Alan Kistler’s Profile On: Power Girl

Supergirl isn’t the only Kryptonian woman who can kick ass and take names. This woman is powerful, confident and fully in charge of her own sexuality.

Now if only they could keep her origin stable.

Here then, gentle readers, is the HISTORY OF POWER GIRL!

(Kistler’s Note: Special thanks to the Hutch for his Editorial comments and corrections. I have revised a paragraph as a result of this.)

THE OTHER SUPERGIRL

Before the Crisis, there was not the single DCU so much as there were many DC Universes. The two that got talked about the most in DC Comics were the parallel realities marked as Earth-1 and Earth-2. Earth-1 was the mainstream reality with all the modern day heroes. Your Justice League of America, your Teen Titans (mainly made of the sidekicks of JLA members), while Earth-2 was the world primarily inhabited by DC’s Golden Age characters from the 40s, your Justice Society of America and such, as well as their “young team” called Infinity, Inc. (primarily consisting of the sons, daughters and proteges of the JSA). Logic (and many fans I’ve introduced to comics) would seem to think that the older heroes who showed up first should have gotten the Earth-1 label, but hey, Barry Allen was the first guy to travel between parallel worlds so he got to call his Earth Earth-1. It’s an ego thing.

Now, many heroes had “equivalent twins” on the other world. For instance, on Earth-1, Barry Allen was the Flash and got his powers due to a freak lightning bolt striking him when he was in his crime lab. Whereas on Earth-2, the Flash was a guy called Jay Garrick, who got his powers in college when he inhaled fumes from irradiated hard water (not ice, boys and girls, there actually is something called hard water, look it up). They had near identical powers, but were different people and had different families, lives, etc.

However, in rare cases, a person could have an near-identical twin on the other world. Superman for instance. On Earth-2, he was Kal-L, one of the last two survivors of Krypton (the other being his cousin, who we’ll talk about later). On Earth-1, he was Kal-El, who was a survivor of Krypton along with his dog Krypto, a monkey called Beppo, his cousin Supergirl, a tiny city full of miniaturized Kryptonians that were kept in a bottle, and several villains who existed in the extra-dimensional Phantom Zone. Both had a Lois, but one was married to his Lois while the other was still trying to win her as Clark Kent. Little differences like that. Basically, having this near-identical twin of Superman on Earth-2 was DC’s way of explaining how Superman (and Wonder Woman and Batman and a couple others) could have had adventures in the 1940s and not have aged since. It wasn’t them, it was their twins on Earth-2 we’d been watching, silly us!

(Ed. Note: It was also a way to explain differences between the early characters and their modern portrayals. The different names of parents, different names of newspapers, different names, origins and characteristics of Lex Luthor and Mr. Mxyzptlk, etc.)

Now, DC decided that rather than have EVERY Earth-2 character just have the same code-name as an Earth-1 hero, they’d start making new characters who were more unique. Earth-1 had Kara Zor-El aka Supergirl (Superman’s cousin and occasional partner). Earth-2 would have a Kara Zor-L who was the cousin of her own universe’s Superman, but the similarities ended there. She called herself POWER Girl and who wore a costume that didn’t resemble her cousin’s at all and who acted very little like her Earth-1 counterpart.

Kata Zor-El’s origin is explained in her own profile (coming soon). To summarize, she was part of a city of Kryptonians that survived Krypton’s destruction and later when their people started dying from radiation, Kara left to join her cousin on Earth, wearing a copy of the costume he wore as Superman.

On the Earth-2 universe’s Krypton, Zor-L (brother of Jor-L) constructed a ship similar to the ship that would carry the infant Kal-L, but designed to provide a much greater array of sensory stimulation. As Krypton exploded, the two ships were launched. Kal-L’s ship took a more direct path to Earth, arriving while he was still an infant. Kara Zor-L’s ship took a more circuitous route, arriving 60 years later. It wasn’t explained if this was because Kal-L’s had warp-drive and hers didn’t or what. Maybe Zor-L just thought Kara should see the sights.

