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Sometimes, when I sit down to think about what I'm going to do for this column, I have no idea what I want to do. Other times, something will trigger some inspiration or interest to research a particular character. This wasn't one of those times. When I decided to work on Power Girl, for this month's column, I wondered why I hadn't thought of her, before.
Back in the olden days of DC Comics, before the Crisis on Infinite Earths shredded forty-five years of continuity, the heroes of DC Comics' Golden Age resided on the Earth of a parallel universe, known to all involved as Earth-2. On Earth-2, Superman had arrived on Earth in the early 1900s, and began his career in 1938, as Earth's first super-hero. The Golden Age Superman was truly the last child of Krypton.
One of the dividing lines between the Golden and Silver Age versions of Superman is the introduction of Supergirl to the Superman Family. Then, in 1976, Gerry Conway and Ric Estrada introduced a new character in the pages of All-Star Comics #58. Like Supergirl, she was the surviving cousin of Superman, Kara Zor-L, but unlike her Earth-1 counterpart, she was rocketed to Earth at the same time as her cousin, at the time of the destruction of Krypton. Her escape rocket was somewhat different from the one that brought Superman to Earth. Taking a less direct route, it brought her to Earth some sixty years later. The rocket, called the Symbioship, was designed to slow her aging process, so that she appeared to be about twenty, when she arrived. The ship also provided her with a complete Kryptonian education, fed directly into her mind. So complete was this education that it simulated reality, giving her the simulated life experience of a twenty year old Kryptonian woman.
Soon after her arrival, she was discovered by her cousin, who took her under his tutelage. Kara took her cousin's protectiveness toward her as overbearing, choosing to call herself Power Girl and adopting a costume that resembled Superman's as little as possible. With red and white dominating her costume and her blue gauntlets and buccaneer boots, she looked nothing like Superman.
When she was introduced in All Star Comics, she was also admitted into the Justice Society of America, the original super-hero team. One of the few "second generation" heroes in the JSA, at the time, Kara's opinions frequently set her at odds with the senior members. One thing I noticed, reading those stories, Power Girl was rarely shown smiling.
Her early costume evolved rapidly from the high-necked version with the oval cutaway on the chest, to the more revealing neckline that she's worm through most of her career.
One of the major differences in characterization between Power Girl and Supergirl is attitude. The original Supergirl, except during her missions with the Legion of Super-Heroes in the 30th century, was always portrayed as fairly weak. Her villains were never very tough and were more likely to embarass her, than try to kill her. Power Girl had attitude, from the beginning. Her adventures were few and far-between, as were the comics chronicling events on Earth-2, at the time. Unlike Supergirl, however, Power Girl was invited to join the premiere super-team of her time. The Justice League never seemed to notice Supergirl, until the day she died during the Crisis on Infinite Earths wearing that stupid headband.
For a short time, Power Girl was associated with the young super-team Infinity, Inc. She was one of the only JSA members who had not been "drowned" in the Stream of Ruthlessness, Koehaha, and fought alongside the Infinitors until the effects of the stream wore off.
Following the Crisis on Infinite Earths, and the reorganization of history which was inevitable, a new origin was written for Power Girl. Most of the events after her landing on Earth remained the same, only her point of originwas changed. Rather than being an alien from Krypton, she was a human from the Atlantis of 30,000 years in the past, grand-daughter of the Atlantean mage, Arion.
During the period where the Justice League became associated with the United Nations, Power Girl was recruited for the Justice League Europe, where she adopted her first new costume in over a decade. It was quite a departure from her earlier costumes, covering more skin and using a gold on white color scheme.
Power Girl's costumes changed a couple more times, but it wasn't long before she was back in the now classic, red, white & blue. The attitude was intact, though her powers have changed, somewhat, in recent years. Her strength and speed are still near Superman levels, but her invulnerabilty is more limited. Her powers, derived from magic, leave her vulnerable to wooden implements. Yes, she can be taken out by a toothpick. Well, as a weakness, it worked for the original Green Lantern, for decades, so it can't be all bad.
As with others, I tried to combine elements of past costume designs into the new one. I like the look of gold on white, especially with some red, thrown in. As a color scheme it's exciting and very striking. I took some of the lines of her JLE costume and applied them to the design of her original costume. I changed up how her cape is attached, using a wrap-around strap to hold it in place, and giving it a standup collar, to add to the swashbuckling style of the boots and gloves. I went with the full-length body suit, because I don't think someone whose weakness is splinters would walk around exposed.
....and that's, that. Next month I'll be...well, I don't know what I'll be doing. I'm always open to suggestion, so let me know if there's someone you'd like to see, in future. Until then, don't forget the CTO Chat, Wednesday nights on Dalnet, 8pm Central Time, in #collectortimes. See you there.
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