Journey from Krypton-Two Kara's father discovers that Krypton is about to explode, and places her in a spacecraft directed towards the Earth. Although this occurs at the same time that Kal-L's ship is launched, Kara's ship travels more slowly, and she arrives on Earth decades after her cousin has landed. Kara's Symbioship is designed to keep her in stasis during the journey and provide her with life experiences and education in the form of
virtual reality. The Symbioship allows her to interact with virtual copies of her parents and fellow Kryptonians. Originally, by the time she arrives on Earth, Kara is shown to be in her early twenties. However, as mentioned in
JSA: Classified #1, her age at arrival has now been
retconned to eighteen in post-
Crisis continuity. In
Showcase #97, Kara is reclaimed by the sentient Symbioship, which forcibly re-immerses her into Kandorian society. Kara spends several virtual years inside the ship, eventually marrying and having a child. She is freed with the assistance of newspaper reporter Andrew Vinson and destroys the ship in anger for manipulating her emotions.
Debut Power Girl's existence is not revealed to the general public until much later; her cousin
Clark and his wife
Lois Lane provide her a family environment to assist her transition towards real life relationships. In her first recorded adventure, Kara assists Justice Society members
Flash and
Wildcat with containing an artificially induced volcanic eruption in China. She then joins Robin and
Star-Spangled Kid to form a Super Squad to assist the Justice Society in defeating
Brainwave and
Per Degaton, who were causing disasters around the world. She pushes their base towards the
Sun, the heat causing the villains to fall unconscious. Later, she becomes a full member of the Society when Superman retires from active membership. Having been raised by the Symbioship with artificial Kryptonian life experiences, Power Girl finds it difficult to adapt to life on Earth. With Vinson's help, she eventually creates a
fictional human identity: red-haired computer
programmer and businesswoman Karen Starr (she obtains her knowledge in this field from exposure to
Wonder Woman's
Purple Ray on
Paradise Island). As Starr, Power Girl establishes her own software and IT company, Starr Enterprises. On the pre-
Crisis Earth-Two, Power Girl's closest friend is the
Huntress, the daughter of the Earth-Two
Batman and
Catwoman. The first contact between Power Girl and
Earth-One's universe was on the
crossover Justice League of America #147, written by
Paul Levitz &
Martin Pasko, where the character shows her attraction to that reality saying, "It has a much nicer brand of Superman, y'know?".
Atlantean The 1985–1986
Crisis on Infinite Earths limited series erased the existence of the Earth-Two Superman, and Power Girl's
continuity was thus substantially disrupted. Initially she believed herself to be Superman's cousin, as she had been before the
reboot. However, her background was
retconned; she was told that she was the descendant of the
Atlantean sorcerer
Arion, and was frozen in
suspended animation for millennia until the present day. After the
Justice Society disbands, Power Girl would join the
Justice League. Later, while a member of
Justice League Europe, she suffers a near fatal injury while battling a mystical being. Superman must assist in her medical treatment, using his heat-vision to perform surgery on her otherwise-invulnerable tissues. Although she recovers, Power Girl is significantly weaker, as she lost her vision powers and could not fly for a time. However, she regained them all as time went on. Power Girl adopts a one-eyed mangy cat, an animal which would affect much of the team. One aspect of this is her beloved cat is used to spy on the group by intelligence gathering criminals. During the 1994 event
Zero Hour: Crisis in Time!, Power Girl experiences a
mystical pregnancy and gives birth to a son (supposedly named Equinox), who ages rapidly. Equinox later disappears and has not appeared since. Power Girl appeared in later issues of the
Sovereign Seven series,
Chris Claremont's creator-owned comic book for DC. However, the final issue revealed that the entire series had been a story appearing in a comic book, and events in the book have had no bearing upon DC continuity. Power Girl was one of
Oracle's first agents. Their short-lived partnership ended after a disastrous mission which resulted in a large loss of life. Power Girl believes that Oracle's poor leadership was responsible for the tragedy, disgusted that Oracle would sacrifice hundreds of lives and herself following orders. Although she has worked with her again on a few occasions when needed, the relationship between the two is tense. In
Birds of Prey #35, Power Girl admitted that she is primarily to blame for the tension but is unable to overcome her memories of the deaths. Power Girl is a key member of the Justice Society, which she joined when it was reformed in the late 1990s. During an adventure with the JSA, she meets Arion, who reveals her Atlantean heritage to be a lie he concocted at the behest of Power Girl's "mother". While attempting to save her teammate
Ted Grant from
Crimson Avenger, Power Girl is severely wounded by supernatural bullets. Despite being saved by
Doctor Mid-Nite, Power Girl comments that her near-death experience has shown her that she needs to make more personal connections outside of the superhero community. This leads her to focus more on developing her human side as Karen Starr.
