No time for love, Dr. Jones! Let’s go!
Absolute Wonder Woman #1 (“The Last Amazon Part 1 of 5”) by Kelly Thompson (writer), Hayden Sherman (artist), Jordie Bellaire (colorist), Becca Carey (colorist), Ash Padilla (assistant editor), and Chris Conroy (editor). $4.99, 30 pgs.
This is a good comic, better than AbsBat, but it’s still frustrating. Thompson gives over exactly half of the issue – 15 pages of the 30 – to the “origin” of AbsWoW, who shows up in Gateway City ready to kick ass and take some damned names. It’s not bad, because Kelly is too good a writer, but it does feel both unnecessary and a bit premature. “Unnecessary” because it’s basically … Apollo gives Diana to Circe to raise in Hell, because that’s where Circe is imprisoned, and Circe isn’t allowed to say “Amazon,” and Circe thinks she can just let a snake kill Diana, but then Diana is too groovy to kill, so Circe decides to raise the punk, and she falls in love with her, of course. It’s fine, to a degree, but it also feels a bit drawn out. “Premature” because it doesn’t really tell us anything that we need to know for the present-day situation Diana finds herself in, so perhaps it didn’t need to be in this issue? Also, toward the end, Diana reclaims the name “Amazon,” which is supposed to be a powerful moment as she takes charge of her own life (Circe isn’t allowed to say it, but I guess she wrote it down so Diana knows it?), but we have no context for it, so it doesn’t really hit as hard as Thompson wants it to. As with far too many comics, we’re supposed to bring our own knowledge of older comics to this, but if DC wants this to be a “fresh start,” they can’t expect people to know what “Amazon” means, and we don’t really get it here. We do learn a tiny bit about who the Amazons are, but it’s second-hand knowledge and we simply don’t know what it means when Diana claims it. If this were coming after some present-day adventures and perhaps Diana learning a bit more about the Amazons instead of Circe just telling her, it would probably mean more. Hence, premature.
The insistence on a somewhat drawn-out “origin” means the present-day stuff loses a bit of its luster, too. Gateway City is under attack by flying demonic-looking monsters emanating from an upside-down floating pyramid, and Diana shows up, slaughters a bunch of them, and has a chat with this level’s Big Boss, a giant demonic-looking monster that’s “preparing the way” or some such shit. It’s very monster-of-the-week, and I wonder if it would have been more effective if we had gotten more of the present and less of the past, because neither section has the impact it seems Thompson wants them to have. Diana’s declaration that she’s an “Amazon” in the past is fairly meaningless because we don’t know what it means to be an Amazon, while the final page of the issue, where she unleashes some kind of lasso (it’s red, not gold, so who knows what it does), is also supposed to be monumental, but she’s just been fighting worker bees in this issue (sure, the Big Boss is a bit big, but it’s still a worker bee), so her proclamation that she’s the guardian of Earth doesn’t hit terribly hard, either. It just feels like Kelly wanted to get the “origin” in and pacing of a five-issue arc demanded that we don’t get too many bad guys too soon, but it still feels weirdly structured. It’s not a terrible first issue, but it’s not as powerful as it could be, unfortunately.
Sherman has been getting higher and higher profile work, and good for them, I say, because they’re just a very good artist. Interesting but not confusing page designs, crisp line work, excellent details – as much as I think the “origin” could have been moved to a later issue, Sherman manages to do six pages in the center of this issue that are just four-tiered double-page spreads showing Circe’s cave where she raises Diana and they actually make it interesting – we get the slow evolution of the space over the years, as Sherman keeps adding nice touches to Circe’s slow domestication as she learns to love Diana. The fight scenes are cool, Diana is fierce-looking but not a dazzling beauty, and Bellaire’s colors are, not surprisingly, excellent. The first page shows us Gateway City on a brochure, which kind of cracked me up because it looks nothing like an actual American city would look like (that’s not to say I wouldn’t want to live there; it looks neat), but if you’re designing a city from scratch, why not make it as nifty as you can?
