as suggested by puurrfect:
Pleasantly surprised to find this coming from a big comic
Yes, it’s refreshing to see her question the purpose of the infamous boob window.
Though the most interesting thing about it is how the reasons for Power Girl’s rather impractical costume design get retconned constantly.
Sometimes she’s just confident about her cleavage (possibly the most straightforward, non-pretentious route), sometimes it’s supposed to “symbolize” her identity problems, sometimes (like here) she’s not the one who made that clothing decision… So many contradictory ideas in an attempt to retroactively justify something clearly made primarily with male gaze in mind.
I think there can be some parallels drawn between Power Girl and Red Sonja in that matter: their most iconic costumes are designed mainly for the looks, not for function, but since both of the characters are supposed to be fierce, seasoned warriors, there were many subsequent efforts to excuse why they’d fight looking like that… And also most attempts at replacing their clothes with something different don’t seem to last long, cause in the land of Strong Empowered Comic Book Women the sexy status quo is God, apparently.
As for the comic above, considering Power Girl is Kryptonian, just like Superman, and therefore nigh indestructible, the request of armor seems pointless.
~Ozzie
I was surprised to learn years ago that Power Girl’s boob window actually has a tentative fandom among comic reading feminists.
I say tentative because the fan base consists largely of women who have had to put up with all the harassment that comes from having large breasts and really enjoy the idea of a character who is powerful and confident enough she doesn’t have to put up with any of that.
Theoretically, Power Girl is the perfect super heroine to fill that role… but in reality DC Comics tends to give her a much less interesting and inspiring role from the cover onwards:
And it seems every time they do create a “new” look for Power Girl, this concept goes right out the window… suspiciously like the agenda is to create a costume that will allow them to go “Oh well, guess people liked the old costume after all…”
– wincenworks