Power Girl Appreciation 2022

[Digifiend]

Yeah, Supergirl was nearly always a teenager. She's only just been aged back up to 21, which is roughly how old she was pre-Crisis. She was never old enough to be a mentor, I think Supergirl: Woman of Tomorrow was the first time she was shown to be one (to Ruthye). Power Girl though, is older, and is a second generation JSAer (along with the rest of the Infinity Inc generation). So she can serve as a mentor to the third generation (Stargirl's generation), and other teen or preteen heroes, such as Jai West.

[signalman112]

Stephen Sadowski Sketch.

PowergirlSadowski.jpg

[Robanker]

Yeah, Supergirl was nearly always a teenager. She's only just been aged back up to 21, which is roughly how old she was pre-Crisis. She was never old enough to be a mentor, I think Supergirl: Woman of Tomorrow was the first time she was shown to be one (to Ruthye). Power Girl though, is older, and is a second generation JSAer (along with the rest of the Infinity Inc generation). So she can serve as a mentor to the third generation (Stargirl's generation), and other teen or preteen heroes, such as Jai West.

Exactly. Also, King's voice for Kara sounded a lot more like Karen than Kara. It seems like the recipe to success for making Supergirl seem like a compelling hero is to turn her into Power Girl in all but name, if Supergirl: Woman of Tomorrow and DC Super Hero Girls are anything to go by.

[marhawkman]

Exactly. Also, King's voice for Kara sounded a lot more like Karen than Kara. It seems like the recipe to success for making Supergirl seem like a compelling hero is to turn her into Power Girl in all but name, if Supergirl: Woman of Tomorrow and DC Super Hero Girls are anything to go by.

Well, I mean... are they REALLY different people?

[Robanker]

Well, I mean... are they REALLY different people?

Yes. Or at least they were until laziness took over.

[Digifiend]

Karen's always been more mature, Supergirl, like I said before, was nearly always depicted as a teenager. Just the difference in ages makes them different. Karen's also been much more consistently portrayed than the Earth-0 Kara, whose personality and supporting cast seem to change every time she gets a new writer. Is it any wonder the CW show cribbed so much from Clark, including making Kara a reporter? The comics just don't have an established career path set for her - extraordinary for a character who debuted in the 1950s!

[Zagre]

fs.jpg

Vampire Karen raided Carol Danvers' closet lol

[Frontier]

Exactly. Also, King's voice for Kara sounded a lot more like Karen than Kara. It seems like the recipe to success for making Supergirl seem like a compelling hero is to turn her into Power Girl in all but name, if Supergirl: Woman of Tomorrow and DC Super Hero Girls are anything to go by.

Well, at least the TV show never tried to turn her into Power Girl, although it's kind of a shame they never did a Power Girl episode.

[Digifiend]

Yeah, they could've easily used PG - just say she's from Earth-3 (they reversed the traditional JSA and villain worlds, Earth-2 was the world full of evil heroes and Earth-3 was Jay Garrick's home) and stick Melissa in a white costume and short wig. They had a couple of other doppelgangers (Overgirl, Red Daughter), but not Power Girl.

fs.jpg

Vampire Karen raided Carol Danvers' closet lol

That does look a lot like the old Ms. Marvel suit, only with the boob window instead of a thunderbolt!

[Robanker]

Well, at least the TV show never tried to turn her into Power Girl, although it's kind of a shame they never did a Power Girl episode.

They did and she did wear the costume, actually. It's pretty good. The whole show is pretty fun.


EDIT: Dawned on me that you meant Supergirl, the CW show, but I'll leave the comment in case someone hasn't seen the PG episode of DC Super Hero Girls.

[Robanker]

On a podcast appearance, Johns spoke about JSA and around the 1:33 hour mark and he gets to PG, and how before he wrote JSA he was ambivalent towards her but she grew into a favorite of his.

I know achilles isn't a fan of how he wrote her, but this indicate there's a good chance she'll have a decent part in his upcoming maxiseries.

Link for those interested: https://www.twitch.tv/videos/1606344836

Hopefully he'll write her with a bit less sulking now that she's gone through that arc under his pen.

[marhawkman]

Karen's always been more mature, Supergirl, like I said before, was nearly always depicted as a teenager. Just the difference in ages makes them different. Karen's also been much more consistently portrayed than the Earth-0 Kara, whose personality and supporting cast seem to change every time she gets a new writer. Is it any wonder the CW show cribbed so much from Clark, including making Kara a reporter? The comics just don't have an established career path set for her - extraordinary for a character who debuted in the 1950s!

Yeah, Powergirl is often just... older. Some version are... just.. Supergirl, but 20 something...

[achilles]

On a podcast appearance, Johns spoke about JSA and around the 1:33 hour mark and he gets to PG, and how before he wrote JSA he was ambivalent towards her but she grew into a favorite of his.

I know achilles isn't a fan of how he wrote her, but this indicate there's a good chance she'll have a decent part in his upcoming maxiseries.

Link for those interested: https://www.twitch.tv/videos/1606344836

Hopefully he'll write her with a bit less sulking now that she's gone through that arc under his pen.