I enjoyed this a little more than Absolute Batman, but it does still feel a bit wonky. As usual, I’m not sure who this is for. If it’s an attempt to draw new readers in, it feels like a miss because it requires new readers to do a bit too much heavy lifting. If it’s just another superhero comic, I guess it’s fine that Thompson lets us fill in the blanks. I just felt it could have been more emotionally resonant if she had concentrated on the present day more and let us get to know Diana before hitting us with the stuff from the past. But that’s just me. You might be glad to go ALL IN with AbsWoW!
Rating: ★ ★ ★ ★ ★ ★ ★ ½ ☆ ☆
One totally Airwolf panel:
Detective Comics #1090 (“Mercy of the Father Part One”) by Tom Taylor (writer), Mikel Janín (artist/colorist), Wes Abbott (letterer), Jessica Berbey (associate editor), and Ben Meares (editor). $4.99, 22 pgs.
I’m pretty sure the first time I saw Janín’s art was in the Nu52, when he drew … Justice League Dark, right? Anyway, much like Sami Basri’s art, which I also saw for the first time in that reboot, I didn’t love Janín’s art back then, but he’s gotten better over the years, and this book is very nice to look at. He’s using a bit of a rougher line and some chunkier blacks, but he can still do the thin-line stuff as well, so there’s a nice contrast between the gritty scenes in this book that Batman appears in and the more genteel scenes that Bruce Wayne is in, while the flashbacks to Bruce’s past (sigh) are also nicely delineated from the present. Janín colors this himself, and he does an excellent job – he uses that soft, digitally rendered palette that not too long ago made art look far too artificial and CGI, but the technology has improved and it works a lot better these days, so Janín can blend in some things that might (?) be Photoshopped into the overall aesthetic much better, and some of the softer coloring that obliterates the line work looks quite good in small and selected spots. It’s a really nice-looking comic.
Taylor got a lot of love for his run on Nightwing, and I guess this is his reward. I’ve liked Taylor’s work in the past, but I haven’t read his Nightwing (I guess I should?), but this is a bit of a dumb set-up issue. Like most of these ALL IN comics, it’s a solid issue, it gives us an intriguing concept that’s not super-original (somebody is killing minor and non-lethal criminals, and that’s something up with which Bats will not stand), but there are some dumb things, too. Taylor is setting up a thing where Bruce has to deal with the fact that his father had a chance to let Joe Chill die before he performs surgery on him but saved his life because he’s a doctor. I mean, in a superhero universe with multiple dimensions that you can actually visit, the idea of Joe Chill dying before he can kill Bruce’s parents is something that Bruce can experience, but it’s still a bit dumb. Thomas Wayne has no idea who Joe Chill will be and he’s a damned doctor – it’s not his job to determine who lives and dies (he’s not Alec Baldwin, after all), it’s just his job to try to save everyone he can. Instead, there’s going to be this existential crisis with Bruce and WHY GOD, WHY?!?!?!? and I am not here for that. Then, in the present, Joe Chill’s daughter (that is Joe Chill’s daughter, right – I’m not mistaking anything here, am I?) is peddling some snake oil that Bruce actually considers taking? Really? She has something that she claims will slow down and even reverse aging, and in one exceptionally dumb panel, Bruce narrates to himself that he has “rejected the lure of enhancements in the past” but if he could “find an improvement from a purely medical source …” he might be tempted. Really, Bruce? FUCKING REALLY?!?!?!
