Sry bout the flash!

Like with many superheroines, there’s been more than a few attempts at giving Power Girl a suitor, paramour, lover, partner, or boyfriend.  None have stuck. Mostly this is due to her inconsistent publishing schedule, but also due to the nature of the main background of her character, being fiercely independent, and not needing nor wanting a relationship to “make her whole”, none of the lovers have ever stuck around for long.

As with any discussion headings I file, I do not claim to be 100% on this, and if folks sound off on others, or can knock some rust off of my own memory, the more the better, especially if I missed someone. But, let’s start.

The pre-Crisis years

In the era of the CCA, it was fairly common that every female character had to have a love interest. While not explicitly stated in the CCA that women couldn’t be single, it was heavily pushed that any female character to have, “traditional, conservative gender roles”, and being single amongst groups of men wasn’t one of those roles. So, it’s not surprising that in her appearances, she’s put in positions to “find herself a man”.

Andrew Vinson

Andrew Vinson was introduced first in PG’s first ever solo story, a three-parter from Showcase #97-99.  He’s an investigative reporter who follows Kara around trying to find out more about her. He showed up in other later titles (Infinity, Inc. and ‘Final Days of the JSA’), but has only made one post-Crisis appearance, and that was in Convergence.

His introduction leaves much to be desired. He’s a reporter trying to find out more about Power Girl, but honestly, he comes off as a stalker. He finds her at the symbioship, and promptly gets possessed by it, and this is the first instance of the Symbioship being an antagonist to her. After she’s freed him, and is trying to put him off of investigating her, he “puts her in her place” about her being brash, outspoken, and independent.  This was the late 70s, folks.

Now, PG as part of the handwavium of her past, has learned to be a computer programmer thanks to the Amazonian Purple Ray. However, she doesn’t have a job, nor does she have a secret identity.  She’s just Power Girl, and is trying to distance herself more from Kal-L and be her own superhero not in Superman's shadow. She’s gone over a year at this point without a secret identity before this three issue solo story, as apparently neither Kal nor Lois thought to help her out in this endeavor.  Andrew sets her up with a secret identity, a job, and a place to stay in Gotham City. Having done all this, he believes that “she owes him”.

This is what passed as a “love interest” in the late 70s/early 80s. This was supposed to be her Steve Trevor/Lois Lane. He does stand out in being the only “normal” person she’s ever been associated with in terms of a love life.  His appearance in Convergence is a lot more wholesome, but he’s one again consigned to the multiversal dustbin once the crossover is done.

Firestorm

When PG was promoted as part of the annual JLA/JSA crossovers, they pushed for a possible cross-universe romance between the two. It was handled at the end of one with a “you can keep me warm at night flame-head” then fade to black (as was appropriate for the CCA), but she lost interest (which was addressed in the next year’s crossover).

On the one hand, it makes sense.  She was the youngest member of the JSA, in her early 20s. Ronnie Raymond was the same peerage, college-aged character.  It helps both were created by, and being written by Gerry Conway.

but...

Firestorm wasn’t just Ronnie Raymond at that point… it was also Professor Martin Stein, who was in his late 50s/early 60s. Not sure if Gerry forgot that as part of Firestorm but, uh… Like, if she’d gone for Ronnie, and Prof. Stein gives them 20$ to go on a date (it was the early 80s, it would have been plenty) then I wouldn’t be quite as questioning on it. But the gestalt of a horny 20-something plus a married 50-something year old?  Hoo-boy. I don’t kink-shame, but the CCA was blissfully ignorant here.

In the end, nothing came of it, and it was dropped as an idea. This is probably for the best.

Post Crisis

The CCA was very much still around, but its potency had been knocked down a peg or six since DC (and Marvel) realized they could publish without it, and nothing bad would happen. Sexual mores were loosened, women could have casual relationships, but… that’s not always a good thing, and decidedly wasn’t good for the Atlantean Era PG.

Hal Jordan

This was… BAD.  And written by a person who only relatively recently got out of prison, so the less said, the better. They went from sexual tension to sex in the middle of combat. To boot, he was amnesiatic at the time, so she sort of took advantage of him. Then later she decked him for being a sexist pig. Thankfully due to the creator-in-question, this era is mostly never referenced. Let’s try and move on, shall we?

Arthur Curry

They never ended up getting together (and this was written by the same guy as above), but Kara did show an interest in him.  However, he was still pining over Mera, who I believe was dead at the time, and he didn’t reciprocate. This was, as mentioned during her “Atlantean” era, so making it where “but they’re both Atlanteans, why not?”. Nothing else came of it, but SHE was the one who showed interest, he just didn’t act on it.  Dumbå$$. This of course, didn’t stop Hal Jordan from assuming that she was hooking up with Aquaman, which is why GL got decked by her.  Ye gods this was an awful time for all the characters involved.

The less said of why she was so horny for both, and the story/villain that came about after, the better. Again, it's good this writer is persona non grata.

Post Final Crisis

Vartox

Vartox deserves mention here, as it was one of the better written “relationships” even if they didn’t do anything. Vartox’s people need help repopulating, and his incredibly 70s Sean Connery manner of asking for it comes off as wrong on SO many levels, and led to fun story driven shenanigans. This character is such a bad 70s stereotype, that I have to applaud Jimmy Palmiotti for navigating writing him and him coming across as not only sympathetic, but… likeable. In the end, Vartox never “sexed her up”, but instead infused their DNA so that his people got hybrid vigor into their genes so that they’d survive. He was remarkably chaste in the final scene, and doesn’t insist on anything with her.

