Time For Some Artwork – Power Girl

It’s about that time to show some more artwork on this site. So here’s my rendition of everyone’s favorite DC Comics superhero Power Girl!

PG created in 3D

I made this one in 3D using my old favorites Daz Studio and Blender. I won’t go into too much technical detail here, but if you’re interested you can always hop over to my 3D site to read up on the trials and tribulations of creating this piece.

I will say that I only made this one because I happened to come across a cool Power Girl 3D outfit in my travels. Even though I wasn’t specifically planning to make a Power Girl image, after I saw the suit I couldn’t pass it up. Again, more details on the props and procedure of creating her in 3D at the above link.

For The Non-Comics Crowd – Who The Heck Is Power Girl??

You can read up on the details of Power Girl at Wikipedia, but to make a long story short – Power Girl is an alternate version of Supergirl, just from another Earth in another universe (so she’s Kara Zor-L, the cousin of the Earth 2 Superman).

Whereas Supergirl existed on Earth 1, Power Girl existed on Earth 2. The difference being that all the main heroes on Earth 2 had their heyday during the WWII era. So Superman, Batman and Wonder Woman were all battling the Nazis, while on Earth 1 the heroes exist in whatever our modern time is. Earth 1 had the Justice League, while Earth 2 had the Justice Society.

I never really understood why Earth 2 wasn’t actually Earth 1, since those older heroes apparently came first, but oh well…

I never much cared for Supergirl…

Supergirl was always kind of boring to me. I certainly don’t own any of her comics, and there was nothing about her that made me want to read up on her.

Power Girl was always interesting because she was Supergirl, and yet she so dramatically wasn’t.

I knew who the character was from reading old Justice Society/Justice League crossovers (that I didn’t quite understand back in the day). I was usually a Marvel person, and the older, more “establishment” heroes of DC Comics didn’t always appeal to me.

DC was aware of this state of affairs, though, and I crossed paths with Power Girl again in a new comic aimed at younger readers.

Infinity, Inc. FTW.

Infinity, Inc. features the children of the Justice Society trying to gain membership in the group. When they’re denied because of their youth, Power Girl takes issue with this and heads off to join with the younger heroes (along with her best friend, Batman’s daughter The Huntress).

I learned a lot about the character from those Infinity, Inc. issues. Like the fact that although she was rocketed from Krypton to Earth, just like Supergirl, her rocket was significantly slower than her Earth 1 counterpart.

This caused her to reach Earth after Superman had already grown into middle age. Thus, she never developed a close bond with her cousin the way the Earth 1 Supergirl did. Instead, she was treated more like a daughter and often scolded by her older cousin.

Not-So-Power Girl

For whatever reason, Power Girl seemed to be considered less-powerful than Supergirl. As far as I know, the classic versions of these characters never fought, so it may never have been settled.

In general, the Earth 2 characters appeared to be less powerful than the Earth 1 guys. Maybe because they were older, but Power Girl was right around the same age as her counterpart, unlike the rest of them. Still, she never really got the props that Supergirl did.

The above image is before a key battle scene in Crisis on Infinite Earths #7, in which most Superman-level heroes are corralled for an offensive attack on the enemy. They round-up both Supermans (Earth 1 and Earth 2), plus Wonder Woman, Captain Marvel (the Shazam one), the Martian Manhunter and yes, Supergirl. But no Power Girl (to be fair, Captain Marvel, Jr. and Mary Marvel are also inexplicably excluded).

Seeing what happened to Supergirl in that battle, maybe it’s better she didn’t go, I guess…

Power Girl The Feminist No-Crap Taker

It’s not like any of the other heroines of the DC Universe were putting up with any mess from their male counterparts, but Power Girl especially was not to be trifled with.

