World’s Finest: Paul Levitz, George Perez, Scott Koblish, Hi-Fi, Kevin Maguire, Rosemary Cheetham, Carlos M. Mangual

Huntress and Power Girl…the Supergirl and Robin from Earth-2…now on our Earth. This is a direct continuation from the Earth 2 book that Robinson is writing. Thanks to Mr. Terrific’s warp field thingy, Karen and Helena were sucked through to our world and have actually made things pretty awesome for themselves. Good for them, I say.

Here, there’s already a Supergirl and a Robin, so they decide to blend in a little differently. Karen becomes Power Girl - with a brand new costume. It’s neat, actually…and still brings focus to her busty chest, just like the last one. Helena becomes Huntress. So I was right. That Huntress series we saw before IS a hero from Earth-2.

Karen’s become a super successful businesswoman, acquiring technological properties under her Starr Enterprises company. She’s trying to find a way back home. But apparently someone doesn’t want her to, and is bombing her new labs. See, her last name is Starr…so I see an opportunity to explain the whole “STAR Labs” company presence in the DCnU…but I don’t think they took advantage of this, unfortunately. I just thought it’d be really cool.

What IS neat about this book is how the roles are changed. Usually it’s Robin with the money, thanks to his connection to Batman, and the Super that’s broke because they have no connections. Let’s face it, you don’t bring home much with a reporter’s salary. But here, Karen’s the rich mogul, and Helena’s the one who has to tag along on her bill. I like the reversal.

The book also explores the five years between now and when they first arrived on this Earth, which is nice. Not a lot of the New 52 books are doing that, exploring the beginnings of the heroes before the present timeline. It’s nice to see.

The art in the present day is good, and very detailed. The legendary George Perez handles that. However, I happen to like the past sequences by Kevin Maguire better. It’s a neat style, and I think it fits really well with the characters. Karen’s a very animated, charismatic person. I think the more “cartoonish” look suits her much better than Perez’s.

World’s Finest #1, the verdict: So it’s an exciting concept, and I hope it goes well for the book. Unfortunately I’m just not terribly interested. I like certain things about the book, but it’s not something I see myself reading long-term. I can see a lot of reasons that readers will really enjoy this book.

(Photo Source: The Martian Manhunter)