During the journey, Kara was kept in suspended animation, which slowed her aging so that she was about 19 or 20 when she got to Earth. Furthermore, her "Symbioship" programmed her mind with a full Kryptonian education, simulating years of life experiences so she’d mature normally as her body aged slowly. If you’ve seen the original Superman movie, picture the mental education Kal-El was getting on the ride to Earth but times ten.

When Kara Zor-L landed on Earth-2, her universe’s Superman found her and was glad to find a cousin. But rather than call herself Supergirl and thus seem like she was a secondary version of Kal, she wanted the title Power Girl. She was her own woman and not JUST Superman’s cousin. She wore no S-shield on her chest nor blue tights. An all white body suit with a red cape and blue boots (which kept in the patriotic spirit of many Earth-2 characters) made up her uniform. She also had shorter hair and was a mite feistier than sweet, innocent Supergirl of Earth-1.

There were still SOME similarities between Power Girl and Supergirl. On Earth-1, Supergirl was best pals with Batgirl, Batman’s occasional apprentice and partner, whereas on Earth-2 Power Girl was great friends with Huntress, the daughter of the Earth-2 Batman and his successor (not to be confused with the post-Crisis Huntress who is a blood-thirsty vigilante that Batman doesn’t approve of). But whereas Supergirl was pretty much on her own, Power Girl was part of a team, joining the JSA and later becoming an honorary member of Infinity Inc. On solo adventures, she fought villains like The Gang, Reactron and Blackstarr.

THE FIRST REVISION

Then came THE CRISIS ON INFINITE EARTHS. As stated in my Donna Troy article, this was a big thing in which a lot of continuity was subject to change and revision. It allowed DC to look at their characters as a whole and say “What works and what doesn’t?” with mixed results concerning their solutions. On reworking Superman, they decided they wanted to go back to the basis of him being the sole survivor of Krypton. No city in a bottle of surviving Kryptonians, no animals who conveniently escaped, and no cousin. Supergirl (who had actually died during the Crisis to save Superman’s life) was erased from continuity, as if she’d never existed.

Logically, there was now to only be one Superman in this new, merged reality. The Golden Age Superman was now gone and no one remembered him. Same with the Golden Age Batman and Wonder Woman. Other Golden Age characters who only had "equivalent twins" (such as Flash, Hawkman, Atom and Green Lantern) remained on Earth-1, since they were still markedly different characters from their modern-day counterparts, with different secret identities and in some cases different powers. Infinity, Inc. remained in existence. And suprisingly, so did Power Girl.

But how? Didn’t we just decide Kal would be the only survivor of Krypton? Yet we had this girl who, as far as her origin was concerned, was also Kryptonian and was Superman’s cousin (well, A Superman’s cousin at least).

They could’ve given her a radically different origin, as they did with the Huntress. Pre-Crisis, the Huntress was Helena Wayne, Gotham lawyer and daughter of the Earth-2 versions of Batman and Catwoman who had begun her crime-fighting career after mommy was killed. Post-Crisis, she was introduced as a new character named Helena Bertinelli. She was a mafia princess whose daddy had been killed by other dons. Trained to fight, fueled by revenge and inspired by the Batman, she became a vigilante in Gotham. She was a school teacher now, not a lawyer. None of her Pre-Crisis stories remained in any kind of continuity and she had no relationship at all with the JSA anymore.

But with Power Girl, they decided to go a different route and altered just a couple minor details of her history. As it stood now, Kara had been found in a rocket ship by the modern-age (and now only) Superman. When he found her, she’d had amnesia, remembering not much more than that her home was gone and her name was “Kara” (no last name given this time). She had vague notions of having grown up on an alien world. Seeing Superman though, and seeing they had similar abilities, she concluded they were from the same planet, maybe even related. Not an unreasonable conclusion. And Superman, being an orphan and all, had jumped on the possibility. But it was later proven by tests that no, she had no Kryptonian DNA. (Later comics would posit that Batman himself was suspicious from the start and insisted on these DNA tests, which made a lot of sense considering how his character progressed after the Crisis).