Infinite Crisis JSA: Classified – Power Trip The
Psycho-Pirate shows Kara multiple versions of her origin in an effort to drive her insane. Eventually, he reveals the truth: Power Girl is a survivor of
Krypton from the dimension which contained the
pre-Crisis Earth-Two.
The other survivors In the "
Infinite Crisis" storyline, Kal-L himself returns to the post-
Crisis DC Universe after breaking down the walls of the paradise dimension in which he,
Lois Lane Kent (of
Earth-Two),
Alexander Luthor, Jr. (of
Earth-Three), and
Superboy-Prime (of
Earth-Prime) had been living since the end of
Crisis on Infinite Earths. Appalled by the rapidly deteriorating state of affairs on the contemporary Earth, their goal is to replace the post-
Crisis Earth with a recreated
Earth-Two. Kal-L's first order of business is to track down Power Girl and explain the events of the original Crisis to her. Kal-L also reiterates her
pre-Crisis history as his cousin. A touch from the ailing
Lois of Earth-Two inexplicably restores Power Girl's memories of
pre-Crisis Earth-Two. Soon after this revelation, Power Girl is confronted by Superboy-Prime, who renders her unconscious. She is attached to a "tuning fork", a device controlled by Alex Luthor whose purpose is to bring back the multiple Earths. Alex Luthor and Psycho-Pirate coerce
Black Adam (who is also attached to the machine) into saying "SHAZAM!", and use magical energy to power the tower. After the reappearance of the created Earth-Two, everyone associated with that Earth is transported onto it (although Power Girl remains on New Earth because of her proximity to the tower). After being brought to the barren created Earth-Two by Kal-L, Lois Lane Kent collapses and dies. A violent confrontation between the two Supermen ensues, at the end of which Kal-L comes to the realization that this created Earth-Two had not been a perfect world, since "a perfect earth doesn't need a Superman." Power Girl is freed by
Wonder Girl and
Conner Kent, and joins them in fighting Superboy-Prime and Alex Luthor. During a savage battle on
Mogo, Superboy-Prime beats Kal-L to death and is later subdued by Kal-El. Power Girl is brought to Mogo by the
Green Lantern Corps just in time to bid a farewell to her dying cousin.
"One Year Later" In the "
One Year Later" storyline in
Supergirl, Kara takes up the mantle of
Nightwing in an attempt to free the natives of
Kandor.
Ultraman, masquerading as
Kal-El and working in concert with the
Saturn Queen, has taken control of the bottle city.
