“Rebirth II”
The main point of interest for the development of this series is that it is telling two separate tales. One part, as drawn by Kevin Maguire, recounts the stories and events around the arrival of Kara and Helena to Earth-1 from their other-dimensional Earth-2 five years previously. The second part, as drawn by George Perez, shows the unfolding events of their present-day attempts to return home.
Rating: 3 / 5
Pros: Depth of character; Kevin Maguire art
Cons: Inconsistent storytelling styles
Let’s start in the present. This second issue, featuring the lost super-heroines of Power Girl & Huntress, jumps right into a 90s-style brawl with a lot of fire and explosions… with just enough dialogue to keep the story going. The typical big baddie Hakkou plays the typical role of the typical destroyer just out to make things worse for the heroines. He blows up Kara’s Gateway (and only chance so far to try to get home)… but for mysterious reasons so far. It hasn’t been effectively detailed who this dude is and why he’s running around collecting radiation and blowing stuff up. His few pieces of dialogue aren’t any better than “You are strong indeed, but Hakkou is more powerful!”. A very simple and one-dimensional character design, but we’ll see how this develops. I’m hoping that Paul Levitz is steering this storyline to something more interesting or critical… which I believe he is. He’s dropping enough little mysteries and teasers into the dialogue that he’s trying to keep you guessing. For example, Hakkou tells the girls they are tampering “with matters beyond [their] world” and Huntress theorizes that he’s powerful enough to hurt Kara possibly due to a kryptonite power source. Is Hakkou from Earth-2 as well? Is he from another planet? Is he from Krypton? Or is he, like the present-day story hints, from Apokolips?
(more after the jump)The interaction with Huntress and Power Girl is still the type of friendly banter I wanted to see. They are well familiar with eachother, with their histories, with their sensitivities, with their weaknesses, and also, more importantly, with their strengths. They are both shown as successful, intelligent, and even manipulative game players, using all their strengths to their advantage. But it is their familiarity with eachother that makes them a great duo, a great team.
In the storyline detailing their struggles 5 years ago, it shows how these girls were really trying to figure out what happened, where were they, and what could they do to try to return home. There are a couple key points revealed here, like Kara’s olds Supergirl costume is indestructible, that the Darkseid attacking the Earth-1 Justice League (as detailed in Justice League issues #1-8) could possibly be the very same Darkseid that attacked and defeated most of Earth-2, and that a mysterious belt arrived with the grils as they were shunted away from home. With regards to the costume, I’m sure this is the same costume that had been modified eventually to be her Power Girl outfit. With regards to Darkseid, in old days, Jack Kirby and Jim Starlin had both indicated that Apokolips/New Genesis were separated from the regular universe (which is why a boom tube was necessary to travel to and from)… so it could be likely that in this new DCU, Darkseid is attacking both Earth-1 & Earth-2 form the same Apokolips homebase. And what about that belt? With the reveal of Earth-2 costumes designs so far, this is not a match with anything known. Could the belt be from one of the Apokolips attackers? Could a 3rd person have travelled across dimensions with the girls? These are the interesting plot points that I’m hoping Levitz works upon and develops. I would like to see Paul take the story-telling initiave used by Geoff Johns and drops a ton of hints early on in the foundations of a series… only to build and grow to an inevitable and impactful story (just read Green Lantern # 1 through to Blackest Night).
Is this a must-read series, you ask? Honestly, no yet. But I can see the potential still for great storylines with these girls. Paul Levitz can often get lost in too nay characters and too many ideas (like the recent Legion of Super-Heroes stories). He needs to focus and avoid the easy way out of flashy villains and wanton destruction. He needs to work on his characters and make them strong. I’m confused by his writing sometimes though. His present-day storyline reads more like a b-title 90s book (like something from Dan Jurgens or early Fabian Nicienza)… whereas his “5 years earlier” storyline is tightly woven and character driven (like a Keith Giffen or, dare I say it, Grant Morrison). Paul is capable… he just needs to keep focused, in my humble opinion. If anything, he needs to continue the friendship between Kara and Helena. Their friendship is a strong building block for the future. In a DCU, where the great team-up of Superman-Batman seems based more on great trust and admiration, the boys are still only 2 sides of the same coin… the law and the justice, the light and the dark. Huntress and Power Girl, although similar to the boys, make a great team because they are first and foremost best friends.
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