Power Girl Vol.2: More Than a Crush

Power Girl (2023)

by Leah Williams, Eduardo Pansica (illustrator)

When Brainiac and an army of Lobos imprison every other superpowered hero in Metropolis, a lone Power Girl is outnumbered and outgunned…at least until Crush brings her unique negotiating skills to the table! Plus, Paige’s new suitor has potential, but his startling secret may threaten more than just Power Girl’s dating life! Collects Power Girl #8-13.

Genres: Graphic Novels, Dc Comics, Graphic Novels Comics

136 pages, Paperback

First published February 25, 2025

About the author

Leah Williams is an American writer originally from Oxford, Mississippi. She has written comics for Marvel, BOOM! Studios, Vault Comics, and is working on more. Her debut novel was a YA Fantasy book titled The Alchemy of Being Fourteen and she is currently writing its sequel, The Divinity of Hitting Fifteen. Leah has nonfiction articles and essays published in The Atlantic, Oprah Magazine, and Salon.

Reviews

[Khurram · Rating 4 out of 5]

A good second book. I wanted to give this 3.5 stars but I enjoyed it so it gets a round-up. This volume is set during the House of Brainiac. Nice stories of friends, family and love interests.

Superman and the Super family have been captured by Brainiac, so Metropolis is under Power Girl's protection. This is the perfect time for a group of Czarnians to have gone rogue to create their own mischief. However, Power Girl might have backup of her own. Then Power Girl learn the truth about Axel and a truth closer to home.

The series has started to get going for me some interesting things to come, things have started to get interesting. I am looking forward to the next book.

[Paul · Rating 3 out of 5]

2.9 stars

[Anna Quilter · Rating 3 out of 5]

Reread of the collected graphic novel.
individual reviews found in Power Girl #8-13

[Chris Lemmerman · Rating 3 out of 5]

Power Girl's second collection of adventures is a tale of two halves - the first three issues are tie-ins to House Of Brainiac featuring Lobo's daughter Crush, while the second three bring Power Girl's love life to the fore with some unexpected results.

The House Of Brainiac tie-in is fine, if a little long. The relationship PG has with Crush goes through some nice changes across the issues, and the lurking threat of Symbio feels like it's going to be a big problem soon enough. That said, things could probably have been resolved a bit quicker.

The two issues that follow, which explain what Axel's deal is (spoiler alert: If you've read some Wonder Woman recently, you'll know), are decent too, but I think the art really carries them more than anything else, with Adrianna Melo and Travis Moore (!) taking over for a bit. The final issue of the volume is a 'What was Lilith doing while PG was busy' kind of deal, and it's fine too, but I'm reading Power Girl for Power Girl, not Omen, much as I enjoy her as a side character.

'Okay' seems to be the order of the day here. PG's adventures are just about that here.

[Mohan Vemulapalli · Rating 3 out of 5]

"Power Girl: More Than a Crush", the second volume in the new PG title is a confused and frustrating read that still shows some promise. In particular, PG, now known as Paige and not Karen, is a lot of fun. Her new powers set her apart well from Supergirl and the ongoing and growing friendship between her and Omen and her growing relationship with the Super family make a nice departure from past story lines. However, the actual plots in the story arcs contained in this book are just not engaging or interesting. Additionally, the final chapter , which focuses on Omen, seems like a promising indication that the book is finally getting some cohesion and direction, but ends abruptly with a tried and cliched plot device and the introduction of a seemingly uninteresting and over-hyped new character.

3.5 stars out of 5, rounded to 3.

[Arianna · Rating 1 out of 5]

I really don't understand what the point of this series is. Power Girl doesn't act like Power Girl and she doesn't look like Power Girl (except when Adriana Melo is drawing her, which only happens in two issues, but really just one because in #13 she barely makes an appearance). The plot is so forgettable and, like the previous one, this volume relies on transporting its characters to a different dimension, or having the whole city be invaded, and is now setting up Power Girl to be a reporter abroad. It's like there is no interest in Metropolis at all.

Power Girl's supposedly close relationships with her friends and "family" are so forced and the romantic subplot was actually sickening, so cheesy and inconsequential. Plus, plot points that on their surface could be interesting, like having Power Girl work with Crush or Omen's troubles, are squandered away uselessly.

[Jamie Revell · Rating 4 out of 5]

To be honest, the first half of this is not particularly impressive. Superman leaves Metropolis to go off and fight something elsewhere in his own comic, and Power Girl is left behind to look after the city when a threat appears. There's some beating up of bad guys, references to whatever is going on in Action Comics, and Crush comes more to the fore than PG herself. It's not bad, but there's nothing particularly notable about it, either.

