Then Power Girl #8 was listed as a House of Brainiac tie-in and I felt compelled to stick around.
I should not have been surprised to be underwhelmed with the book. There is one interesting moment that is specific to this book and it's tenuous supporting cast and subplots. There is one interesting moment that is more a DCU moment which I enjoyed. And at least Power Girl uses her powers and is adequate in battle. But once again writer Leah Williams has a good chunk of the book spent on a cute scene. Omen again seems unstoppable. And the Brainiac links are few.
Eddie Pansica is back on art and I like his style. He handles the action parts quite well. Perhaps his years on Supergirl prepped him. I am a big fan of Yanick Paquette and I like his playful cover with Crush pushing Power Girl out of the cover pin-up pose. But in some ways the cover is a reminder that, at least in this volume, Power Girl has rarely been the star in her own book.
On to the issue.
But Power Girl isn't bittled and taken. We later learn that because she is originally from Earth-2, the drones couldn't recognize her as having powers.
We start firmly in continuity. We are at the beginning of the activities of Action Comics #1064. 'Paige' is roller skating in the park and sees Lois doing yoga. We hear, again, that Kara is off on a date.
Will we ever find out about Supergirl's date?
Anyways, 'Paige' is trying to learn how to roller skate and can't do it. She is falling all over, and awkward.
Of course, Omen does it perfectly.
That's four plus pages of roller skating cuteness and Omen awesomeness.
At least the conversation links to the House of Brainiac event.
It also has 'Paige' and Omen talking about how 'Paige' is interested in Axel, the potential love interest from the first issue. The thing is Omen is aware of the interest because she has been reading Power Girl's mind ... without consent.
That's Omen! She mind-wipes men whose opinion she doesn't approve of. She reads the minds of college girls to get info. She defeats the big bad, not Power Girl. And she creepily reads her friend's mind.
Credit to Pansica for making 'Paige' look awkward on these pages.
As for Axel, he said he worked for the CIA. Here he seems to be a cat burglar. But scaling a skyscraper in Superman Family stuffed Metropolis in broad daylight doesn't seem to stealthy. It's almost like it was needed for the plot!
In what is an interesting wrinkle, he is bottled by the Brainiac drones. Meaning he has powers.
Omen and Streaky are also bottled.
Thank goodness Omen wasn't so over-powered that she could thwart Brainiac. I was shocked that Williams didn't have Omen be more powerful than the other supers.
'Paige' pretty much has her way with Brainiac Drones and Czarians in battle. Thankfully we get to see her being effective. And Pansica's action sequences are solid.
But Power Girl isn't bittled and taken. We later learn that because she is originally from Earth-2, the drones couldn't recognize her as having powers.
Perhaps the best page in the book is this map of Metropolis and it's different suburbs. This is pretty cool.
The non-super-powered heroes continue to patrol. Does Metropolis really need Hawkgirl given the sheer size of the super-family?
Power Girl runs into Crush and thinks she is one of the invading Czarians.
I guess Crush isn't well known enough in the hero community for 'Paige' to recognize her? Have they met before anywhere?
Crush pretty quickly beats Power Girl.
Are these the same Holliday girls who used to hang out with the original Etta Candy? I must admit I haven't stayed up to date on Crush's comings and goings. I hope we get some recap.
Somehow a rogue group of Czarians uninterested in working for Brainiac stayed on Earth.
I don't know how this could happen. We see the Czarians all being teleported away back to the Brainiac ship. They don't get in ships and fly. So how did these Czarians escape the automatic trip back? Don't know.
They also stole a weapon from Brainiac's ship before they came down. The weapon seems to animate inanimate objects. So now they will have some raucous fun.
I'll be honest. This was a better issue than the cat issue or the Ferimbia issues. At least 'Paige' is present in her own book and effective in taking out some bad guys. Axel, who I forgot about, having powers potentially is a decent mystery. Who is this guy? And Crush's Holliday Girls posse? Hmmm ...
But the other problems I have with this book are still present. 'Paige' not acting like a Power Girl I know. The over long cutesy scene of 'Paige' falling down roller skating while Omen is perfect. It is still there.
And I could care less about the rogue Czarians.
Overall grade: C
7 comments:
You nailed!
-Matthew Lloyd
Where did this Omen come from? I want Powergirl Karen Starr not some pretender Paige, keep hoping the Main Man shows up and takes Omen out permanently!
As a longtime Lilith fan, I do think she deserves some sympathy ‘cos she’s being mischaracterised as much as is Karen.
I almost bought this issue due to the HoB business, but a Bleeding Cool preview put paid to that!
I agree with your review, and would say that on a conventional 10 point scale this is definitely a 5/10 issue. I get that some readers of the book might not be reading Action Comics or Superman which in turn implies that a brief recap of the situation at hand after the end of AC 1064 and Superman 13 is necessary, but that could have been done in about 3-4 pages. The intro is definitely too long and takes too much from the narrative about how Paige handles a post-Brainiac Metropolis or what part Crush and the Holliday Girls will play in all of this. With that said, here are a few thoughts.
