Enemies whose main goal is swapping bodies are the hardest to deal with.
What They Say:
Power Girl squares off against Satanna and her Animal Army just as Terra enters the fray! This should be a good thing, but somehow it looks like Power Girl’s got a new enemy!
The Review:
The arrival of Satanna on the scene in the previous issue brought back to the forefront events at the start of the series when the Ultra Humanite ravaged Manhattan in an effort to acquire Kara’s body so he could have his brilliant intellect in a nigh-indestructible body. It’s a good plan and one that you can see worth making an effort over if your goal is as big as his is. With Satanna mucking around with her and setting events in motion that would have her dealing with revenge, Kara’s finding her death is about to come from a gravity well created on top of her breasts. It is oddly fitting. Tightly fitting in fact, which only adds to the amusement during what should be a fairly dark sequence. The arrival of Terra at the end of the previous issue upped the ante though and that sets things for this issue pretty well.
Especially as Terra hasn’t exactly been fully fleshed out, at least within this book, outside of the girls night out storyline. When Terra gets on the scene here, she’s pretty dangerous looking when she sees how much trouble Power Girl is in. Her method isn’t exactly top of the line superhero material though as she threatens Satanna within a centimeter of her life and does it in a way that says she’ll actually go through with it. It’s something that Power Girl herlsef calls her out on later on once she recovers a bit because it’s so unlike her. Yet it’s also understandable when you see what Terra sees and the way her best friends life is at risk. The way Terra deals with Satanna is certainly spot on for solving a situation, but it’s the kind of thing that makes someone less a superhero.
While there’s a good bit of action here, especially in the last quarter when a bit of a slowly revealed surprise comes to the foreground, there’s a good amount of character material as well. With Terra tagging along to Kara’s workplace for awhile, she also goes with her when she deals with the kid who took all the pictures of her when he requests a deal that will have him destroying the evidence. Blackmailing Power Girl doesn’t seem smart, but it fits in with her modus operandi in wanting to do good things and actually helping people. His requests are amusing, from having her go to the comic book shop with him to get his latest books to dealing with a bully that will come late. As well as helping him ask a girl out on a date. The comic book shop stuff is rather predictable overall, but I’d be lying if I didn’t say it as fun and has its charms as he plays big man on campus for a bit. And as Kara tells them that the two of them just got married in space and were honeymooning on Jupiter but had to take a break so he could get the latest comic books.
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 works pretty well in this issue as she makes it plain during one of the exposition sequences once again just what kind of hero she wants to be. We get quite a few in the various comics universes out there and while I know there are plenty of people who dislike this type, preferring for the heroes that destroy their enemies in various ways, there’s a definite appeal here since this goes back a bit towards the comics I grew up with before it all got dark and mature. The time between Kara and Atlee is pretty good here overall, though there’s an unsettling undercurrent about it, but it’s the material with the kid Fisher that really works nicely as it allows Kara to interact with a normal person and make a difference in a positive manner with not just him but those in contact with him. It’s a small effort, a pay it forward kind of moment, that cements her again as the kind of her that deals with the big world saving stories just as well as the small ones on an individual level. And I’ll admit it, most of the time I like the little jokes and fun that come with a story that deals with a comic book shop.
Grade: B
