The Nerdy Bird talks Power Girl with DC Comics’ artist Amanda Conner! What’s in store for our favorite busty hero and why exactly is she so busty?

“I’m from a distant planet called Krypton. I first landed on a parallel Earth similar to this one where I was a member of the Justice Society. There was a crisis and somehow I wound up here, cut off from everything I knew and everyone I loved. For the longest time, all I wanted to do was to get back to Earth 2, to see my friends and my cousin Kal-L. When it finally happened, I found out that I’d been replaced by another version of myself. Yeah, if there’s anyone on this planet that desperately needs a fresh start, it’s me.” – Power Girl

That dialogue comes from issue one of Power Girl, DC Comics’ first ever, ongoing title featuring the superheroine. In about a paragraph, everything you needed to know about Power Girl the woman, and Power Girl the character was explained. She’s been a major player, mainly in the Justice Society of America, for many years but Kara Zor-L (also known as Karen Starr) has had one of the most complicated character histories around. Originally she was Earth-Two’s grown-up version of Supergirl but along the way PG managed to become the granddaughter of the Atlantean sorcerer Arion. Luckily she’s gone back to her original origin but that didn’t mean she was able to take her original Earth with her. She’s been replaced there and now calls our Earth her home.

“If there’s anyone on this planet that desperately needs a fresh start, it’s me.”

Confused? So were a lot of other people. Fortunately that’s where writers Jimmy Palmiotti, Justin Gray and artist Amanda Conner come in. They’re the creative team behind the new title and GEN recently got to talk with the increasingly busy Conner about her experiences with the voluptuous character. And her cat.

Although Power Girl was created in 1976 and became the first ever chairwoman of the JSA, an ongoing title is a first for the character. It’s also a new experience for Conner, this is her first ongoing monthly title for DC. “It’s very daunting, but the other part of me is like, ‘Oh my god, I really want to do this. I love this character,’” she said. Conner was very excited about the project initially and then realized how much work it would involve. “Right now, I’m sort of doing an 8 a.m. to 2 a.m. sort of, around the clock schedule and it’s killing me but I’m having fun,” she said, “I do wish that I could work a lot faster than I do but, you know, I can’t skimp on all the details. It’s just not in my nature and I love doing it so I’m just drawing as fast as I can.”

Conner said she’s looking forward to what partners Palmiotti and Gray are going to come up with for PG. “I think having an interesting story to draw is always the best part of it and seeing how much character development we can do with Power Girl,” she said. Part of that development entails creating a network of supporting characters for PG, something she’d been severely lacking. One of those characters is the latest incarnation of Terra, Atlee, a heroine who wields earth powers. “I like the idea of having Terra as a close friend, almost like a kid sister for her, because Power Girl’s always been somewhat of a loner, you know? She feels sorta displaced,” she said, “Everybody feels like they’re her family but she wonders if everybody actually feels like they’re her family. She’s probably felt like an outsider her whole life and if she can find somebody that she can connect to, she’s probably gonna try and keep that.”

Power Girl guest-starred in a mini-series, also by Palmiotti, Gray and Conner, where Terra was introduced as an extraterrestrial who lives with her entire race below Earth’s surface. “Terra is like, from a completely different place and she knows nothing about the outer crust of the Earth, so it’s just like a whole learning experience for her. So I thought that would be a really neat way to sort of develop both of their characters, make them more interesting people,” said Conner.

Of course there’s more to PG than just her crime-fighting, she also runs Starrware Industries, a technology company looking to solve ecological and environmental issues. Conner believes the real challenge for “Karen Starr” will be relating to her coworkers. “They’re not going to play a huge part but they’re gonna play a pretty big part because we want to see how she works with all these other people,” she said. Conner also keeps in mind the potential humor in any given situation. “When they write it I’m trying to think, ‘Alright, what would this be like? The Office? We sort of based one of the characters on the guy from Entourage, Ari’s secretary.”

Inevitably, when talking about Power Girl, two big things come up again and again – her breasts. “The Power Girl’s ‘boobs thing’ have been like, part of the ongoing joke for years now and instead of giving her these gigantic boobs and pretending nobody’s noticing, I think that’s a little weird because everybody notices, we just sort of be tongue-in-cheek about it and just acknowledge it,” she said. The character wears a costume that has a giant hole similar to where Superman’s “S” would be, revealing her rather large cleavage. Most people using the character play it for jokes but in JSA: Classified, writer Geoff Johns finally addressed the matter in a conversation PG had with Superman, “People always ask me why I have this hole right here. They think I’m showing off…or just being lewd. But the first time I made this costume, I wanted to have a symbol, like you. I just…I couldn’t think of anything. I thought eventually, I’d figure it out. And close the hole. But I haven’t.”

“A lot of times, the people who do feel like it’s sexist, haven’t even read the book.”

There are still detractors who call the character sexist but not as many as you’d think. “We don’t get that too much actually. A lot of girls who read it seem to like it a lot and they don’t feel like it’s sexist,” said Conner, “A lot of times, the people who do feel like it’s sexist, haven’t even read the book. So they don’t get the, wink-wink, nudge-nudge, of it, you know?” Conner admits she does get asked two questions frequently. “’But why do you have to draw her with such big boobs?’ and I say, ‘Cuz it’s Power Girl!’ she said, “And they’re like, ‘Well, why do all superheroines have such big boobs?’ and I say, ‘They don’t!’”

Conner prides herself on variety in her illustrations. “I wanna do all the superheroes acting differently, built differently, just because that’s how real humans are, you know, everybody’s different,” she said, “When I draw Catwoman I try and draw her very streamlined because she has to break into places and steal stuff. Or Supergirl, she’s what? Sixteen? I don’t give her giant, Power Girl-sized boobs because she’s still a teenager you know? There are girls with big boobs out there and I’m sure they appreciate that.”

There’s no doubt Conner can draw a gorgeous female figure but are there any males she’d like to take a crack at? “You mean besides George Clooney,” she joked, “Actually, Wednesday Comics is coming out and Jimmy [Palmiotti] and I are writing it together and it’s about Supergirl trying to get Krypto and Streaky under control because there’s something wrong with them and they’re behaving terribly.” Last week’s issue, number six, featured a cameo from Aquaman. “The way Jimmy wrote him is hysterical, it’s great. If I were to ever get to do Aquaman, but the way Jimmy wrote him, that way, I would love to do that. I would do that for a whole bunch of issues,” she said. Conner also added that this version of Aquaman is based on an actor, “I’ll see if you can guess who it is.”

“There are girls with big boobs out there and I’m sure they appreciate that.”

There’s one other member of Power Girl’s supporting cast that begs for attention – her cat. PG had a really smelly, cranky cat back in the day and Conner thinks the cat they’ve placed in the ongoing series is the same cat. “Surly, grouchy, you’re never home so I’m gonna shit on your couch, kind of cat. Actually, we screwed up a little bit,” she admits, “In the first issue, he was accidentally colored grey and he’s an orange cat.” Luckily, having the creative mind she does she offered up a solution to Palmiotti. “‘I know! When you work in a lot of laboratories and stuff, they use graphite powder for lubricant for machinery,’ and I’m like, “Let’s just make it so that he’s been using the graphite as a litter box and it just gets all over him and it turns him grey,’” she said, “And Jimmy’s like, ‘I’m not writing that!’ and I’m like, ‘Come on! We gotta solve this, you know it’s a problem.’” Palmiotti eventually caved, “So it’s the box of graphite he’s been pooping in,” she said, “That’s how I’m getting us out of it.”

Check out a preview of Power Girl #4, on sale along with Wednesday Comics #7, this Wednesday.

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