POWER GIRL #4 - 6

"GIRLS' NIGHT OUT"
"SPACE GIRLS GONE WILD!" Part 1 | "SPACE GIRLS GONE WILD!" Part 2
Writers: Justin Gray & Jimmy Palmiotti | Artist: Amanda Conner
Colorist: Paul Mounts | Letterer: John J. Hill
Assistant Editor: Rex Ogle | Editor: Brian Cunningham

My Thoughts: Okay, this is more like what I was expecting from a Gray/Palmiotti/Conner POWER GIRL series. "Girls' Night Out" is a one-off adventure featuring Power Girl and Terra teaming up against an elf girl using a magical book to "purify" Earth, and then "Space Girls Gone Wild!" presents a trio of spoiled alien princesses landing in New York and causing trouble as they attempt to elude an agent of their father, sent to bring them back home.

Along the way, Palmiotti and Gray continue to develop Power Girl's personal life, giving her a new apartment in Brooklyn and revealing that she's a huge fan of horror movies. We also get more from Terra too, her naive innocence leading to some cute jokes as she attempts to adjust to life on the surface world as Power Girl's "ward" of sorts. A sub-plot materializes as well, as someone snaps photos of Karen changing into Power Girl on her apartment roof, then later sends her the pictures as blackmail material.

But perhaps best of all, Power Girl's cat also puts in an appearance. It was glimpsed briefly in the JSA CLASSIFIED issues, but here it's given some personality, even if it's what one would expect from any feline: it hates baths, hates traveling, and likes to steal shrimp from unguarded Chinese food. Nonetheless, it's quickly become one of my favorite characters, if only because it exists. Far too few superheroes have normal housepets, for whatever reason.

The "villains" of these stories turn out to be misunderstood in both cases: the elf girl is actually a teenager who gained magical powers when she found the spellbook, and Power Girl lets her go, suggesting that if she really wants to change the world she should get an internship with a "green" company located in the same building as StarrWare.

The alien princesses are likewise non-threatening in the end. Though they accidentally kill a drug dealer, they're just looking to avoid their father and have a good time. Since the death actually is ruled unintentional by the authorities, Power Girl lets them off as well, leaving them in the care of Carl, their father's agent who has pursued them to Earth and is now unable to locate their home planet again.

It's a lot of light-hearted hijinks, which is what I had anticipated when I first picked this book up. With any luck, the initial, dark story arc was an anomaly, and Power Girl's subsequent adventures will read more like this one.

I must give accolades once more to Amanda Conner, as well. Her work just gets better with each passing issue. The action is fun to look at, but where Conner truly excels is in the interpersonal scenes, which showcase her knack for expressive, cartoony faces. While the writing of Palmiotti and Gray is decent here, it is Conner's artwork which makes these stories truly fun and enjoyable.

But, since I seem unable to write a post without picking at least one nit, I do have to mention something I wrote about earlier this year when I covered the NEW TEEN TITANS: Why does Power Girl live in Manhattan? DC characters living in real world cities just feels wrong to me. Why not make up a new fictional city for Power Girl to reside in? It wouldn't hurt and it would, for me, make this feel more like a DC comic and not a DC comic trying to be a Marvel comic.