power girl

52! Week Thirty-Six

Eric P. I.Leave a comment
By Johns, Morrison, Rucka, Waid, Giffen, Igle, Champagne, Baron, Brosseau, Richards, Schaefer, and Siglain. Cover by Jones and Sinclair.

52 was a weekly series published by DC Comics starting in May, 2006. Because I had my 52nd birthday in late 2020, I thought it might be interesting (fun?) to examine this series for its 15th anniversary. I plan to post once a week about each issue. To read previous posts, click the link (52!).

Synopsis

“How to Win a War in Space”

Week 36, Day 3

Lobo delivers Starfire and Animal Man to Lady Styx and asks for his bounty. Styx tells him, through interpreter Fishy, that there is no bounty and they are all to be broken down into bio-mass “to serve her needs”.

Styx’s minions attack the trio, incapacitating Starfire. Fishy tells Lobo the many insults Lady Styx is hurling his way, causing the Czarnian to abandon his pacifist ways. As Lobo charges Styx, she eviscerates him. Animal Man calls for Adam Strange, who fires from outside, allowing the Head of Ekron to come through. Lobo grabs Styx and throws her at Ekron, who then flies into a sun eater.

During the battle, Animal Man was shot with necro-toxin and is becoming delirious, and then he goes quiet. At the same time on Earth, Ellen Baker seems to sense it and starts to cry.

Week 36, Day 5

Charlie condition worsens, despite Tot’s best efforts to send healing flowers from Nanda Parbat, which gives Renee an idea.

Week 36, Day 6

Renee prepares to take Charlie to Nanda Parbat. Kate tells her that this “looks an awful lot like denial”. Renee tells her it’s “defiance”. Kate implores Renee to stay with her, to fight Mannheim, but Renee tells Kate that Charlie saved her, so she will take him back to Nanda Parbat in the hopes that it will save him or she’ll die trying.

In Kahndaq, Osiris reads a newspaper article that calls him a murderer, and he tells Sobek that if he were to go back to Titans Tower, they would have to arrest him. “No matter what we ever do, the entire world will always hate us.” Sobek offers Osiris an apple, telling him, “I don’t hate you.”

Week 36, Day 7

Despite the many artifacts that Supernova has brought Rip Hunter, the Time Master still can’t power the chronosphere. He also worries that Skeets will find them before they are ready. Supernova tells him, “For now we’re safe.” But then we see Skeets hovering over the Bottle City of Kandor in Superman’s Fortress.

Thoughts

I’ll be honest, I thought given the last issue’s events regarding Lobo and the others, I thought he was betraying them. Instead, we get the classic fake prisoner routine. And who didn’t see Lobo resorting to his old ways?! It was only a matter of time. I thought the “death” of Buddy was poignant only because of the follow-up scene with his wife and kids. The artists did a great job of conveying that loss and pain in just a few panels.

Again, based on last issue, I genuinely thought Charlie had died, so I was surprised to see him still kicking. After having read Batwoman comics that came after this, this Kate Kane seems like another person altogether, but maybe this experience led her to be the character I later read?

So we finally get to see Rip Hunter and he’s not in great shape. He appears to be suffering from some sort of chronal aphasia. I loved the way the scene starts to pull the “camera” back from the room Rip and Supernova are in, to just outside, to the building, even farther out until we see that they are in the Bottle City of Kandor, with Skeets hovering nearby! Such a great bit of storytelling with the reveals and foreboding menace.

Finally, I’m curious if anyone bought the 52 Series 1 action figures advertised in this issue? I think I would have liked to get the Supernova figure.

The Origin of Power Girl

By Waid, Hughes, Fletcher, Richards, Schaefer, and Siglain

Aside from the lovely Adam Hughes artwork, there wasn’t much that was interesting about this entry. But was the two infant Kryptonians rocketed to Earth something that was part of Power Girl’s original origin or is this a retcon? Her arriving later as an older person mirrors that of Supergirl’s retconned origin from a few year’s prior to this issue, so which came first? It seems really odd that DC would borrow from itself for what is essentially the same character.

And why did DC decide to keep Power Girl around AND have Supergirl? I see more opportunities for interesting stories about her, the cousin from another universe, as she interacts with Superman, but without the hang-up of living up to his legacy (she already did that with her cousin).

52! Week Four

Eric P. I.Leave a comment
by Geoff Johns, Grant Morrison, Greg Rucka, Mark Waid, Keith Giffen, Joe Bennett, Jack Jadson, Alex Sinclair, Rob Leigh, Jann Jones, Harvey Richards, and Stephen Wacker. Cover by J.G. Jones and Alex Sinclair.