- Williams may be setting up Omen to be the ultimate villain of this series' last arc. Her manipulativeness, casual condescension, and abuse of her powers are a solid way of setting up that she's an amoral and dangerous person who needs to be taken down. If that's the case, it's a solid build up for a final foe for Paige to fight. In line with that, a malevolent and manipulative Omen could also be a solid explanation for why Power Girl's personality has been so warped. The counter to this is that Jay Nakamura's questionable morality and manipulativeness also made it seem like he was going to be revealed as an ultimate bad guy for Job Kent to confront throughout the run of Superman: Son of Kal El only for that not to pan out, so maybe Omen won't be a bad guy, and all of this will be another let down the way that series ended up being.
- My take on this characterization of Power Girl is that Leah Williams had decided that her true identity is Kara Zor-L - multiversally displaced Earth-2 Kryptonian stranger to Prime Earth, not Kara Kent of Earth 2, "Karen Starr", Power Girl, or “Paige Stetler”. That’s like an author deciding that Clark is really Kal-El of Krypton, and that either "Clark on the Farm," "Clark at the Planet," or Superman are all facades. The ultimate reason why this iteration of Power Girl seems different is because nobody else thought that was her core identity. Most writers seem to assume that Power Girl or Karen Starr is her core identity, and anything else is a facade. That’s why this iteration is so odd; it's the first iteration of the character where her sense of being an AI raised alien on Earth trumps any other possible aspects of her characterization. That's a potentially interesting insight into her, except Williams' fixation on other subjects such as Omen, Streaky, or Ferimbia has deprived us of a deeper examination of what it means for the character's sense of self and impact on the world if this is how they think of themselves in contrast to prior characterizations.
- It seems that most of the House of Brainiac Arc will take place in space. That's fine, but it does leave readers wondering what's going on in a Metropolis suddenly devoid of most of the Super Family. This series can and to a certain extent seems to be answering that question. As long as it fulfills that role reasonably well, it could be a worthwhile component of the event.
-The characterization of Clark here is way better than in the rest of the series so far. He doesn't condescend to Paige or treat her as if he's her boss. He treats her like a partner and genuine family member who he has affection for. I don't know if that turn around is due to Williams or the editors, but either way kudos for establishing a properly respectful relationship between her and the Super Family's keystone.
- The solicits implied that Paige and Crush would be facing off against an army of Czarnians. Instead, there's just five Czarnians. Five? Unless these guys have a bunch of Kryptonite or magical items, they shouldn't be able to last more than a few minutes against a fully powered Kryptonian. This is reminiscent of the first arc of this series when the "Kryptonian virus" that was such a supposedly massive threat had only killed three people. Seriously, how can five Czarnians possibly be more than a minor nuisance for a fully powered Kryptonian?
Thanks for all the comments and compliments.
Good in depth comment anon, especially about how Superman actually acted like Superman in his scene unlike some prior stuff. And yes, so much attention has been focused elsewhere that it doesn't feel like a Power Girl book.
Leah Williams seems adamant to show us how inept, incompetent and ineffectual her version of Power Girl is at every opportunity. She constantly fails at every task (getting beaten, needing to be rescued by others, skating, et al.) and is generally very, very meek. Meanwhile Omen gets to be the well-adjusted extrovert hero Williams refuses to let PG be (well, as heroic as a someone who casually and nonconsentually invades and changes others' minds can be). If the last issue did anything right, it was not having Omen in it.
'Paige' spots Lois and immediately tries to hide from her like a scared child. Am I supposed to believe this is the same woman who stood up to the JSA and her own cousin and demanded them to see her as an equal, survived multiple reality-shattering crises, led the JSA and started her own company?
Axel and 'Paige' have only interacted twice, and both times he tried to recruit her before she snarkily rebuked him. Now they're flirting all of a sudden? This just confirms what I've been thinking-Williams writes a quirky little scenario and plugs in characters as needed, consistency be damned. Nevermind previous continuity, this book isn't even consistent with itself.
And, of course, PG is defeated and captured in one page. The Czarnians themselves are little more than an excuse to keep Power Girl occupied while the Super-Family deals with the "real" plot. All of DC's bluster about her "finally being a part of the Super-Family" seems to be just that. The family is regularly seen together and seem to work just fine without her, whereas "Paige" can't function without Superman, Supergirl or Omen's guidance.
As for the actual issue, it brings nothing more to the table than setup for the next one.
"Paige" is guarding Metropolis....she can't even roller skate, and she is supposed to guard Metropolis?
I mean, what could go wrong eh?
This is what passes for "ditziness" in the 21st Century...an unstable cringeworthy mix of insecurity, low self esteem, sudden bouts of overconfidence, dependency issues...and that is what makes this book unreadable regardless of the "crossover event narrative".
JF
Post a Comment