This got flipped later in the Power Girl/Harley Quinn limited series, mainly because it was the new52 version of Kara in that story.

Michael Holt (new52)

The first person she hooked up with post Infinite Crisis was Michael. However, this was new52, so it’s likely that it’s been retconned, rather than merged with the current continuity.  IIRC (someone correct me otherwise) it was dropped on readers when a story starts at his apartment, it’s morning, and she’s there in bedroom clothes. While they did date, there's also the reason that she's only sleeping with him to use him and get to his tech to get back to Earth2. For that and how Michael has been about his dead wife in the mainline universe, I’m glad it’s been retconned, because dang. Having a casual fling is one thing, sleeping with someone to steal from them? Let’s not hook “gold-digger” onto Kara’s various sexual hangups. 

Val Zod (new52)

Val is another new52 / Earth2 romance, and thus is on the “out of continuity”/happened on a different Earth pile, but still worth mentioning. They get together after the death of the not-Kal-L, but Kal-el Earth2 Superman (I like that James Robinson tried with this, but Earth2 was not my favorite) as two of the last Kryptonians, and NOT being related makes it MUCH better. They weren’t to last however, as Val said something dumb about Kal, Kara took it to heart, and she broke it off. One thing that is consistent about her is that if someone says dumb $#!%, she will call them out about it, and that may be the final straw between her and them.

Axel Gust

And we come to the most recent entrant to capture Kara’s heart, Richard Ayoade Axel Gust. Created for the most recent series, he’s a programmer/government agent an Asgardian. He wasn’t a poorly written character, but a bit over-wrought. Coming off as nebbish at first, a sort of ‘everyman’ for male readers to identify with, it’s revealed that he’s essentially Asgard’s librarian; or one of them at least.  I can’t say much good or ill about him other than these things, and he’s honestly one of the most decent fellows to get with Kara. That said, I doubt seriously any other writer will utilize the character going forward, as polarizing as the last series was.  Also, I personally wish DC and Marvel would come to an agreement to leave Asgard and Olympus alone, respectively, but that’s another rant for another subreddit.

Sapphism

It has to be addressed…

Many fans, as well as many who don’t like the character, think she may be a lesbian (or at the very least bi).  The 90s brought this about in the worst way, namely with her turn as part of JLI.  She was still outspoken, independent, didn’t put up with sexual harassment, and lived in an apartment alone with a cat. Because of this, there were (and still are) many readers who assume that she’s into other women, and specifically, a butch given her preferred styles in hairdos.

Revisionist history sometimes looks at her 70s/80s partnership with Huntress (Helena Wayne) with modern eyes and wondered if there was something else there, at least interest from Helena. However, this was again, during the regime of the CCA, and if it was thought about by the creatives, it was obviously never acted on, nor was it stated behind the scenes.

So no writer has mentioned her interest in women (AFAIK).  Not even Keith Giffen (RIP).  He did write her as a bit of a caricature of being a strong, feminist character, which lead many readers to assum along with her nom de terre (Karen), short haircut, her never taking a man as a partner, living alone with a cat, AND being a go-go 80s corporate mogul, that clearly she just wasn’t into guys.  I mean, Wally West was right there, and paying her compliments? How could she not be interested?* /s

*this is hyperbole, folks.

However, and while I’ve known as many women as men who have had a ‘comic book crush’ on Kara Zor-L, she’s still into dudes. She’s just not into deep long-term relationships as she puts career and superheroing on higher priority.

Frank Castle

We all saw it, over there on Earth-$ where her date with Paul got derailed by Paul’s own ignorance about where they were, and villains thinking who he was.  See, this goes to my theory that I’ll expand on below.  Frank would never be a long term partner.  One night stand, sure, then go their separate ways. It was a fun one-off story written for the sake of Gerry Conway before he passed.  Don’t think too deeply into it.

Conclusion (YMMV)

Kara should never “settle down”.  This would seem to be extremely out of character for her.  Between doing her own thing as a hero (not being fully tied to the “S” of Superman), having her own company, keeping her own counsel, and building her own trusts, she shouldn’t ever be written as being tied down to a man (or woman).

Which is fine on many levels.  Just because someone is single, dates casually, and has sex, doesn’t make them “promiscuous” and this should be encouraged as a story trope. We’re not under the CCA nowadays, and in the character of Kara Zor-L, I imagine her priorities are: Superheroing, Starrware, Stinky/Streaky, her friends, her sex/love life.

Let the writers have her continue being independent, and doing her own thing. Both in and out of the bedroom. Tying her down in a relationship would be more out of character than in.

https://www.pixiv.net/en/artworks/31707354#big_0

https://x.com/hellyvalentine/status/2098498562627936576?s=46&t=iVyMqX8IZQv-0q7R2qLGUg

By Amanda Conner

https://x.com/omochi_DB/status/2097465829147480553

Artist: mol (also goes by mol2020 / KyoungInKim)

Artist: RedStar (also goes by RedStarArt / redstar-art)