Powergirl shouldn’t have been made a kryptonian again.

[achilles]

There are times when I think it will be better if they had taken the adoptive alien cousin from the sister planet route like the Kara In-Ze from Argo in DCAU or the Kara from Odiline in the Superman/Aliens storyline. Other times, I think they should have leaned into the Superman's cousin from a destroyed parallel world however I don't know if the OG Earth-2 works now that the retcons (Convergence, Earth 1985) imply that it may still exist somewhere in the multiverse. Given Kara's origin as Clark's older cousin who left Krypton as a teen, I wish the writers would have explored that angle a bit by having Karen be from an earth or timeline where her and Kal-El arrived on earth at the same time. It may not be as good as the OG but it could help explain her affinity to the JSA, why she's a Power and not a Super, and probably open up new stories for the two Karas.

Just a minor point; I don't recall any story where PG left her Krypton as a teen; she always left as a baby until the nu52 which had her as a young child. The story goes that she was in a sort of stasis that aged her to about 18 when she hit Earth 2.

[king81992]

In my mind she has no supplanted Hawkman with most convoluted we can't just stick to one origin/history for a character. Donna Troy a close second.
Hawkman seems much more resolved of late and as long as DC doesn't muck with it again and has some editorial fortitude the character will be fine going forward.

Personally I don't like Power Girl as Kryptonian, it has always seemed forced (like making Angela the 1/2 sister of Thor at Marvel, but I digress).

Disagree, PG isn't more convoluted than Hawkman or Donna.

[king81992]

The Earth 2 thing isn't even necessary IMO. If that bothers DC, make her an El in the main universe. Any El, from any time period up till Krypton's destruction. She can be an explorer or military officer from the past, stuck in some sort of stasis. Or make her from Earth Prime like Superman Prime if you still want her from another universe but don't really plan on using it for anything save to determine her power levels, make her the good cousin of the evil Prime. To be honest, there are so many possibilities with Power Girl that could work; it just needs DC to try one. That's PG's biggest upside; since she's had relatively few stories about her, she's still much more of a blank slate for a good writer to come around and make their version of her the definitive version.

Or...if you want to be bold, go with that daughter of Zod and whoever thing. Not sure I would, but it's there if someone wants to try.

I feel like PG's origin of an older Supergirl from an alternate reality is fine as it is.

The best solution would be to have Kara age into the role of Power Girl, but DC isn't going to do that.

[Alphaxman]

Disagree, PG isn't more convoluted than Hawkman or Donna.

Agreed. Donna has the most f'ed up character history in the DC universe followed by Katar-Hal (not Carter Hall). Hawkman's history only gets convoluted when they try to mix in the Silver Age stuff with the Golden Age, making tying them together.

What made it so bad was that DC didn't try to figure their secondary character out well passed the end of Crisis. Donna and the Hawks would have been spared if they just would have set Wonder Woman's first story arch and Hawkworld in the past the same way Man of Steel and Batman Year One did for the top 2.

[the illustrious mr. kenway]

I'd probably just make her an older Kara. Just let PG be her Nightwing/Oracle phase.

[king81992]

Agreed. Donna has the most f'ed up character history in the DC universe followed by Katar-Hal (not Carter Hall). Hawkman's history only gets convoluted when they try to mix in the Silver Age stuff with the Golden Age, making tying them together.

What made it so bad was that DC didn't try to figure their secondary character out well passed the end of Crisis. Donna and the Hawks would have been spared if they just would have set Wonder Woman's first story arch and Hawkworld in the past the same way Man of Steel and Batman Year One did for the top 2.

Donna is the simplest character to fix, just have her be WW adopted sister.

Hawkman and Hawkgirl are a bit more difficult, due to the reincarnation angle(never was a fan of this) and recent revelations about Hawkman's connection to Barbatos/Dark Multiverse DO NOT HELP.

[blackwarrior]

You are right about that. It is the earth 1 Kara who left Argo City/ Krypton as a teen. My proposal leaves Earth 2 behind thanks to the retcons, and basically re-imagines Pregee as being from a parallel world or timeline where Kara successfully landed on Earth early enough to care f or Kal.

[Ascended]

Not reading all these pages, but.....

There's nothing wrong with Karen being a Crisis refugee and/or survivor of a dead reality. That's a pretty damn unique origin, and it's full of potential.

I also don't buy for one second the argument that she's too much like Supergirl. Different ages, different body types, different personalities.....they don't even go by the same names (Karen and Kara). The only thing they have in common is a powerset that is shared by tons of characters (most non-Kryptonian), and part of an origin. That's it. There's no real "redundancy barrier" preventing Power Girl from being a major player.

