Worlds' Finest #1 intro & review

Rating: 4 / 5

Pros: Great character development; Kevin Maguire art

Cons:  Nothing of note... yet

I was delighted to see that two strong female characters, created near the end of the old Earth-2 era in DC Comics during the late 70s, have made it back into the New 52… as rebranded and retold for a new generation.  I am even more overjoyed to see these two headlining one of DC’s legacy titles: Worlds’ Finest, although differently punctuated for these girls.  Historical footnote, the original World’s Finest Comics featured, almost exclusively, the power team-up of the great Superman and Batman for 323 issues, running from 1941 to 1986. 

After the Crisis series in the late 80s redefined the status quo for many DC characters, World’s Finest ended rather abruptly… to make way for the new darker Batman in his own series, and the retelling of Superman by John Byrne.  Made perfect sense, and nobody really missed the passing of such an important title.  The 2 heroes met up again in the Superman/Batman series on the early 2000s (stories from which has been featured in a couple DCU animated films so far)… and World’s Finest was forgotten.


But Worlds’ Finest (note the punctuation change) has returned… now headlining two very deserving characters, two characters who can proudly play heir apparent to Superman and Batman.  Of course that all depends on their history and connection to Earth-2.

(more after the jump)


 

As mentioned in previous posts, Earth-2 vs. Earth-1 characters with the same name never really bothered me (eg. Hawkman).  I got it.  2 different dimensions.  2 different guys.  No big deal.  The Crisis series of the 80s leveled that fictional notion and returned everything to a single universe.  This of course played havoc with twinned characters like Hawkman, Flash, Superman and essentially Supergirl.  On Earth-1, the infamous Kal-El had his super cousin Kara Zor-El who arrived in the 50s to take on the role of Supergirl.  In the parallel universe of Earth-2, Kara Zor-L arrived from Krypton to become Superman’s cousin, Power Girl… sidesteppgin an comparions to the youthful and cheery counterpart.  Whereas Batman on Earth-1 had trouble keeping his own sidekicks alive, the Earth-2 Batman left his alter ego and became Commissioner Wayne for the Gotham Police Department.  It was revealed later that he and his wife, Selena Kyle (better known as Catwoman) had a daughter who would grow up to be the sly, stealth hero with a super investigative mind , The Huntress.

The Crisis killed off Helena Wayne and left Power Girl without a home, without a valid secret origin, and without any ties to anyone.  DC tried to tie in an association as the granddaughter of the Atlantean mage, Arion (from his own successful series, Arion: Lord of Atlantis).  That theory took for a decade or so… but people still had trouble adjusting to it.  When I was first introduced to Power Girl, it was in the series Justice League Europe.  Her new Atlantean history was explored on occasion, and it made sense.  Writers Gerard Jones and Paul Kupperberg did a skillful reimagining of this heroine.  I liked her.

Then came Geoff Johns.  He reignited the multiverse with his epic saga, Infinite Crisis.  New worlds were explored, Power Girl’s kryptonian history remained intact and things began to fall apart for the DC Universe.  By the end of the following epic saga 52 new worlds, 52 new Earths, had been created and re-established.  Power Girl had a home again.  Helena Wayne kinda did too.  But this was all written off again in 2011.

With the relaunch of all DC properties last summer, an opportunity presented itself to form a new Earth-2, and form a new Power Girl, and form a new Huntress… all paying tribute to the Silver Age and the stories which most of my generation grew up reading.

I just finished the first issue of Worlds’ Finest… and I gotta say, I’m pleased.  Paul Levitz (who had a hand in creating these characters waaaay back when) certainly had no issue taking them to their roots.   

Kara Zor-L here (a.k.a. Karen Starr) is the Power Girl we knew and loved.  She’s got the strength, she’s got the balls (so to speak), she’s got the rush-into-the-fire-headfirst-and-think-about-the-consequences-later attitude we would expect. Levitz was able to easily add- n the fact that on Earth-2 she did in fact take the mantle of Supergirl (which the PG-of-old certainly did not want).  But it was the transfer to this new Earth-1, where she has spent the last 5 years, that her friend Helena encouraged her to take a new identity... separate from her cousin's heritage.

Design for Kara as Earth-2 Supergirl

Helena Wayne this time around grew up as the daughter of Bruce Wayne, the daughter of the Batman, but instead of forging her own trail on her own terms, she had apparently previously took on the mantle of Robin.  That's a really nice twist, here, and a pivotal characterization that separates her from the old Earth-2 origin and the Bertinelli history.  I’m assuming she was Batman’s sidekick, I’m assuming she was encouraged by her parents, and I’m assuming her mother was Catwoman (as was hinted at in her own recent mini-series).  This Helena seems portrayed as part Wayne and part Bertinelli (which was the recreation of Huntress post-Crisis).  She’s got the street smarts of the mafia daughter, but she also seems to carry the Bat-morale.  He’s a strong character.  Heck, both these women are.

Design for Helena as Earth-2 Robin

Best of all, in my humble opinion, there is less pandering to the 15 year old male demographic, so now both Power Girl and Huntress are fully clothed!  No peek-a-boo boob-hole for PG and Huntress’s midriff is finally covered up.  Oddly enough, I really did enjoy and respect the costumes that Kevin Maguire had drawn for their Supergirl and Robin flashbacks of 5 years before.  They looked good… really good, and that was possibly the best Robin costume design I’ve seen in ages (although Damian Wayne’s outfit is pretty slick).  Personally I really enjoyed seeing the Kevin Maguire art in the flashback sequences.  They were the highlight.  He’s been a favourite of mine for years, granted, but his framing and storytelling is perfect and well executed.  The actions sequences carry umph and force.  You feel the explosions.  And of course his clean, facial expressions are without peer… except for George Perez, perhaps.  Now I love Perez (who drew the Crisis series mentioned earlier)… but his style for the contemporary storytelling parts of the issue is beginning to seem a bit stale.  Maybe I just need to go back and read my Marv Wolfman’s Teen Titan issues to absorb Perez at his best.  I mean, he’s good and his art is tight… it just seems like he was trying too hard to channel Jerry Ordway for the Earth-2 crowd.

We’ll see how this series develops… and I, for one, and happy to see an all-female tag-team of the 2 greatest heroines created in the 70s.  I look forward to seeing this series take on its own following… and maybe get their own DCU animated film one day (hint hint Geoff Johns, nudge nudge Bruce Timm).