Power Girl Appreciation 2024

[OBrianTallent]

Just tried to read the last issue. I had such high hopes for this series. Leah Williams did some great work at Marvel that was fun and exciting, but this series has just become more and more painful to read. It's not Power Girl....I dont even know this character and quite frankly there's been nothing to make me want to know her. The art has been excellent with the exception of the last two, which took me so completely out of the story I couldn't even finish. I haven't been so disappointed in a book since Ric Grayson.

[Will Evans]

Seems like Leah is treating her like she’s just landed in the DC universe and is not one of the older and experienced heroes.
https://www.dc.com/blog/2024/03/29/l...irl-s-new-name

[OBrianTallent]

This makes absolutely zero sense from a coherent standpoint. Where does JSA take place? Where does Action Comics take place? Both those series and everything else that has shown Power Girl shows a Power Girl that has been on Earth for more than just a few months or even a couple of years. So this one just landed? Was never a member of the JSA? Never owned her own company? It's not just about continuity, but about story coherence and there's none (at DC at all apparently.)

[achilles]

Seems like Leah is treating her like she’s just landed in the DC universe and is not one of the older and experienced heroes.
https://www.dc.com/blog/2024/03/29/l...irl-s-new-name

Oh, good Lord, what a mess. How could someone who worked at a comic book shop get the character so very wrong? That is a horrible interview. She just misunderstands both the character and her fans completely. More like she simply is writing fan fiction for herself. I hope she's off the book soon, or it's cancelled, and I wasn't rooting for cancellation even for the nu52 stuff, that's how bad and damaging this is to the character.

[OBrianTallent]

Oh, good Lord, what a mess. How could someone who worked at a comic book shop get the character so very wrong? That is a horrible interview. She just misunderstands both the character and her fans completely. More like she simply is writing fan fiction for herself. I hope she's off the book soon, or it's cancelled, and I wasn't rooting for cancellation even for the nu52 stuff, that's how bad and damaging this is to the character.

I feel the same. This should be labeled an Elseworld's book as it has zero relation to anything else she appears in. I would love for DC to give the book to a writer who truly appreciates PG for who she is, but more likely they will just cancel the book, which is better than letting it continue as is. I'm here through the Brainiac storyline and after that, I'm probably done.

[PrydefulHunts]

Seems like Leah is treating her like she’s just landed in the DC universe and is not one of the older and experienced heroes.
https://www.dc.com/blog/2024/03/29/l...irl-s-new-name

Using Omen in the story wasn't even Williams' ideas, it was editorials. Power Girl's last name is Stetler because Williams worked at a ranch with cowboys who had that last name... I really don't understand how any of this got approved.

[Mantis-Ray]

Power Girl might have a new partner and a new power in the form of astral punching, a remnant of the Lazarus rain, but those aren’t the most significant changes for the erstwhile Kryptonian. “Karen Starr” is gone, replaced by her new alter ego and chosen name, Paige Stetler.

“Paige is uniquely hers,” Williams shares. “It started out as Omen having a series of nicknames for Power Girl. She abbreviated Power Girl as PG, and then it got shortened into Peej. Later, when they're working with Jon Kent on something, he's like, ‘Peej kind of sounds like Paige, which is a really pretty name.’ And the idea is, this is the beginning of our Power Girl story. This is page one. So that's how I came up with Paige.”

Williams also reveals for the first time that “Stetler” has its own meaning.

“I wanted her to have a cowboy name,” she explains. “I used to work at a cattle ranch in Montana, so I've known lots of cowboys. Some of them were named Stetler. I wanted her to have a kind of cowboy-sounding name because, compared to the rest of the Super-Family, she’s a bit of a lone ranger. She's a part of the family and she loves them, but she's also working on her own a lot. That's what she's used to and that's what she is comfortable with.”

Okay I know she based the name off real life people she knew, but no one is going to get cowboy from Stetler. It doesn't feel rural, Stetler sounds more like a nerd, a banker or something like that.

