Under the Skin
JLE (volume 1) #9
Cover Date: December 1989
Released: 7th November 1989
- Writers: Keith Giffen / J.M. DeMatteis
- Pencilers: Art Nichols
- Inker: Bart Sears
- Colourists: Gene D’Angelo
- Letterer: Bob Lappan
- Editors: Andrew Helfer / Kevin Dooley
This isn’t really a comic about Power Girl, yes she’s an important throughline in the comic but this is not her story. And sadly it’s mostly about the men in the team either bonding of getting irked with making a bad call.
Captain Atom is mad that Pee Gee is in a really bad state, and Elongated Man and Flash need to work out there hostility to each other. Let’s not mention that Captain Atom gets mad when someone, Sue one of the two women (excluding Pee Gee obviously) in the comic, and that the two heroes never seemed to me have any real tension in the previous issues. Finally we have a subplot setup with Batman telling Metamorpho about something that’ll probably play out in later issues. Only Dimitri seems particularly zen about the whole thing, watching things play out on television and generally refusing to get involved in the plot!
So with everything else out of the way let’s talk about why I’m here, Power Girl. We’re told that she’s in a critical state and probably not going to make it without help, but the doctor’s can’t operate because she has invulnerable skin. So Sue, being apparently the only one with her head screwed on, calls in the help of Superman. With Kilowog’s help they build this amazing Kirby tech device which allows Supes to save Power Girls life. But oh no the Doctor says (and Kara later confirms) that her powers will be reduced, don’t ask how he knows it’s just science deal with it!
To give the comic props it does a good job showing that some of the characters have a relationship with Kara, though alas those relationships haven’t been built up through the last few issues. Also the last page where we finally get Pee Gee she seems humbled by the whole thing, but accepting that she’s reduced to the class, faster than a bullet, more power than a locomotion and able to leap tall building (she actually thinks this to herself). Finally despite the cover Pee Gee doesn’t fall for the sexy corpse trope that a happens far to often in comics.
Despite the hyperbole I don’t really have any strong feeling for this comics, it’s a solid breather episode that takes time to allow some of the gang to show there character. The real question is why they choose to do this to Pee Gee?
If it’s depowering her it’s not really needed, all of the powers she used have already been mentioned, the only difference is that she can’t now fly, something that’s odd as only really Captain Atom right now can fly so it’s something he team really miss. And it can’t really be because of the old idea that Superman could do everything without the rest of the League, because the JLE so rarely fight and when they do they’re generally ineffective. I don’t have any answers, and I’m to shy to actually ask the people who know, so I’ll just have to wonder why this was decided on. To be true this who era is full of questions about why certain things were done to Power Girl, starting with the Atlantis origins (why they choose that origin, not the whole making Supes the only surviving Kryptonian).
So not a bad comic, but to me personally a frustrating one.