Originally Posted by
Robanker
This is correct, but he also positioned her so that those things could happen. Don't forget the sad state she was in before he brought her back and restored her Kyrptonian origin. Look, Johns isn't my favorite guy when it comes to Kyrptonians (though I'm more sympathetic to him than my fellow Brother in Powerwing, Ascended), but I do feel he isn't getting the credit deserved for essentially rescuing the character and setting her up so others (Trautman, Sturges, Conner/Palmiotti and Winick) could do stuff with her. Mera is pretty similar. She was in limbo before Blackest Night and he restored her to the prominence deserved which other writers (Parker, Abnett, KSD) could expand on. Frankly, his Mera is a completely different character to who she was before so I don't want anyone telling me "but he respected her characterization!" She changed so much from the Silver Age to 90s to reintroduction that she's essentially a new character each generation. Granted, I love Mera, so don't get me wrong here.
Johns gets a lot of fair, deserved criticism, but he's also among the best for dusting off an old character and reintroducing them in a way that allows them to stick around and get more play than most anyone in the industry. Aquaman, Mera, Hawkman, The Rogues, Power Girl/The entire JSA, etc. He has his misses (I'd argue Barry, but The Flash has skyrocketed as an IP since so there's clearly some success there even if I hate new Barry), but I don't think he did any real damage to PG. Again, she's not one to mope, but if she was able to discover the truth of her existence and not skip a single beat or have a severe identity crisis, she'd come across significantly flatter a character. Like her cousin, she's among the best at keeping herself together, but even she has her existential realizations that can shake her to the core.
She had a stronger characterization when she was first brought back in JSA. If you look at her earlier issues, she wasn't mopey then. I think the big problem is that's where he left her as the run concluded so it felt like that was his big statement on PG in general when I feel it was just that he was on the book a decade and felt it was time to move on. I think he would have had a more upbeat PG if the series kept running. Hell, she was very in-character when offered the chair to the JSA.
Her being in Gen Lost was a bit weird since she was mostly in the less-remembered JLE title of the time, but Giffen also brought her into the second of his and DeMatteis's revival minis of the JLI. She fit that comedy dynamic as the straight woman with a temper, so I can see why the next reunion story with them would draw upon her for the dynamic. Doubly so when her primary writer was also one of the hands steering the ship. It makes enough sense, though yeah, it was a bit tangential that she was involved at best. I wouldn't doubt if editorial asked for it because the book started losing readers when Palmiotti/Conner left.