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scans_dailyGiffen plot and breakdowns, Bill Loebs on script, guest penciller Art Nichols, with Bart Sears moving to inks.
Picking up right where issue #8 left off, Captain Atom and Catherine Cobert hear out Power Girl’s grim prognosis. You may as well call Kara Paradox Girl instead, because an operation is (1) her only hope and (2) impossible.
This doctor is never named, but I love how awful he manages to be despite his healer role. He’s like Gregory House crossed with Alvin the Chipmunk. I'd read a story about him. I’d read a SERIES about him.
The hero of the hour is Sue Dibny, who steps way out of her silo when she realizes there’s a way to save Kara and no time to go through the Captain for it:
We’re following a Silver-Age logic here in which Kryptonians are so far above everything else that, barring magic, only one Kryptonian can injure another in a precise, surgical way, just as only one diamond can scratch another diamond. That’s no longer true about diamonds, or Kryptonians, and Power Girl’s not actually Kryptonian in this continuity. But you get it. It also invokes this moment from Action Comics #1:
As the cover gives away, this is going to be heat-vision-assisted laser surgery, with a special helmet stabilizing Superman’s head and the lead surgeon directing him otherwise.
That’s one problem solved, but an operation can present other complications…
While this medical drama plays out, a couple of other JLEers are working through their own drama, which is more serious than it appears. Bill Loebs/William Messner-Loebs handled the dialogue for issues #9-12, and he understood the assignment right away. But he was also writing The Flash at this point, so his Wally West dialogue has extra zing.
Also, Dmitri continues to be the absolute best. This is what real masculinity looks like.
Captain Atom mans up and apologizes to Sue: "If Power Girl survives, it'll be thanks to you." And the operation is a success, but…
The surgeon tells them he’s not qualified to say by how much, but Kara’s powers have been reduced if not eliminated. Both Superman and Captain Atom brace themselves before giving Kara that news, expecting it to be a blow to her spirit.
I do find that last page inspiring. There’s another bit where Metamorpho kicks himself out of a self-pity spiral that works for me, too.
Truth be told, this story didn’t end up reducing or removing Kara’s powers--except for flight--so much as justifying the way her powers were already appearing in the plots. She wasn’t getting much use out of super-hearing, x-ray vision, or heat vision before this. An exercise in the next issue would confirm she was now about neck-and-neck with Captain Atom for the title of team powerhouse.
Most of that next issue, though, is concerned with the Crimson Fox, who impresses Batman in both her guises. Well, her dual identity’s a little more complex than it looks, but we’ll get to that down the line. Plot, breakdowns, and script as before, with Sears back on pencils.
A helicopter attaches a grappling hook to the globe, which somehow doesn’t shatter then and there. The copter lifts it into the air just in time for a lone figure to leap from the roof…
No, the Crimson Fox’s costume is neither crimson nor foxlike...and now you know why I've been playing around with the colors in this post. It’s super weird how both she and the Silver Sorceress have earth-tone costumes that hide their hair but codenames that refer to their hair color, NOT their costumes. Later scripts made half-joking suggestions that both heroines were color blind, but even if they were, you’d think someone would’ve told them. And what is going on with that toupee? It looks like an angry comma.
The money globe shatters, raining its payload onto the JLE embassy and justifying the cover image.
Speaking of color choices, the cover seems to be rendering 100-franc bills, which are brown. For a long time, I thought the green bills in the story were an error, but they were probably 500-franc notes:
Anyway. The Fox finishes off the thieves, making sure not to cause any property damage while she--no, wait, sorry, I have that wrong--
KRASH.
The thieves soon opt to give themselves up to the JLE rather than keep facing a hissing, spitting, toupeed Lady Deathstrike, and who can blame them? The JLE stop the Crimson Fox’s retreat long enough for a damage assessment…
And Cap isn’t in a forgiving mood when he detains her further. He tries to argue that for all he knows, she could be a thief who turned on her fellow thieves, but she's already been recorded doing other heroic works. It's clear what he's really upset about.
