“You lied to me…my whole life.”
From inspiration from The Legion of Super-Heroes to discussions on the morality of fatherhood, Power Girl #15 has it all. Picking up from where issue #14 left off, Leah Williams and Adriana Melo continue the story of Ejecta, the new antagonist for the book’s titular hero, as readers begin to get very familiar with her.
Ever since the first arc, Williams has planted the seeds for the return of Symbio, the symbiotic ship that raised Power Girl. He was seen stalking her during House of Brainiac, he was there in the back of her mind, and attempting to sabotage her every move from the shadows.
DC
Now with Symbio’s proper return, Williams dives into the psychology behind Power Girl and Ejecta, showing that the two characters are much closer than they anticipated. Ejecta, scared and orphaned, was raised by Symbio much like Power Girl was, creating a nightmarish bond between the two.
The connection with Symbio allows for the personal stakes to rise, especially playing against Omen slowly dying from her and Power Girl’s previous encounter with Ejecta in the last installment. Williams’ plays her cards perfectly and in doing so creates a stressful atmosphere for Power Girl as she realizes that she is in a troubling spot due to the past she feared returning finally coming to disrupt her present.
As for Melo’s art, she manages to uplift Williams’ script with the consistent improvement and stylization issue to issue. This issue in particular has some of the most expressive art out of the whole arc thus far, and Melo is clearly having the time of her life drawing this storyline, especially with the inclusion of the realm where Symbio raised Ejecta.
DC
Ejecta’s character design is also creative and phenomenal as we get to see the different stages of her development over the course of the issue. Whether adolescent or adult, Ejecta’s look is a striking callback to old school sci-fi comic designs of the 1980s. An important factor considering the book’s significance to Power Girl stories from those years.
With all of the good in it, Power Girl #15 does struggle with the awkwardness of certain side characters still not entirely fitting the overall tone of the series. However, that is made up for with the strong writing fleshing out Ejecta and Symbio’s relationship, and pushing our heroine Paige to the edge by extension.
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