Kara Zor-El is the city's
Flamebird; she prevents Ultraman's forces from executing the captured Power Girl. Power Girl is forced to leave Kandor with Kara (against her better judgment) after Saturn Queen reveals to Supergirl information about Supergirl's past and purpose. This causes another rift to grow between the two women, as Power Girl feels Supergirl left an entire city of people to suffer, all because of her own selfish desires. This animosity is still on display when she next encounters Supergirl. Power Girl remains a core member of the
Justice Society. Power Girl is selected as the
chairwoman of the team after
Mr. Terrific steps down. Power Girl is invited to rejoin
Oracle's
Birds of Prey, but refuses, stating that she would do so only "when
Hell freezes over". Her ill will toward Oracle is the result of a single mission in which she served as one of Oracle's agents, which ended badly. However, Power Girl does come to Oracle's aid against the new female
Spy Smasher's attempt to take over the group. The appearance of the
Earth-22 Superman (and his resemblance to Kal-L) upsets Kara greatly when he first arrives on New Earth. However, they adopt each other as family after a period of time.
Following the events of Infinite Crisis, a new Multiverse is created. Among them is an Earth-2 from which its Power Girl and Superman are both missing. The Power Girl of this Earth returns to Earth-2 after failing to find her cousin. The Power Girl of New Earth is accidentally sent to the pre-
Crisis Earth-2 by the
Third World god
Gog. The Power Girl of New Earth faces off against the Power Girl and Justice Society Infinity of the new Earth-2, due to the Earth-2 Power Girl's grief and rage over the loss of her cousin prompting her to believe that the "other" Power Girl is an impostor with some role in Superman's absence. Power Girl returns to New Earth with the help of the Earth-2
Michael Holt, until the Justice Society Infinity follow her and take her back to Earth-2, where it is revealed that the recreation of the Multiverse created a new Earth-2 and duplicates of its heroes, including its own Power Girl. The Power Girl of New Earth then returns home with the JSA.
Solo series and All-Stars and
Dick Giordano. Power Girl briefly appears in the
Final Crisis crossover event, battling the forces of
Darkseid after he conquers the Earth using the
Anti-Life Equation. After deciding to once again use the Karen Starr identity, she moves to New York City and begins rebuilding Starr Enterprises while continuing solo superheroics. She eventually takes teenaged hero-in-training
Terra as her sidekick following the horrific events depicted in the
Terror Titans mini-series. After the duo fight off a robot invasion of the city, Power Girl is kidnapped by the new
Ultra-Humanite, who plans to transplant his brain into her body. Using her ice breath to destroy her gravity enhanced shackles and gag, Power Girl easily defeats the villain and saves New York. She also helps a trio of lost alien princesses and their bodyguard adjust to life on Earth, buying them a home in South America to stay until they can get back to their home planet. Following a massive battle that ends in the destruction of the Justice Society's HQ, the team decides to split up into two separate squads. Power Girl partners with
Magog to start a more youth-oriented team dubbed the
JSA All-Stars. Using
Stargirl as leverage, the two are able to convince all of the teen JSA members except
Jennifer Pierce to join the All-Stars. During the team's inaugural press conference, they are attacked by a group of mercenaries led by the villainous nephew of
Sylvester Pemberton. Karen and her team emerge victorious, only to discover that Pemberton has kidnapped Stargirl during the confusion of the battle. The team eventually rescues Stargirl.
Blackest Night and Brightest Day During the 2009–2010 "
Blackest Night" storyline, both JSA teams gather in Manhattan to stave off the invading
Black Lantern Corps. Several of the team members examine the corpses of Kal-L and Psycho-Pirate, both of whom had been reanimated as Black Lanterns only to be killed again during a battle with Superboy and Superman. Karen breaks down in tears upon seeing the twisted corpse of Kal-L, and swears vengeance upon whoever is behind the creation of the Black Lanterns. While on her way to the streets of Manhattan to assist her teammates, Karen hears Ma Hunkel screaming. She rushes to her side, only to see Ma being attacked by the Black Lantern Lois Lane-Kent of pre-Crisis Earth-Two. Black Lantern Lois sacrifices herself by removing her ring and giving it to Kal-L to reanimate him. During the battle between Kal-L and Power Girl,
Mr. Terrific invents a machine to destroy the Black Lanterns. He activates the machine and it wipes out the Black Lantern ring connection and completely dissolves Kal-L's corpse. In the 2010–2011 storyline "
Brightest Day", Power Girl attacks her comrades, and after being subdued, is discovered to have been possessed by the Starheart (the cosmic entity that gave
Alan Scott and
Jade their powers) to which she was vulnerable because of her Kryptonian heritage, as Kryptonians draw their abilities from the sun. Staying out of action in order avoid another possession, she helps Mr. Terrific work on a machine that may be able to damp the Starheart's power. Nonetheless, the Starheart takes control of
Miss Martian's body and transforms into her
White Martian form, causing her to attack her comrades again. Batman ultimately tells her to stay on Earth and try to fight the other
metahumans being controlled by the Starheart, explaining that bringing her along would jeopardize the mission.
