Power Girl # 2 - Unleashing the Beast

This issue begins with the Ultra Humanite giving Power Girl a brat down. At the same time he begins to dialogue and tell her his motivations for what he is doing. His big plan is to place his mind into Power Girls body, and he had to use the entire island of Manhatten as hostages to get her to surrender it. During there fight Power Girl taunts the Humanite, and he ends up revealing his origin.

Before he tells it, we see the supporting players at Power Girls new Environmental company, and how they are dealing with their city being lifted off the ground.. They all agree that the best thing to do is to sit tight, but then they notice people are jumping off the roof to save themselves.

On street level, the JSA is fighting the Humanites robots, all the while there conversation they are having over the sound of punching metal just so happens to be about Power Girl. As we cut back to Power Girl and Ultra Humanite we see that he has her strapped to some sort of device. As he is preparing for the mind transfer, he tells her why she can not break her bonds, and then tells his story.

As a child named Gerard he had cancer. Instead of laying in a hospital bed, he decides to go back to college and find a cure for himself. Unfortunately for him, the college found his expirement to transfer the mind of a human into an animal to be cruel and expensive and they kick him off campus along with his assistant Satanna.

They found a home in the African Jungle where a revolution is taking place. In a desperate attempt to keep Gerard alive, his assistant Satanna suggests putting his mind into the body of a great white ape. Of course we know the operation is a success. What we didn’t know is after he gets the ape body he takes out a regiment of soldiers and then gets to do the bad thing with his assistant Satanna.

After he tells his story, he decides that the sight of blood on Kara is sign enough that the transfer should begin.

I have to admit, I did not like the first issue all that much. I mean it was okay, but it did not inspire me. I only picked this issue up out of loyalty to the character. I am glad I did. This issue picked up quite a bit. Now, I do not care for the way he "told" his story. I would rather the set up be a thought of his, rather than a "now Power Girl I will tell you how I came to be" it just did not seem to be in character. Also I am not sure about the motives behind telling it.

Did he think that Power Girl would sympathize and just give in? Still, it did make for a good story, no matter what kind of awkward way in which it was told. Much like the art at the beginning of the last run of She Hulk, the look of this book is going to take some time to get used to. Also    There issome serious work needing to be done on her supporting players. They are not given anything to do in this issue. So even though this issue is a great step forward. I also hink there is much to be done.

Since the launch of Power Girl’s ongoing series, critical reception seems to be mixed with review scores for issue #1 ranging from 4.7 out of 10 to 4.5 out of 5. But the award goes to Aint It Cool News as a quote from their ecstatic review graces the cover of Power Girl #2

“Flawless” – Aint it Cool News

Was issue 2 flawless……………?

Good

Art

Amanda Conner's artwork is great as always. Paul Mounts colors are great as well and really set the mood on Manhattan Island.

JSA

Other reviews might overlook this brief guest appearance but sometimes the small things mean a lot. The Justice Society  have set up shop in New York and Power Girl is still an active member. It's good to see that Kara's current relations with the JSA are acknowledged in her solo book.

Bad

Supporting Cast

Sadly the Starrware employees are the low point of this issue. I know Jim is trying to paint a grim situation for the civilians but a lot more could have been done here. The dialogue felt repetitive at times and the “real world” references didn’t work for me. 

Other Points (Good or Bad? Depends on the reader)

Dialogue

PG #2 begins with a fight sequence pitting Power Girl against the Ultra-Humanite. This scene contains most of the action in this issue and it's the only part in the book were Power Girl takes center stage (somewhat). The fight itself was OK but I felt some of the dialogue during the fight was either unnecessary  or out of place.

Ultra-Humanite

Stealing the spotlight from Power Girl, the Ultra-Humanite was the main focus of this issue. Since his “reincarnation” after One Year Later, his origin story has never been told until now.

This flashback does help explain why the UH was wearing his heart on his sleeve during the fight but his attempts to make Power Girl sympathetic towards him felt out of character for a villain of his makeup.  Should a intellectual, “mad genius” type villain be so emotional and short tempered or are these outburst meant to show a flaw in having his mind implanted in a savage beast? Maybe I shouldn't compare this reincarnation to the Humanite I know from the Justice League (Unlimited) cartoon. 

Wrap-up

Power Girl #2 wasn’t as entertaining for me as issue #1 but it serves it purpose as an origin issue. The plot line does progress a bit by the end of the book leaving Power Girl in much dire straits.

Let’s see how this 3-part story concludes next month.      : )