Power Trip is a Supergirl storyline by Geoff Johns, Amanda Conner and Jimmy Palmiotti and Justin Gray, published in JSA Classified #1-4 (July-October, 2005). Working as a prelude to Infinite Crisis, it revolved around Power Girl rediscovering her real past and reclaiming her Kryptonian lineage and heritage.
Karen Starr used to think she was Superman's cousin Kara Zor-L, who was blasted from Krypton at the same time than Kal but took longer to arrive. Then she was told she was the granddaughter of Arion, an Atlantean sorcerer born ten millennia ago, and her Kryptonian identity was a lie. Then she was told her Atlantean past was a lie, and she was not related to Arion at all.
By this point, Karen is already sick of mind games and lies. She does not care about her real identity anymore and wants to move on. However, someone is not about to let her. Psycho Pirate, one of the few beings who remember the existence of The Multiverse and its annihilation during the Crisis on Infinite Earths, has been hired to force Power Girl to remember her real past, whether she likes or not. Regarding his assignment as a way to achieve vindication after being treated as a nonsense-spewing loony during years, Psycho Pirate is eager to get the job done...even if it drives the Last Daughter of Earth-Two crazy.
Tropes:
- Abusive Offspring: Psycho Pirate broke his father's arm and neck just because the man was pointing out his faults.
- The Bad Guy Wins: Psycho-Pirate uses his illusions to make a fool out of the JSA, gaslights and kidnaps Power Girl, and after rambling about Earth-Two at his heart's content, he disappears laughing.
- Best Friend: Kara turns to Helena Bertinelli as undergoing considerable emotional turmoil because, even though her Pre-Crisis memories had been wiped out, including the ones pertinent to Helena Wayne, she instinctively remembered she could always rely on Huntress.
- Bus Full of Innocents: Power Girl tries to save a falling plane while a fake Legion of Super-Heroes is hindering her. For when she manages to shake them off, Superman and Supergirl have already arrived and landed the plane safely.
- Car Fu: When Kara becomes fed up with Psycho Pirate's phantoms, she hoists her own rocketship and slams it down onto them.
- Catch a Falling Star: Power Girl saves a window cleaner who has just dropped off from a scaffold.
- Chest Insignia: When she talks to Superman, Power Girl confesses her suit has a boob window because she wanted to have a symbol like Clark, but she has been unable to think of a good one.
- Continuity Nod: Power Girl mentions she and Supergirl cannot be around each other because of an incident narrated in Supergirl (2005) story arc "Girl Power".
- Covers Always Lie: The covers show Kara confidently beating Psycho Pirate up. In the actual story, Psycho-Pirate's plot to make Power Girl question reality is so successful he's able to abduct her when she gives up and stops fighting as she can no longer tell what is real.
- The Cuckoolander Was Right: The super-heroic community believes Psycho Pirate is crazy because he claims their universe is the only one left after the Anti-Monitor devoured the Multiverse...which is exactly what happened.
- Does Not Know His Own Strength: As Power Girl's true nature struggles to reasserts itself, her strength levels go up and down, causing her to break stuff, like Dr. Mid-Nite's weight lifting equipment, accidentally.
- Driven to Madness: Psycho Pirate's manipulations batter Power Girl's sanity down until she is too exhausted physically and mentally to fight him when he takes her away.
- Evil-Detecting Dog: Kara's cat immediately hisses and claws at Clayface when he poses as Wildcat.
- Fake Memories: Double subversion. Power Girl was told her memories of being born in Krypton to Superman's uncle were false remembrances, and she was granddaughter to Atlantean sorcerer Arion. Then Arion's ghost revealed her Atlantean memories were fake, and she was not related to him at all. Then Psycho Pirate reveals she is Superman's cousin after all.
- Fling a Light into the Future: Zor-L and Allura realized that they could not build a ship large enough to get all of them out of Krypton... But they could get their daughter out of the planet.Zor-L: There's only enough time to build a small ship to carry her...We shall die with Krypton—"
Allura: "We will...But our daughter shall live on— in the stars."'' - Gallows Humor: When Checkmate agents are examining Kara's rocket ship, one scientist asks Director Bones to wear a bio-suit. His boss, a bona fide living skeleton, humorously replies that “[He] appreciate[s] the warnings, but [he's] not sure [his] health can get much worse."
