Rebirth is a strange thing!*
The New 52 was, in and of itself, not a terrible idea, a complete reboot to allow new tales with new versions of the same characters. The success of Marvel’s Ultimate Universe and DC’s Absolute shows just that. The problem was that it was rushed, and no plans were made as to how the new universe works, what was to be kept and what was completely new. And as usual, Batman wasn’t rebooted, Batman is never rebooted!
So after only five years** DC gave up and gave us Rebirth, and kind of smooshing together of old and new continuity. With this Silver Age wackiness, with a little Bronze Age social consciousness began to leak back into the universe. Both the much-loved*** Woman and Tomorrow and the current Supergirl run lean heavily on this balance of Silver / Bronze boundary, with WoT going more Bronze and Supergirl Silver.
You may ask why I’m waffling about everything but Rebirth itself, well there’s not much to tell. Wally Wood is stuck in the Speed Force, he looks for help, and eventually, Barry drags him back into the universe. Oh and 52 Superman dies, and between the tw,o the universe is subtly altered. If I had a nickel every time Geoff Jones rebooted something by having character(s) return, I’d have two nickels…
And yes, I know there’s a load of little vignettes about various other heroes, hinting at some kind of restoration of previous continuity besides the New 52 stuff. Though quickly the old really started to dominate, and with a few events, things were more or less brought back to Post-Crisis continuity.
Power Girl appears in just one flashback panel, as previously mentioned, as part of the tales of the original Crisis.
So why have a bother to cover all this in a post, well because to my surprise, Tanya Spears made it into the Rebirth era, and explains why “our” Power Girl doesn’t come back to well into this era. And it’s weirdly in the pages of another attempt to make Deathstroke an anti-hero…
* Yes, I’m not beyond a dodgy metaphor for a New Year and an attempt to (hopefully) get back into a semi-regular posting schedule.
** Pre-Crisis had fifty, Post-Crisis 25, and Rebirth is just about to hit ten.
*** Let’s say I’m a fan of the more Silver Age and leave it at that.