DC ROUND-UP: POWER GIRL #1 finds its identity

THIS WEEK: We check in on Paige and Streaky in Power Girl #1!

Note: the review below contain spoilers.  If you want a quick, spoiler-free buy/pass recommendation on the comics in question, check out the bottom of the article for our final verdicts.

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Power Girl #1

Writer: Leah Williams
Penciller: Eduardo Pansica
Inker: Júlio Ferreira
Colorists: Romulo Fajardo, Jr.
Letterer: Becca Carey
Cover: Gary Frank and Brad Anderson

For the last several months, the Superman line of books has been firing on all cylinders in a way it really hasn’t since the 1990s. The books aren’t quite as connected as they were back then, nor are there quite as many, but every single one of them feels like it has its own place in the ongoing story of the characters and is adding to the whole rather than just doing its own thing. 

Part of that has been how Action Comics has been using its new anthology format to springboard into new ideas and stories. Action Comics right now feels like a spiritual successor to Batman: Urban Legends, and like that book, some of the side stories are now getting spin-off series. The latest of these is Leah Williams taking her Power Girl story and getting to run with it in a new ongoing book. 

Williams has been essentially given a blank slate to do what she wants with Power Girl, mostly because of the character’s convoluted history. Williams has simplified and expanded that history. This version of Power Girl is from Krypton, but not our Krypton, and just doesn’t feel like she belongs in this version of the Superfamily. Williams’s work so far has been to get this character in a place where she feels a little more comfortable only to yank the rug out from under her. 

This issue introduces us to Dr. Paige Stetler, Power Girl’s new secret identity. Paige, looks a bit off to me, but that’s probably because the choice in glasses that Eduardo Pansica and Júlio Ferreira gave her really make her look like Linda Lang from Jamal Igle’s Supergirl run. I know they’re fundamentally the same person, but she really looked younger than I think she should. 

Other than the look of Power Girl in her secret identity though, the art really does sing in this issue. Pansica and Ferreira had a lot of fun with the finery of a fancy gala, and their face acting throughout the issue is expressive and fun. 

The introduction of the “new” villain, Amalak, actually pulled the wool over my eyes. Before he introduces himself, all we see is a red-skinned man with dreads, and my 1990s-fueled brain went immediately to Massacre, a minor villain from that era. But instead of a minor villain introduced by Karl Kesel, it’s a minor villain introduced by Jim Shooter. Amalak first appeared in 1966’s Superman #190, and much like this new version, that one was a space-pirate who hated Kryptonians. I always love when a creative team digs deep into history to grab an unknown character to bring back to the forefront. 

I feel like the mysteries of Power Girl’s Krypton, and this new feud with Amalak are going to drive this series, and I think that this first issue was a fantastic jumping-on point for that. Oh, and I will always take more Streaky wherever I can get him. 

Verdict: BUY 

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Round-Up

• Si Spurrier’s Flash also started this week. Joe has an interview with him right here. The first issue really started hard on the creepy cosmic horror angle right out of the gate, but I’m very, very worried that Spurrier is going to break up Wally and Linda again, and I don’t want that at all. 
• Steve Orlando returning to DC Comics was nice to see, and seeing him do so on one of my favorite characters is the cherry on top. I love Donna Troy and Orlando really captured her spirit in Tales of the Titans: Donna Troy. It was cathartic watching Donna beat the snot out of nazis. It was also nice to see Orlando’s JLA get a little bit of the spotlight again, that series was an underrated gem.   
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