Scott's Take: Power Girl Returns by Leah Williams

Power Girl Returns by Leah Williams has the difficult assignment of being the first new book staring the character in years. Power Girl along with the JSA has been relegated to the bench for several years. They had no place in the main DC universe until recently.

 

This book comes out of the events of Lazarus Planet where a lot of stuff happened, but the only relevant part for this book is that magic rain poured down on the world and caused changes in people. One of those changed people is Power Girl as she now, for some reason, has telepathic powers. With these new powers, she has agreed to be a psychologist for the superhero community. She has also agreed to help Omen (formerly a member of Teen Titan) also be a psychologist for the superhero community. Together they will treat patients and their first patient is Beast Boy who has recently survived a gunshot to the head.

 

Thanks to the head trauma caused by the bullet, he now seems to be stuck in the form of a calf and unable to speak. Because of his ability to shape shift, the injury was healed and there is now nothing physically wrong with him. That means the problem is mostly likely in his head and could be PTSD related or something like that.  This first case leads to more as they attempt to figure out why other heroes in the Superman family are now also suddenly having strange issues as well.

 

Also included in this read is a second graphic novel storyline that collects the Knight Terror tie in issues. In this part, a bad guy has managed to bring every person’s nightmares to life. The entire human race is experiencing their worst dreams. If you are a person like Power girl who has survived the death of two worlds, you are going to have serious issues. What happens when your nightmares become real?

 

The sections have different artists with their own look and style. They are both great, but very differentin style and tone. There is plenty of humor and action. There is a lot of character exploration. There are changes made to classic elements of Power Girl as a character that I am not sure how I feel about them. But, they are trying to find a way forward for the character since she has been benched for so long. 

 

One thing that I wish would have been explored, would have been the fact that Nightwing brings Beast Boy in and they both have suffered being shot in the head in the last few years. A talented author could have drawn parallels to the different consequences they experienced suffering the same type of injury.

 

The stories in Power Girl Returns are a little short since they were originally backups for the main Superman title. Backups for people who don’t know is like little short stories included after a main book has finished. But they are released in parts together.

This series is being relaunched as a main book by the same author. It is only just started, but the plot is that a Kryptonian virus is killing normal human beings. It seems to have some tie to Power Girl’s Krypton. If Power Girl can’t figure out what is happening, more humans will die and the Superman family of this Earth will take the blame.

 

My reading copy came by way of the Hoopla App and the Dallas Public Library System.

 

Scott A. Tipple ©2023