It’s a great time for Superman fans, with the Man of Steel soaring into movies, TV, animation and comics. To help us stay on top of it, writer Tim Beedle shares what's grabbed his attention and why in this monthly Super-Family column.
One of my New Year’s resolutions, the same one I’ve had pretty much every year, is to be a little more like Superman. And since one of the Man of Steel’s core tenets is truth, I’m starting our first Super Here For… of 2024 with a bit of brutal honesty. A little over six months ago, when I learned that Power Girl was getting a new ongoing comic series, my reaction could be summed up in a single word: “Meh.”
It’s not that I have anything against Power Girl. Some of her past comics have been a lot of fun. But between the return of Conner Kent and Kong Kenan, as well as the debut of Otho-Ra and Osul-Ra, it feels like the Super-Family is getting awfully big. Frankly, I wasn’t sure if there was room for Power Girl.
If you’re a fan, I’m sorry. I’m not proud of that initial reaction, but it turns out it was pretty fitting since Power Girl isn’t sure if there’s room for her in the Super-Family either.
Power Girl’s latest comic technically started in Lazarus Planet and in a series of Action Comics backups all written by Leah Williams and drawn by Marguerite Sauvage. That initial chapter of Power Girl’s story was wrapped up in last summer’s Power Girl Special #1. The next month, the Eduardo Pansica-drawn Power Girl #1 hit stands, which kicked off her ongoing series proper and brought us to where we are now.
It’s a pretty strange time for Power Girl, who has started going by the name Paige Stetler. As the sole surviving resident of Earth-2’s Krypton, she’s struggling with whether she even belongs on Earth-0, let alone in the ranks of its closest, most beloved family of superheroes. She’s also trying to get control of some new superpowers she picked up during Lazarus Planet. Some of those abilities were lost at the end of the Power Girl Special, but she still has one called an “astral punch” that allows her to instantly knock someone to a different part of the universe. Her first use of it in Power Girl #1 nearly causes an international incident that Superman has to defuse.
It's things like this that have Power Girl really questioning what she’s doing. It’s clear that she’s not incapable of being an effective superhero. She just doesn’t have the advanced skill of someone who’s been doing this for a long time—like Superman, Supergirl or Steel. But then again, does Kong Kenan? Do Otho and Osul? Heck, does Jon Kent?
I’d argue no, and yet, they still seem to operate with more confidence and fewer mistakes than Paige. Why is that? Well, the entire Super-Family has their backs for one thing. Power Girl can’t make the same claim—or at least, she doesn’t feel like she can. That’s really the central struggle of her ongoing story and comic series. Power Girl’s biggest adversary is her own lack of belief in herself.
And which of us can’t relate to that?
Power Girl has always been a bit of an outsider when it comes to the Super-Family. That’s certainly not new, but where in the past it’s often been played for laughs or edgy thrills, Williams understands the universality of feeling like you don’t belong. In making Paige’s impostor syndrome the heart of her story, Williams has made Power Girl more sympathetic and understandable than she’s ever been before. In making her imperfect, she’s made her that which Superman always seems to be striving to be—human.
Which is wonderful when it comes to getting all of us to pull for her, but does Power Girl belong in the Super-Family? The work that Superman and his crew does has some unbelievably high stakes, and Power Girl messes up a lot. Is she really someone you want to rely on when the entire world is at stake? Especially when she failed to save her own world?
Look, I know I’m asking some pretty rough questions, but they’re the same ones that Paige is asking herself. And in fairness to her, I completely understand where this lack of faith in herself comes from. The key to self-confidence is knowing who you are and what you’re capable of offering the world. Power Girl, with her Kryptonian abilities and desire to do good, can actually offer the world a lot. The problem is that she doesn’t always see that because…well, she doesn’t know who she is. Her entire life prior to landing on Earth was a construct created by her ship’s AI system. Who she actually is and who she thinks she is don’t synch up. Throw in the fact that there’s someone else entirely—Kara—fulfilling her role on this Earth and of course she’s confused about whether she belongs.
But here’s what’s so funny about all that uncertainty—it’s the thing that makes her so essential. When dealing with the level of power the Super-Family has, it’s crucial that they stay humble. Confidence is always a balancing act—a little too much and it slips into cockiness. Kong Kenan and Conner Kent have certainly wrestled with this in the past and Superboy-Prime demonstrates what can happen when that cockiness gets corrupted even further into amoral entitlement. Now, it’s hard to see anything like that happening to a family of heroes with Kal-El at its head, but we’ve seen Superman turn evil on enough Earths in the multiverse to know it’s not impossible. Having a family member in their ranks who’s not perfect and who is given the room to make mistakes as she develops the belief in herself that others have in her can only be a good thing. It keeps the Super-Family from being too sure of itself and becoming overconfident.
I’ve come a long way from being “meh” when it comes to Power Girl. I’m now one of Paige Stetler’s biggest fans. She may not believe it herself yet, but I think she has the ability to save the world. Superman believes it too. But maybe that’s not necessary. There are a lot of heroes on the Super-Family who can save the world. But Power Girl? She’s the one that can save the Super-Family.
You can read new issues of Power Girl, by Leah Williams, Eduardo Pansica, Júlio Ferreira and Romulo Fajardo Jr., right now on DC UNIVERSE INFINITE.
Tim Beedle covers movies, TV and comics for DC.com, writes our monthly Superman column, "Super Here For...", and is a regular contributor to the Couch Club, our recurring television column. Follow him on Twitter at @Tim_Beedle and Bluesky at @TimBeedle.
NOTE: The views and opinions expressed in this feature are solely those of Tim Beedle and do not necessarily reflect those of DC or Warner Bros. Discovery, nor should they be read as confirmation or denial of future DC plans.
