Power Girl #8 – Leah Williams, Writer; Eduardo Pansica, Penciller; Julio Ferreira, Inker; Romulo Fajardo Jr, Colorist
Ray – 9/10
Ray: After two arcs taking place on the fringes of Metropolis, it’s time for Power Girl to be thrown into the deep end of the coming event—House of Brainiac. As the issue begins, it’s a relaxed time as Paige and Omen are practicing ice skating and talking about Paige’s crush on wild-card scientist Axel. This is a really funny scene, especially the bit involving the “psychic jerk jar” in Paige and Lilith’s apartment for when Lilith gets a little too intrusive with her superpowers. But there’s no time for relaxing, as soon the Brainiac drones descend on the city and start snapping up one metahuman after another, including Omen, Silver Banshee—and even Streaky, but not Paige. And there’s a reason for that—because she’s from Earth-2, and Brainiac’s drones can’t process her. This seems like a big weakness given how the multiverse is everywhere, but it allows Superman to deputize Power Girl to protect Metropolis in his absence.
While the big threat has taken to the skies, there’s still plenty of chaos to deal with as the ships recede—starting with the presence of another Czarnian in the city. It’s Crush, who is likely just as confused by the current Czarnian attack as anyone else, but that doesn’t stop Power Girl from immediately assuming she’s part of the invasion and accosting her. It doesn’t go well for her, kicking the likely team-up between them off on the wrong foot. But that doesn’t mean there aren’t other Czarnians present who are going to be a problem, and the collection of goons loose in Metropolis now have a weapon with some hilarious effects. This is a good choice for a tie-in—it’s action-packed, but much lighter than the incredibly intense main chapters written by Josh Williamson, and it also allows us to see some of the smaller moments of the invasion that might otherwise get lost in the shuffle.
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GeekDad received this comic for review purposes.
