Earth-898, named for the Elseworlds tale with the cover date of August 1998, is where the events of Justice League of America: The Nail. “The nail” that is referred to in the title is explored immediately in the pages of this story as a nail that has found it’s way into the Kent’s tire on the day that they would have chanced upon the young Kal-El. This nail creates a butterfly effect that changes the DC universe as a whole. Kal ended up instead found by an Amish community and didn’t come into prominence as a hero and didn’t even know the full extent of his powers until well into his adulthood. There are various changes to the world that never met Superman, including Lex Luthor’s rise to mayor of Metropolis, the world turning against meta-humans and superheroes as a whole, and a much less unified Justice League. Throughout the events of the story we follow many of the heroes who are eventually up against super-human clones that are revealed to be created by Lex Luthor based on DNA found in Kal’s rocket. This conflict finds its way to the Amish community where Kal had been raised and served as his heroic debut, although at the tragic loss of the only parents he ever knew.
The series would see a sequel in 2004 called “Another Nail” which would follow Kal fully realized as Superman and would focus more on the Fourth World side of the DC Universe. It is in “Another Nail” where we meet the Power Girl of this universe. Because of the core of this universe centering around Superman not being around, Supergirl of course wouldn’t have much presence either. Power Girl does show up alongside Star Sapphire and Black Orchid in a somewhat villainous role but her character isn’t explored much here aside from her being a relatively newly debuted super-power. Earth-898 sits pretty close to the main DC Universe at the time so most of the characters can be assumed to have the same origins, powers, and personalities of their Earth-0 counterparts. For 1998 this means that Power Girl is not Kryptonian, or from Earth-2 and is instead of Atlantean decent or otherwise powered, but it’s not clearly explored here.
As with all my Supergirl in the Multiverse posts, this is my own artwork. Power Girl of Earth-898 is flying up in the center of the frame with her right arm outstretched. A orange background is broken up with a golden circle – based on the cover motif of The Nail – that reads “Power Girl”. The top right corner features a symbol to represent Power Girl with a number 898 on it.
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