Power Girl
Power Girl, also known as Kara Zor-L, Karen Starr, and Paige Stetler, is a superheroine appearing in American comic books by DC Comics, making her first appearance in All Star Comics #58. Power Girl is the cousin of the superhero Superman, but from an alternate universe in the fictional multiverse in which DC Comics stories are set. Originally hailing from the world of Earth-Two, first envisioned as the home of DC's wartime heroes as published in 1940s comic books, Power Girl becomes stranded in the main universe where DC stories are set, and becomes acquainted with that world's Superman and her own counterpart, Supergirl.
In common with Supergirl's origin story, she is the daughter of Superman's aunt and uncle and a native of the planet Krypton. The infant Power Girl's parents enabled her to escape the destruction of her home planet by placing her in a rocket ship. Although she left the planet at the same time that Superman did, her ship took much longer to reach Earth-Two. On Earth, as with other Kryptonians, Power Girl discovered she possessed abilities like super strength, flight, and heat vision, using which she became a protector of innocents and a hero for humanity. Though the specifics of how vary over subsequent retellings, Power Girl is later stranded on another Earth when a cosmic crisis affects her home of Earth-Two, and later carves out a separate identity for herself from her dimensional counterpart Supergirl once they are forced to coexist.
Although she and Supergirl are biologically the same person, there are vast differences between the two. Power Girl is older and more level-headed due to her maturity, and her fighting style is more aggressive. She also adopts a different secret identity from her counterpart. These changes are reflected in their differing costumes and superhero names as well; Power Girl sports a bob of blond hair and wears a distinctive white, red, and blue costume with a cleavage-displaying cutout. The name Power Girl reflects that she chooses not to be seen as a derivative of Superman, but rather her own hero and this choice is reflected in the strong independent attitude of the character. Over various decades, Power Girl has been depicted as a member of superhero teams such as the Justice Society of America, Infinity, Inc., Justice League Europe, the Sovereign Seven, and the Birds of Prey.
Power Girl's origin has gone through revisions, but over time has reverted to her original conception as the Supergirl of Earth-Two. The 1985 limited series Crisis on Infinite Earths eliminated Earth-Two from history, causing her to be retconned as the granddaughter of an Atlantean sorcerer known as Arion. This was an unpopular change and writers depicted the revised Power Girl inconsistently. The 2005–2006 Infinite Crisis limited series then restored her status as a refugee from the Krypton of the destroyed Pre-Crisis Earth-Two universe. This has been her consistent depiction ever since.
Publication history
Power Girl was introduced in All Star Comics #58 in 1976, and was a member of the superhero team the Justice Society of America through the remainder of the 1970s and 1980s period known as the Bronze Age of Comics. Marvel Comics' then-publisher Stan Lee said in 1978 that when DC Comics created Power Girl after Marvel had introduced Power Man, "I'm pretty annoyed about that....I've got to ask the Marvel lawyer – she's supposed to be starting a lawsuit about that and I haven't heard anything. I don't like the idea.... You know, years ago we brought out Wonder Man, and sued us because they had Wonder Woman, and... I said okay, I'll discontinue Wonder Man. And all of a sudden they've got Power Girl. Oh, boy. How unfair." Ironically, Marvel had previously published Thor #207, written by Power Girl co-creator Gerry Conway, in which Len Wein's character says, "Whoever heard of Powergirl, anyhow?"After All Star Comics was canceled as a part of the DC Implosion, the character would continue to appear along with the rest of the JSA in Adventure Comics for a six-issue run. Due in part to her being one of the more popular characters in All Star Comics at the time, she was given a solo tryout in Showcase issues 97–99, which expanded on her pre-Crisis origin. During this time, she was a regularly featured character in the annual Justice Society crossovers in the original Justice League of America series. She was a founding member of Infinity Inc., appearing in each of the first 12 issues and making later guest appearances.
