Power Girl #9 – Leah Williams, Writer; Eduardo Pansica, Penciller; Julio Ferreira, Inker; Romulo Fajardo Jr, Colorist
Ray – 8.5/10
Ray: It’s the second issue of this book’s “House of Brainiac” tie-in, and while the rest of the Super-family is dealing with high-octane space adventure, Power Girl is trying to keep a group of Czarnian juvenile delinquents from taking over the city. But she’s got some help—Crush, Lobo’s renegade daughter, and her friends the Holliday Girls. When they first met, Peeg naturally assumed Crush was one of the invaders, and valuable time was wasted battling it out—but now they’re quickly able to work together. I’ve always been a fan of Crush outside of the run in which she first appeared, particularly thanks to the excellent Mariko Tamaki miniseries that really went into her toxic relationship with her absentee dad. Now she’s found her own place in the world—and she’s more than ready to take out her frustrations on her dad’s fellow species-mates if they’re causing her adopted world any trouble.
And they are—in the form of a group of young Czarnians taking advantage of Brainiac’s invasion to run rampant with nanoblasters. These powerful weapons don’t just cause a lot of damage, they have the ability to alter DNA—resulting in a series of weird mutations. But while they’re hilariously over-the-top at times, they’re also very dangerous, as is made pretty clear when they take the Holliday Girls hostage. This is a good way of illustrating that Crush has genuinely changed a lot since we first met her—she is willing to go to bat for people on Earth now. This unlikely partnership has Power Girl in the more responsible role for a change, which is a nice change of pace from her status as… a bit of a mess in this run. This book seems to be finding its footing pretty quickly and this event has upped the threat level. I’m hoping Williams manages to keep Crush in the supporting cast going forward.
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GeekDad received this comic for review purposes.
