- For the blue lantern version, see Hopeful Power Girl.
Power Girl is a Kryptonian from the parallel universe of Earth-2. Having survived the destruction of her universe, Power Girl now operates with the Justice Society of America in upholding the ideals of justice and equality.
A headstrong and determined feminist, Power Girl possesses strength, speed and endurance to match her "cousin" Superman and also works as CEO of her own technology company named Starrware Industries.
Background[]
In the alternate universe of Earth-2, Krypton, a scientifically advanced world, was doomed to a planet-shattering apocalypse when its core became unstable. Detecting the impending destruction, Kryptonian scientists and brothers Jor-L and Zor-L pooled their abilities to design spacecraft to rescue the planet's citizens. However, when the planet's ruling council refused to believe them, the pair built their own ships to save their families.
As Jor-L and his wife built their own ship, Zor-L and his wife, Allura In-Z, built their own in the city of Kandor. Unfortunately, both families could only build ships big enough for single occupants and so they decided to send their children, infants Kal-L and Kara Zor-L, to the safety of Earth while they stayed behind to die with their planet.
Unlike Kal-L's ship, which was designed for fast travel, Kara's "Symbioship" was designed to hold Kara in stasis during the voyage. While this made the ship slower, the ship's stasis field slowed her aging while its artificial intelligence gave Kara life experiences and a Kryptonian education in the form of a virtual reality program. By the time Kara's ship arrived on Earth sixty years had passed and Kal-L was now in his senior years, having already landed on Earth, led a career as the hero Superman and married his sweetheart, Lois Lane.
Now chief editor of the Daily Star, Kal-L and Lois kept Kara's arrival a secret from the general public and took her in as a daughter, providing her a family environment to assist her transition to Earth's customs.
In her first recorded act of heroism, not wishing to be seen as a knock-off, Kara attempted to distance herself from her cousin's legacy by calling herself Power Girl; the girl with the powers. As Power Girl, Kara assisted the Flash (Jay Garrick) and Wildcat in containing an artificially induced volcano in Peking, China. She then joined with an adult Robin (Richard Grayson) and the Star-Spangled Kid (Sylvester Pemberton) in forming the All-Star Super Squad before becoming a full member of Earth-2's Justice Society of America as Superman's replacement following his retirement from superheroics.
After joining the JSA, Kara made an effort to establish a life for herself outside of superheroism and met a reporter named Andrew Vinson, who was determined to learn as much as possible about the fledgling heroine. Vinson offered to help Kara establish a secret identity and, through using a "memory teacher" provided by Wonder Woman, Kara developed expertise in computer software to obtain a position at the Ultimate Computer Company in Gotham City as programmer Karen Starr.
As Kara matured, she developed her own R&D company called Starrware Industries and came into her own as one of Earth-2's most powerful heroes. As such, she joined with the JSA in stopping the Anti-Monitor from destroying the positive-matter universes during the Crisis on Infinite Earths incident. While the Anti-Monitor was defeated, the universe of Earth-2 was destroyed amongst others and the Multiverse attempted to repair itself by compressing itself into one Earth.
While many surviving heroes and villains had their histories altered or were otherwise wiped from existence as the Multiverse compressed itself, Kara was spared thanks to her "mother", Lois Lane's, wish for her to survive. While Kal-L, Lois, Superboy of Earth-Prime and Alexander Luthor of Earth-3 were given refuge within a celestial dimension for their roles in saving the Multiverse, Lois implored Arion; hero of ancient Atlantis, to see to Kara's continued life on the newly formed Earth. To this end, after the rest of the JSA was trapped within an alternate dimension to repeatedly fight the Ragnarok, Arion informed Kara that she wasn’t Superman’s cousin or even Kryptonian as she remembered her past to be but was actually his Atlantean granddaughter who was born 45,000 years previously and sent as an infant into the future to escape a threat issued by Arion’s brother. Accepting the revelation that what she remembered of her past was actually someone Else's memories, Kara was dubbed the "Last Daughter of Atlantis" and took to wearing an Atlantean star symbol on her belt to honor her discovered heritage.
When Justice League International sought to recruit a new batch of heroes to establish a European division, Kara was among those chosen. However, during her membership with the JLE, Kara had begun acting moody, if not downright irritable, and at times tended to spout man-hating rhetoric, championing castration in its very principle and attacking not just pornography but all heterosexual sex as degrading to women, while also becoming obsessed with dieting and becoming addicted to diet soda.
