POWER GIRL #7 - 8

"LUST IN SPACE!" | "A GROOVY KIND OF LOVE"
Writers: Justin Gray & Jimmy Palmiotti | Artist: Amanda Conner
Colorist: Paul Mounts | Letterer: John J. Hill
Assistant Editor: Rex Ogle | Editor: Brian Cunningham

My Thoughts: The light-hearted fun continues into POWER GIRL issues 7 and 8, as our heroine becomes the object of affection for Vartox the Hyper Man, a goofy character from the Superman comics of the seventies, whose appearance is inexplicably based upon Sean Connery in the movie ZARDOZ. It seems that an "infertility bomb" was detonated on Vartox's home planet, rendering reproduction there impossible. Vartox decides that he will mate with Power Girl in order to repopulate the species, both because her Kryptonian DNA makes her compatible with him and because "...[her] physical endowments best complement his own."

The resultant comedy of errors finds Vartox attempting to woo Power Girl with a "musk rifle" and then trying to impress her by loosing a monster called an Ix Negaspike, which he intends to defeat to prove his strength. But the creature proves too much for Vartox alone, so he and Power Girl defeat it together.

Subsequently we get a fun issue set primarily aboard Vartox's starship as he explains his situation to Power Girl during a "date" between the two. When Vartox reveals that his people don't procreate via intercourse, and that the only thing necessary in order to impregnate every person on his planet is for the two of them to enter his "fertility chamber" together, Power Girl agrees. The story ends with PG making a "walk of shame" back to her apartment, notwithstanding a brief epilogue to set up the next story arc.

This is another hit from Palmiotti and Gray. I vaguely remember Vartox from my childhood -- as I've noted before, I was never a huge DC person, but I had the occasional random issue of various series here and there -- and his weird seventies style fits perfectly into this series, giving Amanda Conner a chance to stretch artistically with her depictions of his kitschy spaceship and wardrobe.

The next story arc looks to feature the return of Satanna, who appeared briefly in TERRA and factored into the Ultra-Humanite's origin flashback a few issues ago. Given that she fought Power Girl previously in the pages of TERRA, this will make her the first recurring villain the character has seen in her solo series. Satanna's role in the Humanite story was somewhat dark, as was the nature of that arc, so we'll soon see if Palmiotti and Gray intend to lighten her up to fit the tone of every issue since that storyline ended, or if we're returning to "grim and gritty" Power Girl. I sincerely hope for the former.