I mean, you can always argue that LotDK is NOT in continuity, but DC forced it into continuity with the creation of, you know, the guy who broke Batman’s back and shit. So Bruce has always rejected enhancements? And even if we believe that, he thinks that this shit from a “purely medical source” is smart? Sheesh. Second, I know you have kind of a “Big Brother” relationship with Joe Chill’s daughter whom we’ve never heard of, but you live in a superhero universe, Bruce – don’t fucking trust a scientist who looks like this:
She might be on the up-and-up, but come on – we know she’s totally not. I get that Bruce trusts her because he’s known her all his life even though we’ve never seen her before, so I can let that go a bit, but Bruce’s stupidity with her “aqua vita iuvenis” makes me grind my teeth. Thomas letting Joe Chill go becoming an existential crisis for Bruce is dumb but ties into this villain who’s killing very minor criminals, and I know that will tie into the rejuvenating tonic, but man! it just feels dumb. Dumb dumb dumb. Oh well.
As usual with these books, this is pretty decent. It’s a good set-up issue, and the art is beautiful, and despite the unoriginality of the ideas contained within, Taylor writes a pretty good Batman and Bruce, so that’s nice. It’s just a bit frustrating that Bruce is so d-u-m. It’s making it hard to go ALL IN with Detective!
Rating: ★ ★ ★ ★ ★ ★ ½ ☆ ☆ ☆
One totally Airwolf panel:
The Flash #14 (“As Above”) by Simon Spurrier (writer), Vasco Georgiev (artist), Matt Herms (colorist), Hassan Otsmane-Elhaou (letterer), and Chris Rosa (editor). $3.99, 20 pgs.
This is a perfectly fine superhero adventure, with Wally taking his family to Skartaris for a family vacation that turns out to be an actual Justice League mission, and instead of being pissed, they think it’s cool. In the meantime, Barry claims he’s cool with losing his powers, but this is a superhero comic, so of course he’s not (I mean, nothing in here implies that he isn’t, but, come on). And Wally does something hinky that we find out about on the final page of the issue. It’s fine. Spurrier is a good writer, but he’s throttling it back a bit to just write a straight-forward superhero story, and Georgiev’s cartoony art fits the tone of the book perfectly well. The only question I have is:
Wait, Wally has THREE (3) children? Are they all his and not adopted from some other dimension? Were they taken to some other dimension where they aged, like Illyana Rasputin? The two older kids are fairly old – at least older than 10 – but I’m not sure if they’re actually his children or not. I guess the baby probably is, but what the heck is a-going on here? I assume someone out there knows!
Anyway, this is fine. Just fine. It’s a nice superhero comic. Nothing objectionable at all, but nothing that really stands out, either. But hey, you can go ALL IN … to Skartaris!
Rating: ★ ★ ★ ★ ★ ★ ☆ ☆ ☆ ☆
One totally Airwolf panel:
Green Arrow #17 (“Trial by Justice”/”A Change of Scenery”) by Joshua Williamson (writer), Chris Condon (writer), Amancay Nahuelpan (artist), Montos (artist), Romulo Fajardo Jr. (colorist), Adriano Lucas (colorist), Troy Peteri (letterer), Hassan Otsmane-Elhaou (letterer), and Chris Rosa (editor). $4.99, 28 pgs.
I haven’t loved all the ALL IN comics, but this issue of Green Arrow feels like the worst one so far, mainly because, like the Green Lantern issues, it feels so very perfunctory, as if Williamson got ChatGPT to write the script for him. I get that GA needs to be redeemed a bit because he was a “bad guy” in Absolute Power, but it’s such a dull way to go about it, with the supers forgiving him easily while Batman remains suspicious, because he’s fucking Batman, and Oliver going after some random billionaire fat cat at the end. It’s not a set-up issue in the way a lot of these are, as it does not seem like there’s any major story arc starting right now, so it’s basically a State of the Green Arrow primer, which makes it kind of dull. The back-up story, in which Bats confronts Oliver about his recent past, is actually pretty good, especially as there’s a creepy villain killing people. I don’t know if that story will migrate to the main one, but that might be interesting. It’s too bad, because the art in the back-up story is quite good, and I’ve been a fan of Nahuelpan for years and I’m glad he’s getting work at DC, but even the work here feels a bit uninspired. It’s fine, but it feels like the rougher edges have been sanded off a bit to make it more “superheroic,” and that ain’t no good. Maybe it’s Fajardo’s coloring doing the trick. It’s decent enough art, but it’s not as cool-looking as some of his indie stuff and even some of his earlier DC work. Oh well. And, after I actually kind of liked his lettering in Jason Copland’s Full Tilt, I’m back to not loving Troy Peteri’s lettering. You may think that’s silly (not someone like Bill Reed or Travis, who appreciate good lettering), but good or bad lettering can have a profound impact on the enjoyment of a comic, because it is, after all, what we’re looking at the most. Peteri just has never been my cup of tea, and reading this issue, I felt a vague sense of annoyance that I’m fairly sure is because of the lettering. Sorry, Mr. Peteri!