52 was a weekly series published by DC Comics starting in May, 2006. Because I had my 52nd birthday in late 2020, I thought it might be interesting (fun?) to examine this series 15 years later. I plan to post once a week about each issue. To read previous posts, click the link (52!).

Synopsis

“Dances With Monsters”

Week 4, Day 1. Renee Montoya continues her surveillance job for The Question. In orbit above Earth, a team of astronauts and Halo continue to look for missing superheroes, like Alan Scott and Animal Man. Halo detects a zeta beam trying to come in. In Metropolis, Fire tries to recruit Booster Gold to be part of a rescue team to search for and return those heroes who went into space during the (infinite) crisis, but Booster is more interested in making money off of his exploits.

Week 4, Day 3. The Question checks in on Renee, and John Henry Irons realizes he’s been poisoned, right before he touches an electronic device and appears to absorb it. He screams before there’s an explosion.

Week 4, Day 4. Ralph Dibny confronts Cassie Sandmark and her cult of Kryptonian worshippers. They tell him that they did not mark his wife’s grave, but immersing himself in the striped waters of the river Memon could show him something — or someone. They hold Ralph underneath the water and he blacks out. When he comes to, he is alone and missing his wedding ring.

Week 4, Day 5. For the first time in nearly two weeks, Renee falls asleep during her stake out, but does see someone enter the building. She follows him in and discovers The Question is already there. They discover the large man Renee saw enter is some sort of creature and they fight. Renee ends the altercation by using a high-tech (alien?) gun.

Week 4, Day 7. The zeta beam detected earlier in the week arrives on Earth, revealing several of the missing heroes who are injured and in some cases transformed.

Thoughts

I love that people are trying to locate the missing heroes who went into space and didn’t come home. It’s a nice turn from the superheroes helping the “normals”. Of course, not everyone on the space station is a normal human being — it’s Halo! Because she can (as we’re told in some clunk exposition) “detect and manipulate subtle radiation. She’s been scanning for incoming teleportation waves.” So zeta beams are subtle radiation? What does that even mean?

Finally someone confronts Booster about his preoccupation with making money, but his response potentially reveals some inner turmoil:

I helped save a future that spit in my face! So you know what? It is about me!

I certainly hope this isn’t the last we see of Fire. Her Jiminy Cricket role could prove useful.

When exactly was John Irons poisoned and by whom? Does this have to do with Lex Luthor’s reveal from last issue? Is Steel now going to be a new Amazing Man? The poison opens a window into his psyche: he’s worried about pushing Natasha away and not being able to rid himself of Steel. But when did he arrive at this decision? Was it while he helped clear debris in the previous issue, contemplating the futility of what his life had become? Or did I just forget a pivotal moment in Infinite Crisis involving Steel?

The scene with Ralph and Cassie confounds me. In issue 3, Ralph deduces that Cassie left him a message, but when he confronts her, she seems surprised, and now a member of this group says they are not vandals. They do offer him a vision (note that they do not offer any answers) if he immerses himself in the waters of Memon (“Do you want to see?”). They hold him under until he passes out, and when he comes to, he is alone and missing his wedding ring, the symbol of his wife. Did Ralph “see” something that has not yet been revealed to us, or is the vision what he sees before him — his isolation? Regardless of the answers, the question remains, in more ways than one: air bubbles form the rough shape of a question mark as Ralph loses consciousness, the only interesting appearance of this symbol.

I’ll reserve any thoughts about the creature that Renee and The Question fight in their scene (though I will note that the cover depicts the confrontation between Renee and John Irons???) and instead focus of the final page: the return of Alan Scott (Green Lantern), Hawkgirl, Herald, Bumblebee, and, unknown to me until I looked it up, a fused Cyborg/Firestorm. Besides that oddity, Herald has metal poking through him, Bumblebee is unconscious, Green Lantern is bleeding from one eye (is it gone?), and Hawkgirl is really tall (25 feet according to the DC wiki). What a great cliffhanger.

History of the DCU, part 3

by Dan Jurgens, Art Thibert, Guy Major, Jeromy Cox, Nick J. Napolitano, Eddie Berganza, Ivan Cohen, and Jeanine Schaefer

Crisis on Infinite Earths is summarized in four pages. The only interesting thing about this part is the headshots of different versions of the Flash. Seeing the different designs and people just makes me want to know their story.

52! Week Three

Eric P. I.Leave a comment
by Geoff Johns, Grant Morrison, Greg Rucka, Mark Waid, Keith Giffen, Joe Bennett, Ruy Jose, Alex Sinclair, Pat Brosseau, Jann Jones, Harvey Richards, and Stephen Wacker. Cover by J.G. Jones and Alex Sinclair.

