she'll work with the rest of the JSA. Now those bits are very important, but that doesn't mean the rest of the comic isn't interesting in itself. Synopsis We start with a full splash page of Brainwave ranting that his computer can't find Power Girl, with the computer apparently using a beauty shot of the woman herself! Meanwhile, Kara herself is finally setting up a secret identity, with the help of Andrew Vinson, she's become Karen Starr a software expert (it was the 70s you have to excuse them not knowing what a programmer was) getting a job ...

  CRISIS BETWEEN TWO EARTH or APOKOLIPS NOW! JUSTICE LEAGUE OF AMERICA #184 Published:   14th August 1980 Cover Date:  November 1980 Cover Artists:   George Pérez Writer:  Gerry Conway Penciler:  George Pérez Inker:   Frank McLaughlin Colourist:   Gene D'Angelo Letterer:   Ben Oda Editors:   Len Wein Introduction No little lectures or points to be made this time around, other than to say that I'm using the Apokolips Now as the title rather than its official title as it's, in my opinion. much cooler than the Crisis related title. And for context at this point, Crisis was just the name of the annual crossover between the JLA and the JSA rather than the big multiversal event that they are now. And the film Apocalypse Now was only a year old, coincidently releasing on August 15th 1979, so was relatively cool and probably still in the public consciousness. Synopsis After a glorious full-page spread that gives us the story so far, we get anoth...

  All-Star Comics #71 The Deadliest Game in Town! April 1978 In a rare moment of synergy between the main comic and Pee Gee's mini, we have this one panel that shows us that it's going on whilst she's dealing with the Symbioship. Not much else here, but it's telling of a time when everyone was very careful to make sure that everything lined up timeline-wise as much as they could.

WHEN THE SYMBIOSHIP STRIKES SHOWCASE PRESENTS #98 Published:  15th December 1977 Cover Date:  March 1978 Cover Artists:   Joe Staton /  Dick Giordano Writer:   Paul Levitz Penciler:  Joe Staton Inker:   Dick Giordano Colourist:   Adrienne Roy Letterer:   Ben Oda Editors:   Joe Orlando Introduction There is an advantage of bingeing a whole load of comics is that you get to remember the lost classics, and lost duds, that have gotten lost in the general zeitgeist of the shape of things now. Those who do it the long way around however tend to edit history to suit whatever the current image of a character/show. An excellent example of this is Captain Kirk from the original Star Trek, his womanizing ways, a characterization that made it into the Kelvinverse films, is vastly overstated and even compared to the time he's almost chaste. What has this got to do with Power Girl you ask? Well unless you're a completes and/or a blogger/YouTuber the v...

  CRISIS ON NEW GENESIS or WHERE HAVE ALL THE NEW GODS GONE?JUSTICE LEAGUE OF AMERICA #183 Published:   10th July 1980 Cover Date:  October 1980 Cover Artists:   Jim Starlin Writer:  Gerry Conway Penciler:  Dick Dillin Inker:   Frank McLaughlin Colourist:   Gene D'Angelo Letterer:   Ben Oda Editors:   Len Wein Introduction Everything these days has to be a massive crossover with the entire Multiverse in crisis, whilst in the 70s and 80s you got these (relative) low-key events where two or more teams just teamed up over both of their comics. Which I guess is weird as this involves New Genesis and Apokolips, y'know the New Gods that you'd figure would want, no need, to be in a big massive story. But somehow for me, these kinda stories have a bigger appeal, probably because right now there's a little bit of event fatigue. Synopsis We start, as with all these crossovers with the standard one-page explanation of how the JLA are from Eart...

POWER GIRL* SHOWCASE #97 *The issue's story is unnamed. Published: 15th November 1977 Cover Date: February 1978 Cover Artists: Joe Staton / Joe Orlando Writer: Paul Levitz Penciler: Joe Staton Inker: Joe Orlando Colourist: Jerry Serpe Letterer: Ben Oda Editors:   Joe Orlando Introduction So this is a little bit of a soft reboot, a DC tradition in itself, I wanted a chance to cover some of the original comics (my original content being terrible) as well as look at a wider range of comics. It's a chance to catch some of those comics in a blank spot I have in the mid-90s. But where to start? I've covered her original appearance in All-Star Comic #58 several times already, so we're best than the comics that told Power Girls' origins, only two years after she was first introduced. And as is appropriate to my soft reboot Showcase is also a soft reboot of Power Girl, making her if not softer at least a more rounded character. It's also more relevant than ever, in m...

Brainwave Blows Up!  All-Star Comics #59 Cover Date: April 1976 Released: 16th December 1976 ⋅ Writers:  Gerry Conway  ⋅   ⋅ Pencilers:  Ric Estrada  ⋅  ⋅ Inker:  Wally Wood  ⋅  ⋅ Editors:  Paul Levitz  ⋅ Continued from  All-Star Comics #58 . October 9th is the publication date for the original publication date for All-Star #58, hence the birthday for Power Girl. So what better time (more or less) to look back at the original comics. Obviously is not an excuse to improve on my terrible early post, really don't look, no really! When I started this I really didn't know anything about these comics and it's amazing how different looking at this comic with all the many comics between now and them. We start with Brainwave, looks remarkable like how his son will later look (without the googly eyes alas) taking down the Justice Society. Or so it seems as they begin to fade away as Brainwave celebrates his victory whilst talking ...

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...

Not every appearance of Power Girl is worth a full write up, here are all the single panel appearances of Kara until Crisis. Secret Society of Super-Villains Vol 1 12 (Janurary 1978) The Plunder Plan! Green Lantern Vol 2 110 (November 1978) The Doom of Dragon-Fire Secret Society of Super-Villains Vol 1 15 The Wizard's War of the Worlds DC Comics Presents Vol 1 38 (October 1981) Whatever Happened to...the Crimson Avenger? Wonder Woman Vol 1 285 (November 1981) The Man in the Murder Ward! Wonder Woman Vol 1 300 (Februray 1983) Beautiful Dreamer, Death Unto thee! America vs. the Justice Society Vol 1 1 (Janurary 1985) I Accuse America vs. the Justice Society Vol 1 4 (April 1985) D-Day for Degaton We also get several pages of her testifying on behalf of the JSA, but it's mostly recaps of old All-Star stories. DC Comics Presents Vol 1 72 (August 1985) Madness In A Dark Dimension! Infinity Inc. Annual Vol 1 (December 1985) Green Dreams & Precious Illusions Legends of the DC Unive...