It took me a long time to get on board with Power Girl. For most of my youth I viewed her as a pretty lame character. I didn't like her costume, her backstory, and I felt she was portrayed as a cheesecake character and a vehicle for boob jokes. And honestly, if you look at her portrayal throughout the late 80s and 90s, she didn't have a lot of depth. But in the early 2000s, she became a major character in JSA and Infinite Crisis, eventually getting her own ongoing title. This is when I got hooked. And the best part about my shift is that nothing really changed with the character. Her costume was identical and boob jokes were plentiful, but I credit the team of Amanda Conner and Jimmy Palmiotti with giving her a fresh, funny, memorable book. They also performed their magic with Harley Quinn, Terra, and Starfire - they're my favorite creative team for solo heroine titles. And now I'm a fan of Karen Starr no matter who is at the helm. I'm really impressed at how nice this figure is. Let's check her out below!
UNITING ALL WOMEN OF PLASTIC
Showing posts with label Power Girl. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Power Girl. Show all posts
Thursday, January 29, 2026
Saturday, August 8, 2020
Ed McGuinness POWER GIRL!
Power Girl is one of those characters I've always struggled with. Purely based on her anatomical endowments and her creative teams so often being comprised entirely of men. Objectification just skeeves me out on so many levels, even when I'm just generally perceiving it without solid examples. But then in 2009 one of my favorite artists at the time, Amanda Conner, took the reigns with her future husband Jimmy Palmiotti writing the scripts. Having a female on the creative team allowed me to finally read this character without being so defensive. And I quickly grew to love the character. I'm also glad that the acknowledgment of her chest was such an upfront topic. This figure of Power Girl from the Ed McGuiness-styled Superman/Batman line is the only female from that line I didn't pick up (because it came out a year before I liked the character). But I finally found her a few weeks ago in a discount bin (note the tattered card) and I'm happy to finally have her in my collection. Let's check out Power Girl below!
Wednesday, July 12, 2017
Amanda Conner - SUPERHERO HARLEY QUINN!
Harley Quinn has had a lot of costume designs in recent years. Video games were the biggest catalyst for the changes and most of them seemed like awkward misinterpretations of the character rather than a true evolution. The Roller Girl revamp of 2014 was the first time a Harley redesign felt right for me. It wasn't too long before the movie version became canon and now she seems to alter her looks quite often (and I'm mostly okay with it). Squeezed into those early post-rollergirl changes was this Superhero costume which she donned in order to team up with a brainwashed Power Girl, convincing PG that she was her trusty sidekick to enjoy all the perks of superheroics. It was a fun storyline that eventually spun off into its own title Harley Quinn and Power Girl (which only lasted for six issues, but was great). This figure is one of those gems I never expected to see but makes a really quirky addition to an already insanely-quirky Harley collection. She's my favorite of this series. Let's check out Superhero Harley below!
Saturday, August 9, 2014
DC Comics World's Finest POWER GIRL!
Power Girl is a great character. I used to write her off as another generic cleavage machine. The truth is though, I had never read a single story of hers. My only frames of reference were skeezy fanboy comments on nerdy message boards. My first true introduction wasn't until the pages of 2009's Terra miniseries drawn by Amanda Conner. This portrayal of Kara eventually segued into a solo Power Girl series that was amazing (but unfortunately fell victim to the New 52 reboot). These stories made me love the character. She was suddenly tough, funny, quirky, down to earth, and ready to kick anyone's ass who stared at her chest too long. I was very very sad when her series got the axe. It wasn't too long, however, until she was reintroduced to the New 52 world in the pages of World's Finest alongside her longtime friend Huntress. The only problem with this new version was her awful costume redesign. Luckily she was back to her signature duds by issue 12, as celebrated by this amazing action figure.
Sunday, August 3, 2014
DC Comics World's Finest HUNTRESS!
Huntress is one of the most underrated heroines in the Bat-universe. She's been a constant presence since her introduction in the late 1970s, but she always seems to be on the back burners in comparison to the other ladies. I was really excited when this two pack was announced. Not only was it great to get a new Huntress figure, but having her packaged with her longtime friend Power Girl was a total bonus. Upon getting her, however, I was struck by the differences between the solicit images and the final product I was holding in my hands. In my mind, there are some major production issues with this figure. You can tell the engineers who prepped her for mass production made a few errors and, in my opinion, greatly changed the look of the figure. I never let my disappointments get me down though, and I quickly put her under the knife and tried my best to restore her to her paint-master glory. I have lots of before-and-after shots below. But for now, let's check out the lovely Helena in her original form!
Wednesday, June 12, 2013
DC Direct Infinite Crisis POWER GIRL!
For most of my comic-collecting life, Power Girl had no connection to Superman whatsoever. Originally (pre-Crisis), Power Girl was introduced as the Earth-Two counterpart to Supergirl. Power Girl was Kara Zor-L and Supergirl was Kara Zor-El. With only a single letter E distinguishing the two origins, the characters developed into two very unique individuals. Luckily the world-colliding Crisis on Infinite Earths 1985 storyline didn't completely wipe out Power Girl like it did with so many characters. Instead, they changed her origins and made her the granddaughter of Arion (the Atlantean sorcerer). It wasn't until 2005's Infinite Crisis that they restored her origins and let Supergirl and Power Girl coexist in the same world. Power Girl has had a good amount of action figures made of her, but this figure from DC Direct is by far my favorite. Her trademark exaggerated (ahem) features are balanced well with her muscular frame and overall strong presence - managing to avoid the cheesecake trap. Let's check her out below!
Tuesday, April 2, 2013
Power Girl & Supergirl as NIGHTWING & FLAMEBIRD!
Back before the DC Reboot I was a (somewhat) regular member on the DC Message Boards. When I think back to the monthly reactions to DC Direct solicitations I'm kind of embarassed for all of us collectors. DC Direct was able to produce beautiful action figures of obscure characters (and obscure variants of major characters) consistently for roughly 13 years.. and, oh yeah, we were getting new product monthly. And what was the perpetual reaction to this brand? "Ughh they're out of scale with their figures from three years ago" and "Ughh more SuperWonderBats." Well, I've been revisiting my DC Direct collection and falling in love with them all over again. Nightwing and Flamebird were especially bemoaned, mostly because they were such obscure characters. But I think we all missed that they're pretty damn cool characters. The flawless sculpts by John G Matthews are just icing on the cake. Let's take a second look at these lovely ladies now that we've had a chance to cool down.
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