After this, Superman suggested to the semi-active JSA that they take her in, believing that she could benefit from the experience of such teachers before trying to become a full-time super-hero herself. This meant that most of her pre-Crisis adventures with the JSA were still in continuity. And just as before, she later became associated with Infinity, Inc.

Thus DC got to keep Power Girl and add a new twist on her. A girl without a past, she was now a hero who longed for an identity. Disillusioned and embarrassed by the revelation that she WASN’T Superman’s cousin, she stayed away from Superman for the most part then.

Soon after the Crisis, the JSA were exiled into the null-dimension Limbo where they were forced to fight the Norse gods. The younger members, Star-Spangled Kid I and Power Girl, were sent to stay in the mainstream universe because the JSA figured they might very well die in Limbo. They accepted that, they’d all been around for decades, but they didn’t want the youngsters to waste their lives when they had still had so much left to give to the world.

So Power Girl was on her own. And soon afterwards, she found a crystal sent by the ancient sorcerer Arion of Atlantis, one of the most powerful mages of Earth’s past, and learned the hidden "truth" behind her origins.

Arion was a sorcerer who primarily operated when the world was young and Atlantis had not yet sunk. He was a Merlin sort of character, but more proactive. Anyway, Kara found out that evidently she was Arion’s grand-daughter and had been born in those ancient times. She also had a brother named Khater. Their parents died after Kara was born and Arion chose to perform certain experiments on the girl. Arion believed there was a great war coming between light and dark and through Kara he was going to create a champion to win that fight. Somehow, he used the essence of the magical villain Scarabus and used it to empower his granddaughter. Arion then placed Kara into suspended animation and sent her into the future to save her from his evil brother Garn Danuuth. Kara aged about 18 years while unconscious, and emerged in the 20th century as a 19-year-old girl, where it would be safe for her to eventually give birth to the champion. (Secret Origins #11) Arion had also given her false memories which made her believe she had come from Krypton and that she was Superman’s cousin, believing this would lead Superman to protect her. She later reconnected with Arion, who was still alive and living in New York. (Arion #6, JL Quarterly #13)

For some folks, this just didn’t feel right. It was like saying that the Flash woke up one day to realize that he was actually a super-soldier who’d been engineered by aliens and that the lightning accident was a cover story. It just seemed odd and suddenly connected Power Girl to a character and an atmosphere she’d never been a part of before. She’d always been a sci-fi alien hero, not the magically empowered granddaughter of one of Earth’s biggest sorcerers. What’s more, this (along with the introduction of a new version of Supergirl) seemed to cut off any real connection Kara had to Krypton and Superman in general.

A new look. Look closely. The belt buckle is an Atlantean symbol.

MOVING ON WITH LIFE

Fan’s weren’t a big fan of PG’s new origin, nor were they a fan of the immediate cosmetic change where Power Girl’s belt buckle went from being an ordinary buckle to being an Atlantean symbol. She went on, establishing a lax secret identity as Karen Starr, head of a small company, and joined the Justice League.

Kara joined the newly formed Justice League Europe and stuck around until issue 67. Beforehand, her powers had been comparable to Superman even Post-Crisis. But during a battle with vampires and the Gray Man, she lost her enhanced sense of hearing and enhanced eyesight (microscopic/telescopic/x-ray vision) and her heat-vision. Also, she was no longer quite as strong or as invulnerable as she’d been before (JLE #8). This seemed to do away with the last traces of her connection/resemblance to Superman or indeed to a Kryptonian at all.
A Change In Attire
DC grew tired of trying to work her civilian identity into sub-plots, so they decided to get rid of it. During an adventure with the JLE, Power Girl met a friendly other-dimensional imp named Ghy who took on the identity of Kara’s “cousin” Gina Starr and began running her company for her. In another JLE story, Power Girl made the strange decision to visit once a year to the Underworld and learn from the monstress Echidna (JLE #42). Presumably, DC was trying to cement her as a magical character now.

