Symbol Pending - A Power Girl Blog

WHEN FALL THE MIGHTY ALL-STAR COMICS #62 Published: 24 th June 1976 Cover Date:  October 1976 Cover Artists:   Ernie Chan / Tatjana Wood Writer:   Gerry Conway / Paul Levitz Penciler:  Keith Giffen / Wally Wood Inker:   Wally Wood Colourist:   Carl Gafford Letterer:   Ben Oda Editors:   Gerry Conway Introduction Not much to say here except to say that for the rest of the year we'll be looking at the classic All-Star Comic run as I try to get back into the flow of this blog again.  Synopsis We start with an amazing full page of a Kirby-like machine that is keeping Doctor Fate alive! Or at least Kent Nelson, as he starts off out of costume with the helmet off. The fancy machine, as well as showing his vitals also shows the symbol of the Ankh, as pointed out an Egyptian symbol of life (and divinity). In a nice touch, it's Hawkman, and Green Lantern for some reason, explaining to the alien Pee Gee what the symbol signifies. We also get a quick re...

SPIN CYCLE JSA 80-PAGE GIANT Published:  18th November 2009 Cover Date:  January 2010 Cover Artists:   Freddie E. Williams II Writer:   Jen Van Meter Penciler:  Jesus Merino Inker:   Jesse Delperdang  Colourist:   Allen Passalaqua Letterer:   Rob Leigh Editors:   Chris Conroy Introduction This is five mini-stories that made a whole tale, revolving around the relatively new character of Cyclone who's been thrown back in time, because comics!  Cyclone, as I'm sure you all know is the teenage granddaughter of Ma Hunkle, the original Red Tornado, and DC's first female superhero! Coming out of the same comic as Alan Scott's Green Lantern it was obvious that Ma would be made at least an honour JSA member, being one of the few of the team that's been allowed to grow and stay old. As I seem to struggle to cover a single 22-issue comic I won't try to cover everything, besides the only one that contains Power Girl is Spin Cycle, so that is th...

  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...

  NO SLEEP TILL... GOTHAM! HARLEY QUINN AND THE BIRDS OF PREY #1 Published:  12th February 2020 Cover Date:  April 2020 Cover Artists:   Amanda Conner / Alex Sinclair Writer:  Amanda Conner / Jimmy Palmiotti Penciler:  Amanda Conner Inker:   Amanda Conner Colourist:   Paul Mounts Letterer:   John J. Hill Editors:   Chris Conroy Introduction Harley is a complicated character in some way in that she's changed so radically in the three decades since her introduction, going from animated, to comics, to back to animated and the reason for this special movies! The thing is where you came upon Harley is how you tend to view the character, if you came in on the edgier reboot of the New 52 version then she still has the stink of a villain who murders buses of children just for fun!  Though in the last nine years, the character had been carving her own little corner of the DC universe as an anti-hero getting into her own little adventures. In...