52 was a weekly series published by DC Comics starting in May, 2006. Because I had my 52nd birthday in late 2020, I thought it might be interesting (fun?) to examine this series 15 years later. I plan to post once a week about each issue. To read previous posts, click the link (52!).

Synopsis

“New World Order”

Week 3, Day 1. Captain Maggie Sawyer (at this time part of Gotham City’s Major Crimes Unit) has been called in because of body has been found, and it’s the former President of the USA, Lex Luthor! Power Girl pursues Terra-Man in the skies and when she is about to capture him, she is stopped by Black Adam for she has over Kahndaq airspace. He warns her to not trespass again and to tell her friends.

Week 3, Day 2. John Henry Irons (Steel) continues to school niece Natasha regarding her immaturity and entitlement when he receives a phone call from STAR Labs asking for his help in identifying a body.

Week 3, Day 3. In Kahndaq, representatives from Intergang visit Black Adam and present him with gifts of gold and an Egyptian virgin. Black Adam does not take kindly to this and refuses, just as Terra-Man enters the scene.

Week 3, Day 4. Booster Gold continues his pursuit of fame and fortune, this time by defeating Shockwave, but his planned lucrative endorsement deal with Akteon-Holt turns sour, prompting Skeets to acknowledge that perhaps it is malfunctioning. Instead of going back to Dr. Magnus, Booster goes searching for Rip Hunter.

Week 3, Day 5. While examining the corpse of Lex Luthor, John Henry Irons discovers that the eye colors do not match, right before Lex Luthor shows up, alive and well, claiming that the dead man on the table was an other-dimensional doppelgänger who imprisoned Lex and did evil things in his name.

Week 3, Day 6. Lois Lane is among the reports at the Kahndaq embassy, awaiting an announcement from Black Adam. He tells the assembled that while the world celebrates the aversion of disaster, the superheroes who saved it are nowhere to be found. Therefore, he wants to gather allies to deliver a message to those who would take advantage of the heroes’ absence. His first message? People like Terra-Man, who been standing nearby, “don’t deserve to live.” Black Adam then tears Terra-Man in half and announces, “It’s time for heroes who don’t just patrol the world … they change it.” The final panel shows a Mr. Mind, now wrapped in a cocoon.

Thoughts

First off, I really like this Jones/Sinclair cover, mostly for the colors. But it pertains to the plot directly, at least thematically. Well done.

If there’s a theme in this issue, it is one of villainy on a spectrum. At one end is Lex Luthor, who is so clearly manipulating and orchestrating the situation to come out on top and plan his next act. At the other is someone who is trying to do the right thing (protect innocents), but his methods are at least questionable, if not plain unjustifiable. While we may applaud him for the murder of Noose (“he got what was coming to him!”), how can we reconcile his public, brutal murder of Terra-Man? But while Black Adam commits this act, he is a head of state and within his “rights” to do so, while Lex murders himself in secret (from the public at least) — who exactly is more evil? I love that the creators are wrestling with these moral quandaries, even though I don’t care for superhero comics being so bloody (and I know it just gets worse — this is not a time in DC’s publication history I look fondly back on because of this shift).

I also didn’t care for the way that Power Girl was depicted in her encounter with Black Adam. When he asks her how many people died in the (infinite) crisis, she seems to cower. Part (all?) of this is to show the enormity of the five plus million who did die (Black Adam yells the exact number at her), but one panel has her looking up at Adam in fearful submission. Does she have some complicity in those deaths, or is she just taken aback at Adam’s ferocity and determination? Either way, it didn’t track for me, at least not yet.

It’s only three issues in, and already I’m finding Natasha Irons’ whining annoying, but at the same time, lighten up Uncle John. Regardless, I do find the family dynamic intriguing and different — not at “superheroes” are or necessarily should be noble, self-sacrificing individuals. But we do already have Booster Gold in this series, so do we need to examine this perspective more? Though Natasha isn’t exactly like Booster and he doesn’t have an Uncle John to provide guidance. More points on a different spectrum….

This series is the proverbial onion, peeling back (revealing) layer after layer, both in terms of plot and character. Speaking of, what will be revealed from within that cocoon layer?

Finally, I didn’t notice any obvious reference to the number “52” this issue, even though there were a number of chances to do so: the flight number Power Girl references, the number of dead that Black Adam screams at PG (though I’m glad they didn’t in that case), and the score of the game that made some money for Booster Gold. Same for any question marks (but maybe they only appear in issues in which The Question appears…). Maybe I missed something?

