While the original Heroes Reborn storyline may have been one of the most controversial blockbuster events of the ’90s, the Marvel Universe is about to be consumed by a very different “Heroes Reborbn” event. This new storyline will be centered around an Earth in which the leading Marvel heroes are the Squadron Supreme, which is basically Marvel’s version of the Justice League.
One member of this team is Power Princess, who is essentially the team’s equivalent to Wonder Woman. With incredible strength, training and leadership capabilities, she is perhaps the team’s most powerful and resourceful member. Despite these many similarities to the real Wonder Woman, various versions of Power Princess represent grim opposites to the Amazing Amazon.
Click the button below to start this article in quick view.
Who Is Power Princess?
Princess Zarda was created by J.M DeMatteis and Don Perlin, first showing up in 1982’s Defenders #112. She eventually went on to be the main character in Mark Gruenwald, Bob Hall and Paul Ryan’s Squadron Supreme , which took place outside of the main Marvel continuity on Earth-712. Her home of Utopia Isle was an obvious analogue to Themyscira, where Wonder Woman and the Amazons lived. The denizens of the island lived in peace, free of the war and oppression of the outside world. The creation of the atomic bomb, however, made Zarda go beyond the isle to be an emissary of her culture. Extremely powerful, fast and resilient, her race was essentially the Earth-712 version of the Inhumans. She also possessed an invisible shield, which was a pastiche of both Wonder Woman’s Invisible Jet and her bullet-deflecting bracelets.
Operating as Power Princess, she helped out superheroes throughout World War II, where she met Howard Shelton. This Steve Trevor analogue became her common-law husband, in spite of her not aging like he did. She would become a member and eventual leader of the Squadron Supreme, even forming a romance with Hyperion after Howard died. The Squadron’s increasing drastic ambitions caused a rift with stalwart member Nighthawk, however. Once this was resolved, Zarda chose to disband the Squadron to prevent them from so forcefully influencing human society in a series that still stands as an influential, early deconstruction of the superhero genre.
She and the other members of the Squadron Supreme were at one point stranded in the main Marvel Universe. Though stuck in a world not their own, they valiantly fought to protect this Earth from destruction. Working alongside the Avengers, the Squadron was eventually returned to their Earth. Zarda briefly joined the dimension-hopping Exiles and helped the team take down the growing threat of Proteus.
Supreme Power Zarda
The main version of Zarda is written in the vein of the classic Wonder Woman, and is both a warrior while still being heroic. Her second version, however, is a darker interpretation of the Wonder Woman archetype. The Supreme Power universe was a much darker, more realistic take on the Squadron Supreme, essentially being an R-rated Ultimate Universe while also foreshadowing books such as Superman: Earth One. Many of the characters were radically reimagined to be taken away from their cliché superhero archetypes, and Zarda was no different.
This version seemed to be a member of the same alien race as Hyperion, though she had come to Earth long ago and now believed her backstory to be the same allegorical Greek mythology that had been written around her. When she awakens, she attempts to ingratiate herself into modern society, albeit in a rather violent way. She makes no qualms about killing a woman simply to steal her identity. When she and the rest of the team are sent on military strike missions, she casually dispenses unarmed human combatants through homicidal means. She would also venture to the Ultimate Universe, where she would come to blows with, and even beat, the Hulk.
Another version has recently appeared as a member of the Squadron Supreme of America. This even more direct Justice League analogue exists in the main Marvel Universe, acting as a solely American fighting force when the Avengers begin to develop more global aims. Zarda, along with the other members, is a facsimile of the classic version created by Mephisto to essentially undermine the Avengers. She also has an alter ego as a professional boxer, with a necklace allowing her to become human and lose her powers while in this identity.
With Heroes Reborn putting her and the Squadron Supreme in the limelight, readers are about to get a very good idea of just how different Marvel’s Wonder Woman is from the real thing.