Zero Hour's Still Pretty Creepy

I was rereading parts of Zero Hour and it got me thinking.

In general I think Zero Hour is a lot of fun (admittedly I'm reading it a decade after the fact, so there's much less waiting). I really liked the side stories, like the issue of Robin where Tim and young!Dick got to team up.

And you know, any plot that leads to Kari Limbo blowing the hell up...

I was reminded though of a plot I really really hated...when some genius decided it'd be fun to knock Power Girl up via her dead Atlantean grandfather's magic spell.

Egads. Who in the world thought that'd be a good idea?

And the weird thing is, I LIKE kids. Kids from alternate futures, kids artificially aged, with weird conception events... I tend to enjoy those stories. The fact that Power Girl spawned a mage son who comes back an adult should have interested me. But it didn't. It really didn't.

Ultimately the problem for me is the circumstances of the conception. For me, the fact that she was impregnated without her consent seems very very close to rape in my opinion. VERY close. Something that doesn't strike me as necessary in Kara's backstory.

The fact that the spell-caster is her (sorta, now not?) Grandfather is very creeepy.

What I don't get though is why someone felt the need to resort to that story in the first place if they wanted Kara to have a very powerful, surreal sort of son. There was a much easier solution in place.

Power Girl had slept with Hal Jordan, while the latter was starting to become Parallax. Now there's nothing to really say internalized Oan power is hereditary, but there's nothing to really say it can't be. If that's too much of a stretch, perhaps something in the nature of Parallax awakened his son's magical instincts that came from Power Girl's then Atlantean nature.

Not to mention how interesting Zero Hour could have been if Hal's son was running around there too. (Heh, what about Rebirth?)

And I have to admit, I've always wanted a story where some teenaged kid shows up on Hal's doorstep all "Um, you're my dad." Hal's been indiscreet for a LONG time. And it'd be funny to watch Hal try to be a dad. Honestly, even Kyle Rayner, who I wouldn't trust with a houseplant would probably be more suited to fatherhood.

Kara's kid being Hal's would be freaking hilarious now that Hal's not evil. And maybe he'd have had a better shot of being a lasting character in the DCU if both of his parents were significant to the DCU. (I might be being generous here. Much as I love Kara, I wouldn't actually call her particularly significant during Zero Hour).

Mostly, I just hate that they decided to go with completely unnecessary creepiness, adding elements of violation where it didn't need to be. Not when there was an easier, more consentual way.

(Besides, it's hard to really wrap your brain around getting impregnated by your grandfather's magic, but who can't sympathize with someone making a mistake, sleeping with the wrong person, and ending up with some unforeseen VERY long term consequences?)