World's Finest #3 Review
When DC announced a second wave to their new 52 initiative- a wave which would include a title starring two of my all time favourite characters- I was ecstatic.
Needless to say, I want to love this run, but I'm struggling to find a genuine reason to. Yes, it is good (ish) overall, but it could have been really great. I've (albeit unwillingly) accepted that Helena Bertinelli was merely an alias of this Huntress and I've accepted Power girl's costume change (the boob-window had been around for a looong time). All I asked for was that the writing/plot/art would be, in a word, awesome. (More on that to follow).
The plot follows immediately on from the previous two; Karen and Helena are stranded on Earth 0 and are trying to find out how to get back (and how they even got there in the first place). The issue, again like the previous two, switches between the past and present, detailing how these two superheroines adjusted to a different, but yet similar, planet.
Now, onto the critique:
I am a fan of Perez's earlier work, but here it just doesn't look all that good. I had similar feelings when Perez was the guest-artist in a recent issue of Supergirl. All in all, I much prefer Kevin Maguire's art in the flashback scenes. This also runs true for the writing. The flashback scenes are simply more interesting than the scenes set in the present. Here we see Karen and Helena being friends, interacting. It feels "different", and is truly refreshing to see; two people, who are superheroes, joking around and relaxing (despite the whole transported-to-another-world scenario.) However, the return to the present also sees the return of an archetype that is all too familiar. Bad guy of unknown origin seeks to destroy pretty much everything (without, it seems, any motivation). Hakkou (the big bad) is an uninspired, one-dimensional villain.
I normally rate quite highly, but for this issue I was struggling to justify the 3.5 stars I've rated it. (The 3 stars are simply for the flashback scenes, the half star for the present.) Hopefully this series will get better, otherwise there is a very high likelihood that I'm going to drop it.
Although, I did like the cover; a freeze frame of *gasp* something that actually occurs in the pages of the book.
