Power Girl #10 // Review
The Holliday Girls are captured. They’re being held captive by a group of biker-type space aliens. There was a time in the not too distant past where this would have been a job for Wonder Woman. This is a different era requiring an entirely different hero a witnessed in Power Girl #10. Writer Leah Williams continues her PG series in an issue that’s drawn by penciler Eduardo Pansica, inker Julio Ferreira and colorist Romulo Fajardo Jr. The big conclusion to the Power Girl/Crush crossover reaches its climax in precisely the type of fun, emotionally engaging action story that Williams conjures so well.
If they’re going to take out an entire gang of Czarnian punks, Crush and Power Girl are going to have to think small. They need to take out a whole bunch of nano blasters really, really quickly and attack. PG may not be some kind of tech genius, but she knows how to put together an EMP that should do the trick. The challenge is going to be getting Crush in for long enough to distract them without blowing the whole thing to hell.It’s okay: the precision only has to hold together for a few moments. Then the finesse can drop for a classic over-the-top slugfest.
Williams cleverly balances the narrative between action and drama in a script that manages to find a really sharp distinction between Power Girl and her guest star. Power Girl takes on sort of a big sister role next to Crush. They’re both powerful humanoid aliens on Earth and they both have the same objective: save a biker gang from another group of space aliens. Williams finds a graceful balance between dramatic tension, interpersonal social growth and superhero action in another thoroughly satisfying issue. This one’s a lot of fun.
Pansica frames the action quite well. Williams does a lot of jumping around the edges of the narrative. Pansica finds the right pacing for all of the action in art that is given quite a bit of depth and show by Ferreira. Romulo Fajardo Jr. embellishes the visuals with some really sharp coloring effects as well. The three artists work together quite well to give Crush’s attractive Alice Cooper-like face a wide range of emotions that cast the character in a great deal of psychological texture. Through it all, PG remains quite charismatic and confident.
It’s taken a while for this particular incarnation of Power Girl to gain enough traction to feel distinct. She’s been through so many different incarnations over the course of the past four decades. She has managed to maintain a certain amount of continuity even as she’s had her past, present and future knocked about by a parade of different writers. Nice to see Williams finding a new connection for an old character who could have easily ended up as another Superman knock-off in another short-lived series. Williams has tapped into something new AND familiar with this latest series.
