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

[Stanlos]

More of an Arion, Lord of Atlantis character than "an Aquaman character" . . . she would have been from the pre-water breathing era of Atlantis.

Correct. And she was an Agent of the Lord's of Order which is pretty cool. Maligned as it may be to others, to me that era was THE best the character has been minus that awful mystical pregnancy baby arc of course. She achieved a prominence and important this later iteration has not even approached

[Agent Z]

Correct. And she was an Agent of the Lord's of Order which is pretty cool. Maligned as it may be to others, to me that era was THE best the character has been minus that awful mystical pregnancy baby arc of course. She achieved a prominence and important this later iteration has not even approached

That's not saying much given how inconsequential her Atlantean phase was and how little anyone cares about the Lords of Order. Her later iteration had more of a connection with the rest of the DC universe and had at least two critically acclaimed comic runs.

[MajorHoy]

Correct. And she was an Agent of the Lord's of Order which is pretty cool. Maligned as it may be to others, to me that era was THE best the character has been minus that awful mystical pregnancy baby arc of course. She achieved a prominence and important this later iteration has not even approached

Maybe DC should bring all that back . . . except make it for a new character, not for Power Girl.

[SiegePerilous02]

But the pre-CoIE version specifically chose to not call herself "Supergirl" / specifically chose not to wear any "Super" emblem. She wanted to be her own person.

Her name is Kara Zor-L though.

She can want to be her own person in-universe, she's still a Kryptonian in a red cape with the same powers who is literally an alternate Earth counterpart to Supergirl the way Kal-L is to Kal-El.

If it looks like a duck and quacks like a duck...

[MajorHoy]

Her name is Kara Zor-L though.

She can want to be her own person in-universe, she's still a Kryptonian in a red cape with the same powers who is literally an alternate Earth counterpart to Supergirl the way Kal-L is to Kal-El.

If it looks like a duck and quacks like a duck...

I'm not saying she isn't a Kryptonian who was originally the Earth-2 counterpart to Earth-1's Supergirl.

But the question for this thread was

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

and since she first appeared in All-Star Comics with the Justice Society of America (and, yes, I bought All-Star Comics #58 new off a spinner rack when it first came out), and since she originally tried to form her identity somewhat separately from her cousin Superman, I first consider her "a JSA character" as opposed to "a Superman character".

[bat39]

Her name is Kara Zor-L though.

She can want to be her own person in-universe, she's still a Kryptonian in a red cape with the same powers who is literally an alternate Earth counterpart to Supergirl the way Kal-L is to Kal-El.

If it looks like a duck and quacks like a duck...

I'm not saying you don't have a point. Its a tricky situation, and these kinds of things evolve over time.

Take Nightwing for instance. I suppose, back in the 80's, Nightwing (and Dick Grayson) could have been considered a Titans character first, despite the fact that his origins lay in being an icon of the Batman franchise. (In fact, I believe that a reason for the Nightwing identity to be created was so that Dick Grayson wouldn't be tied to the Batman side of things anymore, which could now get a new Robin all to itself - remember, Jason Todd was originally pretty much a Dick Grayson clone). But over time, Nightwing was gradually reintegrated more and more with the Batman mythos, until eventually he was a Bat-family member again (who also temporarily became Batman...twice!)

Now in the case of Power Girl, she was created to be a JSA character, albeit her backstory was being the Earth Two Superman's cousin and Supergirl's literal doppelganger. So she did have a connection to the Superman franchise in that sense, albeit a tangential one (not least because her Superman wasn't the 'main' version and there weren't a lot of stories that focused on her relationship with and being a legacy of the Earth Two Superman). Her slim connection to the Superman franchise was severed when the Earth Two Superman was erased from continuity, to the extent that she was given a totally new origin story. Eventually, her original origin was restored and she met Kal-L again (and lost him again). But on balance, despite her origins and despite her tangential connection to the Superman franchise (by being an alternate version of Supergirl), I wouldn't call her a Superman character first and foremost. She has much stronger ties, from a real-world publishing perspective and a current in-universe perspective, to the JSA.

I'm not saying she isn't a Kryptonian who was originally the Earth-2 counterpart to Earth-1's Supergirl.

But the question for this thread was and since she first appeared in All-Star Comics with the Justice Society of America (and, yes, I bought All-Star Comics #58 new off a spinner rack when it first came out), and since she originally tried to form her identity somewhat separately from her cousin Superman, I first consider her "a JSA character" as opposed to "a Superman character".