I'm very much hoping he's changed how he writes her overall. He sort of wrote her the opposite of what she was created to be, so all he really has to do is a hard 180.

[Ascended]

On a podcast appearance, Johns spoke about JSA and around the 1:33 hour mark and he gets to PG, and how before he wrote JSA he was ambivalent towards her but she grew into a favorite of his.

I know achilles isn't a fan of how he wrote her, but this indicate there's a good chance she'll have a decent part in his upcoming maxiseries.

Link for those interested: https://www.twitch.tv/videos/1606344836

Hopefully he'll write her with a bit less sulking now that she's gone through that arc under his pen.

Yeah, I dunno how this series is gonna turn out. Johns' first JSA run is legendary of course, and he seems to be the only guy at DC who can get a JSA series off the ground. But his second run, while it had some good stuff, wasn't anywhere near as good as the first and I dunno if we have any reason to expect the third attempt to reverse course and improve on quality. I fear he's something of a monkeys paw at this point; without him we might not get the JSA....but with him, will we get a JSA we want?

And, no offense to the man or anything, but I wonder if Johns' best days aren't behind him. Doomsday Clock might be one of the best things he ever wrote but it took him like, three years to finish (and he still lost his handle on the plot halfway through). And that's just about the only highlight of his that I can think of in recent years, everything else has felt remarkably bland. I still consider myself a Johns fan, but his writing (to me) feels like it lost its spark somewhere around the start of the New52 and remixing one of his old hits just doesn't fill me with a ton of confidence.

I do like the new JSA roster, it's a quality update to the classic membership and that's a good sign I suppose? But I think keeping our expectations in check is probably wise. Especially for us Karen fans, just because Johns says she's now one of his favorites doesn't mean he really gets her character or voice. Johns says the same thing about Superman, and he's one of the absolute worst Super writers of the modern Age.

[Robanker]

Yeah, I dunno how this series is gonna turn out. Johns' first JSA run is legendary of course, and he seems to be the only guy at DC who can get a JSA series off the ground. But his second run, while it had some good stuff, wasn't anywhere near as good as the first and I dunno if we have any reason to expect the third attempt to reverse course and improve on quality. I fear he's something of a monkeys paw at this point; without him we might not get the JSA....but with him, will we get a JSA we want?

And, no offense to the man or anything, but I wonder if Johns' best days aren't behind him. Doomsday Clock might be one of the best things he ever wrote but it took him like, three years to finish (and he still lost his handle on the plot halfway through). And that's just about the only highlight of his that I can think of in recent years, everything else has felt remarkably bland. I still consider myself a Johns fan, but his writing (to me) feels like it lost its spark somewhere around the start of the New52 and remixing one of his old hits just doesn't fill me with a ton of confidence.

I do like the new JSA roster, it's a quality update to the classic membership and that's a good sign I suppose? But I think keeping our expectations in check is probably wise. Especially for us Karen fans, just because Johns says she's now one of his favorites doesn't mean he really gets her character or voice. Johns says the same thing about Superman, and he's one of the absolute worst Super writers of the modern Age.

I agree nearly to the letter, and sadly I do think his best days are behind him, but I hope that the JSA continues to bring out his better work. Even Justice Society of America, which was a step down from JSA, was still good.

As for her voice, I think he does get it. When she first, first appeared, she was Power Girl fully formed. Resident man's man Ted immediately groaned when he saw her at the table and they gave her a highlight issue, #39, where she's the PG of old. It's when he got obsessed with the drama of being the last son of a dead universe (one-upping Superman's Last Son of Kyrpton moniker by virtue of having all her ghosts walking and talking to her but not remembering her). It's juicy, and I liked the run and found it a fair reason for her to mope... But I won't act like that the Palmiotti/Conner run following wasn't a breath of fresh air (that got stale once they brought her back to team up with Harley).

I think he does know who she's supposed to be in a vacuum. He just didn't stay on the book after resolving the plot he wrote for her. It's like how Rucka intended to write the fallout of the Max Lord kill but was booted so it just made Diana look like someone who, well, kills.

Johns can still do good work, and he admitted that the JSA are the one thing he never quite feels like he's told all his stories with, so I hope it reinvigorates him... But his recent obsession with multiverses and duplicates (Doomsday Clock, Three Jokers, Flashpoint Beyond and now JSA) is hurting his work and I do fear that this book may get pulled into that. I admit, I'm tired of the multiverse right now because following Spider-Verse, every medium is obsessed with it. Sometimes the stories are excellent but I'm just fatigued at this point, and I don't think we need to put a hat on the proper JSA to reintroduce them after being gone over ten years. But what do I know?

I do have hopes for the series, primarily because it brings together Jay, Alan and Ted after being separated so long, it's a proper role for Power Girl and I just love the JSA. I'm hoping Beth at least mentions Pieter in passing, like he's too busy with the clinic he runs to join the team and that he sends his regards along with Beth, who he feels is equal to the task. I'd rather she's not a subordinate of his (given that she came first), but I do like them being colleagues in the field of medicine in some capacity.