Review of World’s Finest #1

For those of you waiting on the edge of your seats for the return of Power Girl – it has come. She has finally come onto the New 52 scene. It took them long enough, but it’s wonderful that she is at last back as a major character in a monthly title: World’s Finest.

Earth 2 #1 Overview

Before jumping in though, I really should provide a brief review of Earth 2 #1, since it is so highly related to the World’s Finest #1.

The very same day that World’s Finest came out in early May, the Earth 2 title came out also. Earth 2 #1 is really a must-read for any Power Girl fan — it tells a bunch of the backstory of how Power Girl and Huntress came from Earth 2 to the earth that most of the DC titles are functioning in presently. Essentially, Darkseid also came to the Earth 2 universe and the heros there did not prove quite as victorious as they did in Earth 1, and, actually, it took them quite a while to defeat him and his henchmen, though in the process, most of the super heros of that earth died in the process.

There, on Earth 2, Power Girl was Supergirl, and Huntress was actually Bruce Wayne’s daughter and the Robin of that earth. This may certainly simplify a lot of Power Girl’s backstory in this post-Flashpoint universe.

One of the most moving scenes in Earth 2 #1 was when Batman was about to die and Robin and Batman shared final words with each other.

At the end of that epic battle for Earth 2 against Darkseid, Supergirl and Robin somehow survived; they saw some strange portal opening, perhaps one of Darkseid’s Boom Tubes, and seeing that someone was coming through it, they set a course to together check it out, diving into it together, Supergirl flying and Robin in a bat jet.

World’s Finest #1

The story then picks up in the middle pages of World’s Finest #1. As they flew across the terminator of the portal’s threshold, Robin’s jet blew apart and Supergirl was knocked unconscious, perhaps both due to the pressures within the Boom Tube’s inner pathway. Hurling through it, they ended up being thrown into the atmosphere of Earth 1, and falling into the sea there, Robin somehow still awake, she pulled Supergirl ashore. The image of Supergirl/Power Girl awakening at night at a beach, before a fire kindled by Robin was fantastic – extremely memorable.

World’s Finest then goes on to tell of how Kara/Supergirl, now Power Girl/Karen Starr, and Robin/Helena Wayne, now Huntress/still Helena Wayne, have interacted with the world of Earth 1 in the five years since arriving, and also what they are doing now, particularly in this issue, Karen’s efforts to return to Earth 2.

Unlike the previous writing of Paul Levitz in Huntress #1 through 6 in which the writing was banal by almost any standards, his writing of World’s Finest is quite wonderful!

The issue is not only loaded up with “great power girl moments,” but it shows off the fantastically wonderful friendship that Power Girl and Huntress have with each other. At the end of Huntress #6, it seemed like their relationship might have been rather lesbian, but reading World’s Finest #1, it is clear that it is not. The dialogues in this issue show off so extremely well the strength of their friendship, created perhaps most strongly by them being castaways from another universe, alone together.

Following this stranded alone together theme, in this issue, they appear to have kept their former lives on Earth 2 up to this point a secret from pretty much everyone else. Power Girl for the past five years has laid low and not exercised any of her powers publically. Other super heros don’t appear to know about them either – as exhibited in this issue, but also in the Mr. Terrific series. As well, Helena quietly and secretly dipped into the titanically huge funds of the Bruce Wayne of this world to get their lives started, and with such funds Helena spent a lot on Huntress toys, while Karen has spent them on getting her tech company going.

The best thing about this issue really is simply having Power Girl and her wonderful, loveable personality back. It was so obvious in so many passages:

• When she’s leaving the restaurant and forgets her credit card and tells Huntress to not worry about it, she’s got plenty more.
• She jumps into a burning building but doesn’t worry about her clothes getting singed off.
• When she wakes up on the beach after going through the portal.
• She stops a car from hitting her and it leaves a hand print on the hood, and as they then continue to cross the street, in her conversation with Helena she says, “Sorry, distracted for a sec...”

Helena Wayne and Karen Starr one month after arriving from Earth 2. From World’s Finest #1, p.19.

So many great Power Girl moments!!!!! Power Girl is back!!!!

The Present Story Line

As for the present day story line, the issue begins with Karen and Helena at a restaurant in Japan, shortly after the final page of Huntress #6 – where Karen saved Helena from capture by a bunch of authorities at an airport in Italy. Obviously, they flew in Karen’s jet from there to Japan. On the first page of World’s Finest #1, Helena took a lighter to the passport she used in Italy and flipped through a bunch of other passports of other identities trying to choose a new one.