So I’m kind of out on Green Arrow. Are you willing to go ALL IN????
Rating: ★ ★ ★ ★ ★ ½ ☆ ☆ ☆ ☆
One totally Airwolf panel:
Harley Quinn #44 (“Back in Town”) by Elliott Kalan (writer), Mindy Lee (artist), TrŇona Farrell (colorist), Lucas Gattoni (letterer), James Reid (assistant editor), and Arianna Turturro (editor). $3.99, 22 pgs.
Lee’s art on Harley Quinn #44 is terrific, as her cartoony style fits the tone of the book quite well. She does nice work with Harley’s rubbery facial expressions, which works nicely with a manic personality like Harley, and she exaggerates the characters well, keeping them within the realm of reality while still making them cartoonish characters, from the evil (but, apparently, very crush-worthy) manager of the corporate tower that draws Harley’s ire to the grumpy old woman who lets Harley rent her room because Harley is an old-school Gothamite. Lee’s storytelling flows nicely, and her frenetic and curvy style helps with the few action scenes in the comic. It’s a nice look.
The story is fine, but a bit laughable. I always read into plots what I think the writer likes or dislikes, and in this issue, Harley discovers gentrification. I imagine this is something that Kalan feels strongly about, because it seems like an odd thing for Harley to get involved in just as a character, but what do I know? Gentrification is a tough topic to deal with, because it’s not really a Manichean issue, where it’s clear, say, that gentrification is evil. I don’t love it, but at the same time, I recognize that it’s not so simple that a comic book about a hammer-wielding psychopath might not be the best place to deal with it. I don’t imagine people who are living in gentrified neighborhoods are quite as evil as Althea Klang (to be fair, she’s not necessarily a resident, just the manager of the tower that represents the gentrification) or as hipstery as the guy from whom Harley gets her information about the gentrification, and Kalan can’t possibly get into the many, many nuances of gentrification in this comic. Harley jokes about how awful the neighborhood was before gentrification, but it was the right kind of awful, damn it! Kalan doesn’t address the racist undertones of gentrification, because of course he doesn’t, and he makes jokes about the fact that “Throatcutter Hill” (and even Gotham City wouldn’t be depraved enough to put up a statue of the mayor who got his throat cut in the area – hence the name – at the moment after his throat was cut, but there it is) was a pretty terrible place and it’s much safer now (yes, it has something to do with the heavy presence of security guards, but it also might be because someone cleaned up the place … see, gentrification isn’t a simple issue!!!). He just has to show the fait accompli of gentrification and assume that we’ll all be on his side, even though I would bet 90% of the people reading this comic live in the suburbs and wouldn’t set foot in an “ungentrified” neighborhood ever. Again, I get this is a comic and it’s just a way to get Harley in a place where she can smash shit without being the true villain, but it doesn’t quite work as well as Kalan wants it to. This is supposed to be a goofy, charming, chaotic comic, but, as usual, I’m thinking waaaaay too much about it, and it falls apart if you think about it even a little bit. I guess you could go ALL IN without thinking about it, right?