- Gaslighting: Psycho Pirate's illusions and emotion-manipulating tricks relentlessly assault Power Girl until she cannot tell reality from illusion.
- Green-Eyed Monster: Power Girl does not get along with Supergirl because Kara gets to be Superman's cousin, apprentice and right-hand whereas she is an ousted unwilling poser without relatives and without a real past.
- Groin Attack: Psycho Pirate leans over Power Girl when he implies he will use his power to make her loving him, giving her the perfect opening for a "knee-meets-crotch" maneuver.
- Hallucinations: Subverted. Kara believes Garth Daanut, Jimmy Olsen, the strange Legion...are hallucinations created by her mind, but they are more like mirages spawned by Psycho Pirate.
- Invulnerable Knuckles: Averted. When Kara fights Garth Daanut's phantom, she pummels him into the asphalt so hard that she wears her gloves down and bruises her super-tough knuckles.
- It's All About Me: Psycho Pirate's plan to give Power Girl her past back is partially driven by smug self-interest. After all, when she remembers the Multiverse, everyone who mocked him will know he was right all along.
- Leaning on the Fourth Wall:
- Psycho Pirate tells Power Girl she needs to remember her heritage if she really wants to count for something. And, indeed, after Infinite Crisis Power Girl got better plotlines than being weak to pre-processed stuff or getting knocked up by her own grandfather, got to lead several teams, and starred her own ongoing.
- Psycho Pirate tells Power Girl's everchanging nature, past, powers... are due to the universe trying to figure out how she fits. Now replace the universe with DC Comics...
- Loafing in Full Costume: Kara has not bothered with a secret identity for months, so she walks into her apartment wearing her hero outfit and lays down on her couch without even changing clothes.
- The Man Behind the Man: One epilogue reveals that Psycho Pirate is working for Alexander Luthor Jr.
- My Eyes Are Up Here:
- After saving a window cleaner, Power Girl has remind him that her eyes are not located down her neck.
- When she talks to Jimmy Olsen, Kara is surprised that he does not try to take a peek, and is disappointed when he eventually does.
- Mythology Gag:
- The panel where Power Girl emerges out of her rocket and greets a surprised Superman is a homage to the cover of The Supergirl From Krypton (1959), flipping Kal and Kara's positions.
- A flashback shows Superman parading his cousin around, like he did in The Unknown Supergirl.
- Several phantoms modeled after the Legion of Super-Heroes call Karen Andromeda. Andromeda was the codename of Laurel Gand, Supergirl's Expy in the Post-Crisis Legion.
- One of the phantoms created by Psycho Pirate is Luma Lynai, the Superwoman of planet Staryl, who showed up in Action Comics #289.
- Other Me Annoys Me: While an earlier meeting saw the two's powers go berserk just from a handshake also played a part, Power Girl rebuffs Supergirl's attempted kindness rather harshly because Karen does not like being around Kara because she was Superman's cousin before being told she was not even Kryptonian, and long before Superman's actual cousin made it to Earth.
- Paradox Person: It is revealed that Kara's conflicting backstories are due to the universe itself trying to make sense of her existence, since she was born in a parallel universe whose existence was retroactively erased during the Crisis on Infinite Earths.
- Shapeshifter Guilt Trip: Variant. When Power Girl is breaking her shackles, Psycho Pirate summons Earth-Two Huntress, who demands to know how Kara could forget her best friend, and Earth-Two Robin, who questions why she exists when they were erased from history.
- Spotting the Thread: When Clayface sneaks into Kara's apartment transformed into Wildcat, Power Girl right away realizes that something wrong when "Ted" behaves like a horny dog.
- There Was a Door: When Kara suddenly hears someone falling off from a suspended scaffold, she flies through her own apartment's closed window.
- Tomato in the Mirror: The story examines Power Girl's reactions over the years to learning that she supposedly isn't Kryptonian, or Atlantean, as Dr. Mid-Nite and others notice and raise questions about her Kryptonian powers and memories which are quickly and unstably reasserting themselves as her real history of being a Kryptonian from another universe is about to be revealed.
