JUSTICE LEAGUE OF AMERICA #208 (Nov 1982)

WHO'S THAT (POWER) GIRL: EXPLAINING POWER GIRL'S HISTORY
11-10-2005 04:37 PM by Troy Brownfield

If there’s one truism that runs through both the original Crisis on Infinite Earths and its thematic descendant Infinite Crisis, it’s that unexpected characters suddenly get a chance to shine. Granted, Power Girl’s not exactly a wallflower. She’d had significant roles in series ranging from All-Star Comics to Justice League Europe to Birds of Prey and JSA. She recently headlined the much-discussed debut arc of JSA: Classified. And of course, she graces the both variant covers for this week’s Infinite Crisis #2. Still, despite the fact that she’s a perennially minor character, Power Girl has a strident fanbase and certainly plays a crucial role in DC’s biggest project of the decade thus far. Where then did Power Girl originate, and what were some of the highlights on her circuitous path to crossover glory? (Writer’s Note: Notice that I said some of the highlights; this does not pretend to be a complete list of appearances)

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Justice League of America #195-197; JLA #207-209 (and All-Star Squadron #14-15) and JLA #219-220 (early ‘80s): While these appearances aren’t mind-bogglingly significant in the life of the character, they do represent several occasions upon which Kara interacted with the heroes of Earth-1 during the annual JLA/JSA crossovers. Most interesting is her cross-world flirtation with the JLA’s young hero, Firestorm. Writer Conway slowly built this attraction over a few years. It has enough meaning for the heroine that she goes ballistic in the early pages of #220 after Firestorm has been injured in an ambush. These are all fun stories, and it’s amusing in retrospect that, in keeping with tradition for such team-ups, most of them incorporated the word “Crisis” into their respective titles.