Rating: ★ ★ ★ ★ ★ ★ ☆ ☆ ☆ ☆
One totally Airwolf panel:
Nightwing #119 (“On With the Show Part 1: Curtain Up”) by Dan Watters (writer), Dexter Soy (artist), Veronica Candini (colorist), Wes Abbott (letterer), and Jessica Berbey (editor). $4.99, 22 pgs.
I first saw Dexter Soy’s art when he launched the new Carol Danvers series back when Marvel Now! was a thing (I think – it was for one of the Marvel soft reboots, and I think it was that one) and I loathed it. I could barely read the story because I hated the art so much. Soy, it’s clear, knows what he’s doing in terms of laying a page out and such, so his art isn’t incomprehensible, but the way he draws is just so … blech. I’m sure he has fans, and that’s great, but it just wasn’t for me. I’ve seen his art a bit over the years, and I know he’s gotten better … but it’s still not for me. This issue is a good example of that: He uses those really soft lines that are easily overwhelmed by the horribly over-rendered coloring (Gandini, in my mind, shares a good amount of the blame for the poor art), and because I assume most of this is digital, he skimps on the backgrounds, so unlike the Gotham City of Batman or Detective (by two different artists, mind you), Soy’s Blüdhaven is a muddled mess, with barely-there skyscrapers (except for one panel, which takes place during the day) and murky lights. Part of this is Gandini’s fault, of course – in the grand tradition of mid-1990s colorists like Patron Saint Trish Mulvihill, Gandini defaults to “muddy” a lot, and the book just looks kind of ugly. Soy’s thick, rough blacks don’t have the same pop as, say, Alessandro Cappuccio’s on Moon Knight – Cappuccio uses a lot of blacks, but he uses them as slashes through brighter colors, while Soy’s blacks just accentuate other muted colors. Soy seems to have some talent, but it feels like he should lean into his idiosyncrasies a bit more – with a harder, more jagged line he might be a weirder and more interesting artist, because his figure work is slightly wonky but wouldn’t be, I don’t think, if his line were harder – instead of treading this middle ground. Oh well.
There’s a story, too, but it’s a bit dull. Watters has shown that he can write weird, creepy stuff as well as anyone, but mainstream superhero comics are a different animal, and not everyone can transition to them. I mean, this could turn out to be great, and the weird, masked villainous puppeteer in this book has potential, but there’s not much else here. Nightwing decides to beat up some gangs (good for him!), but the real story is the woman who sells weapons to the city (which is mayored by Dick’s … sister?!?!?) for use by the police, because she’s obviously evil. Dick goes to check out her place, and that’s where the issue ends. It’s very much a set-up issue, but as I’ve written often over the past few weeks, there’s a way to do a set-up issue that works, and a way to do a set-up issue that doesn’t, and it’s hard to define the formula. This falls slightly on the side of “not working,” although it’s not terrible. It’s just kind of bland. And Dick has a sister?!?!?!? What the crap is up with that?
Anyway, I’m not quite ready to go ALL IN with Nightwing. Perhaps you will be!
Rating: ★ ★ ★ ★ ★ ★ ☆ ☆ ☆ ☆
One totally Airwolf panel:
Power Girl #14 (“Veni Vidi Luigi or Whatever the Romans Said”) by Leah Williams (writer), Adriana Melo (artist), Romulo Fajardo Jr. (colorist), Becca Carey (letterer), Jillian Grant (assistant editor), and Brittany Holzherr (senior editor). $3.99, 20 pgs.
Williams didn’t get the memo, apparently, about this being a soft reboot, because this issue of Power Girl feels like we’re just in the middle of a story arc, which is kind of weird. Ejecta (yuck) isn’t a new villain, for instance, as what’s going on with her feels like it’s in the middle of things. It’s not too hard to pick things up, but it is a bit strange. Williams’s memo accidentally got faxed to 1995 and she missed it!