DC tried to spice up the character with romantic flirtations between her and Aquaman. Later, she totally made out with the Green Lantern Hal Jordan when he had a bit of amnesia, but for the most part it felt like they were just desperately trying to find her something to do.

After a while, DC realized no one really cared about Power Girl so they decided to introduce the champion Arion had "created" so long ago. Kara was now magically pregnant (although there was minor fan speculation that this was Hal Jordan’s baby, it was later confirmed the conception was immaculate). The baby was growing at a fast rate and was born during ZERO HOUR. The child was obviously magical because during Zero Hour when everyone was running around, terrified of time-rips and time-vortexes, Kara’s baby (hours before it would be born) was able to cast a force field around him and his mom.

The boy was born and started growing up at a fast rate, which made readers think about that STAR TREK: TNG episode where Deanna Troy got preggers, had the kid the next day, the kid grew up hours later and then died, becoming an energy being again. Kara and the boy she seemed unwilling to name ran into the evil Scarabus and had to be rescued by the JLA and Arion (Justice League America 93 & 94). A couple issues later, the kid went off on his own, as magical babies are wont to do and showed up again, now a grown-up and with a monk of some sort as his companion. He called himself Equinox now and killed Scarabus before going off into the sunset (Justice League America 105-108).

AND HE HASN’T BEEN SEEN SINCE! Take note readers, this is what Marvel should have done back during the Clone Saga. When you realize you’ve created a storyline ("magically-born savior" / "Spider-Man has a clone") no one cares about or thinks is too weird, have it wrapped up quickly and get rid of the new character ("magic baby" / "Ben Reilly") in a way that’s vague enough that a later writer could bring him back if he somehow thinks of a brilliant story but is also definite enough that he can’t overstay his welcome and that leaves no reason to really speak about said character ever again. Since then, Power Girl has never mentioned her brief career as a mom.

Power Girl seemed to vanish into character limbo for a while but then showed up again in the story KINGDOM COME. In this famous mini-series, Alex Ross and Mark Waid showed us a possible future for the DCU and Power Girl was one of the more prominent players in it. She was quick to anger and definitely a force to be reckoned with and interest started gathering about her again.

It’s interesting to note that not long after that, the Superman animated series showed up and introduced a Supergirl in the two-parter episode “Little Girl Lost.” But sticking by the “Kal-El is the last one and that’s it” rule, they had it that this Supergirl was not a Kryptoian or a family member but from a neighboring planet and that her race was very similar to Kryptonians, thus she developed similar abilities. Her name was Kara In-Ze and she was from the planet Argo, which shifted out of orbit when nearby Krypton exploded, and she rode a ship along with many others, all of whom were in suspended animation. When Superman found the ship, Kara In-Ze was the only survivor and he took her in. In her secret identity, she and Clark referred to her as his “cousin” as part of her cover and eventually she joined him on adventures as Supergirl.

(By the way, In-Ze was the maiden name of Allura, mother of Kara Zor-El, so this was the animated show’s nod to Pre-Crisis continuity.)

It occurs to me that if DC had given such an origin to Power Girl years back right after the Crisis, she probably would have stayed on as a strong member of the Superman supporting cast and DC might not have even felt the need to introduce the Matrix Supergirl at all. Just a thought of mine.

A while later, Oracle (formerly Barbara Gordon, the original Batgirl) teamed-up with Black Canary II and they starred together in a series called "Bird of Prey." Oracle would be the info broker while Canary went out on missions. As the title went on, Power Girl guest-starred and it was revealed that not too long before Oracle recruited Black Canary, Oracle had first partnered with Power Girl and thus they had been the first Birds of Prey duo. But on their last mission together, a lot of people were killed and Kara now only worked with Oracle very reluctantly. This was a strange twist on the old pre-crisis friendship between Barbara and Supergirl.

