“Because I die everyday. I’m immortal.”
What started as a backup in Action Comics, Leah Williams’ written run on Power Girl ends with its 20th issue today, cutting oncoming artist David Baldeon’s run short. But after a run of highs and lows, how does this sudden ending rate among every other issue in the series?
The biggest problem with this grand finale is that there isn’t anything of note to really say about Power Girl anymore. As a character, the current evolution has fallen into a trap of uncertainty, Paige Stetler exists as the new facade of the confusing and never-ending question amongst fans of “Wait, is Power Girl really Supergirl? Or is she like her sister?”
Leah Williams tried her best trying to expand upon Power Girl as a character and property within DC’s expanding pantheon, but has seemingly fallen into her own trap reminiscent of her years at Marvel Comics. Now, this is not to say that this is Williams’ fault, nor is this David Baldeon’s fault. This is the product of an ever-shifting market where people don’t entirely care for the personal life of Supergirl’s longtime variant. This can be said about most lesser-known superheroes.
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How does this affect the market long term? Well, that is not what we’re here for. We’re reviewing Power Girl #20 – we’ll leave that analysis to Comichron.
The final issue of Power Girl is titled “Time to Fly” as Leah Williams and David Baldeon say goodbye to their audience. As reviewers, we feel that there is a certain feeling that is shared amongst cancelled titles and Power Girl #20 isn’t any different from that. Though it was clearly meant to function as a full-fledged story arc, it turned into a cramped 20-pager where Power Girl and co. say their piece and the recently teased plot lines, such as the Karen Starr imposter, are brought to a rushed close.
That’s it. We’re not kidding.
It’s a condensed arc that fits into one issue. We have to commend Williams for that because she at least made it feel less jumbled than it could’ve been. Reviewing this issue feels somewhat unfair, as Baldeon’s art is beautiful, whether it’s the action scenes or the more comedic slice of life scenes where his work shines in its cartoon-like inspiration.
With Williams, it is always easy to see what inspired her at the time of writing. However, her words are forcibly squeezed together. There are last minute decisions, such as characters like Steel (the girl one) and Mariposa being made into a fling at the very end which felt like the creative equivalent of saying, “What do we have to lose?”
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There is a running gag in this issue where they “ragdoll” at each other, which is basically a trust fall. It is a very random gag but it feels very reminiscent of the themes and book itself – the script ragdolled throughout the whole story, as this was a trust fall between the audience and author. Williams latches onto comedy for this final issue as a way to cushion the book’s jarring end. In some ways she succeeds, because the comedy does serve as a decent distraction. However, Williams falls into the trap of her own characters not sounding like they belong to her.
Mariposa feels strikingly different from how she was in the previous arc. Her relay of Power Girl’s message of being against a capitalistic world that leeches the love and compassion out of people does work, but there isn’t any room to actually feel meaningful, and Omen is just Omen. As the jumbled story goes on, we are greeted with more fumbles such as Power Girl’s speech to the Karen Starr imposter, which is scripted unusually. Instead of making the page feel more dynamic it just settles onto a slow zoom-in on Paige’s face before cutting away. At the end our heroes announce Stargraze, which is the metaphorical “Bluesky” to Karen Starr’s “X The Everything App”. It’s a poignant concept and it makes us wish that this was the final arc over the previous “Void Three”.
Unfortunately, for all the efforts of its creatives, Power Girl #20 is a sudden and rather jarring end for the series that admittedly falls a bit flat in where it leaves its characters. Despite that the run itself had many great ideas, and it is a shame to not see it reach its full potential. For anyone wondering where Power Girl is headed, her adventures will most likely continue in Lemire and Olortegi’s JSA and Waid and Mora’s Justice League Unlimited.
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