And now for something shorter . . . Power Girl #1

Power Girl #1 (JUL '09, written by Gray & Palmiotti, art by Connor) is a fun restart of the PG franchise. Gray & Palmiotti portray Kara as tough and smart, of course, but her new writers also allow her to have a pretty good sense of humor and be rather refreshingly self-aware. Kara KNOWS she's a superhero, she KNOWS she has the "great power and great responsibility" combo that goes along with being from Krypton.

There's not a lot of summary to give, plot-wise. Essentially, PG has decided that, since she's stuck on Earth, she might as well find something to do with her time. She's therefore decided to reopen her company, Starrware Labs, and make a new start. Unfortunately, there's hero-work to do that interrupts our Girl. She barely manages to hire one bumbling geek who can't stop staring at her famous assets and throw one sexist jerk out of her office before the city of New York is under psychic and physical attack by killer robots.

Gray and Palmiotti create a successful arc-starter plot in this opening issue. I'm looking forward to seeing what's in store for Kara next.

I'm also looking forward to more of Amanda Connor's art. Much has been and will be made of the fact that a woman is drawing Power Girl, the cheesecakiest of the pinup superheroines, but, all that aside, Connor just does a really good job of putting PG on paper. She's obviously a big, busty, broad-shouldered girl - but Connor manages her proportions well and creates an hourglass figure for Kara that's almost realistic. The keyhole in the front of PG's white leotard has been squared off a bit, which helps to "support" her ample cleavage - it's there, but again, more realistic than past artists have drawn her. Connor also puts some weight in her thighs and creates a little more balance than we've seen in the past.

All in all, I think this was a successfull debut for Power Girl. That's a big deal for me, as I am picky about spending money on comics AND I'm a big PG fan.

Note for collectors: there are two variant covers and both are quite nice, so be sure to pick them both up if your LCS has them.