Bang on!

[Jim Kelly]

I think on an all-star team you want to have characters that bring different things to the table.

This is what I liked about the 1980 New Teen Titans line-up: Robin-the Batman franchise; Wonder Girl-the Wonder Woman franchise; Kid Flash-the Flash franchise; Starfire-the new science fiction franchise that Marv Wolfman was setting up (already seen in his Green Lantern); Cyborg-S.T.A.R. labs (which was created in the Superman comics); Changeling-the Doom Patrol franchise; Raven-the D.C. horror anthologies (the best comics they ever did).

Having all those different worlds available to them meant that Marv and George could slip from one concept to another with ease--so the comic wouldn't get boring. The further away the members got from having that eclectic mix, the less interesting the group became.

The Justice Society, being the original all-star team, always was best when you had these different characters that represented their own corner of the publishing conglomerate.

Now the other kind of super-team is one created from the ground up with a core group of characters--as in the Blackhawks, the Marvel Family, the Challengers of the Unknown, the Fantastic Four, the Starhunters. With those groups you want them to gain their identity from the group itself and all have a similar background.

[Thor-Ul]

Tricky question the OP. PG was obviously the earth two Supergirl and the character than the writers could do things than they couldn't do with Supergirl. And with that they gave PG a different own personality and traits, beyond the visuals.
To which field PG belongs? Ti the one which make a better use of her as character. For a while, she was a Justice League character. At least until the JLA era. Was best or the worst era? Well, Kara had her highs and her lows, but she still was a presence inthe DC landscape in those years.
And if of ppreferences are we talking, I liked her more present in the SUperman myths than in the JSA myts.

[SiegePerilous02]

I'm not saying she isn't a Kryptonian who was originally the Earth-2 counterpart to Earth-1's Supergirl.

But the question for this thread was and since she first appeared in All-Star Comics with the Justice Society of America (and, yes, I bought All-Star Comics #58 new off a spinner rack when it first came out), and since she originally tried to form her identity somewhat separately from her cousin Superman, I first consider her "a JSA character" as opposed to "a Superman character".

Now in the case of Power Girl, she was created to be a JSA character, albeit her backstory was being the Earth Two Superman's cousin and Supergirl's literal doppelganger. So she did have a connection to the Superman franchise in that sense, albeit a tangential one (not least because her Superman wasn't the 'main' version and there weren't a lot of stories that focused on her relationship with and being a legacy of the Earth Two Superman). Her slim connection to the Superman franchise was severed when the Earth Two Superman was erased from continuity, to the extent that she was given a totally new origin story. Eventually, her original origin was restored and she met Kal-L again (and lost him again). But on balance, despite her origins and despite her tangential connection to the Superman franchise (by being an alternate version of Supergirl), I wouldn't call her a Superman character first and foremost. She has much stronger ties, from a real-world publishing perspective and a current in-universe perspective, to the JSA.

I guess it may be that I'm not too invested in either Power Girl or the JSA to begin with, but is there really a point in distinguishing if she is more part of one IP over the other? She spends the majority of the time with the JSA, but her origins are linked to a version of Superman who may no longer exist, but was published as existing at one point. And even if he technically no longer exists within the current continuity, she still remembers her life with him on the other Earth (or something).

And yeah they changed her origin at one point, but that didn't amount to much in the long run. So even if they severed the connection, the connection came back.

[marhawkman]

I still like how Divine that one story arc with PG and Max was. Great story idea, too bad it got dropped.

[MajorHoy]

I guess it may be that I'm not too invested in either Power Girl or the JSA to begin with, but is there really a point in distinguishing if she is more part of one IP over the other?

The OP had a question / had a poll, so that was the point.

[Timothy Hunter]

Whenever I come across Power Girl, the first thing comes to mind was that creepy story arc in one of the last issues of Justice League: America where PG's Atlantian grandfather impregnates her with an adult child. So I tend to associate her with Aquaman.

[Will Evans]

Isn’t this question kind of moot now?
She’ll be in backups in Action Ckkics. She’ll be on the new Justice Society comic roster.

[Leancarp900]

Honestly I've always considered her kinda her own character? Admittedly I have never read much JSA though.

[MajorHoy]

Whenever I come across Power Girl, the first thing comes to mind was that creepy story arc in one of the last issues of Justice League: America where PG's Atlantian grandfather impregnates her with an adult child. So I tend to associate her with Aquaman.

But . . . even though there's that "Atlantis" this, I don't automatically associate Arion with Aquaman.