Review: Action Comics #1052 - Power Girl Feature

Settle in. Because I will open up this review with a lengthy preamble. But grant me this introduction because it speaks about a problem I see that is pervasive in comics these days.

Action Comics #1052 came out this week. The book is now an anthology with a main Superman story by Phillip Kennedy Johnson and Rafa Sandoval as well as a Lois/Clark/Young Jon story by Dan Jurgens. As a fan of the old Superman Family anthology I was pretty happy about this new format.

And writers Phillip Kennedy Johnson and Joshua Williamson (over on the Superman book), there really has been a feeling of family. Everyone has been treated well and with respect. Even this variant cover by Rafa Sandoval shows that closeness. In particular, and given the focus of this site, Supergirl has been treated well by those writers. I'll add Mark Waid over in World's Finest has also been giving us great Kara content recently.

That isn't to say that things have been great for Supergirl recently. Her own book ended 3 years ago after she left Earth (again) and turned dark (again). She was treated as a glum loner in Future's End, living an isolated life on the moon with Krypto as her hero. And of course, she was a drunk, sad, angry, traumatized character in Tom King's Woman of Tomorrow. Suffice it to say, things have been rough for Supergirl lately as time and again she was given to creators who don't understand her characteror her history or simply don't care about it.

All of this leads to the third feature in Action Comics #1052. There is a Power Girl story written by Leah Williams with art by Marguerite Sauvage. I love the art. 

But the story does not work for me. 

Williams has taken Power Girl, one of the most physical and confident characters, a leader and powerhouse, and made her into a telepathic psychiatrist. She has taken away the physicality of Karen and given her this passive power. And worse, in this story, she has taken away that confidence. Here is Karen, the former chairperson of the JSA, the CEO of a tech company, and made her feel shunned by the super-family and diminished in her own mind in comparison to Supergirl. 

Even worse, Williams has taken Supergirl and made her a sort of narcissist. Someone who puts on airs of perfection. Someone who imagines herself in princess gowns. And also someone who isn't the brightest bulb.

So who is the real Supergirl? The hero with the penchant to go dark? The sad loner on the moon? The drunk, angry, traumatized survivor? Or the narcissist? Or is she the mature, optimistic, bright young hero in World's Finest? Why can't DC figure it out?

And who is the real Power Girl? The one from the popular Palmiotti/Conner one? Smart, sassy, brash? Physical bruiser? Or this one, suddenly someone who is a therapist?

Honestly, this feels like Leah Williams had a story to tell of a hero becoming a counselor for other heroes and decided to bolt that onto Power Girl. Like Tom King bolting suicidality on Mister Miracle. And Tom King bolting depression and anger on Kara. Like Tom King bolting genocidal selfishness on Adam Strange. I have seen it so much lately ... an author bending a character out of shape to fit a narrative instead of writing a narrative for the character.

This isn't how I think Power Girl or Supergirl would act. But here we are. As always, your mileage may vary. On to the story.

Last issue, Omen and Power Girl helped Beast Boy who was cut off from the Red. Even though she is a novice on interacting on the psychic plane (so novice she doesn't even realize she is using telepathy here), she has intuited that Gar's problem was not self-imposed.

And then the next 'client' shows up ... Supergirl. 

Did Omen put out a flyer saying she was open for super-hero therapy?

From the door, there is a coldness between Karen and Kara. Karen complains about how Supergirl doesn't seem to acknowledge her. Kara rolls her eyes. Does that seem right?

It turns out that Supergirl's problem is she can't communicate. 

We learn within the story that it has been going on for a week and Supergirl thought the problem would 'just go away'. Really? A well-seasoned hero like Kara, someone who has enemies, has been attacked in all manners, wouldn't acknowledge she can't speak normally? She wouldn't think it was a plot? She just lived with it? What did she do during that time? Not talk to anyone?

While Karen's power of telepathy and psychic interaction is passive, she gets there by being mentally physical, imagining herself punching her way into someone's mind.

Inside her own mind, Supergirl imagines herself in a flamboyant, shimmering ball gown/pant suit, a sort of Disney Princess version of herself. Even amateur psychologist Power Girl knows this means Kara thinks very highly of herself. 

So Supergirl is conceited?

No matter which prior version of Supergirl you feel is the right one, none of them would think of themselves like this. 

Inside Kara's mind the two heroes fly around a version of Argo City.

Unlike Gar, Karen thinks Kara is doing this to herself. 

The very notion upsets Kara so much that she is able to mutter that the idea is 'stupid'. Because these two are at such odds that even a suggestion by Karen provokes Kara.

Suddenly the therapeutic, psychological answer is clear. Piss Kara off and break the aphasic spell.

And then this interaction that seems completely off from the characters' histories.

Karen says Supergirl puts on the airs of a perfect sister, a perfect hero, a perfect keeper of Kryptonian tradition. No Supergirl I have read has ever put on a haughty persona like that. She is the approachable super-cousin. 

And how far away is this from Tom King's lauded 'broken' Kara.

And then Karen says she considers herself the 'imperfect' Kara, as if an established, heroic adult would ever compare themselves this way. This is completely out of character for the confident, self-assured Karen I have read all my life.

Look how they are glaring at each other. I just don't get it.

To push things along, on the mental plane, Karen begins demolishing the Argo City in Kara's mind. 

Suddenly, with the destruction Kara can speak again.

Karen deduces that Kara was avoiding the problem, burying it instead of fighting it. So Kara just ignored her inability to communicate for a week because of the 'tight lid' she keeps on herself.

Still don't think this sounds like Supergirl, in any way.

Karen wonders if these attacks on people adjacent to her are somehow attacks on her.

Then this bombshell.

Power Girl does not feel welcome with the Super-family. She feels she is forgotten. It is clear it bothers her even if she says she doesn't care.

I must admit, she hasn't been in any of the more recent group gatherings. But I never felt it was a snub as much as Karen didn't feel like part of the group and is so independent she was leading her own life. 

I was already having some questions with this new direction of Power Girl. It is such a leap from her prior characterization for her to be a telepath. Now to see how little she thinks of herself in the context of her prior confidence seems off. Change can be good ... but the verdict is still out here.

But also this take on Supergirl feels way off. A conceited, buttoned up Kara holding things back? Ignoring a major issue like this attack? And one brutally cold to Karen? 

For me, it is another in a line of weird character takes on her. Ones that seem out of character but done to push forward a story. 

I know, this was a long review of a back-up story. But this one really struck me because (again for me), it felt completely wrong for two characters I love.

Overall grade: D+ (raised secondary to the splendiferous art)

* This article was originally published here