Review: Power Girl #10
[Editor’s Note: This review may contain spoilers]
Writer: Leah Williams
Art: Eduardo Pansica and Julio Ferreira
Colors: Romulo Fajardo, Jr.
Letters: Becca Carey
Reviewed by: Matthew Lloyd
Summary
Power Girl and Crush enact their plan to defeat the defeat the rogue Czarnians…and it works! Golly, friendship is nice!
Positives
Like last issue, Power Girl somehow manages to show some agency in her own title. She enacts the plan inspired by Crush and she shows some confidence in doing so. As usual, when PG is in action she shows some ferocity and intensity that Eduardo Pansica illustrates effectively.
Leah Williams uses the symbioship subplot again as she moves that forward a bit. In this respect, it’s a well plotted issue as Williams is able to work the subplot effectively to set up future conflict.
Negatives
Leah Williams is her own worst enemy when it comes to writing Power Girl. When this issue calls for some substance of Power Girl’s character to enhance the theme she’s writing, she doesn’t know what to do. As Crush confides her feelings of loneliness and not fitting in to PG, she recognizes a similar theme in her own life. Williams is correct when she has Power Girl respond, “Family is what you make it.” However, Williams doesn’t have PG talk about her time with the JSA, where her family on this world is. As a matter of fact, she doesn’t expand on who her family is at all. Williams’ stories have tried to force her into the Super-family, but there’s been very little actually shown about that. More than anything she’s just got a friend in Omen.
To make matters worse, Crush has to mention Harley Quinn as she relates her litany of failed friendships on Earth. When PG responds with, “You know Harley? She’s one of my closest friends!” Uh…since when? That out of continuity mini-series by Jimmy Palmiotti and Amanda Conner? Again, Williams doesn’t understand the substance of Power Girl’s history and relationships. It’s such a mess at this point in this series, that it’s impossible to sort out what Power Girl has actually experienced in her life. Just within the series itself, how did she have time to become close friends with Harley if she hasn’t lived on Earth long enough to understand how to live as human? (This has been a theme of Williams’ characterization of Power Girl since she began doing the back ups in Action Comics). If she has a close friend like Harley, why is Omen even necessary in her life? Williams continues to make superficial choices in her writing that expose not only her lack of understanding of Power Girl’s character, but that Williams’ writing overall is amateurish.
Negatives Cont’d
Williams just can’t write Power Girl as a confident and competent character. She’s too wrapped up in her desire to tell a story about insecurity and fitting in. Williams is hyper focused on this one aspect of Power Girl that has not been a problem for the character in years. This concept is holding the series back from being better because Williams doesn’t know how to use Power Girl’s history and the substance of that history effectively to inform the character she’s writing. Every once in a while when she needs Power Girl to be assertive or effective we get that, but that’s not how Williams sees her. In Power Girl #10 it’s evident that to Williams, Power Girl is unsure of herself, passive and kind of scared of things. Williams writes Power Girl far too empathetic. Power Girl is more likely to tell someone she’s just met to “suck it up” and “toughen up” instead of sharing personal feelings. That something that would come later as we’ve seen PG as a mentor to Atlee/ Terra in the Gray, Palmiotti, Conner Power Girl series. Power Girl can be a strong supportive friend, but you’re not going to get that with a stranger.
Williams reinforces the notion that this book is attempting to explore friendship and the “stranger in a strange land” theme as Omen appears at the end of this issue and we have to suffer through their annoying dynamic. Omen is condescending to Power Girl and she just takes it. Maybe that’s why Williams renamed her “Paige,” a passive sounding name that seems diametrically opposed to Power Girl’s traditional moniker- Karen which suggests opinionated, passionate and with attitude- all missing from Williams character destruction of PG. When Omen and PG are on the page together, it’s nauseating.
Verdict
Like last issue, Power Girl #10 has some details that distract and detract from the experience, but overall it’s one of the better issues of this series. The symbioship sub-plot moves forward, Power Girl gets a little agency, despite Leah Williams characterization continuing to demean the character.
