Sneak peek at Heroineburgh EP24 Poderosa transformation sequence

Today we shot a story arc for upcoming EP24 featuring the return of Poderosa as she takes on Devorra the Queen Bee and the raging Red Gina, who has become the Queen Bee's minion and lover. 

In order to fight Red Gina, who has invaded her home, TV reporter Rosa Perez must rush upstairs into her bedroom to undergo her costumed transformation process into the mighty Puerto Rican superheroine, Poderosa. Here's the breakdown:

In her reporter outfit, Rosa rushes into her bedroom to secure the door and make her transformation.

 

Poderosa puts on her tight white leotard with the "P-16" emblem (standing for WPTV Channel 16) over a pair of smooth shiny tights, and cinches up her power belt to emphasize her lovely figure.

 

Poderosa dramatically removes her glasses - the last vestige of her identity as the brilliant and incisive star TV reporter, Rosa Perez,

 

She slips on her left glove tightly over her fingers, the color of bright blue.

 

Then she pulls the right glove up to her elbow, smoothing it down in place.

 

She drops the billowy red cape dramatically over her shoulders.

 

She slips on her left shiny red boot, and pulls up the zipper.

 

The right boot goes on next, as the zipper makes a sensuous sound.

 

Poderosa pulls her mask on under her long tresses of gorgeous brown hair, and touches up her lipstick to look good while fighting crime.

 

She is ready to battle Red Gina - time to find out what's the matter with that chica loca!

 

Hope you enjoyed the preview of this transformation sequence coming next year!

I'm curious. When she's out in public fighting crime, what does Poderosa tell her fans when they ask her what P16 stands for?  I mean, it's your universe and you're entitled to build it any way you want to, but if the point of a secret identity is to keep your identity a...secret, why would you wear an emblem that's a Great Big Clue?  It would be as if Batman wore a symbol that was just a bunch of dollar signs.

Point understood, and I'm surprised you're the first one to ask us this after five great years of Poderosa. Actually, it would be somewhat more like if Batman wore a Wayne Foundation logo on his costume, and occasionally told people he was sponsored by Bruce Wayne. The answer is that she tells them she is the official superheroine of Channel 16.

"P" stands for Poderosa, of course. But it also stands for WPTV-16, and Power, and Pittsburgh, so it's a strong attempt at corporate branding by the station - if people feel good about the heroine's exploits and admire here, the good will transfers to the TV station. 

In one big sense, this is our reference to the DC conceit that Clark and Superman look the same except for the removal of the glasses, which was then transferred brilliantly to the Supergirl TV show where all Kara does is take off her glasses (and apparently applies lipstick and makeup somewhere along the way at super speed, I guess) and somehow not even Cat Grant can figure it out.

You'd think someone like Lex or Lena (if not an enterprising investigative reporter!) would simply run photos of Supergirl through a big computer database of both images and voiceprints, or maybe come up with a way to take a DNA sample, and come up with a secret identity, but they never do.

In Amanda Conner's Power Girl comics run, Karen Starr and Power Girl also look pretty much the same, as well, - same short hair, except there's not even glasses - just a business suit into a costume (Poderosa means Power Woman, a direct reference to Pee Gee). In the latest comics (of which I'm not so much a fan), the writer even changed her secret identity to "Paige" to make it even more obvious.

Secondly, we thought it'd be interesting if a superheroine was sponsored by a TV station (in this case, Channel 16). It seems like something a DC hero like Booster Gold might do for some extra cash, but to my knowledge there hasn't been a major superhero character who's been commercially sponsored before.

Poderosa looks as different from Rosa Perez as she can without wearing a wig. In her civilian form, she has her hair tightly bunned and is wearing glasses. But as Poderosa, she lets her big 80s hair loose and wears a mask. So that's more of a difference in appearance than Clark/Superman or Kara/Supergirl have, and people simply don't connect the two individuals.

And the "P16" isn't even the only clue. You didn't mention that her name "Rosa" is actually inside the superheroine name "PodeROSA". That's a hint that she herself dropped by choosing her own alter-ego moniker. Yet even Pagliaccia doesn't figure it out until she actually removes the mask in Custom 4 (non-canon).

But in the end, yes, it's just the DC-style Superman Family secret identity conceit that we're drawing from. The same kind of conceit that allows us to have Arogya use her biokinetic powers to change her face in upcoming EP23 (because it's a new actress...get it?), which would somehow restore her secret identity, even though it really doesn't.

We love to have fun with the universe. Hope you enjoyed the transformation photo sequence, and thanks for the excellent question!

Excellent answer! Thanks!