OTHER FOLKS FROM KRYPTON

DC eventually began relaxing on their last survivor of Krypton rule. Presumably, they took notice of how popular the cartoon version of Supergirl was and how fans dug that she was closer to the Pre-Crisis version, even if she wasn’t technically a Kryptonian. They brought in a new version of Krypto. And they reintroduced the girl who is seemingly the only other survivor, Kara Zor-El. She’s back, introduced as if this is the first time we’re seeing her. Whether this return of the character will suceed has yet to be determined.

Now here’s another interesting thing. In her reintroduction, Kara Zor-El’s Post-Crisis origin is closer to Power Girl’s Pre-Crisis origin rather than her own. She’s still from Argo City, but no longer are we told that Argo City floated away from Krypton with a bunch of survivors. Instead, just like the Earth-2 Kara Zor-L, our new Supergirl was put in a rocketship at about the same time her soon-to-be-famous cousin was and her ship was programmed to follow Kal-El. The intention was that the older Kara would raise and protect the baby Kal. But while Kal was able to get to Earth no prob, Kara’s rocket left a minute or two too late and was engulfed by newly created Kryptonite as the planet exploded. This caused the whole ship to be covered by the stuff and damaged the faster-than-lightspeed engines so she wouldn’t get to Earth until a few decades after her cousin. Fortunately, she was in suspended animation the whole time, which totally halted her aging. And the artificial sunlight within meant that when she arrived on Earth she had fully developed powers, rather than having to wait years like Superman did.

Funny, huh? Kara was able to use, for the most part, the same origin that Power Girl had to give up because it didn’t work for her in Post-Crisis continuity. Makes yer head spin, don’t it?

Now, a little before Supergirl’s reappearance, writer Geoff Johns was already making sure that Power Girl would not be over-shadowed by the return of her predecessor by having PG join the newly reformed JSA (JSA #31). Immediately, he began treating her as a dynamic take-charge character. She’s the first one to charge into battle and the last one to even think about retreating if the enemy seems really tough. Some thought she’d become a bit of an egotistical bitch, but in an issue that starred just her for the most part, she explained to her teammates that if she were a man, no one would comment about her arrogant jokes during fights or the fact that she challenged remarks like Captain Marvel being allegedly stronger than her.

In her first appearance in ALL-STAR COMICS, inker Wally Wood told someone concerning Power Girl “I’m going to make her breasts larger each issue and see if anyone notices.” When he finally left the book, PG had a serious rack on her (no offense meant to female readers). In her post-Crisis appearances, she seemed to have regained more normal comic book woman proportions for a while, but then again there seemed to be a progressive enlargement of her chest over the years. The first time I seriously noticed it myself was in Alex Ross’s paintings in KINGDOM COME and in JSA they not only have continued drawing her this way but characters now mention it so it’s basically an official part of her character that PG has large breasts, as some women do.

Johns had Power Girl not only aware of it but a little annoyed by it. She joked to someone that she didn’t bother wearing a mask to hide her identity because most people didn’t look at her face. Suddenly, the stereotypical, sexist depiction of her was a joke that she actually used to empower herself. Good deal!

BACK TO BASICS

As the issues went on, Johns began dropping hints in JSA that her Arion origin might not have been all that accurate. Dr. Mid-Nite did tests and saw that her powers were not magical in nature and pointed out the absurdity that Arion would send his granddaughter several millenia into an unknown future to protect her when he was such a powerful sorcerer himself (JSA #32). Finally Power Girl met up with Arion’s spirit who admitted he had lied to her about her origins, saying only that he promised her mother he’d protect her (JSA #50). OOOH, mystery!

(ED. Note: At the end of the recent “JSA/JSA” storyline, as the team is time-traveling back to the present, Power Girl has spasms of pain at the moment they cross 1985…the year of Crisis On Infinite Earths.)