During a mission with Justice League Europe, Kara sustained a magical injury at the hands of the Grey Man that left her seriously wounded. Due to her impenetrable skin, the Justice League called upon Superman to perform surgery using his heat vision. While she manages to survive the experience, her strength, invulnerability, and speed were greatly reduced in addition to losing her various vision powers and temporarily losing her power of flight.
It was later discovered that Kara's erratic and often hostile behavior was a side-effect of becoming magically impregnated by her "grandfather", Arion. In order to ensure that Kara continued to exist in the newly formed Earth, Arion had magically inseminated her to give birth to his great-grandson who was prophesied to battle and defeat an ancient Atlantean demon named Scarabus. Giving birth during the Zero Hour incident where Parallax (Hal Jordan) attempted to rewrite Existence, Kara's child aged quickly during the Zero Hour crisis and became a man named Equinox who then confronted and killed Scarabus before disappearing from reality.
Having led her life by the feminist ideal of not needing a male to give meaning to her life, Kara was devastated to discover that the only reason she still existed was because of her ability as a woman to serve as a child-bearer to Arion's prophesied great-grandson. This, in addition to her weakened powers and the dissolution of Justice League Europe, caused Kara to fall into a depression. Because of this, she was chosen to be an agent by Oracle for an escort and protection mission in Qurac, however, the mission went awry and Kara's charges; over one thousand refugees and the country's annexed President, were killed by despot militants.
Following Black Canary's leave from the team, Kara was invited to join the reformed JSA in her place and served as a mentor to Stargirl, the young inheritor of both the Star-Spangled Kid and Starman. During her induction process, Doctor Mid-Nite’s tests revealed that her powers were not magical in origin, as she had previously believed, and during a further adventure, Arion’s spirit appeared and informed her that he was in truth not her grandfather and revealed that her Atlantean heritage was actually a lie he concocted at the behest of her "mother".
Suffering an identity crisis due to no longer being sure of who she was or where she came from, a crisis that is further complicated when the current reality's Kara Zor-El arrives on Earth to become the new Supergirl, Kara's powers begin fluctuating wildly and she begins to experience a series of hallucinations created by the Psycho-Pirate which present her with multiple possible origins. While managing to subdue the villain, he reveals that Kara's original origin as a refugee from Krypton was actually her true history, and that she was a survivor of Earth-2 from before the Crisis on Infinite Earths.
On the cusp of the Infinite Crisis incident, Kal-L breaks down the walls of the paradise dimension he had been living in with Lois, Alexander Luthor Jr., and Superboy-Prime, and tracks down Kara to explain her true history to her and requests her aid in returning Earth-2 to prominence. Flying with him to their Fortress of Solitude in the Arctic, Kara reunites with Lois and accidentally touches her, restoring her entire memory of Earth-2 in the process.
While thankful for the return of her memories, Kara was uneasy about replacing the current Earth and everything on it with theirs and is assaulted by Superboy-Prime, who beats her unconscious and attaches her to Alex Luthor's "cosmic turning fork" in order to restore the Multiverse.
While eventually freed from the tower, Kara learns of Lois' death and attempts to aid Kal-El and Kal-L in fighting Superboy-Prime only too arrive to late to save her "father" from being killed by the raging Kryptonian teenager.
One year after the incident, Kara is revealed to have taken up the mantle of Nightwing alongside Kara Zor-El, who took up the mantle of Flamebird, in an attempt to free the populace of the bottled city of Kandor from Ultraman, who was masquerading as Kal-El and working in concert with the Saturn Queen to take control of the city. While managing to incite a rebellion, Kara is forced to leave Kandor after Saturn Queen reveals to Supergirl information about her past.
Remaining a core member of the Justice Society after it's re-rostering, Kara was selected as the new chairwoman of the team after Mister Terrific stepped down to focus on his duties in Checkmate.
Combat Statistics[]
- Power Girl (Vendor)
- Power Girl (Legends PvP)
- Power Girl (Bounty)
- Power Girl (Metropolis University)
- Hallucination (Power Girl)
- Power Girl (Fortress of Solitude: Power Core)
- Power Girl (Brothers in Arms)
- Hopeful Power Girl
- Controlled Power Girl
Involvement[]
- Enslaved by Brainiac, Power Girl is an opponent in the Fortress of Solitude: Power Core raid.
- Power Girl is a playable character for Legends PvP.
- Controlled Power Girl is one of the possible bosses for the Starro: Invasion! alert in the Deluge episode.
Heroes[]
- Power Girl is a Vendor for the Meta Iconic Battle Suit: House of El Battle Suit.
