Post by Erik-El on Feb 4, 2011 13:23:06 GMT -5
This thread will contain every Power Girl issue review so if anyone ever wants to take over a review or do a review that I already reviewed, post it here. I am going to kick start the reviews on issue 19. Enjoy.
Power Girl 19
Judd Winick - Story
Sami Basri - Art
I was a huge fan of the series when it was done by Gray, Palmiotti and Conner. In my opinion, for a series that never seemed to do much that was very important, it was a thoroughly enjoyable series. The humor was lowbrow yet cute, the art was great and how Conner did facial expressions told stories without us needing the narration to do it.
The new direction by Winick has been an adjustment for me. I cannot say that I am honestly on board yet. Power Girl seems different from all the things I loved about Gray and Palmiotti's version. It seems like they try to make her the same, but they are missing the mark by just enough to be noticeable.
Gray and Palmiotti's Power Girl was confident and cool, funny and adorable. Winick's Power Girl goes beyond confident and cool. She is arrogant and cocky. Instead of funny and adorable, we have angry and otherwise emotionally inaccessible.
The narration is quite a bit different. Power Girl used to look outward with her narration. She would tell us about what she thought of those she interacted with. Like Terra and the Ultra-Humanite. What we get with the new direction is Power Girl talking about how badass she is with a little flava-flave kind of narration.
Interestingly enough, there are almost no narration sections for issue 19 and what little there is, is just recap for those who are just getting into the series. Max Lord is back and is constantly wiping and manipulating the the minds of the entire J.S.A. team so that no one remembers him. His ultimate goal seems to be to get back at the world, especially the heroes that he was either once close with or had hurt him in some way or another.
The first leg of the story is a memory of Power Girl's of her, Booster Gold, Blue Beetle and Max. Telling a story of their battle with the Flush Gang. A memory of a memory. To establish how Power Girl felt about the old days. Then we get the J.S.A. meeting where Power Girl has to explain things to the team because they do not remember him. It is what turns out to be a futile effort because everyone just forgets again, including Power Girl.
Then we are off to what seemed to be surprisingly interesting scene but then turned disappointing shortly after. I say disappointed because it was the only part that actually woke me up in the issue. I will not give it away because it was the highlight of the issue. But I will say that it had to do with Power Girl, Nicco and Divine.
This brings me to my next point, Divine. Okay, if anyone read issue 17 and 18, you already know about her. I will assume my fellow readers did and do. Divine is some kind of clone of Kara with her own slight genetic spin, created by Max. It is an overused plot choice but to be honest, it is the best thing that has come out of the series post creator team. I actually really like the Divine story, as unoriginal as it is. That said, it is really just a side-story to the main plot, which I have found very uninteresting so far.
Now we come to the art. Done by Basri in a manga-type style. It is not terrible, but not great either. However, I do get the feeling that the art is kind of.... lifeless. It is just kind of flat. If anyone has heard me talk about the creative team for this series before, they would know that I had an almost unhealthy fixation for Conner's work on Power Girl. The art was so alive. When reading it, I felt more like I was watching it, like a movie. With Basri, I do not get a sense of motion at all. His story flow reminds me of Southpark. Obviously, his art is not nearly as terrible as the intentionally bad art that is that show. But it has that feel. Like I am watching paper dolls being moved around in classic stop-motion type of fluidity. The facial expressions are also lacking comparatively. I understand what emotion I am supposed to see. It just lacks the punch that I loved from Conner. Startling that I still weep for my beloved creative team after 7 issues, I know.
But just take a look at this scan of a page from issue 4. It was utterly pointless to the rest of the DC universe but dammit, just try to tell me that you do not enjoy reading it. For those that have not read the issue, they are clearly at the movies, watching a horror flick.
Then compare it to a page taken from issue 19.
My overall point was that while the old team never really did anything important continuity-wise, they made Kara not just a likable character, but a lovable one. It was a very character driven type of story that was just fun. It was an extreme change of pace from what is always going on in nearly every other super title. The new team is trying to emulate certain parts of that, only make the series important to the rest of the DC universe. It is not going well. I do not see it as being executed correctly. I almost feel like I am reading a second J.S.A. title rather than a Power Girl title.
Without comparing it to what my beloved creative team put out, it is a meh issue. The art is uninteresting, the story is literally the middle of an entire arc and almost nothing happens in it at all. In fact, most of this could have probably been covered in next issue's recap narration. We do get to see Prof Anthony Ivo on the last page though, giving us a quick glimpse of what his role in the story is.
Pros: It featured Divine in one panel of the recap. DC is staying true to their 2.99 promise.
Cons: Just about everything else entirely.