Helena Wayne and Karen Starr at a restaurant in Japan. From World’s Finest #1, p.2-3.

Huntress kind of has the attitude of, “Hey, we’re stranded here, I might as well fight bad guys like I did before,” though perhaps the illusionary nature of “Wow, there’s a kazillion other universes — I’m just stuck in this one right now” lends her to the have attitude of “nothing’s really real, including who I present myself as,” so her public identity is always shifting right now.

Okay, back to the restaurant. After burning a passport, they converse about Karen’s hopes of one day getting back to Earth 2, and then Karen gets a call from one of her employees who tells her that one of their labs has caught fire. They rush off to the burning building; Karen rushes in, day clothes on, crashing through walls to get to a project she’d been working on to create a portal back to Earth 2. Helena is not far behind, but slips on her hero outfit as she makes her way. When they get to the portal machine, it appears to still be intact. Nonetheless, Karen notices with her x-ray vision that one of the radioactive storage canisters in another room is missing! The story then cuts back to tell the story I recited earlier of them getting to this earth and the expanse from then til now. When we finally cut back to present day, Karen pulls away some rubble to reveal a box she’s excited to show to Helena. Inside she reveals a hero outfit she’s made for herself!

After that, they hear an explosion somewhere else in the building and take aim to check it out. Karen quickly changes and they dash off to find the cause — Hakkou, The Irradiated Man! And issue #1 ends with them on the doorstep of battle.

Power Girl’s New Outfit

I know Power Girl has gone through lots of outfits in her long history as a character, but honestly, I’m not all that thrilled with her new outfit. I’ll probably get used to it, but hey! – it’s just not as sexy! It’s really conservative. No skin showing at all except for her head, and no more boob window. Also, things that seem weird:

• A giant “P” over one of her boobs
• Neck ribbing
• Wrist bracelets

Surely, I will get used to it, but it’s just weird at first. I can only guess that probably the wrist bracelets will be shown out to have some functional purpose, such as being maybe communication devices of some type, or maybe with the supergirls of the post-Flashpoint universe seeming to have a body-heat power (as shown in the Supergirl title), maybe the rings will bear out to be a way to focus and project that heat power in some unique way. Who knows!

Tie into Mr. Terrific

World’s Finest #1 definitely ties into the final issues of Mr. Terrific. In the Mr. Terrific #8, Mr. Terrific is in his laboratory checking out the tunneling technology that Karen Starr had been working on, and intrigued by this, he opened a portal himself and decided to jump through the portal. And so, rumor has it that he’ll be showing up now in the Earth 2 title.

A strange part of me wonders actually if the individual that Supergirl and Robin saw coming through the portal when they went through was actually Michael Holt. After all, we don’t know what kind of strange crossings of time and potentialities may be occurring with all this jumping between worlds and in time. It will be interesting to see how this turns out.

The Artwork

Overall, I have been very pleased with this first issue in so far as the writing is concerned, as for the art, it’s been quite excellent too!

The art for the present day scenes reminded me a lot of much older comic books in which the lines and colors are quite a bit more stark and simple than many comics illustrations today. I must admit, the more I read comics, the more I am learning to appreciate the styles and subtleties of the various artistic expressions. Still, though, I really liked the ink and coloring of the flashback art — it’s simple clean lines and beautiful shading work. I love it! I can’t get over how great the camp fire scene is, also the image of Supergirl flying along side the bat jet – gorgeous! I also liked the quite iconic image of Huntress leaping off a building and her rope looping beautifully in the air as she goes. Wow. Praise be to the artistic team.

Huntress/Helena Wayne leaping off a building. From World’s Finest #1, p.25.

And that’s about it. A fantastic beginning for the return of Power Girl!

Pick up World’s Finest #1 for yourself!

From World’s Finest #1, “Rebirth”
Written by Paul Levitz
Art by George Pérez and Kevin Maguire
Inked and Colored by Scott Koblish and Rosemary Cheetham
Lettering by Carlos M. Mangual

To pick up an issue for yourself at your local comics shop and support local business in your area, find a local comics shop at: www.comicshoplocator.com.

Or order #1 through www.amazon.com, or through another online retailer.