By: Judd Winick (writer), Sami Basri (artist), Jessica Kholinne (colorist)
The Story: Since when do two Kryptonians find it so hard to beat a herd of dinosaurs?
The Review: Power Girl is sort of special in the world of comics, as even though she is based off of and has similar origins to Supergirl, they’re incredibly different characters. Her brash, gutsy attitude has earned her plenty of fans, but the fact remains: she’s a spin-off, and wherever her more feminine counterpart goes, Power Girl finds herself hard-pressed to forge an identity that can compete for attention.
Winick attempts to delve into that problem this issue, though he’s certainly not the first. Plenty of writers have tried to give Karen some flesh beyond her buxom body, but nothing seems to stick for very long. Even the start of this title reestablished her science R&D company with some fun ideas that soon got lost in her much wackier heroic misadventures.
The first arc of Winick’s run put Starrware back in focus, but its shutdown never felt very threatening, since you didn’t know exactly what it did and Kara never spent time there anyway. Her sudden re-acquisition of the company similarly feels flat and less than triumphant, despite the celebratory mood she encourages. Part of that scene’s lifelessness comes from knowing virtually no one involved in Starrware enough to care.
The other part comes from the totally abrupt jump from last issue’s loose ends to this issue’s new beginnings. Apparently, Winick chose to conclude his last arc over in the other series he’s helming, Justice League: Generation Lost. It’s an upsetting choice on a lot of levels, not the least of which is if you don’t read that title (which I don’t), you just lost your chance to see the wrap-up of a storyline that’s been Power Girl’s main event for the last half-dozen or so issues.
Setting that aside, the rest of the issue shows promise. It’s good to see Superman playing big brother to Kara (a relationship that feels all but abandoned since his “real” cousin crash-landed back into his life) and offering some solid advice about her identity. Their interaction feels warm and genuine, though Supes’ talking points sound a little too much like Winick tackling fan criticism head-on.
It is true though that Power Girl (and, by extension, her writers) has handled her secret identity poorly up till now, so her choice to work on her civilian life and do something productive with her company are good choices. It’s also a relief to finally shed the burden of this whole Max Lord plot in favor of hopefully more old-school stuff—like teaming up with Superman to take down some magicked T-Rexes.
Basri offers some strong artwork, but he’s clearly much more at home drawing the heroic stuff: that splash panel of a pack of prehistoric critters rampaging through downtown New York is good times. Mostly it’s the colors that drag down the art a little. Kholinne seems to be going for more natural lighting, but it has a weird effect of washing out or over-saturating skin tones.
Conclusion: It’s unacceptable to get sidelined out of a story arc’s ending for not reading Winick’s other title, so points off for an otherwise solid start to P.G.’s new outlook on life.
Grade: C+
– Minhquan Nguyen
Some Musings: – If I was a Starrware employee: “Gee, thanks, Miss Starr, for this super-cool party, which is basically a banner and drinks. It really makes up for how I was unemployed for the last few months because you got apparently too busy to show up to your own legal hearing.”
– Ugh—Zatanna’s one of the most powerful mystics on Earth. Can we quit making her helpless simply by tying/gagging her up?
Grade
Conclusion