Justice Society of America #20

DC Comics created the Crisis on Infinite Earths maxi-series in the 1980s to try to simplify its continuity, and it largely succeeded - but a handful of characters were problematic. Their histories conflicted with the new DC Universe, and no matter what contortions the writers used, the problems couldn't be eliminated completely.

Wonder Girl and the Huntress are good examples, but the character with the biggest continuity hangover had to be Power Girl. She was originally created to be the Supergirl of Earth-2, but a somewhat more hard-edged version. She was bigger, brassier, bolder and, let's face it, bustier than the original Supergirl, in large part thanks to the artist who drew her first adventures - Wally Wood, who specialized in (shall we say) healthy and robust females.

But when Earth-2 was eliminated, the writers couldn't bear to give up Power Girl (though one should note that they had no trouble killing Supergirl in Crisis). They tried cooking up alternate origins for her, attributing her powers to the magician Arion, along with another explanation or two that I've frankly (and perhaps mercifully) forgotten.

Writer Geoff Johns finally cleared up the mystery by explaining that Power Girl really was the Supergirl from Earth-2, and is the only survivor of that former reality.

Or is it a former reality? Now a member of the Justice Society of America, Power Girl found herself transported to an apparently-still-in-existence Earth-2 by the incredibly powerful Gog. As the story unfolded in the recent JSA Annual, she tried to go back to her old life there, but soon found that there was already a Power Girl on that planet, and her old friends turned on her.

If that story had been wrapped up in that annual, all would be well. But instead, it spilled over into this issue, disrupting the ongoing story of Gog. It's one of those rare issues where Johns stumbles a bit, as Power Girl returns to our world, with the Earth-2 heroes in pursuit. They meet our JSA, they all fight, they talk, they fight some more... well, you get the picture.

Unfortunately, the story doesn't really do much to clear up the confusion, although it does help set up the next confrontation with Gog. Even the art is kind of schizophrenic, with the chores being split between Dale Eaglesham, who handles the "real" JSA, and Jerry Ordway, who handles the Earth-2 characters. It's kind of an uneven mix, though it's always nice to see the criminally-underused Ordway back in action.

The JSA is one of my favorite titles from DC right now, and I'm really looking forward to the resolution of the Gog / Kingdom Come Superman story - but this just seemed like an unnecessary side trip along the way.

Grade: C+