Broken Frontier

Power Girl’s status quo and that of her self-titled book have been up in the air as of late. With the departure of Jimmy Palmiotti, Justin Gray, and Amanda Conner, the team that defined the new book featuring Superman’s cousin from another dimension, Judd Winick has been tasked with continuing their evolution of the character.  The previous arc featured art from relative newcomer Sami Basri, with Hendry Prasetya taking over interiors as of this issue. How is the new team handling Power Girl?

With the mystery of her company’s failings and the interwoven nature of Justice League: Generation Lost’s repeated tie-in (which will likely result in PG joining the newly-announced Justice League International relaunch in the fall), Starrware is off to a booming start.  Karen Starr, now a much more genial and friendly version of Steve Jobs in the public eye of the DC Universe, has been making advances in every field. Effectively tying the story in to the larger narrative of the DCU canvas, Bruce Wayne is helping her with both image, sounding board, and even possible Batman Inc. support during a global aid mission. Wayne has been there before, and Winick wisely uses him to this effect.

Unsurprisingly, Winick, known for bringing social controversy and challenges into his books, decides to give Power Girl the task of dealing with prejudice of a Middle Eastern nature. Rayhan Mazin, undoubtedly a stand-up guy (much like Sydney Poitier in Guess Who’s Coming to Dinner, he’s pointed nearly to a fault of perfectly genial), ends up saving the plane he’s on by using his metahuman powers of controlling the weather, but Batman and Power Girl had unknowingly stole his thunder with their Bat-plane and assorted Kryptonian powers. Rayhan, thanks to the way his powers manifest and the apparent casual racism of the government and fellow travelers, is accused for the reason the plane was going down. Six months of patient waiting though, coupled with word that his father is in weak health, has proven too much for him, and he makes his way to see his father, choosing to leave his confinement to be by his side. Naturally, Power Girl and Batman are there to stop him.

While the point is noble, confronting racism and fear in a post 9/11 world, this vibe is just too odd for Power Girl and the DC Universe. Coming soon after the Justice League teamed up with The 99, you would think that Rayhan would not be painted as a potential threat. Power Girl and Batman alone would have likely heard his side of the story when the plane landed, called in Doctor Mid-Nite, and have everything cleared up. Even though Rayhan’s arrest and shuttling off to a detention facility seem dramatic, and could easily be the birth of a super-villain, this will most likely be like one of the classic team-ups where the heroes fight each other until things are cleared up and tackled together. While that would be funny, I can’t see Power Girl, Batman, and Rayhan fighting injustice on the cover of the last issue of the arc.

Winick, when it comes to dialogue, tries to do his best to capture the fun that Gray and Palmiotti had with the character, but ignores Power Girl’s buddy Terra and pairs her up with the more serious Batman. Basri’s art was acceptable for the character and even had its benefits, but lacked much of the charm that Conner is known for. Prasetya seems to follow Basri’s lead, and while performing perfectly fine in the issue, seems to only give her one or two notable expressions in the whole book, while Conner could do 9 panels on 1 page with 9 different emotions.

The beginning of We Can Be Heroes is a decent enough start, but puts the book down to “I can read it later” status. Here’s hoping they remember the character can be pretty fun nowadays… it was working pretty well for the original creative team on the series.