- Psychic projections of Power Girl is generated to attack players by Doctor Psycho (along with hallucinations of Supergirl and Wonder Woman) and Bludhaven Avenger (along with copies of Aquaman, Hal Jordan and Hawkman).
Villains[]
- Power Girl is the endgame opponent for the Power Lunch! mission, where the battle is joined by the Parasite.
- She is a bounty, found south of the JSA Metropolis Wing, east of the north end of the bridge.
- Power Girl is one of the random iconic encounters for villains in Alternate Metropolis during the Brothers in Arms operation.
- A Blue Lantern Corps version of Power Girl called Hopeful Power Girl is a bounty for villains in the War of the Light Part I DLC.
Associated Equipment[]
- Power Girl's Reinforced Grips
- Power Costume Style
Trivia[]
- Power Girl first appeared in All-Star Comics #58 (February 1976)
- Power Girl is voiced by Adriene Mishler.
- On Earth-2, Power Girl's closest friend was the Huntress (Helena Wayne); the daughter of the Earth-2 Batman and Catwoman.
- Talking to Power Girl while in the Watchtower can lead to her giving the player reassurances over the current crisis with Brainiac, during which she references the Bloodlines crisis, The Final Night incident, the Crisis on Infinite Earths, the Infinite Crisis and the New God, Darkseid.
- Despite Kara's ship taking many years to reach Earth, she had only physically aged 18 years before landing on Earth-2 due to the ship's technology slowed down her aging process.
- Kara uses her father's full name (Zor-L) as her last name due to Kryptonian culture dictating that Kryptonian females use their father's full name as their last names before marriage; after which they would simply be referred to by their first name.
- Some time between the dissolution of Justice League Europe and joining the reformed JSA, Power Girl was featured in a in-universe comic book series called Sovereign Seven.
- As the two are alternate versions of each other, Power Girl's and Supergirl's hearts beat in perfect sync with each other.
- As a hobby, Power Girl collects snow globes of places around the world. She also loves R-rated horror movies and collects rare first edition books; a hobby she shares with Bruce Wayne and his wards.
- Stinky is Power Girl's mangy, one-eyed, blond-furred tabby cat. "Acquired" by Karen during her time in Justice League Europe when the cat wondered into the Justice League International embassy, attacked Green Lantern (Guy Gardner), and was immediately thrown through a teleporter to Europe, the creature is wholly unremarkable but for its foul temper, odor and extreme animosity against males. Everyone hates it, and most live in fear of it.
Gallery[]
External links[]
- Power Girl Wikipedia
- Power Girl DC Database
v · e · d | |
---|---|
Characters | |
Heroes | Black Canary - Huntress - Lady Blackhawk - Oracle |
Villains | Brainiac - Calculator - Deathstroke - Gorilla Grodd - Ra's al Ghul |
Other | Batgirl - Big Barda - Catwoman - Hawkgirl - Power Girl - Lady Shiva - Vixen |
Items | |
Oracle's Challenge Kiosk - Penthouse - Tech | |
Weapons | Dual Pistol - Martial Arts - Sonic Cry - Sonic Shout - Staff |
Apparel | Blackhawk (Style) - Daring Vigilante - Goth Leggings - Goth Tights - Power (Style) - Trench Coat - Vengeance - Viking |
Vehicles | |
Locations | |
Clocktower | |
PvE | |
PvP | |
Miscellaneous | |
Bat Family - Blackhawk Squadron - Gotham City Organized Crime Family - Justice League of America - Justice Society of America - S.T.A.R. Labs | |
Age of Justice |
v · e · d | |
---|---|
Characters | |
Affiliates | Amanda Waller - Bane - Black Adam - Captain Boomerang (George Harkness) - Captain Boomerang (Owen Mercer) - Captain Cold - Deadshot - Doctor Light - Duchess - Harley Quinn - Killer Frost - King Shark - Mirror Master - Oracle - Parasite - Penguin - Poison Ivy - Power Girl - Solomon Grundy - Speedy - Steel - Superboy - Vixen |
Adversaries | Batman - Lois Lane |
Other | Chemo - Vicki Vale |
Items | |
Bombshell Belle Reve's Poster | |
Weapons | |
Apparel | Expert Marksman - Punchline |
Vehicles | |
Locations | |
Belle Reve Federal Penitentiary | |
PvE | Suicide Squad Training |
PvP | Belle Reve Sanitarium |
Miscellaneous | |
Checkmate - United States of America - Justice League of America - Justice Society of America | |