History of the DCU, part 2

by Dan Jurgens, Art Thibert, Guy Major, Jeromy Cox, Nick J. Napolitano, Eddie Berganza, Ivan Cohen, and Jeanine Schaefer

We get more Earth-One and -Two history and differences, as well as a focus on the Teen Titans and Legion of Super-Heroes. This backup ends with the threat of the Crisis on Infinite Earths.

I guess I need to read Infinite Crisis again (or is it Countdown I should read?), because I’m finding Donna’s ignorance annoying. Did something happen to her that she cannot remember, thus requiring the Orb to educate her? She does say, “I know so many of these people. Yet… I can barely remember them.” So perhaps I’m being too harsh with Donna. Maybe she’s like an amnesiac trying to relearn everything she’s “forgotten”. About the first Crisis, she does say, “Even now I find it hard to believe that it actually happened. And I was there!” So does she know or doesn’t she? Maybe Jurgens is being intentionally ambiguous to make us feel like Donna?

RandoMonday: DC Special Blue Ribbon Digest #3, the Justice Society

Image Eric P. I.Leave a comment

Here’s a comic chosen at random from my collection.

DC Special 3

 

This is one of my very favorite issues in my collection. It is the comic that introduced me to the DC multiverse, and where I fell in love with the Earth-2 concept and characters.

“The All Star Super Squad” by Gerry Conway, Ric Estrada, and Wally Wood: This “double-length novel!” (from All-Star Comics #58-59) introduces us to some younger E-2 heroes–Star Spangled Kid, Robin, and Power Girl–and is the first appearance of Power Girl. Despite the heavy fire-power of the JSA (Doctor Fate, Green Lantern, Flash, and a few others), it takes these three younger heroes working together to defeat the machinations of Brainwave and Degaton. What a way to be introduced to these characters! I loved the differences between the Earth-1 characters that I knew and these “doppelgängers”. Hawkman had that goofy mask instead of the helmet. Robin is working for the U.N. to report about the apartheid policies in South Africa (well before pop culture started its anti-apartheid stance), and Robin had a costume with long sleeves and pants! I loved that design and wished “my” Robin could have something similar. The introduction of Power Girl was really interesting because she was not as powerful as Supergirl, which made her struggles seem a little more heroic to me. Plus, the Estrada and Wood art was fantastic, especially how they drew Power Girl.

“Five Drowned Men” by Gardner Fox, Irwin Hasen, Joe Kubert, Lee Elias, and Frank Harry: I think that this was my first Golden Age story (from All-Star Comics #36). As was the style of the day, this JSA story was a series of individual characters stories with a frame involving all of them. I found it very interesting that the villains of the issue (who were only “bad” because of a drug that “deadens a man’s conscience”) had no superpowers but were still able to defeat or elude the JSAers. The art took some getting used to, but I have a fondness for the various artists now.

Dr. Fate (from 1st Issue Special [1975]) by Martin Pasko and Walt Simonson: So in comparison to the first story of the digest, this made me really love Dr. Fate. A lot of that had to do with the Simonson art and somewhat for the Egyptian connections. I would have loved a Dr. Fate series by this team.

At the end of the digest is a few pages explaining the parallel Earth concept (with art by Ross Andru and I’m guessing that the text was written by Paul Levitz), which was helpful. However, because of one panel showing Earth-1 and Earth-2 counterparts, I thought for a few years that Dr. Fate was somehow a counterpart to Aquaman–that was on me being a poor reader because the text clearly states those characters are unique (but there was a Golden Age Aquaman–was this my first experience with retconning?).

I really love this comic, and my copy of this digest is well read, so I’m on the prowl for a better copy of this special digest.

RandoMonday: Worlds’ Finest #10

Image Eric P. I.Leave a comment

Here’s a comic chosen at random from my collection.

Worlds’ Finest #10 by Paul Levitz (writer), Kevin Maguire (artist), Rosemary Cheetham (colorist), Carlos M. Mangual (letterer), and Maguire & Cheetham (cover)

While this series hasn’t exactly set the comic book world on fire, there’s something about these two characters as written by Paul Levitz that I’ve enjoyed (despite that awful Power Girl costume which, thankfully, was changed later). The Kevin Maquire art didn’t hurt (though he’s no longer working on the book–more’s the pity). In fact, Maguire does some interesting viewpoints this issue, and the looks on Power Girl’s face that he draws in this issue are funny and expressive. Not much goes on in this issue: something about the duo looking for intel on Michael Holt, and then, weirdly shoe-horned in is a “Requiem” sequence where Huntress grieves over her not-brother Damien’s death. Like I said, not something that is great by any means, but I enjoy these two characters.