Review: Power Girl #19
[Editor’s Note: This review may contain spoilers]
Writer: Leah Williams
Art: David Baldeon
Colors: Romulo Fajardo, Jr.
Letters: Becca Carey
Reviewed by: Matthew B. Lloyd
Summary
Power Girl, Omen and Steel (Natasha Irons) defeat the Void of Three before announcing the launch of a new social media platform for today!
Positives
Power Girl #19 finally feels like it delivers an issue that contains a lead character that could be construed as “Power Girl.” This isn’t a complete turnaround, but somehow Leah Williams delivers a script that finally approaches the right feel for Power Girl and a character that exhibits some of the traits one expects from Power Girl. She’s more confident, she doesn’t rely on someone else to save her, she doesn’t have a moment of insecurity.
The cover is a nice Power Girl image doing something. The dinosaur is a fun element, but the pose and expression on her face is a wonderful depiction of the character. The covers are ridiculously better than the interior comic itself in every way, so if covers are your thing, this series has that for you.
The introduction of a new social media platform fits with Power Girl’s civilian history in technology/ computers. It’s a solid update to her former turn as a software developer.
Karen Starr’s return on the final pages, at least “Paige” finding out about it is very intriguing and as I’ve discussed it elsewhere, there’s just no way to judge the outcome until it happens. Williams writing has been all over the the place, so until we see it next issue there is no verdict on it, just the hope that it will be the return of the real Power Girl and imposter Paige can go away forever.
Negatives
There’s an overall superficial quality to this issue. It’s especially apparent in Omen’s view of sex. The jokes about Sigfried and Wonder Woman are weird, juvenile and out of place, like this is a parody comic. That feeling of “out of place” extends to this title becoming an ensemble. Williams has been unable to prove that “friendship is magic” with this series and it doesn’t get any better in Power Girl #19. PG just doesn’t fit with these characters, it’s just Williams doubling down on bad characterization, I mean that’s the theme of this series. Plus, there’s the obligatory poop joke from Williams.
Omen’s use of her power is really unethical and creepy. She’s reading Sigfried’s mind as they are engaged in foreplay? At least that’s what’s suggested. She doesn’t come off as a “hero,” but rather a parasite- she seems like a real villain…is she really behind what’s happened to PG under Leah Williams? Or is it just poor writing that only deals with the superficial and the unintended consequence is that she comes off weird and creepy because Williams was just trying to make jokes and failing.
Negatives Cont’d
Axel seems more suited to Mariposa in this issue as they really seem to have a lot in common. There’s no chemistry between him and Power Girl, everything between them feels forced, but the interaction between Axel and Mariposa comes off as genuine.
The villains go down fairly easily and it seems like they were wasted after interesting set up…especially the sign language user. Perhaps, Williams got the word that she only had a couple issues to wrap things up so this got truncated. Who knows? In the long run it’s weak execution of a pretty good idea.
One of the internal logic aspects of Williams’ writing maintains that PG is a “newbie” to Earth. Any Earth, I guess. In past issues we’ve seen this displayed as an inability to understand basic parlance as well as Omen announce how proud she was at learning to “human.” In this issue, Williams has PG refer to one of the void as “Zsa Zsa Gabor.” This is such an obscure reference in this day and age, that it’s highly unlikely that if PG were new to Earth that she would know anything about Zsa Zsa. This is an old reference even for me and it’s certainly not something that the younger audience this book is aimed for would ever have heard of her. This reference by PG seems to go against the internal logic Williams has tried to develop for PG’s character. It’s not the first time she’s done this either, a previous issue had PG mention Julie Andrews and the Sound of Music. These are just indicators of the overall poor writing that Williams has brought to this series. On top of that, “Zsa Zsa Gabor” isn’t even spelled right, so Williams probably doesn’t know anything about her either.
Verdict
Power Girl #19 is surprising, in way it gets more right with Power Girl than any other issue has. There are still things that don’t really feel right, though. Still, the biggest hope is that the REAL Karen Starr has returned and everything will be set right in the final issue of the series next month.
