Do you consider Power Girl a Superman, JSA or independent character first?

[bat39]

You left out how since Conner debuted during the Rebirth part of Death and Rebirth means that he's been active as a hero for over a decade. sooo... should be more like mid-LATE 20s. Conner should act like a big brother to Jon. He really looked the part of a "big brother" in this run:

Agreed. I mean, if DC acknowledges that a lot of time has passed since even the 90's stories and the YJ generation are a lot older now, then it all fits together (near)perfectly. But DC instead is reluctant to age even the OG Titans generation beyond their mid-twenties (if even that!) and Johns in particular is insisting that Bruce only put on the cowl 13 years ago.

Ideally, the JLA founders generation should be in the early-to-mid 40's, the OG Titans generation should be in their early 30's, the YJ generation should be in their early-to-mid 20's, and the current Titans generation should be in their early-to-mid teens. Instead, in practice, it seems like the JLA generation are in their mid-to-late 30's, the current Titans generation are in their early-to-mid teens, and the other two generations fit somewhere nebulously in between in ways that don't always make sense :P

[MajorHoy]

NOTE: Poll / thread started in November 2022 in the general "DC Comics" section.

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Something that's been discussed, on and off, on the various JSA threads active right now and which I thought warranted a poll.

Power Girl is Supergirl's Earth 2 doppelganger, and the cousin of the Earth 2 Superman (who is notionally at least supposed to be the original Golden Age Superman). So in that sense, she is a Superman character.

But she first appeared in the pages of a JSA story, was created primarily to be a JSA character during their 70's revival, and appeared far more often in the pages of JSA stories than she ever did in Superman stories (probably because her Superman has never been the 'main' version during her existence as a character).

A case can also be made for Power Girl as an independent B or C-list DC character, and certainly there was an effort to make her one for a while after COIE (including with the Atlantean origin).

Personally, I lean towards her being more of a JSA character than a Superman character, and it seems that's DC's current line of thinking going by The New Golden Age. But would love to hear what you'll think...

With 82 people having now voted,

* a JSA character = 52 votes
* a Superman character = 18 votes
* an independent DC character = 12 votes

[DABellWrites]

Agreed. I mean, if DC acknowledges that a lot of time has passed since even the 90's stories and the YJ generation are a lot older now, then it all fits together (near)perfectly. But DC instead is reluctant to age even the OG Titans generation beyond their mid-twenties (if even that!) and Johns in particular is insisting that Bruce only put on the cowl 13 years ago.

Ideally, the JLA founders generation should be in the early-to-mid 40's, the OG Titans generation should be in their early 30's, the YJ generation should be in their early-to-mid 20's, and the current Titans generation should be in their early-to-mid teens. Instead, in practice, it seems like the JLA generation are in their mid-to-late 30's, the current Titans generation are in their early-to-mid teens, and the other two generations fit somewhere nebulously in between in ways that don't always make sense :P

Here's my idea to the age problem:

They're drawings. Who cares? Slap an age on all of them and call it a deal. This way, it's no longer a problem when it comes to the generations that DC Comics loves to keep creating.

[marhawkman]

Here's my idea to the age problem:

They're drawings. Who cares? Slap an age on all of them and call it a deal. This way, it's no longer a problem when it comes to the generations that DC Comics loves to keep creating.

Hmm... welll obviously not you. doesn't make it good story telling though.

[achilles]

I do think that they should push her more as a Superman character. I mean, stop with the excluding her from any and all Superman Family crossovers, and have Clark himself do stuff with her. It doesn't have to be constant, or even a lot, but since she IS supposed to be Kryptonian, and an "L", you'd think that reacting like actual people would sort of mandate they include her. Having them ignoring her seems...odd, and inconsistent with Clark's character, if not SG's.

[MajorHoy]

I do think that they should push her more as a Superman character. I mean, stop with the excluding her from any and all Superman Family crossovers, and have Clark himself do stuff with her. It doesn't have to be constant, or even a lot, but since she IS supposed to be Kryptonian, and an "L", you'd think that reacting like actual people would sort of mandate they include her. Having them ignoring her seems...odd, and inconsistent with Clark's character, if not SG's.

The problem may be how well has Power Girl's position in the DC universe these days been clarified (or not). She was Kara Zor-(E)L, just like Supergirl, but from another Earth / another Krypton. Is that still the case in the current comic book stories?
(NOTE: I don't give a f#@& about how it was in the past if that isn't how she's defined in current, on-going stories. How is she currently defined, or are they just not clarifying it?)

[Fire Angel]

Independent, I see her pop up in all sorts of comics. It's feels to me like she doesn't really have a place, just flies in whenever the writers want a strong blonde.

[bat39]

The problem may be how well has Power Girl's position in the DC universe these days been clarified (or not). She was Kara Zor-(E)L, just like Supergirl, but from another Earth / another Krypton. Is that still the case in the current comic book stories?
(NOTE: I don't give a f#@& about how it was in the past if that isn't how she's defined in current, on-going stories. How is she currently defined, or are they just not clarifying it?)

That's a great question.

I think currently her Pre-Crisis Kryptonian origins are very much in play (I haven't read it, but I've read a CBR article about the recent Action Comics backup where she mentions how her only memories of Krypton were simulated by the Symbioship). And in Johns' JSA she's very much vulnerable to Kryptonite.

But the question is, what's her relationship with the current Superman? Especially since she now seems to have preceded him as a superhero - she was a member of the JSA in 1976, he would have put on the cape for the first time in the early-to-mid 2000's at earliest.

Did she ever believe she was this Superman's cousin? Or did she retain her memories of Kal-L all along?

Also, since we seem to be in a timeline where Supergirl would have been around earlier in Superman's career as in the Silver Age, it raises some questions about where Power Girl could have fit in (Post-COIE, there was no Kara Zor-El Supergirl during Superman's early career, and Power Girl kind of took that spot in his life briefly, before tests revealed she wasn't related to him).

Independent, I see her pop up in all sorts of comics. It's feels to me like she doesn't really have a place, just flies in whenever the writers want a strong blonde.

Yeah, that's pretty much her role. For better or worse, its allowed her to endure at a time when her entire backstory and supporting cast were wiped out.