Power Girl
Winick, Basri to take over Power Girl with issue #13
Power Girl #13
Following up on the announcement that Jimmy Palmiotti, Justin Gray and Amanda Conner are leaving Power Girl after issue #12, DC’s the Source blog reveals who will be replacing them. Starting with issue #13, writer Judd Winick and artist Sami Basri will chronicle the adventures of Kara Zor-L.
“It is with GREAT fear and excitement that Sami and I leap into this gig,” Winick said. “Jimmy Palmiotti, Justin Gray, and Amanda Conner have bought an amazing, fresh, and inventive rebirth to this character. Our greatest challenge will be to remain faithful to what they’ve created and also take Power Girl to a new place. As far as the course that the story will take, I’ll be uncharacteristically forthcoming : The story is tied to JUSTICE LEAGUE: GENERATION LOST. Not CHAINED to it, but tied. Power Girl has a history with the JLI that will be explored. A lot.”
As previously reported, Winick is teaming with writer Keith Giffen on the 26-issue biweekly Justice League: Generation Lost mini-series.
Talking Comics with Tim: Jimmy Palmiotti
Power Girl 12
Much of this Jimmy Palmiotti email interview happened right before Friday’s announcement that Jimmy Palmiotti, Justin Gray and Amanda Conner are saying goodbye to Power Girl once they finish issue 12. I could have reworked many of the Power Girl questions, but I chose to keep the remainder of Power Girl questions intact, as there’s still a few issues of the run (the focus of the discussion) and Palmiotti (as he always does) gave some great answers. Any interview with Palmiotti has to include his and Gray’s continuing work on Jonah Hex, of course. Finally, Palmiotti often has some creator-owned work set to release, and this time around it’s his and Gray’s collaboration with artist Giancarlo Caracuzzo on Random Acts of Violence, a 72-page graphic novella (published by Image and set to be released on April 28, 2010). I always enjoy the chance to interview Jimmy, and this go around proved no different.
Tim O’Shea: Can you divulge some more details about Power Girl 12 — and from a writer’s standpoint, how enjoyable/bittersweet is it to get to this 12th (and final one for the team) issue, where you get to (as the solicits put it) “All the pieces of the puzzle come together…”? As a creative team did you accomplish a great deal of what you had wanted to do in the 12 issues?
Jimmy Palmiotti: We all knew that issue 12 was going to be Amanda’s last issue on the book for a while but we didn’t know just how much her work and Power Girl became one for us. As we got closer to the deadline to find another artist, Justin and I started really thinking about how it would be next to impossible to find a replacement and even if we did, how it would be difficult to write a book like this for someone else…so we just figured it was time to move on, be a real team and all of us leave the book for the next crew to take on. That said, we know who the new writer is, are excited about who it is and have fed them the scripts and even asked if there was anything we could do with the book to leave it in a place where they need it and so on. Fans of the title will be happy that the book does not skip a beat and will be pretty excited with what the title has in store. Leaving the book is a hard thing to do, especially since we gave it our heart and soul and Amanda , Paul and John put so much into each and every page … but at the same time we look back at the 12 issues and are really proud of the work we have done and how we built on to Power Girl’s legacy.
Let’s just say the last 3 issues are going to be remembered as the best in the run and we couldn’t be happier with all the support we have been given by our editors Brian and Mike and the rest of the D.C. crew. it was a dream gig on all levels. I don’t think I ever laughed as hard or had more fun on any title.
Jen Van Meter responds to comments on that Power Girl/Cyclone scene
Last week Esther Inglis-Arkell over at the 4thletter called out a scene in the recent JSA: 80 Page Giant comic where Cyclone and Power Girl have a discussion about the latter’s costume … or, more specifically, the great big hole right in the middle of it.
“Are you kidding me? I’m getting an ‘I choose my choice’ speech from a fictional character?” Inglis-Arkell wrote. “Feminist fans are getting a slap because they won’t accept one bullshit excuse after another for why male heroes are mostly fully-clothed and female heroes mostly walk around in their underwear?”
That original post sparked up quite the discussion around the ‘net, not only at the 4thletter, but also at The Beat, Jezebel, Comics Alliance and right here at Robot 6, among many others.
You’d think that sort of attention might send the story’s writer, Jen Van Meter, running for cover, but instead she shows up in the 4thletter comments section to explain her intent when writing the story.
“A friend forwarded me links to your post and to a couple other blogs that have picked up on your comments, and I feel compelled to reply because you’re right — I failed in what I was trying to accomplish with the ‘Spin Cycle’ story, or, at the very least, I failed you and many of your respondents,” Van Meter posted.
Inglis-Arkell pulled the comment out into its own post, which I encourage you to read … it isn’t often you get to see a writer offer insight into a story where they “misstepped,” as Van Meter notes.
Your Mileage May Vary: On Power Girl’s Costume
This week we’ve seen some interesting discussion stemming from a scene in the JSA: 80 Page Giant comic, in which Power Girl and Cyclone address Power Girl’s costume.
Esther Inglis-Arkell starts things off:
Power Girl
And I heard the justification about how Canary’s outfit was in tribute to her mother, even when that means she’s in panties and a jacket in the First Wave books. And I’ve heard the one about Poison Ivy being a plant and therefore unconcerned about human modesty. Oh, and I’ve heard the one about Supergirl being invulnerable and therefore not needing pants. There are a few about how Huntress wanted to show off the fact that she was shot, and she lived, and that’s why she fought in a bikini. And then there’s the one about Batman and Superman . . . oh. Wait. There aren’t that many excuses for how Batman and Superman dress because, golly, for some reason, the male heroes in this mostly male-controlled medium put their fucking clothes on when they’re going to fight someone.
Are you kidding me? I’m getting an ‘I choose my choice’ speech from a fictional character? Feminist fans are getting a slap because they won’t accept one bullshit excuse after another for why male heroes are mostly fully-clothed and female heroes mostly walk around in their underwear?