Batman clarifies the incident and points out the opportunity. This brave, resourceful hero is famous, popular, and French, meaning she could serve with distinction AND defuse France’s anti-JLE criticism. “Like Wonder Woman could have if you idiots hadn’t kept hitting on her,” he doesn’t add.
Wow.
We cut to the next morning, where Power Girl and Animal Man are jogging like normal folks, and she brings him up to speed. The Fox didn’t just refuse Cap’s “offer” of membership… “FIRST she spit in his eye! THEN she refused! Then she leaped out a previously UNBROKEN window and DISAPPEARED!”
At this point, the web of Justice League relationships is getting complex. Fire flirts around but has an interest in Oberon, which he returns. Ice and Guy are on the back burner, for now. Barda and Scott are paired off, and so are Sue and Ralph--but Sue defends her right to drool over Captain Atom as a spectator. Wally wants Kara: good luck with that, Wal. Cap and Catherine want each other but are trying to keep things professional.
Fox has flirted with Rocket Red and Bruce Wayne a little, but nothing serious. Whom will she go after--or who will go after her? Or will she break the pattern?
Well, that answers THAT.
Saturday: A superhero story manages to be about a baby boy for a whole two issues without killing him, artificially aging him, or making him talk like Cookie Monster. I couldn’t believe it either.
Picking up right where issue #8 left off, Captain Atom and Catherine Cobert hear out Power Girl’s grim prognosis. You may as well call Kara Paradox Girl instead, because an operation is (1) her only hope and (2) impossible.
This doctor is never named, but I love how awful he manages to be despite his healer role. He’s like Gregory House crossed with Alvin the Chipmunk. I'd read a story about him. I’d read a SERIES about him.
The hero of the hour is Sue Dibny, who steps way out of her silo when she realizes there’s a way to save Kara and no time to go through the Captain for it:
We’re following a Silver-Age logic here in which Kryptonians are so far above everything else that, barring magic, only one Kryptonian can injure another in a precise, surgical way, just as only one diamond can scratch another diamond. That’s no longer true about diamonds, or Kryptonians, and Power Girl’s not actually Kryptonian in this continuity. But you get it. It also invokes this moment from Action Comics #1:
As the cover gives away, this is going to be heat-vision-assisted laser surgery, with a special helmet stabilizing Superman’s head and the lead surgeon directing him otherwise.
That’s one problem solved, but an operation can present other complications…
While this medical drama plays out, a couple of other JLEers are working through their own drama, which is more serious than it appears. Bill Loebs/William Messner-Loebs handled the dialogue for issues #9-12, and he understood the assignment right away. But he was also writing The Flash at this point, so his Wally West dialogue has extra zing.
Also, Dmitri continues to be the absolute best. This is what real masculinity looks like.
Captain Atom mans up and apologizes to Sue: "If Power Girl survives, it'll be thanks to you." And the operation is a success, but…
The surgeon tells them he’s not qualified to say by how much, but Kara’s powers have been reduced if not eliminated. Both Superman and Captain Atom brace themselves before giving Kara that news, expecting it to be a blow to her spirit.
I do find that last page inspiring. There’s another bit where Metamorpho kicks himself out of a self-pity spiral that works for me, too.
Truth be told, this story didn’t end up reducing or removing Kara’s powers--except for flight--so much as justifying the way her powers were already appearing in the plots. She wasn’t getting much use out of super-hearing, x-ray vision, or heat vision before this. An exercise in the next issue would confirm she was now about neck-and-neck with Captain Atom for the title of team powerhouse.
Most of that next issue, though, is concerned with the Crimson Fox, who impresses Batman in both her guises. Well, her dual identity’s a little more complex than it looks, but we’ll get to that down the line. Plot, breakdowns, and script as before, with Sears back on pencils.