Meanwhile, what the hell is up with this Power Girl? I got that PG Special a while back, and I knew this isn’t your grandfather’s PG, but … she’s kind of exactly like Kara, except her name is Paige? She’s a large-breasted, short-haired blonde with superpowers exactly like Old-Skool Power Girl? That’s just … weird. What’s going on? I get that we’re in a woke universe, so we’re replacing Old White Dudes with The Rainbow of Diverse Characters, and that’s cool, so we replaced a Woman with … the exact same Woman? What the heck?
Anyway, this is a decent enough issue, as PG reveals her secret identity to her friend at The Daily Planet because they need to figure out what Ejecta’s deal is, and there’s a nice scene with all the people in PG’s life hanging out. Ejecta is a lot more formidable than they think, so when they provoke her, they get beaten up a little, and then we find out a bit more about Ejecta, which doesn’t bode well for our hero. It’s all very boilerplate superhero stuff (except for the hanging out, which, as I noted, is delightful), but it’s fine. Melo has always been a decent artist, and the book looks fine. Ejecta and her social media followers are especially well done. There are a few wonky drawings, as Melo occasionally loses perspective or flow (the panel with the cat flying is very off), but overall, the art is pretty good.
I still have no idea who this Power Girl is, but should that stop us from going ALL IN with her adventures?!?!?
Rating: ★ ★ ★ ★ ★ ★ ½ ☆ ☆ ☆
One totally Airwolf panel:
Superman #19 (“The Many Deaths of Doomsday”) by Joshua Williamson (writer), Dan More (artist), Alejandro Sanchez (colorist), Ariana Maher (letterer), Jillian Grant (assistant editor), and Paul Kaminski (editor). $4.99, 22 pgs.
Williamson might have written a bland Green Arrow ALL IN issue, but he does a nice job with this Superman one, so he’s 1-for-2 this week! He doesn’t re-invent any wheels here, but we get a nice introduction to the idea of Superman and Superwoman, as Lois zips out with Clark to fight the Atomic Skull, which is only a prelude to an appearance by a Giant-Sized Doomsday, which is only part of something the Time Trapper is up to. Oh, so many layers! Williamson does a good job with the banter between Clark and Lois and with Jimmy’s predicament when he tries to do his job and with teasing the mystery of what the Time Trapper is doing. Lots going on, in other words, but Williamson balances it all out and even gives us newly-nice Lex Luthor, who obviously will not be nice for long (I mean, we don’t get any of a “return to evil” from the one page in which he appears, but come on!). I have no idea what the deal is with Lois and her superpowers, but Williamson explains enough to get by and I’m sure we’ll learn more about them as we go along. It’s always interesting reading two books by the same writer close together, because I know Williamson is pretty good, so why he’s kind of bland on GA but not here is a mystery. Maybe he just likes Superman more?
Mora is terrific on art, naturally. You don’t need to tell you that! I’m intrigued by how fast he works and what he schedule looks like. He was on World’s Finest for a while but drew some of Shazam! at the same time, and now he’s doing this issue of Superman but is also on the new Justice League book, but it appears he’s drawing this for a little bit, at least. Is he just fast, or does he have a lot of lead time, or does he not sleep? So many questions!!!! Anyway, the art is great. Of course it is!
I’m not a huge fan of Superman, but I don’t mind reading his adventures every so often. This is a pretty good set-up issue, one of the better ones of the ALL IN reboot so far. I know a lot of that has to do with the art, but Williamson really does a good job drawing us in, giving us plenty of information but also plenty of intrigue. That’s always nice. You can easily go ALL IN with Superman!
Rating: ★ ★ ★ ★ ★ ★ ★ ½ ☆ ☆
One totally Airwolf panel:
Once again, I must apologize for the lateness of this post. The blog continues to be wonky, and it keeps me from being as focused on doing these as I should be, because I’m always anxious it’s not going to save properly or I won’t be able to load images. It’s annoying. We’re still not sure what’s going on! I hope to have a better monthly post than last time, but who the hell knows these days with the way the blog is acting up? So, I will try to be quicker this week, but until then, I hope everyone is having a nice October!
