Originally, Power Girl was created to be the Supergirl of Earth-2, the universe in which all of DC’s golden-age stories were set. DC allowed time to pass on Earth-2, though they kept their main universe in a perpetual “now.” After Crisis, DC declared Superman was the only survivor of Krypton, so they cleared out Supergirl, the bottled city of Kandor, etc. But they kept Power Girl around. She was explained away as a survivor of pre-flood Atlantis, given false memories of being Superman’s cousin. The origin served for nearly 20 years, but Power Girl remained a second-stringer. So? After suggesting a number of possibilities, her new origin is her original origin: she really is Superman’s cousin from Earth-2, and somehow survived the Crisis.

It’s telling that Donna Troy is best known by her real name. She started out as Wonder Girl, adopted sister of Wonder Woman. After Crisis, Wonder Woman was re-introduced as a new hero, but Wonder Girl had been running around with the Teen Titans for the last few years. The result: a new origin where she was adopted by the Titans of Greek mythology, and after she learned the “truth” she took on a new name and costume as Troia. Then she lost her powers. Then she joined a Green Lantern-like group of space sherrifs called the Darkstars. Then she quit. Then she got a new origin as a magical duplicate of Wonder Woman, and became Troia again. Then DC killed her off for pure shock value. Now she’s back, linked again to the Titans of Myth. Her background: all of her origins are true. She’s the sum of all possible Donna Troys from the pre-Crisis multiverse!

The new origins do have something in common: both are linked to the multiverse that existed before Crisis on Infinite Earths—a fact that looks likely to become important in the unfolding Infinite Crisis.