Generation Lost During the events of
Justice League: Generation Lost, Power Girl assists her fellow heroes in a global manhunt to track down
Maxwell Lord, the former head of
Justice League International and the murderer of
Ted Kord, who had been restored to life at the end of "Blackest Night". Lord uses his powers to erase his existence from the minds of everyone on the planet, including Power Girl. She subsequently helps
Booster Gold find proof of Lord's existence. Through the course of their search, during which Power Girl encounters Divine, a raven-haired clone of herself, she manages to regain her memory of Lord. As she attempts to inform the Justice Society of this, Lord uses his powers to take control of her and attack the Justice League International, but manages to convince the others of his existence through the exhumation of
Ted Kord's corpse.
DC Rebirth In the post-
Rebirth DC Universe, Power Girl is trapped in an interdimensional void. Tanya Spears tries to free her using an etheric transponder that allows her to travel there in an incorporeal state, but her physical body was disconnected from the machine by an unaware
Kid Flash (Wally West), so both women remain trapped as a result. In
Doomsday Clock, the "original" Power Girl returns to the DC Universe when
Doctor Manhattan, inspired by
Superman, undoes the changes that he made to the New 52 timeline that erased the Justice Society and the
Legion of Super-Heroes. Following the
Lazarus Planet storyline, Power Girl is given new psychic abilities by the Lazarus rains and forges a bond with fellow psychic
Omen; the two women open a superhero counselling service. To reflect this new phase of her life, Power Girl decides to retire her Karen Starr identity. In the ongoing series, Power Girl establishes her new civilian persona as "Dr. Paige Stetler", technology specialist and columnist for the
Daily Planet. In issue #11, the newspaper's editor-in-chief,
Lois Lane, who knows of Paige's dual identity, offers her a field-reporter position to enable her to both write longer-form stories from the scene of crises and act as Power Girl to resolve them. In "
The New Golden Age", Power Girl is with the Justice Society when they battle
Angle Man and an army of
Bizarros. Per Degaton attempts to use a
Kryptonite ring on Power Girl, only for
Huntress to shoot off his finger causing him to retreat. Power Girl tells
Deadman,
Detective Chimp,
Madame Xanadu, and the rest of the Justice Society that Huntress is heading to
Gotham City. Power Girl is among those who catch up to Huntress and Batman as Degaton attacks with his time clones. Several counterparts of
Doctor Fate from across time trap Degaton in Huntress' snow globe, erasing the future timeline which Huntress comes from. Power Girl accompanies
Mister Terrific and
Jakeem Thunder in visiting
Icicle in
Belle Reve Penitentiary to offer him a second chance by joining the JSA. In issue #20 of the current
Power Girl comic, Kara/Paige learns a woman claiming to be Karen Starr, her old civilian identity, has appeared and is running her old company (and has attacked Omen). Confronting the impostor, she learns that this new "Karen" is actually Ejecta, a shape-shifting super-villain raised and groomed by Symbio, the artificial intelligence that sustained Kara on her journey to Earth. However, when it becomes clear that Ejecta is becoming more interested in managing Starr Enterprises than super-villainy, Kara/Paige decides to let her keep the Karen Starr name. ==Powers and abilities==