She was known fairly early on for being a feminist (or perhaps more feminist than other heroines):

After all the “Infinite Earths” from the aforementioned Crisis were merged into one, Power Girl was changed just like every other character in order to fit the new “reality”. Now she was mixed right in with the Earth 1 heroes, which of course would bring her into contact with the most unabashedly chauvinistic hero of all, Green Lantern Guy Gardner. Just like the Infinity, Inc. panel above, she doesn’t like it when some dude is talking down to her. Violence can ensue in those cases:

Just for your peace of mind, she didn’t land that punch.

Although, they may have went a bit far with her take-no-crap attitude. It’s one thing to be tough, but another to be a little off the rails. The character became so angry that it even worked it’s way into the story and background of her personality. She seemed to be drawn a lot with a scowl on her face or written to be extremely aggressive without thought to strategy.

However, the character has been changed yet again since that Wonder Woman encounter. After the launch of DC’s New 52, Power Girl is once again from Earth 2, except she’s now stranded on Earth 1, trying to get back home.

Honestly, I haven’t picked up any of her monthly World’s Finest (she’s paired up again with her best friend, The Huntress). Somehow it doesn’t appeal to me. I miss the old Infinity, Inc. Power Girl from the old Earth 2. That’s never coming back though, so I’ll just have to get over it.

Those Big…Elephants…In The Room…

Well, you can’t really write about Power Girl without writing about the famous (or infamous) Power Girl chest, complete with trademarked boob window.

Here’s the thing about that boob window – that thing was there right from jump-street in 1976!

It’s funny, because I always thought that was a modern “invention” of the early 2000’s, but they were simply reverting to her original costume!

From what I understand, different writers have tried to come up with in-story reasons for why the heck she would have that window there, but I can’t think of one that makes sense. Admittedly, not much of any superhero stuff makes sense if you think about it – but it always seemed odd that a hero with a markedly feminist attitude would go that extra mile to show it all off that way.

Then again, these days we have Miley Cyrus, Lady Gaga and Nicki Minaj, who seem more than willing to show all of us things we’d rather not see. Maybe by the time you’re going to be a superhero, you’re even more of an exhibitionist than music stars?

It is a mystery…

Power Girl Costume Remix

I happened upon an article on Buzzfeed recently where female superhero costumes were redesigned by women. I thought it was pretty interesting to see what women would come up with. Here’s the Power Girl costume for the article:

Even though I liked the artwork on this one, I actually didn’t like the costume. The article of course talks about the boob window issue, but they dumped the cape, too, which I don’t care for. Even more, I would actually cover her up from the neck down, and not leave her legs bare at all.

And she’s gotta keep the cape.

The article says the cape is a liabilty, and for heroes like The Huntress it likely is. Power Girl is a Superman-level character, though. Someone that tough should have a little majesty to her.

When you’re that powerful, it’s like “Look at my cape, I know it could catch on something or someone could grab it, but I’m too powerful to care about that.” See, by the time she’s fighting someone that can harm her, the cape isn’t making or breaking her, she’s got much bigger problems.

In the same vein, even though I would get rid of it -the boob window isn’t a liability either. A bullet will bounce off her eyeball, so an exposed breast should be fine.

Honestly, my first continued exposure to Power Girl was in the 80’s in the Infinity, Inc. days, where she had the low-cut leotard with no boob window in it. The original look with the window and the one shoulder cape deal is still cool, hence why I made the 3D image in the first place.

Anyway, check out the rest of that Buzzfeed article for some more costumes. Coincidentally, my favorite redesign was for The Huntress.

Power Girl In The Mainstream

Although she’s the less well-known version of Supergirl, I still think Power Girl has seeped into the general public in a way that Supergirl never did. Sure, most of it is because of the boobs, but there’s still something there that people like. Maybe it’s because she’s the underdog Supergirl who didn’t get the breaks the original Earth 1 character did. Either way, I came across these Power Girl videos from the G4 network that I never saw, because I never watched G4. There’s a lot more so peep them on YouTube:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lbTIM7coS9A

The Wrap Up

Ok here’s a bonus 3D Power Girl I did just for fun:

So aside from that, I’ll go ahead and get out of here for now. If you have any Power Girl thoughts or questions let me know in the comments, and I’ll see you guys next time!