A helicopter attaches a grappling hook to the globe, which somehow doesn’t shatter then and there. The copter lifts it into the air just in time for a lone figure to leap from the roof…
No, the Crimson Fox’s costume is neither crimson nor foxlike...and now you know why I've been playing around with the colors in this post. It’s super weird how both she and the Silver Sorceress have earth-tone costumes that hide their hair but codenames that refer to their hair color, NOT their costumes. Later scripts made half-joking suggestions that both heroines were color blind, but even if they were, you’d think someone would’ve told them. And what is going on with that toupee? It looks like an angry comma.
The money globe shatters, raining its payload onto the JLE embassy and justifying the cover image.
Speaking of color choices, the cover seems to be rendering 100-franc bills, which are brown. For a long time, I thought the green bills in the story were an error, but they were probably 500-franc notes:
Anyway. The Fox finishes off the thieves, making sure not to cause any property damage while she--no, wait, sorry, I have that wrong--
KRASH.
The thieves soon opt to give themselves up to the JLE rather than keep facing a hissing, spitting, toupeed Lady Deathstrike, and who can blame them? The JLE stop the Crimson Fox’s retreat long enough for a damage assessment…
And Cap isn’t in a forgiving mood when he detains her further. He tries to argue that for all he knows, she could be a thief who turned on her fellow thieves, but she's already been recorded doing other heroic works. It's clear what he's really upset about.
Batman clarifies the incident and points out the opportunity. This brave, resourceful hero is famous, popular, and French, meaning she could serve with distinction AND defuse France’s anti-JLE criticism. “Like Wonder Woman could have if you idiots hadn’t kept hitting on her,” he doesn’t add.
Wow.
We cut to the next morning, where Power Girl and Animal Man are jogging like normal folks, and she brings him up to speed. The Fox didn’t just refuse Cap’s “offer” of membership… “FIRST she spit in his eye! THEN she refused! Then she leaped out a previously UNBROKEN window and DISAPPEARED!”
At this point, the web of Justice League relationships is getting complex. Fire flirts around but has an interest in Oberon, which he returns. Ice and Guy are on the back burner, for now. Barda and Scott are paired off, and so are Sue and Ralph--but Sue defends her right to drool over Captain Atom as a spectator. Wally wants Kara: good luck with that, Wal. Cap and Catherine want each other but are trying to keep things professional.
Fox has flirted with Rocket Red and Bruce Wayne a little, but nothing serious. Whom will she go after--or who will go after her? Or will she break the pattern?
Well, that answers THAT.
Saturday: A superhero story manages to be about a baby boy for a whole two issues without killing him, artificially aging him, or making him talk like Cookie Monster. I couldn’t believe it either.
no subject
Date: 2026-01-15 06:13 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2026-01-15 06:31 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2026-01-15 07:02 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2026-01-15 07:57 pm (UTC)The "healing" scene (as Dmitri so aptly put it) between Ralph and Wally was genuinely touching. Full marks.
And speaking of marks, as in punctuation, your "angry comma" simile for Fox's WTF-of-a-cowl cracked me up. I needed a good laugh what with... well, just look at the news or better yet don't... so thanks for that.
no subject
Date: 2026-01-15 08:33 pm (UTC)Surely they growl, or bark.
Thinking Crimson Fox made a botch of her introduction, was unable to correct it but having committed herself to the snake theme just decided "screw it, I'mma act and dress like a snake anyway! Anyone asks, I'll lie!"
An interesting moment with Wally and Ralph there demonstrating that what might seem like harmless ribbing from one point of view might not come across as such on the receiving end.
(though why Ralph though "hey, this works when I do it with my wife" was a good reason to apply it to his bud's protege...)
Especially since it really didn't come across like that.
Still, Ralph and Wally have talked things out like responsible, functional-ish adults and I'm sure they won't just revert back to goofballing and mean-spirited sniping the minute Messner-Loebs is halfway out the door.