PG's origin has nothing to do with how DC treats her. In fact, when she was at the height of her popularity with a solo book, a leading role in All-Stars, and a position in JSA, she had her "multiversal survivor" origin.

The reason PG gets crapped on is because DC doesn't get her or see a reason to use her, despite the fact that Supergirl struggles to stay afloat no matter what they do with her book and PG was part of a relatively successful "new faces of DC" push just before the reboot. I mean, let's be real, outside of Batman, DC doesn't really get any of their characters or know what to do with them.

[bretmaverick2]

Here’s another question regarding Kara -

Why do people insist on misspelling her name!?!?!?

It’s POWER GIRL. Two words.

[godisawesome]

The Earth 2 thing isn't even necessary IMO. If that bothers DC, make her an El in the main universe. Any El, from any time period up till Krypton's destruction. She can be an explorer or military officer from the past, stuck in some sort of stasis. Or make her from Earth Prime like Superman Prime if you still want her from another universe but don't really plan on using it for anything save to determine her power levels, make her the good cousin of the evil Prime. To be honest, there are so many possibilities with Power Girl that could work; it just needs DC to try one. That's PG's biggest upside; since she's had relatively few stories about her, she's still much more of a blank slate for a good writer to come around and make their version of her the definitive version.

Or...if you want to be bold, go with that daughter of Zod and whoever thing. Not sure I would, but it's there if someone wants to try.

I actually had an idea for how to do Karen in the DCEU that I think would have worked pretty easily - Karen is the Kara-El from the scout ship that Clark finds from that prequel comic, while Supergirl is the Kara-El born from his generation of Kryptonians.

The main thing, honestly, is just making sure that both Supergirl and Power Girl can be healthy enough characters that the audience doesn’t care about their similarities - Pre-Crisis Jason Todd’s similarity to Dick Grayson is what caused him to be modified, just like how Tim Drake’s New 52 origin being a bit too Grayson-y caused it problems as well.

[Masterff]

I dont understand the problem...

Power Girl is simply the older,more powerful version of Supergirl who lives on Earth 2...
Like Kal-L was to Kal-El...

Simple and awesome..

[Agent Z]

Donna is the simplest character to fix, just have her be WW adopted sister.

Hawkman and Hawkgirl are a bit more difficult, due to the reincarnation angle(never was a fan of this) and recent revelations about Hawkman's connection to Barbatos/Dark Multiverse DO NOT HELP.

I'd have ditched the reincarnation angle. It was never handled well and has all kinds of troubling implications to it regarding Hawkman and Hawkgirl's relationship

[Agent Z]

Here’s another question regarding Kara -

Why do people insist on misspelling her name!?!?!?

It’s POWER GIRL. Two words.

Her name is Karen not Kara.

[Robanker]

Her name is Karen not Kara.

Her Earth name, yes. Her Kryptonian name is Kara Zor-L. The only difference between her and Supergirl's name is the surname Pre/Post crisis distinction of L/El.

Fans just call them Kara/Karen to make it easier to differentiate the two, but bretmaverick2 isn't wrong to call PG Kara.

[achilles]

Not reading all these pages, but.....

There's nothing wrong with Karen being a Crisis refugee and/or survivor of a dead reality. That's a pretty damn unique origin, and it's full of potential.

I also don't buy for one second the argument that she's too much like Supergirl. Different ages, different body types, different personalities.....they don't even go by the same names (Karen and Kara). The only thing they have in common is a powerset that is shared by tons of characters (most non-Kryptonian), and part of an origin. That's it. There's no real "redundancy barrier" preventing Power Girl from being a major player.

PG's origin has nothing to do with how DC treats her. In fact, when she was at the height of her popularity with a solo book, a leading role in All-Stars, and a position in JSA, she had her "multiversal survivor" origin.

The reason PG gets crapped on is because DC doesn't get her or see a reason to use her, despite the fact that Supergirl struggles to stay afloat no matter what they do with her book and PG was part of a relatively successful "new faces of DC" push just before the reboot. I mean, let's be real, outside of Batman, DC doesn't really get any of their characters or know what to do with them.

I might point out that IMO, this post is the most nearly correct regarding the OP. She would be just fine if they simply picked up where they left off in Power Girl #27, (the last issue of her solo before Flashpoint and the reboot did it in), and then simply use her well and develop her wisely.

But he's also right in the issue of why DC does what they do with her. Which is why I offered a few alternative for DC if they just can't get their minds around what makes her a great character and focus on the issue of her origin as an alternate version of SG. Best case is DC and WB finally get people who understand and like the character, and have a good plan for her plus the ability to execute it with great skill. That's it, that's all she really needs.