The engine that made “Buffy, the Vampire Slayer” go was inverting the power relationships in monster movies.

Highschool is literally hell is the engine Buffy ran on.
By that stage in the game, kick-ass chick was no longer seen as an inversion of the genre.

God, is every so P.C. anymore that everything is a big deal unless we're being nice, nice...

If it will make you feel any better, Piano Man is the best piece of music ever scored.

I like Astro City including the current issue but the whole Dark Ages thing has dragged. Maybe with this part coming out monthly the pace won't seem so slow.

I'd agree with the disparity between the level of violence in Power Girl #1 and the artstyle.

I understand what Mr. Palmiotti is saying about NYC as a place for a new start and for the most part agree. In a city that large it is much easier to not be the center of attention unless you are really trying to be. Even so, one imagines that if a high profile super character suddenly seems to be spending a lot of time in a new city, there might be people looking for someone who could be the alter-ego. That would seem to have story possibilities for future issues.

Greg, why aren't you buying War of Kings?

Why do current film makers believe all they have to do is jazz up special effects and they've improved on classic stories?

If you're nineteen or younger and enjoy video game story lines, you'll love this movie. Real Star Trek fans expect more mature and thoughtful efforts...

Is Fin Fang Four worth $4? I'm really tempted, because, well, the cover. And I loved Landridge's work on the first issue of The Muppet Show.

I thought Power Girl was an above-average, fun book. I really didn't notice the nits you pick (you really do think about these things A LOT, Greg) - it wasn't perfect, but then a book with Amanda Conner art doesn't have to be. Amen to Dan's comment about her and Cliff Chiang. They're tomato, tomahto for me. Well, along with Marcos Martin, but at least he has the Spider-man gig now to raise his profile. Here's hoping this gets Ms Conner the ability to make gobs of money doing whatever the hell she wants.

Waiting for the trade on Seaguy...although the good vibes it's generating is making that difficult...

Oh, the Green Lantern revival doesn't do a thing for me either, Jimmy.

There were some good bits. The art was great for one thing. I actually liked how they handled the breast issue. The "Austin Powers" bit with the snow globes was kinda funny. I thought bit Greg complains about above was a nice transition that showed a little bit of her character. The absurdly complex back-story was dealt with quickly and economically. The writers set up some big pieces of the Story Telling engine quickly and deftly. A new reader now knows who PG is, what she does both powers-wise and for a living and where she lives. Not bad.

The problem is that there is no sense of why.

Karen Starr has plenty of power in her daily life. She has economic power (unlike Spider-Man and the Golden Age Superman). She has emotional power (unlike Batman and the Hulk). She has sexual power (unlike Wonder Woman or the Silver Age X-Men). So ... why?

And I'm sorry your record collection sucks so bad...

I have purchased three of the things you've reviewed here. Of course, I can't comment because they won't arrive for a month, but still.

Doris Day!!?? I thought it was Pamela Anderson. Oh, the face. Youse guys was lookin' at her face.

It is Doris Day! You know how it is once you get a couple of bowls in the brain box and then someone puts Billy Joel lyrics on a blog and the world stats spinning and suddenly you can't think as clearly as you once did...

If you agree with any of the picks on this blog you probably ambushed Ms. California with questions about same sex marriage.

As you know, I’m certainly not adverse to reading comics in which people do horrible things to each other, but Conner’s art, combined with the presence of clockwork robots and gorillas, combined with the fact that PG is a “bright” character herself, highlights the unpleasant aspects of the book.

I haven't read the issue in question yet so I don't know exactly how well it is done, but I disagree with your premise.

If you are launching a new superhero book using an established character, then you really want to boil down the essence of what makes them unique. That is doubly true for a character like PG, who has an utterly convoluted back-story without either a consistently established supporting cast or antagonists.

To me, what makes PG different is:
1. Her body type. Not just her rack, but the fact that she is shaped differently than any other female superhero.
2. Her blunt, straight-forward personality. PG would need to make a deliberate choice not to say anything when she notices someone staring at her breasts.
3. Her lineage. I am not talking about the messy question of her family tree and whether she is related to the current version of Superman. I mean, that she is a Wally Wood creation and Wood's long and varied career is a totally appropriate source material from which to draw.

The three factors above combine in sort of interesting ways. One of which is that PG can look at Superman, Batman and Wonder Woman like someone who has read their Mad Magazine parodies. What does PG say if one of the Amazons on Paradise Island won't meet her eyes? How would Superman react if she asked a risque question about his X-Ray vision? Throw away moments to be sure, but they could be a lot of fun.

More importantly, PG looks an awful lot like one of the sexy young women who might get bumped off at the end of a story in "Creepy" or "Eerie". The best superhero stories take a powerless person, give them power and imagine how they'd react. Superman was exciting because it inverted the power relationship between socio-economic classes. The engine that made "Buffy, the Vampire Slayer" go was inverting the power relationships in monster movies.

Well, who has ever been more powerless than the female protagonist in "Came the Dawn" and other stories of that genre? To me, that give PG "brand permission" to move into certain types of horror stories.

i didn't pick the preview pages and thought they didn't represent the entire issue well.

but all good, if everyone liked the book it would be a miracle. like me and green lantern titles. don't read them.

That's not really a fair analogy, though. With a trailer, you have a group of people entirely separate from those responsible for the creation of the movie slapping together lines and shots from all across the piece to make something enticing.

With a comic preview, you have an excerpt of the material presented exactly as it is in the comic. I think it's pretty fair to judge a comic by the preview. Especially when the preview comprises more than 30% of the total product.

It’s just odd, as it seems most people start in the East (like I did) and then move west.

It probably seems that way to you because you currently live in the west. So most of people you meet who are looking for a fresh start are those who came from the east. Since I live in NYC for example, most Americans I meet who came from a fresh start are those who came from the west to do so.

and michael...the preview was not the meat of the book on any level... just a few pages. sometimes the trailer doesnt do a movie justice.

I'll make it up to her by giving her the first Tiffany Aching book.