I give this issue a rating of 3 out of 10 as a stand alone rating. If I am comparing it to.... you guessed it, the old team's issues, the rating would be much worse. Skip this one and get what little it actually offered in next month's recap.
Power Girl 19
Judd Winick - Story
Sami Basri - Art
I was a huge fan of the series when it was done by Gray, Palmiotti and Conner. In my opinion, for a series that never seemed to do much that was very important, it was a thoroughly enjoyable series. The humor was lowbrow yet cute, the art was great and how Conner did facial expressions told stories without us needing the narration to do it.
The new direction by Winick has been an adjustment for me. I cannot say that I am honestly on board yet. Power Girl seems different from all the things I loved about Gray and Palmiotti's version. It seems like they try to make her the same, but they are missing the mark by just enough to be noticeable.
Gray and Palmiotti's Power Girl was confident and cool, funny and adorable. Winick's Power Girl goes beyond confident and cool. She is arrogant and cocky. Instead of funny and adorable, we have angry and otherwise emotionally inaccessible.
The narration is quite a bit different. Power Girl used to look outward with her narration. She would tell us about what she thought of those she interacted with. Like Terra and the Ultra-Humanite. What we get with the new direction is Power Girl talking about how badass she is with a little flava-flave kind of narration.
Interestingly enough, there are almost no narration sections for issue 19 and what little there is, is just recap for those who are just getting into the series. Max Lord is back and is constantly wiping and manipulating the the minds of the entire J.S.A. team so that no one remembers him. His ultimate goal seems to be to get back at the world, especially the heroes that he was either once close with or had hurt him in some way or another.
The first leg of the story is a memory of Power Girl's of her, Booster Gold, Blue Beetle and Max. Telling a story of their battle with the Flush Gang. A memory of a memory. To establish how Power Girl felt about the old days. Then we get the J.S.A. meeting where Power Girl has to explain things to the team because they do not remember him. It is what turns out to be a futile effort because everyone just forgets again, including Power Girl.
Then we are off to what seemed to be surprisingly interesting scene but then turned disappointing shortly after. I say disappointed because it was the only part that actually woke me up in the issue. I will not give it away because it was the highlight of the issue. But I will say that it had to do with Power Girl, Nicco and Divine.
This brings me to my next point, Divine. Okay, if anyone read issue 17 and 18, you already know about her. I will assume my fellow readers did and do. Divine is some kind of clone of Kara with her own slight genetic spin, created by Max. It is an overused plot choice but to be honest, it is the best thing that has come out of the series post creator team. I actually really like the Divine story, as unoriginal as it is. That said, it is really just a side-story to the main plot, which I have found very uninteresting so far.
Now we come to the art. Done by Basri in a manga-type style. It is not terrible, but not great either. However, I do get the feeling that the art is kind of.... lifeless. It is just kind of flat. If anyone has heard me talk about the creative team for this series before, they would know that I had an almost unhealthy fixation for Conner's work on Power Girl. The art was so alive. When reading it, I felt more like I was watching it, like a movie. With Basri, I do not get a sense of motion at all. His story flow reminds me of Southpark. Obviously, his art is not nearly as terrible as the intentionally bad art that is that show. But it has that feel. Like I am watching paper dolls being moved around in classic stop-motion type of fluidity. The facial expressions are also lacking comparatively. I understand what emotion I am supposed to see. It just lacks the punch that I loved from Conner. Startling that I still weep for my beloved creative team after 7 issues, I know.
But just take a look at this scan of a page from issue 4. It was utterly pointless to the rest of the DC universe but dammit, just try to tell me that you do not enjoy reading it. For those that have not read the issue, they are clearly at the movies, watching a horror flick.
Then compare it to a page taken from issue 19.
My overall point was that while the old team never really did anything important continuity-wise, they made Kara not just a likable character, but a lovable one. It was a very character driven type of story that was just fun. It was an extreme change of pace from what is always going on in nearly every other super title. The new team is trying to emulate certain parts of that, only make the series important to the rest of the DC universe. It is not going well. I do not see it as being executed correctly. I almost feel like I am reading a second J.S.A. title rather than a Power Girl title.
Without comparing it to what my beloved creative team put out, it is a meh issue. The art is uninteresting, the story is literally the middle of an entire arc and almost nothing happens in it at all. In fact, most of this could have probably been covered in next issue's recap narration. We do get to see Prof Anthony Ivo on the last page though, giving us a quick glimpse of what his role in the story is.
Pros: It featured Divine in one panel of the recap. DC is staying true to their 2.99 promise.
Cons: Just about everything else entirely.
I give this issue a rating of 3 out of 10 as a stand alone rating. If I am comparing it to.... you guessed it, the old team's issues, the rating would be much worse. Skip this one and get what little it actually offered in next month's recap.
