Power Girl Appreciation 2024

[Knightsilver]

So forget Karen as Paige and forget Jon as older? Will that fix all or most of the problems in the Superman family of books and characters?

I would be fine with that.

[achilles]

Anyone know the most recent available sales figures and how sharp the drop is?

[PrydefulHunts]

Anyone know the most recent available sales figures and how sharp the drop is?

According to ICV2:

Power Girl #1 was #36 on the top 200 chart. Keep in mind this issue had 19 covers in total.

Power Girl #7 (most recent issue) was #138 on the charts, with 3 variant covers in total.


I’m convinced the covers are keeping this series afloat currently.

[Celgress]

According to ICV2:

Power Girl #1 was #36 on the top 200 chart. Keep in mind this issue had 19 covers in total.

Power Girl #7 (most recent issue) was #138 on the charts, with 3 variant covers in total.


I’m convinced the covers are keeping this series afloat currently.

I'm convinced the variant cover scheme is keeping the American Comic Book Industry as a whole afloat, with the expectations maybe of Spider-Man and Batman (but it is inflating those numbers too if to a lesser degree).

[walk]

I buy digitally so I've never understood the appeal of buying the same comic several times just for the sake of collecting all the various covers.

Are they not all collected as part of the trade or something?

[Celgress]

I buy digitally so I've never understood the appeal of buying the same comic several times just for the sake of collecting all the various covers.

Are they not all collected as part of the trade or something?

It is mainly driven by speculation like Funko Pops or other collectibles with built-in "rarity" variant gimmicks. Remember Beanie Babies? Many people hope they can resell a rare variant cover issue years from now for big bucks regardless of issue contents such as story importance. The industry has gone all in on this scheme to help boost sales (if shops do not order a certain number of issues they will not receive the variant covers the speculators crave). Eventually, the speculation bubble will burst like an earlier speculator bubble involving constant "big events" in the 1990s/early 2000s.

Edit - When the bubble eventually bursts the industry will be left with core fans and collectors but it'll hurt getting back there. I suspect a third to half of many issue sales (most of all medium to smaller titles) are driven by variant cover speculation buyers.

[skyvolt2000]

I buy digitally so I've never understood the appeal of buying the same comic several times just for the sake of collecting all the various covers.

Are they not all collected as part of the trade or something?

Not all the time.

Because and this is mainly an issue with SPIDER-MAN-there are variants that get made that don't get included in trades. For whatever reason.

There are Miles Morales variants with Miles holding a boom box, wearing LL Cool J's Tango hat, wrestling Venom, dunking a basketball, playing basketball, 18th birthday, hugged up on Gwen various times, unmasked in different background with logos and without.

Of these 30 variants-not one was listed in Preview Worlds during the run they were from. I found them on Ebay. That is just Miles. Silkk, Gwen, Venom and Miguel have them. PETER is 50 times worst.

Yet you won't find them in trades.


And Dynamite Comics once confirmed a LOT of their sales came from Variant covers. It's why they do so many especially with Disney Comics that might average 20 per issue.


And in many cases it's bin diving or 75% off sales at Midtown that I suspect a chunk of those sales come from. Most of mine from from 25 cent to 1 bins.

[HsssH]

DC recently had released several "uncovered" trades that collect variant covers. Maybe those have all of them?

[OBrianTallent]

No trades dont always have all of the variant covers (nor did DC's recent Uncovered specials) however, why buy the trade just to get a variant cover for $15-30 when you can buy the cover you like for way less? Not everyone buys all of the covers, some of us just buy the cover we like best for the series.

As for Power Girl's sales...that's a massive decline in just seven issues especially with such a good debut number. It's a shame that DC can't see people were hoping for Karen Starr, Power Girl...but have little interest in Paige Stetler....Power Wimp.

[TaliaJoy]

We can only hope DC eventually learns that telling their writers they needn't bother knowing a character's history and should just write whatever they feel like is not, in fact, a good strategy.

[achilles]

We can only hope DC eventually learns that telling their writers they needn't bother knowing a character's history and should just write whatever they feel like is not, in fact, a good strategy.

It truly feels like the writer doesn't know anything at all about KAREN other than that she's Kryptonian.

[Stanlos]

That's the thing. With her early Post Crisis narrative and even her unfortunate post Infinite Crisis mope-a-thon being erased or reset or Whatever da bleeeeeeeeeeep, this in fact a brand new entity with the older entity lost to the multi omni ramma lomma ding dong verse of yore. And now that we've been Lazarus'd, then Dawn'd and now Absolute'd we may not see this version that much longer.

[The Frog Bros]

That's the thing. With her early Post Crisis narrative and even her unfortunate post Infinite Crisis mope-a-thon being erased or reset or Whatever da bleeeeeeeeeeep, this in fact a brand new entity with the older entity lost to the multi omni ramma lomma ding dong verse of yore. And now that we've been Lazarus'd, then Dawn'd and now Absolute'd we may not see this version that much longer.

lol, right!

If Lazarus gave us this mess, maybe Absolute will get us out of it.

[marhawkman]

It truly feels like the writer doesn't know anything at all about KAREN other than that she's Kryptonian.

I disagree. I don't think this writer knows she's Kryptonian... or maybe just doesn't understand what Kryptonians are...

[Digifiend]

Would people be complaining about this book so much if it was a Supergirl book instead of a Power Girl one?

One of the replies mentions how that page with Jon reads like a threat. And I think thats my head canon now, Jon bullied PG into changing her name.

PG had already decided Karen Starr was dead. They really should've explained why that is. I have theories - the identity had been used so long - JSA said she was active in the 1970s - that Kara now looked too young, or it could be because New 52 PG took the identity and killed it off when she left for Earth-2 and gave the PG name to Tanya Spears. As it is they didn't explain why PG needed a new name.