[achilles]

Okay I know she based the name off real life people she knew, but no one is going to get cowboy from Stetler. It doesn't feel rural, Stetler sounds more like a nerd, a banker or something like that.

Yeah, the last thing I got from seeing "Stetler" was a cowboy. More like an accountant. Also, if she wants to evoke cowboys with KAREN, there are better ways to do that. Ways that preserve who the character is and what she represents.

[Will Evans]

Yeah, the last thing I got from seeing "Stetler" was a cowboy. More like an accountant. Also, if she wants to evoke cowboys with KAREN, there are better ways to do that. Ways that preserve who the character is and what she represents.

Hey I would have the been the first person happy, if PG in civilian clothes, dressed like Rogue from X-Men did in her civies.

[Digifiend]

OK, if you don't like the current direction, why not go back to 1992? Kara appeared in issues 59 and 60 of The Flash. She gets angry at Wally because a newspaper claimed she was pregnant with his baby, but they team up to stop a villain with invisibility tech called The Last Resort. She cameos in issue 61 as well.

[Veni]

[Jon Clark]

OK, if you don't like the current direction, why not go back to 1992? Kara appeared in issues 59 and 60 of The Flash. She gets angry at Wally because a newspaper claimed she was pregnant with his baby, but they team up to stop a villain with invisibility tech called The Last Resort. She cameos in issue 61 as well.

False dichotomy. One bad Power Girl depiction from the 1990's isn't the same as a whole series that doesn't get ONE distinguishing feature of Kara Zor-L right. Wrong general attitude, wrong relationship to Superman, wrong career choice, Wrong name , ...

It's like writing a pacifist all-trusting Bruce Wayne for a dozen issues and then telling people the other choice is All-Star Batman and Robin

[Riv86672]

False dichotomy. One bad Power Girl depiction from the 1990's isn't the same as a whole series that doesn't get ONE distinguishing feature of Kara Zor-L right. Wrong general attitude, wrong relationship to Superman, wrong career choice, Wrong name , ...

It's like writing a pacifist all-trusting Bruce Wayne for a dozen issues and then telling people the other choice is All-Star Batman and Robin

^^^Quoted for truth.

On topic, here’s hoping for a Power Girl I can appreciate in 2025.

[The Frog Bros]

Just tried to read the last issue. I had such high hopes for this series. Leah Williams did some great work at Marvel that was fun and exciting, but this series has just become more and more painful to read. It's not Power Girl....I dont even know this character and quite frankly there's been nothing to make me want to know her. The art has been excellent with the exception of the last two, which took me so completely out of the story I couldn't even finish. I haven't been so disappointed in a book since Ric Grayson.

I really enjoyed X-Terminators and was hoping for something similarly enjoyable. Sadly, expectations were not met with this book at all.

I feel the same. This should be labeled an Elseworld's book as it has zero relation to anything else she appears in. I would love for DC to give the book to a writer who truly appreciates PG for who she is, but more likely they will just cancel the book, which is better than letting it continue as is. I'm here through the Brainiac storyline and after that, I'm probably done.

I don’t even think I’ll pick up the Brainiac tie in. I’m 50/50 on it at this point even though I’ll most certainly be following the main event books in Superman and Action.

[Overhazard]

That interview...woof. If she wanted to go with a cowboy theme, wouldn't "Settler" sound better than "Stelter"? Why not go whole hog with it and make her a farmer or a rancher instead of a reporter? "She got tired of living in the fast paced tech world and decided to start a farm." It still has her in the superman family but she's doing her own thing. Williams is talking about PG like she's brand new when she's been around since the 70's, none of this feels right. Williams has a very deep misunderstanding of the character. I haven't seen a writer/character match this bad in a long time.

Initially, I was concerned that Williams, just coming off of X-terminators, would lean hard into that ill-gotten reputation Power Girl has and go full bimbo with the character. At this point I almost wish she had.