Nothing says Manhattan like an invasion by a large group of pachyderm.
What They Say:
Satanna is back in town with her animal menagerie in tow to terrorize Power Girl. The villainess tries to succeed where her former lover, the Ultra-Humanite couldn’t. This time, though, Satanna has a secret weapon Power Girl won’t see coming.
The Review:
While it can certainly be true of all superheroes, Power Girl certainly can’t seem to catch a break, though a lot of it comes down to the simple things in life that stymie her on top of the superhero world saving stuff. With Vartox sent back home, she’s struggling with just a couple of minutes of sleep before the new day throws her for a few loops. Getting that little amount of sleep can’t be easy even for her, especially after all the drinking with Vartox, which is why we see her running mostly naked down the stairs after some kid drops off a new packet of revealing photos about her. The misdirection here as she questions him is interesting since its hard to believe he’s truly involved, or at least the one snapping the pictures, but what Dr. ,Midnite tells her leaves you wondering what the real truth is. Add in issues at work on top of that and her day is off to quiet the start since she has to get people to invest a few million in her business.
Where her day really goes downhill though is when she goes down to the bank to deal with the issue and there’s nothing but chaos in the streets. As much as she hopes it isn’t, she knows it’s going to be something at her bank. And that something is a large group of pachyderms that are causing a ruckus while waiting for their target, which she quickly figures out is her. This brings Satanna to the forefront as we saw her making some waves in the previous issue to get some amount of revenge on Power Girl for what she did to the Ultra-Humanite. With a little help from Dr. Sivana to give her a weapon she can use, having the pachyderms and then an aerial assault with some Thangarian creatures she acquired and modified gives her what she needs to really take a couple of good whacks at her.
There’s actually a nice bit of thought involved with this as Satanna knows she can’t just beat the snot out of her but rather needs a way to get below the armor, so to speak. The hammer weapon she uses gives her the sonic boom she needs to disorient her so she can pummel her even harder. While that’s decent, you know it’s a one-trick pony that won’t do all that much in the long run and even though Satanna isn’t the sharpest tack in the drawer, she’s not that bad. Especially with Sivana giving her some equipment. When she pulls out the real trick and gets hands on with Power Girl’s chest, the book takes a nicely dark turn after all the lightness and fun. Dark enough that one seriously ticked off Terra arrives, which is most welcome since I’ve missed her these last few issues. Of course, I’ve missed her fun ways and curious views about things, but getting her in action mode isn’t all that bad either.
Digital Notes:
This Comixology edition of Power Girl contains only the Amanda Conner covers as there are no variant or incentive covers made for this issue.
In Summary:
Power Girl continues to play in either new characters or some fun second and third string characters we don’t see all that often. Gray and Palmiotti breathe a different kind of life into them, keeping them who they are but setting them in a storyline that’s serious but has that edge of humor about it that works. Satanna and her zoo crew aren’t exactly huge favorites but it’s nice to see her actually formulating a halfway decent plan and getting some good gear with which to carry it off. Power Girl for her part is getting used and abused pretty hard these days and this is no exception. She’s certainly in that mode of not being able to catch a break and she really needs to, almost like she needs another of those girls nights out in order to get away from all the insanity for just a little bit in order to be normal. There’s a lot of fun here overall and somewhere towards the end of it, you will believe a pachyderm can fly.
Grade: B
