As many may know I like the 1994 event comic from DC known as Zero Hour. In my many reading of the series there was always something that left a question: What’s the deal with Power Girl & her baby?
She does not appear in the first issue of the series but appears in the every other issue of the series. She is not involved in any of main part of the action but she’s a subplot. A multi-year subplot as I’ve found out. Her baby even provides a nice little cold at the end of the series: within all this death there is new life!
Before we get back to Zero Hour we have to go back to 1986 to help set up our stage a bit. With the events of Crisis on Infinite Earths, the world where Power Girl was from Earth-2 was destroyed. She with a few other characters were brought over to Earth-1 to live. Along with that her history was drastically altered because DC wanted to make Superman the sole survivor of the Planet Krypton. No Krypto the Superdog, no Beppo the Supermonkey, no Phantom Zone prisoners, no Bottle City of Kandor, no Supergirl & definitely no Supergirl from another dimension! Power Girl was ok to exist as a character, just not one from Krypton. What did DC do? Where did Power Girl come from?
The most logical of places: Atlantis! Power Girl’s backstory was a defendant of the Atlantean sorcerer Arion, a character who lived in Atlantis before it was sunk. How did Power Girl get to present day, mid 80’s DC: suspended animation. There was also something about her memories of being from Krypton were implanted. Why bring this up? It’ll be important later.
My search for what’s the deal with Power Girl’s baby started with her wikipedia entry & this 1 line:
During the 1994 Zero Hour event, Power Girl experiences a mystical pregnancy and gives birth to a son (supposedly named Equinox), who age rabidly. Finally disappears, and has never been mentioned again in the DCU.
For one thing she was pregnant before the events of Zero Hour, she becomes pregnant in Justice League International #52 which came out in July 1993, one year before Zero Hour came out. The only part of the pregnancy that happens in Zero Hour it’s self is she gives birth to the child in the final issue of Zero Hour. Everything else happened after Zero Hour was over.
So... do you want to see Power Girl get pregnant? Here you go!
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| Oh my! I'm suddenly mystically pregnant! |
This is as close as I can tell where it happens from the issue where she first says she’s pregnant. So Sexy!
Now I have not read all of the bits & pieces involving the child so some of the info I have is a bit spotty in places. If you notice in the the line from the wikipedia entry about the child “supposedly named Equinox” that’s because Power Girl never names the child in the comics I’ve read. She even makes mention that she could not name it for mysterious reasons. The child does not even get a name until it’s final & only cover appearance.
Justice League America #108 from February 1996. Yes, the child was around for about 3 years.
The child is the blonde hippie looking guy on the cover. Who is he fighting? Scarabus, who kind of looks like an off model version of Tim Curry’s Devil character from the movie Legend. He is a demon from Atlantis! He wants to kill the baby. Why? Because it’s been fated that the baby will grow up to stop him from doing stuff. Bad Stuff!
He is also the “father” to Power Girl’s baby. How? Many Millenia ago, Arion & a bunch of other mages got together to hatch (no pun intended) a plan. One that would combine the power of light & darkness to create ultimate champion! Not sure what you have to combine to get the Ultimate Warrior. So… the mages took some genetic material from Scarabus & implanted it into the baby Power Girl to one day give birth to the baby. I don’t think it is ever said how the mages got Scarabus’ genes. There is one big problem with this? Power Girl isn’t Atlantean & never was. It was revealed in 2005 that she was never one & Arion (who was still alive millennia later) lied to her. BUT they (the readers, the writers & characters) that at the moment so he was a atlantean that gave birth to a magic rabidly baby.
For a few issues before 108, Power Girl is trying to protect her baby from Scarabus. At the end of 107, Power Girl is unable to fight & that’s where the baby goes from toddler to full grown hippie looking adult. He ages up & appears fully dressed.
So they have a fight. Scarabus is all Darth Vader about this. The whole “Give into your dark side. Join me & we can rule side by side” thing. Equinox knows that fighting his father hand to hand will not work.
Equinox goes off & does some mediation. He recenters himself & then comes back to fight his father. His father runs at him. He notices that his son is not fighting him & he thinks the fight will be over soon with his being the winner. He is wrong. Equinox waves his staff/walking stick at his father which then turns Scarabus into flower petals. Fight over!
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| Florality! Equinox Wins! |
Right after this happens, the next panel is a confused looking Wonder Woman (the Justice League is there. They don’t do much since Scarabus is too much for them). I think Wonder Woman’s expression is one that expresses how the reader feels also.
Equinox goes over to his mother & says that’s it’s time for her to get up. He thanks her for being his mom & the role she played in great circle of life. He says stuff that doesn’t make much sense (Destiny had come & you rose to it!) Power Girl, much like the reader, has no idea what is going on. He says some more cryptic things & then disappears. Literally. He fades into nothingness & is never seen ever again. He never even mention in any other comic ever.
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| I'm outie 5000! Also, never speak of me ever again! |
Do I feel better knowing what is the deal with Power Girl’s baby? Yes. No. Maybe.
That's it for tis installment of Comics are Weird! Until next time: Stay Jazzy everybody!
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