Why Power "Girl"?

I just finished reading the first Power Girl trade (not the first power girl trade I read last week, the REAL first trade). It opens with some old origin stories from the 70s and finishes up with my newest favorite old villain, Psycho Pirate. Dude doesn't even have a parrot! He IS psycho.

In my quest to find the undercover sexism (and so painfully obvious) in these comics I was surprised to find that the older comics treated Power Girl really well. People didn't talk about her bust or try to catch a peek, they thanked her for her work. The press pushed her to talk about herself and she said no, that she didn't need to. She seemed like a stronger character back then. When we get to the updated Power Girl, or Karen Starr as she goes by, even Jimmy Olsen can't help but catch a peek. Sort of.

I don't know. I feel that Power Girl deserves better treatment. I don't know why I like her so much. She's strong and unwilling to turn away from her ideals, but a lot of caped heroes are like that. What is it, specifically, that draws me to her? BESIDES the outfit, since I know anyone reading this going there. What is it about her character? I dunno. Maybe she's just my obsession of the week. Next week it'll be My Little Pony again.

As much as I like Power Girl, and have no problem writing blog posts to the vast internetosphere, I do get embarrassed reading her comics in public. As I read them at work I find myself hiding the trade under some sheets of paper as someone comes in to sign-in. I wonder what that says about the covers and content of these comics? I stash them as if I'm reading something illicit, worried what random people I'm dealing with face to face (rather than you, person reading this) will think of me when they see the art.

I'm not trying to come off as all innocent or above it all, either. I'll fully admit that the first PG trade I bought a few weeks ago I grabbed because of the cover. I knew nothing about it and just picked it up. I did ask the guy behind the counter if it was worth reading and he said he had no idea, so I went ahead and bought it anyway. I HAVE always had this interest in Power Girl, I just never knew where to start. A random dart in the dark, I guess.

On the topic of strong female characters, which seems to be the point of this blog, not nerd things (I didn't intend that). My blog title "Nancy Drew is My Home Girl" comes from both a webcomic artist and an inside joke.

Kate Beaton's Hark a Vagrant comics bring a big smile to my face. Her Nancy Drew comics, though, are my favorite. Go on, little bird, have a look.

Nancy Drew

Nancy Drew, as you know, is a woman detective from a very popular series of books that I have never ever read. I own one of them, bought it about two months ago, but I've only read the first chapter. I like that Nancy Drew is a great role model for girls and a strong, female lead... I like it more when she is nuts and a danger to everyone around her. Not because I want to see her fail, not at all, but because I enjoy the humor of it. The idea of a crazy Nancy running around screwing up more things than solving them, and all on purpose. Or not on purpose, if you consider her actions not her own because she's bonkers.

There was a little joke among friends that I took further. We discussed rebooting the Nancy Drew series with her as a sociopathic nutcase who is suffered by her best friend Bess, who is in reality the one solving all the cases. Kind of a Hong Kong Phooey kind of thing, minus the racism towards Asians. Or with lots more. Who knows where it would have went? I wrote up about two pages worth of notes for the first novel but never really intended to do anything with it. I then wrote up another page for a second novel. I never got past that and I'll never write my crazy Nancy Drew fanfiction, but that is the history of this stupid blog's title.

I wasn't going to write about the title, since anyone who reads this probably already knows all this. I did, though, have a dream that Nancy Drew was wearing those ugly venetian blind shades. I think I have fanart of her wearing those around here somewhere.