Worlds' Finest #3 review

Worlds’ Finest #3 review

 “Rebirth III”

Rating: 4 / 5

Pros: Kevin Maguire; The friendship

Cons:  Hakkou; Some fight scenes

Paul Levitz maintains his two ongoing storylines of the adventures of Power-Girl and Huntress:  “Presently” and “Previously”, with pencils by George Perez and Kevin Maguire respectively.  The trap Levitz often falls into is the way he juggles too much action, too many characters, and too much detail (necessary or inconsequential).  Just look at his recent hard-to-follow Legion series (both old and the new52).  The danger of having so many elements in his writing is that he distances the reader, with nothing to maintain our attention for too long.  Too many flashes and sparkles and shiny things; not enough substance to develop empathy and personal attachment to the characters.

Unlike some of his other recent scripts, Paul Levitz is successfully avoiding this trap this time around.  His growth and familiarity with these two female powerhouses shines with their strong character development.  I’ve mentioned this before, but these women make a great team because they are first and foremost best friends... and that is all because of Levitz’s writing.  You can tell he cares about these characters, and that he treats them with respect.  There are a couple of other issues I have with his writing, which I will get into shortly.

(more after the jump)

Let’s breakdown the book:

Present: The big energy vampire, Hakkou seems to be a typical big bad guy tossing his weight around and out to cause havoc (“some people just want to watch the world burn” type of thing).  A bit of ho-hum bad guy who feels like a combination of Reactron & Chemo, and with a story arc reminiscent of that old Avengers storyline with a lesser-powered Terminus as he grows more and more dangerous.  Despite the lackluster villain, Levitz is able to highlight how the girls work together, how they fight together.  He shows how they can think and react in the face of an increasingly powerful enemy, but he also shows their skill when fighting alone. 

I’m not quite sure what developed from this fight scene.  I’m still a bit uncertain what really happened when Power Girl and Huntress were sprayed with radioactive waste.  Are they too now radioactive?   Are they going to develop cancerous growths and die slowly and horribly... or is this the kind of thing where a quick super-hero shower washes everything off?  I’m also uncertain about the physics behind Power Girl’s final SWACK against Hakkou.  She rips apart a piddly radio array and hits the gi-normous Energy creature out to sea.  Despite this being a comic, and suspension of disbelief is expected... this still seems not “realistic” enough.

At least the mystery is still alive about where this Hakkou has come from... and why he knows about the inter-dimensional travels of these girls.  We’ll see soon, hopefully, where Levitz is taking the storyline.

As always George Perez works his magic with the pencil.  Crisp lines, great visual storytelling, great panel flow.  As great as he is, he is paired with one of the best artists around, Kevin Maguire, who handles the other part of the story.  It’s like The Stones opening for the Beatles.

Past:  Levitz also follows their storyline as they reach closer to present day.  This is where we explore less action & mystery, instead he have more of the exposition of how the girls have dealt with being stuck in this new world.  It’s fun to watch them notice the small differences between Earth-1 and Earth-2... which is also the first time the readers are seeing these minor details as well.  Nice trick by Levitz.  Although, their fortune and success seemed a bit out-of-place (since I wouldn’t expect them to try to take advantage of the Earth-1 folks for their own personal gain)... but Kara did have Kryptonian knowledge behind her and Helena happened to be the daughter of freakin’ Bruce Wayne.

But, man, Kevin Maguire is knocking it out of the park again.  Almost as if he’s trying to prove himself against the masterful pencil of Perez, Maguire is effortlessly displaying great graphic storytelling with his own crisp lines and great flow.  I loved the simple and effective work done on pages 8-9.  Although he has used this layout before, this is very reminiscent of Keith Giffen’s nine-panel/same-panel technique... but this is also highlighting Maguire’s talent for facial expressions. 

With the bouncing between past and present, it’s the less-action, more-fun past storyline which is actually more interesting. 

This issue displays how well the women fight together, highlighting their senses of humour and familiarity.  Levitz is nailing this down.  I’m glad he’s at the helm for the growth for these two.  Although the Kara & Helena friendship has been around since the 70s (and brought back by Geoff Johns not too long ago), Levitz is successfully solidifying and exploring this friendship much more than any time in the last 40 years.  Still happy to see them together, and will eagerly continue to follow their exploits.