Power Girl is a 2023 ongoing series by DC Comics, written by Leah Williams with art by Eduardo Pansica, and launched as part of the Dawn of DC initiative. It is Power Girl's third titled series, and her second ongoing. The first issue came out in November, 2023.
In the aftermath of Knight Terrors and her latest personal upheavals, Kara Zor-L has a new name and a new life as research scientist "Paige Stetler". However, her past will not leave her alone, as Power Girl must face down an awoken Kryptonian threat aiming to destroy Superman and his family.
Power Girl (2023) provides examples of:
- Adaptational Angst Upgrade: This version of Power Girl has serious issues about whether she's really part of the Superman Family, and also has PTSD from being trapped in her Symbioship.
- Adaptational Job Change: After the latest continuity reboot, Kara has gone from entrepreneur to journalist.
- Adaptational Villainy: The Symbioship is sentient, and it hates Power Girl.
- A.I. Is a Crapshoot: The Symbioship is obsessed with Power Girl, to the point of wanting to possessing her body.
- Apologetic Attacker: When a possessed Kara attacks Superman, Clark tells he does not want to hurt her before smashing her through a wall.
- Art Shift: The magical dimension of Pembria is represented by a more cartoony art style.
- Battle in the Center of the Mind: After being possessed, Power Girl's mind fights the Symbioship's conscience in a black void.
- Body Surf: The Symbioship's AI jumps from body to body until it manages to possess Power Girl's.
- Canon Discontinuity: Her tenure as founder and owner of Starrware Labs there seems to have been dropped from canon completely.
- Cassandra Truth: Power Girl tells Superman that she is certain that her Symbioship has become hostile and is coming for her, but Clark dismisses her concerns, since they had dismantled the ship completely. Later, he has to admit that Kara was right.
- A Day in the Limelight: Issue #5 focuses on Streaky, as he defeats a gang of petnappers without PG even noticing he was gone.
- Dying Alone: Kara is keeping an old alien lion's company because she does not want him to die alone.
- Eye Scream: The Symbioship parasite leaves -or is pulled from- its victims's bodies right eye. Despite her incredible toughness, Power Girl needs to wear an eyepatch for a while after the Symbioship is ripped from her body.
- Fantastic Drug: Avalon. It's a golden spherical pill that's supposedly non-addictive, but links you to a shared hallucination of a magical land called Pembria. It's actually a living being of some kind which transports you to an actual magical land called Pembria, and if the land's ruler captures you while you're there, you never come back.
- "I Know You're in There Somewhere" Fight: As fighting a Power Girl taken over by the Symbioship's AI, Superman encourages her to fight from the inside.Superman "Fight this, Paige! I know you're in there! You have to be!"
- It's All My Fault: Superman feels guilty when Power Girl is body-snatched, since he did not pay heed to her concerns regarding the Symbioship, assuring her that she was safe in the Fortress.
- Lotus-Eater Machine: Discussed. Power Girl spent her decades-long trip to Earth dreaming a simulated life created by her rocket's Symbioship. Several years after waking up she is still frightened that her current life is part of a virtual reality and she is still sleeping in her rocket.
- Meaningful Rename: Following on from Jon Kent suggesting the name "Paige" in her Action Comics back-up strip (since she no longer identifies with the name "Kara", associating it with the other Kara Zor-El, and always saw "Karen Starr" as a disguise more than an identity) Power Girl now has the new identity of Dr. Paige Stetler, Daily Planet tech writer.
- Mythology Gag:
- Kara affectionately refers to Streaky as "Stinky", the name she eventually gave her cat in pre-Flashpoint continuity.
- The idea of a Kryptonian plague involving Amalak is a nod to the "The Plague of the Antibiotic Man" storyline.
- No-Dialogue Episode: Most of the fifth issue is told from Streaky the Super-cat's point of view, being nearly devoid of dialogue until the final two pages.
- Series Continuity Error: The Symbioship getting destroyed after attempting to reassimilate Power Girl is a reference to Showcase #97-98. However, it was dismantled by Kara, exclusively. Superman did not even show up in those issues.
- Spit Take: At the end of the fifth issue, Power Girl spits her coffee out when Supergirl tells her about a case she is investigating and asks if she would be interested in a team-up.
- Tempting Fate: Superman assures Power Girl that she is completely safe in the Fortress, unaware that the Symbioship has sneaked into his base by taking over one of animal of his alien zoo.
