Power Girl #19 – Review

By: Judd Winick (writer), Sami Basri (artist), Sunny Gho & Jessica Kholinne (colorists)

The Story: Power Girl remembers Max Lord!  No, wait—not anymore.  Or does she?  Meanwhile, PG’s search for her super-powered clone leads her to Professor Ivo, who’s back to making freaks for a living—that can’t be good.

The Review: Power Girl under the Jimmy Palmiotti-Justin Gray-Amanda Connor powerhouse team featured the title’s leading lady facing off against some of the weirder foes in the DC universe with a closed fist and a twinkle in her eye.  These antics set the series apart as one of the brightest, funniest spaces in the comics world.  When Palmiotti, Gray, and Connor departed, there was some concern that the title’s fun and games left with them.

Judd Winick’s takeover retains some of the series’ humor, although in place of wacky characters and situational comedy, Winick favors more Buffy-esque, self-referential, back-and-forth banter.  It has its funny moments, but seems a bit too proud of its own irony.  And it certainly doesn’t produce the same sustaining pleasure from reading Power Girl grossing out over Vartox the Space Pimp’s hairy calves.  Honestly, it probably will never get that good again (although PG kicking Ace of the Royal Flush Gang in the royal jewels is pretty good times).

On the other hand, scaling back the humor gives Winick the opportunity to write higher-stakes moments for Power Girl.  It’s obvious with each opponent Power Girl faces that Winick has a grand scheme for where he wants her character to go, and that her story will ultimately intersect with what Winick’s crafting over in Justice League: Generation Lost.  A final confrontation with Max Lord seems inevitable, despite the constant resetting of Power Girl’s memories.  Such a showdown with a fairly nefarious archenemy has a lot of potential to elevate Power Girl’s beyond the B-list she currently falls under, but that moment still has a ways to go, by the looks of things.

In the meantime, Winick keeps the present story lively by continually introducing formidable opponents for PG to rumble with.  Not so much in this particular issue, however.  Most of the issue touches on her past with Justice League International and her present mission to warn her super-heroic peers of Max Lord’s deception.  On this second point, Winick credibly executes the twists in trying to track down an enemy who can manipulate your memories freely, but that doesn’t prevent the scenes from coming off a little silly (nor our superheroes from looking a little goofy).  At least the final scenes set up the premise and opponents for the next issue, all of which look to be a little more imaginative than the last ones we’ve gotten so far.