DC has released an image revealing the new look of Power girl in the New 52, DC’s relaunched continuity:

  Here we see her on the left side, with Huntress on the right.

  To compare, here’s an image of her in the previous continuity:

  Some things come to mind when I compare the two versions…

- The Good: They got rid of the ‘cleavage window’ on her outfit. As much as it’s fun to look at it, there was just no good in-story reason for her to intentionally flash her cleavage while fighting super-villains. Also, I like that she wears pants now, the general look of the new outfit feels more ‘warrior’ than the previous one, with the bracers and all. Another plus is that she has a symbol on her costume now, which calls back to Superman but it’s her own, making her seem more confident all-around. Having a symbol on your chest instead of a cleavage window will go a long way to having people taking you more seriously as a competent superheroine.

- The Bad: I might get some crap for this from people who will misunderstand me, but hear me out first. I hate that they have reduced her chest size, and not for the reasons you might think. First of all, this is just one cover image and perhaps generally speaking, Power Girl will be as busty as she was. But with this as the only indicator of her new look, we have to assume she won’t be. Now many of you might think I’m just being a gross male stereotype for stating this, but I’m really not, in fact it’s quite the opposite. I’m somewhat offended that along the road to make Power Girl seem more believable and competent, they decided that reducing her breast size would make her be taken more seriously. Does that mean busty women in general should not be taken seriously then, is that what DC is trying to say? The same thing has been done to Lara Croft recently, and very often I’ve heard people outright state it; they take this character more seriously now that she doesn’t have large breasts. Does that mean we shouldn’t take Christina Hendricks or Monica Belucci seriously as actors and that they should only have roles as bimbos and airheads? If we follow that logic, the fact that they are busty makes them impossible to take seriously, right? Busty women should not have careers related to their particular skills, only their chest size defines them, right?

  Listen, I’m the first guy to dislike it when an artist gets carried away with a character’s body type. When Cassandra Cain/Batgirl was drawn with large breasts on the cover of a Batman special a few years ago, I geek-raged over it, because that character is supposed to be lean, athletic and not curvy. When they draw Nightwing too bulky to do acrobatics, it annoys me. When Tim Drake/Red Robin was drawn like a body builder in an issue of ‘The Return of Bruce Wayne’, I complained. When anyone draws Damian/Robin way taller than a 10-year old should be… Guess what, I complain! I understand that each artist has their style, but at some point it’s also an artist’s job to portray these characters the way they’re meant to be. And Power Girl IS supposed to be busty! It’s not just how artists have drawn her over the years, it’s genuinely been referenced many times in stories she appeared in. It IS part of her character and who she is. To ‘back-pedal’ her chest size is an insult to curvy women everywhere and just as sexist and intolerant as making every single superheroine extra busty. One extreme is not better than the other.

  I think that superheroes and superheroines should come in all shapes and sizes. It annoys the hell out of me when only hair style/color and the outfits differentiate one character from another. I think every character should be different. That includes leaving the bustiest superheroine of them all with her cup size intact in the new continuity. And maybe they will, after all I’m basing this on only one image, but I still believe everything I’ve stated.

 That is all.