First Appearance of Power Girl

[JulianPerez]

To rephrase what I said earlier, Supergirl was a proven failed property while Power Girl still had potential to be salvage given the distinctiveness of the copy and he relative newness.

This is totally true.

However, while I as a reader can understand the rationale behind decisions made at the business end, ultimately my priorities as a reader are very different from those of a businessperson. The priorities of a businessperson are to sell comics. The priorities of a comic book reader like me are different: I want to read good comics.

Business decisions are made with considerations apart from the aesthetic or entertainment value, which are the only two things that are important for me. A comic's sales numbers do not determine quality for anybody except the accountants.

Thus, I have no desire to defend a creative decision on business grounds. The fact that Power Girl is a more marketable character than Supergirl does not change the fact she is less interesting than Supergirl was.

Geoff Johns, the character doctor, has his hands on Power Girl now in JSA Classified.  While I think Johns is overrated, he does have a tendency to make characters fresh and workable.  Hey, he fixed the Hawkmess which was no small feat.  

I will say one thing about Geoff Johns's take on Power Girl: he had her form a relationship with other female heroes, friendships with Stargirl and the Huntress, and a mother/daughter dynamic with the original Red Tornado. The fact he was able to make her connect with other characters shows he thinks of her more three-dimensionally; Virginia Woolf once said that the surest test to know if female characters are real or window dressing for male characters is if they form friendships with one another. In other words, Geoff Johns' Power Girl adds instead of detracts. Maybe he sees something there no one else does (and certainly I don't).

[Captain Kal]

While I share your POV re: the aesthetics of Supergirl vs Power Girl, it would be exceedingly arrogant to claim our tastes are the ultimate say in this matter.  Even you yourself stated that Wally/Flash works because of good writing.  Surely, the same could be said of any character, Power Girl included.

I still think Power Girl had potential while Supergirl had run her course.

That DC has mangled Power Girl too isn't something inherently wrong with the character but more to do with corporate mismanagement of the character.

Power Girl was actually more interesting than Supergirl when she first came out because she strove to establish an identity very separate from her Superman's instead of being content to bask in the shadow of the original 'S' and be a perpetual second-stringer.  She balked at Kal-L's choice of being a journalist (interfering busybodies is what she called them and compared them with her cousin).

I still like the original model over the E-2 copy.  But you do a great disservice to her by claiming she was completely inferior to the original.

[Uncle Mxy]

The scuttlebutt is that Conway intended Power Girl to be Earth-2 Kal-L and Lois's daughter, and was named Power Girl so as not to be confused with Supergirl.

[nightwing]

I would disagree that Power Girl started out more interesting.  The thing I remember about her was that she was a strident (nay, shrill) feminist who nonetheless wore the most revealing outfit for a superheroine up to that time.  Nothing is more annoying or tiresome than a female character (in comics or otherwise) who runs around showing T&A while screaming, "Take me seriously, you male chauvanist pigs!"  :roll:

That said, I do agree that every character has potential and if we had to lose Kara Zor-El, her E-2 counterpart was better than nothing.  The problem is DC dropped the ball as usual and tripped all over itself with about a half dozen conflicting origins all trying to explain how she's not from Krypton.  It's like that old parable about building a house upon the sand...without a solid foundation you can't develop a character worth reading, and since Kara didn't know who she was or where she came from, she really never went anywhere.

I have to agree with Julian here that the single distinction Power Girl can claim after nearly 30 years in print (!!!!!!) is a sexy costume.  It's her whole identity, and her sole appeal.

Ha, there's irony for you...I just suggested that Power Girl is "under-developed"! :lol:

[Spaceman Spiff]

The fact [Geoff Johns] was able to make her connect with other characters shows he thinks of her more three-dimensionally

Ha, there's irony for you...I just suggested that Power Girl is "under-developed"! :lol:

You guys are killing me.

[TELLE]

Behold!

The first appearance of Power Girl!

The great thing about those 2 pages is the way Power Girl's emasculation of the two classic he-man heroes is visually demonstrated by having her wrestle and stomp on a giant pink phallic symbol!  An awesome sight!






I think this scene was used in an early JLU animated cartoon episode, replacing Power Girl with Supergirl and adding more JL characters and the Brimstone character from Legends(?)?

[Kal-L]

Hey! Your site is great, and i don't mean to be too demanding, but why haven't you published the whole story?

[NotSuper]

I'd love to see the rest of the story, Rao. Power Girl has become one of my favorite characters (mostly thanks to Johns) and I'd love to see her full origin. I've read about it but I've never seen the comic.