Melinda was introduced fairly early on in Taylor’s (excellent!) run.
It’s a fairly straightforward book in the vein of Fraction’s Hawkeye and Waid’s Daredevil…but those are excellent books to imitate, haha!
Is she his actual sister, and if so, how did he explain her complete absence up until now?!?!?!?
She’s his half-sister, whose mother is the ex-wife of…TONY ZUCCO!!!
It’s silly, but it works in the comic because Taylor’s a good writer.
I mean, yeah, it’s silly, but it’s not completely stupid! 🙂
I guess I also liked AbsDubs more than you too– the flashback sequences were my favorite part, and what I think gives the book its unique spin and umami flavor (so far). Sherman’s art is incredible– love that style, and the way pages are laid out.
Bruce says he rejects enhancements, but didn’t he have a robot hand like six months ago? Also– remember when Ben Reilly hung out with the Burglar’s daughter in the ’90s?
Two of Wally’s kids have been around for going on 20 years, Greg! Though there were various crises and rapid aging and they were erased from continuity and then brought back I think. But they were major characters in Waid’s short return back in like 2007. I haven’t really followed Flash since then, but I picked up the first trade of Spurrier’s run. It was interesting, if a little confusing. I wish Deodato stuck around on the book.
Dick Grayson’s sister first appeared (IIRC) in Taylor’s Nightwing. Which is good, and you should read it! I think it’s the flagship run of the current era of DC, for good or ill. I’m reading it in trades and I dig it. There is some filler, but when Redondo is drawing, it is top-tier superhero comicking.
I have no idea what Power Girl’s deal is these days. I think she’s still Earth 2 Supergirl or something? I remember seeing her in One-Star Squadron which mostly adhered to the depiction I’m used to from the JLI days.
Apparently Mora is very fast. I don’t think I’ve seen an artist juggle two books a month since Romita Jr 25 years ago. Hayden Sherman must be quick too, because they’re drawing AWW, an upcoming 12-issue Batman maxi-series, and I just saw some Dark Horse book solicited!
I enjoyed the parts of AbsWoW well enough, I just thought the structure was weird. That’s all.
Well, I’ve never read the Flash with any regularity, so how the heck would I know? They still seem old, and that bugs me, because DC ignores aging unless they want to. If Wally has kids that old, Bats and GA and GL and Barry Allen would be in their 50s, I would think.
It’s the old soap opera thing of not wanting to deal with babies, so the children all age rapidly! Jon Kent, Wally’s kids, I think Damian Wayne was like grown or aged in a lab or something (?). They want readers to feel the weight of the franchise’s history but they also want the characters to perpetually be under 40.
One of the things I really liked about Taylor’s Nightwing is him stubbornly writing Dick and Babs as ~30 and Bruce as early 40s, even if he never *says* it.
Power Girl is the Supergirl from Earth 2.
As Supergirl is also active on the same Earth they are now calling Power Girl “Paige” or “Peej” (derived from PG) rather than Kara or Karen, presumably to differentiate her from the Earth 1 Supergirl
10 years ago they tried to send her back to Earth-2 and replace her with a teenage genius (I think she was African-American to satisfy the diversity requirement)
But the original was too popular to sideline indefinitely so she’s back
So, is she the Power Girl from, say, Justice League Europe? Oh, my head hurts!!!!
Wait, they actually call her Paige because of “PG”? Jeebus, as if people simply cannot handle more than one person in their lives with the same name. I know several Jennifers, and I’ve never confused them!
The whole thing is just stupid. She went by Karen in her civilian live so it wasn’t even like they both had the same name. And they took her from being head of her own tech company to… being a reporter at the Daily Planet???
I’m not a big Power Girl fan or anything but there’s no way that all this doesn’t get retconed or forgotten about once this series is cancelled is there?