The second half is better, and pulls the whole up to 3.5 stars or so (which I round up, as I usually do). It begins with PG going on a date, an amusing piece of slice-of-life bringing in Lois Lane, among other characters. The superheroics (when they show up, as they inevitably do) almost literally take a back seat to the romance plotline... and then we're off to something that, as in part of volume 1, is more fantasy-oriented. There's an interweaving of plot lines, with the same scenes shown from different perspectives, and a fair bit of foreshadowing of what's to come several issues in advance.

The new villain/hero/whatever-she-is that turns up at the end to give us our cliffhanger is not, at this point, in any way interesting or differentiable from others of her ilk. But there is some good stuff with Omen, and, while one might wish a little more about Steel, there isn't really the space for it without taking away from the other characters. And it's a female-led comic where, for once, the main character is straight. (Okay, so obviously there are others, but most straight women in the DC universe these days seem to either have no love life or be love interests for male heroes...)

[Ya Boi Be Reading · Rating 3 out of 5]

First half is a loose tie-in to House of Brainiac. It shows what happens in Metropolis during the event with some Czarnians mucking about and a fun team-up with Crush. The action is fun and the dynamic between the two was grand. It was also very smartly setting up Symbio as some stalker villain against Power Girl.
The second half is just setup for Power Girl's boyfriend and stuff in volume 3. The concept of a Nordic God inspired Indiana Jones hunting for divinity imbued objects is neat and I hope it's executed well later on since we only get told here. Her having a boyfriend also means no Power Girl X Omen. That's a shame since they're such great female friends. The final issue focuses on Omen and the new Ejecta who is a precog fighting to stop Omen’s future killings. It's a bittersweet issue with an absolute cinch of an ending as Power Girl and Owen embrace after trying to shake it off by dancing.
Overall this wasn't terrible. But half of it was an event tie-in that also set-up a later villain in Symbio and the other had a fun fantasy romp that boiled down to setting up her boyfriend as well as Ejecta as an enemy of Omen. It's just a lot of set-up which I'm sure will be great later if it's executed well. Not to mention Power Girl's new teleport powers continue to be severely underutilized. I get not everything from Lazarus Planet might be a centralizing idea for its characters. But it was the highlight of Power Girl in Lazarus Planet which sets up Dawn of DC and I feel like it's inclusion should be in there a bit more. Even just for fun gags. I mean Leah Williams’ writing here feels reminiscent of Josie Campbell who I feel would've taken more fun advantage of such a power. Not to deride Leah of course as it's clear she's writing for a longer run which I'm glad that editors are allowing by not cutting it two or three volumes in.

[Dan · Rating 3 out of 5]

A pretty good volume of Power Girl stories (why can't they change or update her name?) including the invasion of a horde of Czarnians set loose by Braniac to capture and kidnap every meta-human superhero (they didn't get Power Girl since she's from Earth 2 in an alternate dimension). She also has a budding romance with a guy she thinks works for the CIA, but he actually works for a group far older and more magical.

[Matt · Rating 3 out of 5]

I still love Leah Williams's tone for this one, and when the date scene got really romantic, she soared, but the first half of this collection was bogged down in the margins of a fairly dull crossover and the last half felt a little thin compared to the deft weaving of emotions and superheroics in the last collection.

[Fazun · Rating 2 out of 5]

2.5/5

[Will Cooper · Rating 3 out of 5]

Suffers slightly from being shoved into a Superman event, BUT Williams does a great job making the story its own. Crush and Power Girl vs a bunch of dumb Czarnians who can control technology is nice.

[Ross · Rating 2 out of 5]

I just can't connect to this new version of Power Girl...

Honestly, I love that they've built her back up from nothing. New friends, new powers, new secret identity...but this is missing something. Maybe it's the backup characters? Is Omen a strong enough character to use as a BFF? Is it the potential suitor? Axel Gust (who is drawn to like like that British actor from 'IT Crowd', Richard Ayoade) has a really odd origin and his character comes from a part of the DCU we've only seen in recent Wonder Woman issues.

Maybe it's her choice of secret identity and new job? She's a tech writer working under Lois and trying to learn how to juggle superheroics and staff management. (Fun, right?) I think she gets hamstrung across the board with being one of the 'SuperFamily'. She gets dragged into just about EVERY event that Superman is featured in. This pretty much halts any independent character moments because they're pushing towards the end of a narrative that they aren't in control of. Issues are spent cleaning up crossover leftovers.

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Bonus: NOT looking forward to more Ejecta and her fans, 'the Ej-lords' (they know what that IS, right?)