After DC's continuity-altering Crisis on Infinite Earths storyline, her origin was retconned in Secret Origins #11 and she became a magic-based character with ties to ancient Atlantis, leading to appearances in The Warlord. The character did not receive her own self-titled series until the Power Girl miniseries of 1988. The character became a featured member of Justice League Europe for the run of the series. After the cancellation of JLI, the character joined Chris Claremont's creator-owned series Sovereign Seven and appeared in several issues of Birds of Prey. She eventually rejoined the Justice Society in JSA #31 and became a regular part of that series and its follow-up, Justice Society of America vol. 3.
Power Girl played a significant role in the continuity-changing events of Infinite Crisis, which tied into her starring role in the first JSA: Classified story arc "Power Trip" in 2005. These stories heavily featured the revelation that Power Girl was in fact the Earth-Two Power Girl and a Kryptonian, who survived Crisis, and that her Atlantean backstory had been a lie. Starting in July 2009, Power Girl received her first ongoing series, simply titled Power Girl, with the first twelve issues written by Jimmy Palmiotti and Justin Gray, drawn by Amanda Conner, and colored by Paul Mounts. According to Comic Book Resources, the series has been "wildly praised for its fresh and fun approach."
When Palmiotti, Grey and Conner left the series after issue #12, Palmiotti said, "Amanda always said she could just commit to the book for a year, and as we got into the series we realized that we just couldn't do the same type of book with another artist at this point and decided it was a good idea to leave with her and give another team a shot." Judd Winick took over as writer with artist Sami Basri beginning with issue #13. Winick stated that the tone of the book will continue, and the premise of the character in New York.
The trade paperback "Power Girl" collects Showcase issues #97–99, Secret Origins issue #11, JSA issues 32 and 39, and JSA: Classified issues #1–4. "Power Girl: A New Beginning" collects the first six issues of the 2009 series. "Power Girl: Aliens & Apes" collects issues 7 through 12, and "Power Girl: Bomb Squad" covers 13 to 18, and "Power Girl: Old Friends" collecting issues 19–27. The entirety of the Palmiotti/Grey/Conner run is contained in "Power Girl: Power Trip" which collects JSA: Classified #1–4 and Power Girl #1–12.
Fictional character biography
Journey from Krypton-Two
Kara's father discovers that Krypton is about to explode, and places her in a spacecraft directed towards the Earth. Although this occurs at the same time that Kal-L's ship is launched, Kara's ship travels more slowly, and she arrives on Earth decades after her cousin has landed. Kara's Symbioship is designed to keep her in stasis during the journey and provide her with life experiences and education in the form of virtual reality. The Symbioship allows her to interact with virtual copies of her parents and fellow Kryptonians. Originally, by the time she arrives on Earth, Kara is shown to be in her early twenties. However, as mentioned in JSA: Classified #1, her age at arrival has now been retconned to eighteen in post-Crisis continuity.In Showcase #97, Kara is reclaimed by the sentient Symbioship, which forcibly re-immerses her into Kandorian society. Kara spends several virtual years inside the ship, eventually marrying and having a child. She is freed with the assistance of newspaper reporter Andrew Vinson and destroys the ship in anger for manipulating her emotions.
Debut
Power Girl's existence is not revealed to the general public until much later; her cousin Clark and his wife Lois Lane provide her a family environment to assist her transition towards real life relationships. In her first recorded adventure, Kara assists Justice Society members Flash and Wildcat with containing an artificially induced volcanic eruption in China. She then joins Robin and Star-Spangled Kid to form a Super Squad to assist the Justice Society in defeating Brainwave and Per Degaton, who were causing disasters around the world. She pushes their base towards the Sun, the heat causing the villains to fall unconscious. Later, she becomes a full member of the Society when Superman retires from active membership.Having been raised by the Symbioship with artificial Kryptonian life experiences, Power Girl finds it difficult to adapt to life on Earth. With Vinson's help, she eventually creates a fictional human identity: red-haired computer programmer and businesswoman Karen Starr. As Starr, Power Girl establishes her own software and IT company, Starr Enterprises. On the pre-Crisis Earth-Two, Power Girl's closest friend is the Huntress, the daughter of the Earth-Two Batman and Catwoman.
The first contact between Power Girl and Earth-One's universe was on the crossover Justice League of America #147, written by Paul Levitz & Martin Pasko, where the character shows her attraction to that reality saying, "It has a much nicer brand of Superman, y'know?".