I Was a Hepcat Hermit: Power Girl Can't Help It

**SPOILER ALERT: POWER GIRL COMIC SERIES**

Power Girl is a blonde we definitely do like. There are two big reasons to love Power Girl, and they are as follows:

1) She's Superman's cousin.
2) She's Superman's cousin from another reality, the only thing that could make being related to Superman even more dope.

She's finally got a comic title to call her own which is called Power Girl. They were going to call it House of Mystery but it turned out that was taken. It's written by Jimmy Palmiotti who seems anxious to make up for the lack of fun in his Jonah Hex series. I kid, but jeez. That was strictly snoozeville! How it made me long for the nineties Joe R. Landsdale JH series, which were darkish, but funny and also dabbled in the supernatural. Jonah was no less of a "badass", that quality beloved by the grim and gritty gang, but also had a certain warmth. For instance, he had no qualms about shooting old ladies through the head (evil ones, mind you) but he'd also make funny quips and asides to the reader.

Anyhoo(ters)*, JP is clearly getting his yayas out exploring PG's full-bodied* adventures. The art is done by Amanda Conner, so for the Hepcat Hermit who has chosen Power Girl as his imaginary girlfriend, a topic I'll cover in a later blog, if you find yourself gazing** wistfully at Power Girl's - as Seinfeld might have put it - qualities prized by the superficial man, you can at least rest well knowing a female artist is complicit in said activities. Sort of. Though for the love of Rao try not to be creepy about it.

I missed the first issue, something I tend to do accidentally on purpose a lot because first ishes are often boring set-up, though in this case perhaps it wasn't. But two and three weren't bad.

For one thing, she's taking on the Ultra-Humanite, who is a super intelligent talking gorilla. He varies from other talking gorillas of the DC universe because he has white fur and his head is sorta veiny and bulgy. Like Ilya Kuryakin on his episode of original Outer Limits. I say original because he was also in an episode of the nineties version, if memory swerves. Veiny, bulgy heads are plain awesome. If everyone had a veiny bulgy head, it would be a better world.

UH has PG strapped down a lot, which isn't so cool as HH-ers are generally not into the bondage thing, unless it's Bettie because Bettie makes it funny. Or perhaps Eric Stanton because his stories are so weird you can't tear your eyes away. And the Marquis De Sade was a cited influence of OG Hepcat Hermit Henry Miller. Also, Bloody Pit of Horror is a fun movie and has some tied-up-ness. Fine, we love bondage!

The point is, this monkey ain't playing pattycake. Not even one tiny little bit.

Peej, as she is referred to as by one of her friends, has a lot of little quips she throws at Monkeybrains before he loses it and they have a throwdown, then yada yada, he's burnt to almost a crisp but is still alive. This part worries me, because it smacks of a revising of UH from being an awesome talking white gorilla to being a burnt to a crisp guy, which will be perceived as more "realistic" and "grim and gritty" by the sorts of comics fans eschewed by El Hepcat Hermit Numero Uno***, aka me. There can never be too many gorilla villains. There can however be too many horribly scarred villains. There already are. Stop!

I also had to kind of zip past some drama going on with some characters in what appeared to be a boardroom or something. Showing a board room is one of the little narrative devices meant to make readers feel like what they are seeing is "real". I read a bit of the dialogue, then I thought enough of this and skipped ahead to more Peej and the Ape.

It's her charisma as a character that carries it. Media is full of spunky, feisty, aggressive female characters. However, Peej is one of the few, if not the only one, who can actually split a mountain in half with her fist (I assume), which changes the entire dynamic. Then the feistiness and spunkiness becomes much less of a psychout routine. It's for real. She doesn't have to demand anyone's respect. You give it or you're kayoed. The closest character I can think of is Xena, who of course isn't strong enough to split mountains, but damn, the girl is hellzapoppin' at doing flips and throwing that wheely-cutty thing around.

The last panel sets up the next storyline, which seems to be, are you ready, Disco Queens from Outer Space! Seriously! Invading the earth! They're flying towards earth in a spaceship with a Groovy Pad inside of it! Oh, this reporter is way on board for that.

Peej is the subject of a wonderful set of internet movies starring Tawnya Manion, who really captured the tougher side of the character, along with her innate sweetness. Not since the days of Lynda Carter has a superheroine been so well embodied* in another medium. All kidding aside, she's dynamite.

In the preceding motion picture, Bizarro demonstrated many behaviors typical of the Creep, that group of hermits to which we do not belong. He is a Scary Monster and a Super Creep. Yes, like the Bowie song. Speaking of songs, here's a song that could almost be about our Peej, just replace the Flower Girl with Power Girl and you're set.