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Review: Power Girl #3
[Editor’s Note: This review may contain spoilers]
Writer: Leah Williams
Art: Eduardo Pansica and Julio Ferreira
Colors: Romulo Fajardo, Jr.
Letters: Becca Carey
Reviewed by: Matthew B. Lloyd
Summary
Power Girl trusts her instincts as she figures out who or what is behind the Kryptonian virus. This means ignoring Superman and finally seeming a bit like herself.
Positives
Power Girl #3 is unequivocally the best issue of the series so far. That may not be saying a lot, but it certainly feels like there’s a door opening for Power Girl to seem like herself. There’s a lot more introspection for Power Girl in this issue and this lends itself to Leah Williams finding a more accurate voice for Power Girl. The revelation of the source of the Kryptonian virus gives Power Girl some agency.
It all culminates in Power Girl ignoring what Superman is saying about the virus and Power Girl thinking for herself. Allowing Power Girl to do something truly on her own without advice from Lois Lane and overtly going against Superman makes her seem more like the Power Girl that’s existed up to her re-appearance in Lazarus Planet. It’s not clear exactly what all this means, but the last page does indicate that Power Girl was right about the virus and that there may be a whole lot more going on. The ending also suggests that the symbioship may be responsible for the odd portrayal of Power Girl in this series. If true, it’s a great development, but the execution of it started things off on the wrong foot almost alienating the Power Girl fanbase.
Negatives
If this whole storyline has been manipulated by the symbioship, then it explains away almost all the oddities, including the extremely annoying and unwelcome Omen in this series. Power Girl #3 is no different. Omen is perhaps at her most annoying in this issue.
Power Girl still isn’t herself and it still informs most of the issue with only a bit a hope that things will be familiar, eventually. If this has all been part of the plan, it’s been executed very poorly. There’s hasn’t been enough in the series to make it clear that Power Girl was aware something was wrong. It could’ve been done better with just a little bit of awareness from Power Girl.
The real negative is that the symbioship may not be causing any of this and Williams is really presenting Power Girl as a blank slate and she thinks she’s trying to fill it in. Power Girl has a long history that is important to her character and to why people like her character and had a strong fanbase before Williams began writing her.
Verdict
Power Girl #3 gives hope that the REAL Power Girl may return. Williams gets to this point by getting inside Power Girl’s head just a bit for the first time. There’s still an uneven quality to the series, but this issue the best of it so far. Perhaps, the quote on the final page, “Paige is gone,” means more than just what it seems to in the scene, maybe Paige Stetler IS gone and Karen Starr will be back by the end of this story arc, and with that the Power Girl fans love.
