When DC announced it was bringing back one of the flagship titles of its past, we knew that we were going to get a team up of someone with an S and someone with a bat. For those of us who didn’t pay close attention to punctuation, the new title was called Worlds’ Finest while the old title was World’s Finest, as in the “Worlds Finest Heroes”. Notice the apostrophe switch? It was intentional. The New 52’s heroes in this title fall into the Super and Bat families but are not the main heroes themselves – instead, we have the family: Power Girl and the Huntress.
Who are these 2 ladies? Well let’s summarize their history quick.
These women originated on a world DC affectionately calls Earth-2, like the comic of the same name. During a major battle on that world, the dimensions were torn open and both of these characters were shunted to the “mainstream” Earth in the DCU. (I say “mainstream” because every title but 1 takes place there.) Power Girl is the Supergirl of that universe, and used to be known by that name, whereas the other hero here is the Huntress who was that universe’s Robin. (But here’s the twist – Huntress is the daughter of Batman and Catwoman.) When they were thrown to this Earth, one of the heroes from this side made the opposite trip. Mister Terrific, whose title lasted about 8 issues, will soon make his appearance within the pages of Earth-2, but enough about him…
This issue of World’s Finest creates a confrontation that was destined to be had: the daughter of Bruce Wayne meets the son of Bruce Wayne. Damian vs. Helena. As Huntress “borrows” money from the Wayne bank accounts (and why not not; she’s family), Damian goes hunting down for the thief only to catch her in the act. Obviously, we know what happens next: pseudo-sibling battle to the unmasking. Meanwhile, Power Girl is doing something as well, but a little more… spacey. She’s attaching a device to a satellite in Earth orbit, so she can monitor for certain energy frequencies… the ones that can maybe help her get home. Yes, both women are homesick and want nothing more than to return home.
After noticing that Huntress is in a bit of a pickle, Power Girl swoops in and kicks Robin in the butt… literally. Robin and Huntress both recognize something in themselves – a little of Batman, and Robin even notices a little bit of Catwoman. The trio decide to sit down for a heart-to-heart with Robin about to get the story of his life…
For those who have not read this title yet, it’s picking up. It started a little slow, and I was on the verge of removing it from my pull list, but with issue #0 I was brought back in. That’s what we were missing – a little bit of history on these characters. With many of the books in the New 52 until now, we could extrapolate some historical elements from the characters, but with these characters were the only thing we saw of their world was the first issue of Earth-2 at the time? Not so much.
What’s interesting is what this book pulls off that many haven’t: multiple artistic teams in the same story. The entire story is written by Paul Levitz (Legion of Super-Heroes), which is appropriate as he is one of the co-creators of the Huntress character. The artwork is split up among 2 teams: one for Huntress as primary scenes and one as Power Girl as primary.
The Huntress team has both pencils and inks from Kevin Maguire (Justice League International – the original) and coloring by Rosemary Cheetham. This is the sequence that covers the majority of this issue, so if you don’t like Maguire’s work, then you may not like this comic, but really… Who doesn’t like it? The Power Girl sequences are provided by George Pérez (Teen Titans, Avengers/Justice League) on pencils, Sandra Hope (Final Crisis: Rage of the Red Lanterns) on inks, and Hi-Fi on colors. You can tell that both Pérez and Maguire have different styles for their different characters, and where this may be difficult for some artists to work together like this… It really works here.
Although I wouldn’t rate this as one of the best comics I have ever read, this brought a confrontation we (as fans) knew was inevitable and were waiting for. I would definitely give this a 3.5 out of 5 (previous issues would get less, with the exception of #0) as I think the book is not about to hit its stride. It took a bit to get here, which is too bad, as it now seems like things are getting fun. At this point, I wouldn’t jump on to this title just yet if you haven’t picked up older issues, but get the first trade and then pick it up. I have a feeling Levitz et al are planning some nifty crossovers between the universes at some point soon.