Power Girl then developed heat-vision again (JSA #74), though she seemed to have no control over it yet. Then the first story-arc of JSA CLASSIFIED, which acted as a prelude to INFINITE CRISIS #2, we finally got a definitive origin for Kara. Kara was attacked by the Psycho-Pirate who, after assaulting her with a dozen false origins and illusions, finally told her the truth. She was really Kara Zor-L, the last survivor of a Krypton that had existed in an alternate universe that no longer existed. The reason for Power Girl’s shifting abilities, varying strength level and her violent reaction to Supergirl was all due to the universe trying to deal with the fact that she wasn’t supposed to be here.

On a sidenote, the story also filled in some nice gaps such as showing why Power Girl has not been seen with the Kents in the many years since the Crisis, despite her original belief that she was Kal’s cousin. And there was also a touching moment where she revealed that the hole over her chest was not to be lewd, it was because she wanted to eventually fill it with a symbol that was her own, just like Superman’s. But with tears in her eyes, she realized that even after all those years, she couldn’t think of one because she wasn’t sure who she was.

The Psycho-Pirate demanded to know why Power Girl had survived while the other Earth-2 direct doppelgangers had all been erased from history. But while she felt inside that he was right about her past, she still didn’t know how to answer his question. For one reason or another, she had fallen through the cracks when time and space were reordered. Before, she was faced with the possibility that she was an orphan with no family. Now, she had to face up to the fact that she was the sole survivor of an entire universe … Well … ONE of the only survivors …

The rest of Power Girl’s story was continued in INFINITE CRISIS. She was re-united with Kal-L (who had survide the Crisis by entering a different dimension) and regained all her Pre-Crisis memories. At the end of Infinite Crisis, Kal-L died, but Power Girl was now more secure with herself and her place in the world. The JSA still only have their post-Crisis memories and don’t recall that they once inhabited a parallel world where there was an older version of Superman who’d fought during World War II.

What the JSA and the world now know is that Power Girl was born on the Krypton of an alternate universe. When that version of Krypton exploded, Power Girl was sent on a rocket-ship that was meant to follower her cousin Kal-L to Earth-2, but her ship warped out of normal space somehow and she wound up on OUR planet, suffering from amnesia, where she was then found by our Superman (who she mistook for her own family, based on her instincts). The rest of the Post-Crisis history remained the same. Everyone thought she might’ve been Superman’s cousin, but Batman asked for a DNA test and the blood samples didn’t match (reason being, the genes of a Kryptonian from Power Girl’s universe and our own are quite different, even though both races get the same basic abilities under a yellow sun). Feeling like she somehow let people down, Power Girl didn’t talk much to Superman after that.

And the rest of the Post-Crisis history went on just as we all remember. Power Girl tried to find her place with the JSA and Infinity Inc. and then went on her own after the Crisis occurred. And Arion, perhaps becuase he somehow had communicated with Kara’s true mother via a spell or perhaps because of reasons that were entirely his own, lied to her and prevented her from learning that she was the survivor of a universe that died during the Crisis. With Kal-L’s death during the INFINITE CRISIS, Kara is now the sole survivor of that reality. It’s a hard fact, but rather than indulge in self-pity she has chosen to deal with it and prove herself worthy of survival by being the best damn hero she can be as a member of the JSA. And since her powers and nature have stabilized, she once again has her range of Kryptonian abilities, making her quite the force to be reckoned with.

It’s great to see such a strong female character get her footing back over the past few years, especially when you consider that she’s had many chances to just fade into comic book limbo but fans and writers seem to refuse to let her go. That says something about the lady. And in a male-dominated world (not just ours, but the DC Earth), it’s very cool to see strong super-hero women who aren’t just female versions of a more popular male version. As had originally been intended, Power Girl is not someone you easily confuse with Superman’s sweet and innocent cousin or whom, when she shows up, you’re secretly hoping Superman will show up as well. She’s her own woman and she damn well likes it that way.

Alan Kistler is a comic book historian who has been interviewed for documentaries by Warner Bros. Pictures and FUSE TV. To see his archives/blog or contact him directly, check out his personal web-site.
Alan Kistler

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