Marguerite Sauvage

Access a version of the below that includes illustrations on my blog.

I'm not really in touch with DC continuity these days; I left off as a regular reader around the time of Convergence (which I never even finished), and that was over six years ago; I think the only things I've read since then have been some Tom King miniseries (are those even in continuity?) and N. K. Jemisin's Far Sector. So I didn't really have any context for this book; I think Power Girl's backstory has been rolled back to something approaching its pre-Flashpoint state, but I am not really sure. Mostly this doesn't matter to the story being told, but I didn't really know the status of the Super family, or why PG would feel excluded from them.

The premise of the book is pretty odd, to be honest. Some kind of event results in Power Girl obtaining psychic powers, so she and a new-to-me superhero with the not-very-heroic name of Ruin open a superhero counseling business. While Ruin talks to the heroes in the real world, Power Girl (physically?) journeys into their minds, helping clear away issues. I think probably there's a good story to be told about Power Girl adapting her often fists-first approach to something more nuanced, but this seemed to be more of a mediocre one. Like, it's not bad... but I also didn't find a lot to enjoy here. There's some neat puzzles to be solved, but Power Girl didn't totally ring true to me, and I would happily never see Johnny Sorrow in a JSA comic ever again—or, really, any kind of psychic manipulator trying to take down Power Girl.

Power Girl ditching her civilian identity of Karen Starr and replacing it with "Paige" struck me as pretty pointless. Like, why do that? Would you suddenly have Batman declare that his name is Ryder now? No, of course not; it's the kind of desperate fiddling one only does to a second-tier character... but it's the kind of fiddling that never works because it just confirms to the reader that they're reading about a second-tier character. Give it a decade or two and I'm sure she'll be Karen again. On the other hand, I did like the reckoning between her and Supergirl, which had some nice moments.

I like Maurgerite Sauvage's art style. She draws two-thirds of the book and has a distinctive, character-driven approach... but man, what is up with those thick black lines around everyone's eyes? It makes everyone look demented and ruins what would otherwise be a good effect.

Surely the real highlight of the book is the covers—and I say this as the kind of person who normally doesn't get very excited about comic book covers. I'm not very into the Stanley Lau cover for Power Girl Special #1 that was chosen for the collection cover (his stuff never looks very naturalistic to me), but the Warren Louw cover for Action Comics #1051 and the Will Jack covers for Action Comics #1053 and Power Girl Special were excellent, beautiful work. Plus, of course it's fun to get Amanda Conner back even if just on a variant (for Power Girl Special again) and I did like the David Nakayama variant for Power Girl Special, which features PG with her old Justice League International teammates Fire and Ice... though it seems a bit misleading DC used this on the back cover, given neither character appears in the actual book! My kids saw me reading this book and kept asking me about the characters, and now my five-year-old not only knows who Fire and Ice are, but can tell you that Fire used be called "the Green Flame" and Ice "Icemaiden"!

So, yeah, I do love Power Girl, but while this is a perfectly serviceable comic, it doesn't capture what I love about the character. Surely PG at her best will remain the Amanda Conner ongoing, as well as her old JLI/JLE appearances.

The Justice Society and Earth-Two: « Previous in sequence… (mere)

After finishing this I realized it’s the first of a series which makes a lot of my criticism kind of no longer applicable but oh well. I don’t really have the energy to pursue a whole series so I’ll still say that there were way too many characters to keep track of and I was hoping for some payoff where they all meet up at the end and never got that. I’m sure that’s the direction the story goes in eventually though so I guess I’ll cut them some slack!

This definitely had a unique perspective, which is putting recognizable superheroes into a 40s aesthetic, but it honestly started feeling hamfisted. Like, again there were way too many characters, I groaned when “Alexander” Luthor was introduced for example. I think the concept would have worked better had they focused in on just a few characters instead of cramming the book with cameos. It’s weird because it’s both a work of historical fiction and also an aesthetic callback to actual Golden Age comics that were just talking about contemporary events. The only way this is weird is that everyone talks really funny, it’s like playing an aesthetic game of telephone.

All in all my main takeaway is I appreciate the lesbianism but I wished there was more.… (mere)

I'm intrigued. This is an re-imagining of the DC universe, female-centric and taking place during World War Two. Many familiar faces and names are present, including Amanda Waller, head of the "Bombshells", the Allied Powers' all-women superpowered taskforce. This felt very much like an introduction, with mini-stories of each of the characters and how they came to be a Bombshell. And there's another story about Zatanna and Constantine, and how they are stuck in the grasp of the Joker's Daughter.

This shows a lot of promise, and I look forward to seeing where this goes.… (mere)