Power Girl Uncovered

Over the last three years, DC Comics has released a number of "Uncovered" one-shots, where they collect a selection of covers featuring a certain character (or group of characters) along with some kind of frame story: Catwoman Uncovered, Birds of Prey Uncovered, Wonder Woman Uncovered, and so on. I was intrigued by these; though I'm not a big "collect covers" guy, I can occasionally be enticed by a really solid cover. Looking through the collected covers on League of Comic Geeks, however, turned me off some of them, because most of these collections primarily seem to consist of covers from the last five years or so, when these characters have massive histories. Like, there have been lots of great Birds of Prey covers, but most of the covers in their one-shot seemed to come from the most recent incarnation of the team.

But one of the exceptions to this was the Power Girl Uncovered, which, though definitely tilted toward the most recent incarnation of the character, contained covers going back to her original solo feature in Showcase (see item #6 in the list below), some covers from Amanda Conner's run (see #47 below), and even a cover from Justice League Europe. So I went ahead and picked it up.

The conceit here is that Power Girl has "recently become aware of a bunch of unauthorized 'photos' that have been released to the public." She suggests to the reader that we "check them out together to see if any of them are worth signing"; there are five pages of frame, mostly featuring Power Girl talking to the reader, but also her cat pops up for a few pages and her roommate Omen (see #50 below). I'm guessing this was a contractual necessity or something, but mostly it served to remind me of how lame her current set-up is ("Paige" sucks, and you know it will get undone someday), though I did like Meghan Hetrick's art.

As you might imagine, there are some great covers and some mediocre ones; I particularly liked Otto Schmidt's Power Girl vol. 3 #1 (which shows off many if not all of her costumes over the years), Jae Lee's Batman/Superman #8 (even if Power Girl isn't very central to the composition), David Nakayama's Power Girl Special #1 (featuring Fire and Ice! I don't know why but I won't complain), Alex Ross's Justice Society of America vol. 3 #9, Amanda Conner's Power Girl vol. 2 #1, Sami Basri's Power Girl vol. 2 #13, Warren Louw's Power Girl vol. 2 #27, Will Jack's Action Comics vol. 1 #1053, Guillem March's Power Girl vol. 3 #3, Babs Tarr's Power Girl vol. 3 #3, and Dani Bonvillain's Power Girl vol. 3 #5. For all that the collection has a bit of recency bias, a lot of the recent covers are very good! Power Girl is one of my favorite superheroes (going back to my early days as a comics fan reading JLE), and these covers capture what makes female superheroes work: beauty and strength in equal measure.

I could have done without the comment over the Justice League Europe #49 cover by Ron Randall and Rick Burchett, which I think is legitimately great; I do like Power Girl's early 1990s outfit even if it is very of its time. (Maybe I'm biased because, again, JLE was one of the first comics I ever read.) There are some covers I legit didn't like, but I accept this is a matter of taste, and some of them are fairly iconic and/or well-regarded despite my personal preferences: Jim Lee and Sandra Hope's Infinite Crisis #2, Adam Hughes's JSA Classified #1, and George Pérez's Worlds' Finest #1 (alas, not even Pérez can make Power Girl's terrible New 52 costume work... and I think he even designed it himself?). And in terms of exclusions, surely it's a crime that we only get two Amanda Conner covers! I'm guessing this was on purpose (I think she's the only artist to even have multiple covers), but Conner and Power Girl are inseparable.

As for the issue's own cover, it had six variants; I liked the Dan Mora one a lot but ended up going for the Pete Woods one, which you can see above. 

Power Girl Uncovered originally appeared in one issue (Mar. 2024). It had dialogue by Brittany Holzherr, editing by Jillian Grant, art by Meghan Hetrick, and lettering & design by Darran Robinson.

This post is the fifty-fourth in an improbably long series about the Justice Society and Earth-Two. The next installment covers Wesley Dodds: The Sandman. Previous installments are listed below:

1. All Star Comics: Only Legends Live Forever (1976-79)
2. The Huntress: Origins (1977-82)
3. All-Star Squadron (1981-87)
4. Infinity, Inc.: The Generations Saga, Volume One (1983-84)
5. Infinity, Inc.: The Generations Saga, Volume Two (1984-85)
6. Showcase Presents... Power Girl (1978)
7. America vs. the Justice Society (1985)
8. Jonni Thunder, a.k.a. Thunderbolt (1985)
9. Crisis on Multiple Earths, Volume 7 (1983-85)
10. Infinity, Inc. #11-53 (1985-88) [reading order]
11. Last Days of the Justice Society of America (1986-88)
12. All-Star Comics 80-Page Giant (1999)
13. Steel, the Indestructible Man (1978)
14. Superman vs. Wonder Woman: An Untold Epic of World War Two (1977)
• Wonder Woman: Earth-Two (1977-78)
15. Secret Origins of the Golden Age (1986-89)
16. The Young All-Stars (1987-89)
17. Gladiator (1930) ["Man-God!" (1976)]
    
18. The Crimson Avenger: The Dark Cross Conspiracy (1981-88)
19. The Immortal Doctor Fate (1940-82)
20. Justice Society of America: The Demise of Justice (1951-91)
21. Armageddon: Inferno (1992)
22. Justice Society of America vol. 2 (1992-93)
23. The Adventures of Alan Scott--Green Lantern (1992-93)
24. Damage (1994-96)
25. The Justice Society Returns! (1999-2001)
26. Chase (1998-2002)
27. Stargirl by Geoff Johns (1999-2003)
28. The Sandman Presents: The Furies (2002)
29. JSA by Geoff Johns, Book One (1999-2000)
30. Wonder Woman: The 18th Letter: A Love Story (2000)
31. Two Thousand (2000)
32. JSA by Geoff Johns, Book Two (1999-2003)
33. Golden Age Secret Files & Origins (2001)
34. JSA by Geoff Johns, Book Three (1999-2003)
35. JSA by Geoff Johns, Book Four (2002-03)
36. JSA Presents Green Lantern (2002-08)
37. JSA #46-87 (2003-06)
38. JSA: Strange Adventures (2004-05)
39. JSA Classified (2005-08)
40. JSA: Ragnarok (2020)
41. Catwoman: Her Sister's Keeper (1989) [Catwoman: Year 2 (1996)]
42. Wonder Woman: Past Imperfect (1997-2002)
43. Batman/Wildcat (1970-98)
44. Justice Society of America vol. 3 (2007-11) [reading order]
45. Justice Society of America 80-Page Giant (2010-11)
46. Terra (2007-09)
47. Power Girl: Power Trip (2005-10)
48. JSA All-Stars vol. 2 (2010-11) 
49. Justice Society of America: A Celebration of 75 Years (1941-2012)
50. Power Girl Returns (2022-23)
51. Showcase '94 #8 / Green Lantern / The Flash: Faster Friends (1994-97) 
52. Impulse: Bart Saves the Universe (1999) 
53. Doctor Mid-Nite (1999)