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Power Girl #25 - We Can Be Heroes, Part 2

4

Power Girl and Batman continue their team-up this month as they take on Rayhan Mazin, a storm-powered hero with on a personal warpath. How will our heroine face wind and water when there's nothing to punch!?

The Good

While I'm usually not a fan of Judd Winick's work, this issue was actually pretty decent. I'm a big fan of the portrayal of Rayhan Mazin, the Quraci superhero with the powers of a storm. Seeing the personal drama of his history unfold while Power Girl and Batman clean up his "mess" was great.

The art in this issue is great. I love the character design behind Mazin, as it really evokes a "Sayid from LOST" vibe.

I'm really not sure of Winick's authority to portray Middle Eastern-American tensions, but I think he pulls it off well enough avoid offense to anyone. Mazin is not a one-dimensional character, and if Justice Society is still published after DC's reboot, I would love to read more about him. However, he doesn't quite fit the mold of a "legacy" character, and there's already some weather/electricity (Lightning, Cyclone) flavour on the team. It will be interesting to see if he shows up again.

The Bad

Whenever you get Batman to team up with someone like Power Girl, he will always seem vastly underpowered. Bats doesn't really do much in this issue besides firing some tranq darts at Mazin (which have no effect) and try to save civilians. It also seems a bit weird that Bats knew right away that Mazin had super-human metabolism; there could have been a number of reasons why his dart full of drugs didn't work.

The fact that books are still doing the "welcome back, Bruce" storyline is just laughable. This eventshould have been wrapped up ages ago. Besides using the "the good ones always come back" as a way to boost Power Girl's ego, Batman's presence wasn't really needed. It could have easily been Dick.

The Verdict

While I have to admit I haven't been keeping up with Power Girl as much as I'd like, this issue doesn't punish me for doing so. That's what the strength of this series has always been: a light-hearted, continuity-light book where readers can just sit back and have a good time.

This is a "Part 2" of a story, so I'd recommend picking up the first (naturally), but it's a nice, short, beautifully-contained story that manages to showcase the strengths of Power Girl, both physically and in character.

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