Girl Power, part 1
Supergirl (volume 5) #5
Cover Date: October 2005
Released: 10th August 2005
⋅ Writers: ⋅ Pencilers: Ian Churchill ⋅
⋅ Inkers: Norm Rapmund ⋅ Colourists: David Moran / Beth Sotelo ⋅
⋅ Letterers: Richard Starkings / Comicraft ⋅
⋅ Editors: Jeanine Schaefer / Eddie Berganza ⋅
If you wonder why the writer isn’t mentioned, please read this first.
This starts so well with Courtney (Stargirl) and Kara (Supergirl) talking among themselves, sounding as close to teenagers when written by middle-aged men! Meanwhile, most, of the JSA are fighting Solomon Grundy. A big deal is made about the absence of Power Girl, her lack of presence is felt strongly in this first part of the story. This is probably the last nice thing I’ll say about this issue.
The first cracks show when they talk about Power Girl’s relationship with Kara and the rest of the Super Family. Now I’m on record in several places that continuity isn’t the be-all and end-all of a story, and yes it’s weird to talk about in a blog looking at all the issues of a character, but the continuing growth of a character’s story is sort of the reason we’re here after all! But I don’t care if some detail is different, or even changed if it results in a good story. The fact that Power Girl’s ship changes, as do details of her arrival, doesn’t matter if it makes for a good story.
To be fair this isn’t totally the fault of this issue, how much of Power Girl’s story has been revealed to the superhero community, or the populous at large has never been nailed down ever since her Post-Crisis. In case you’re still confused Courtney and Kara talk about Power Girl as if she’s related to Superman and henceforth a sort of relation to Supergirl. The thing is JSA Classified, which came out a month before, is dealing with this very issue (in time for Infinite Crisis) and very definitely says that Superman knows that Power Girl isn’t (right now) related to her. So Kara her should know that, and why wouldn’t Power Girl tell the JSA, who I’m sure are massive gossip!
It might seem like a lot but things go even further downhill when Power Girl turns up!
She has one good moment stopping Solomon Grundy, in an amazing panel. When the two Kara’s meet it looks like things are going to be fine, but then Power Girl just zaps Supergirl with other laser eyes. And the rest of the comic is the two fighting until Mr. Terrific figures out that it’s the contact or close proximity, of the two sets up some kind of defense mechanism. It’s explained as something to do with them being the same person, which technically they’re not, or connected to the problems that Power Girl has been going through.
The problem is Power Girl does nothing to try and stop this attack, she has no dialogue during the fight just relentlessly attacking Supergirl. Yes, this is kind of what’s going on in JSA Classified, but there we see things through Power Girl’s eyes and understand that she think’s she’s doing the right thing. And that’s her being influenced by a third party, which is definitely not the case here.
To add insult to injury at the very end we get its “not me it’s you” scene from Power Girl, rejecting any attempts for the two to try and help each other out. Yes, this is also going on in JSA Classified but it’s framed more as Power Girl not wanting to drag her friends into potential danger when she doesn’t know what’s going on herself. here it just looks like she’s being all grumpy and moody because she might have to interact with Supergirl in the future.
The thing is this is not a Power Girl story, and yes this is a Supergirl comic but that’s not the point. The aim is to isolate Supergirl from someone that could provide help and assistance for future events, even worse it’s because the entire storyline is about Supergirl finding herself and a family with Superman, y’know the very story Power Girl had before it was cruelly taken away. It feels like the writer didn’t want Power Girl to be part of this Superfamily, so made pains to write her out so she wasn’t part of the story from that point on.
So I guess this is a fine story if you’re in it for Supergirl? If you’ve come here for Power Girl then not so much!
