World's Finest #0 - A Review

World's Finest #0 takes us back into the early days of the new Earth 2. The plot depicts the early lives of both Supergirl and Robin, long before they became lost in time and lost in space, becoming Power Girl and Huntress on another Earth. The issue introduces us to both young women in the midst of their training, concluding with their first official team-up.



Curiously, the personalities of the two women seem to have reversed as time went by. Helena Wayne, who previously presented herself as something of a by-the-book stick-in-the-mud seems to be the more rebellious of the two women in this issue, disobeying her father's orders about training in the first place then running off on her own into a danger zone over her father's objections. By contrast, Supergirl seems to be more of a goody-goody, following her older cousin's orders not to get involved except under very exact circumstances - an attitude that seems completely at odds with the outgoing playgirl we've seen Kara become in earlier issues! It is a subtle change but it does make this issue more interesting for the long-time readers. And it doesn't seem unlikely to suppose that Helena might become more serious in the wake of her father's death as Kara might become a little wilder without her all-seeing cousin holding her back.

Paul Levitz's script does a good job of establishing both characters for new readers and establishing some previously unseen common ground between the two. Both women wish to follow in their respective father figures' footsteps but simultaneously feel stifled by their fathers' desire to protect them and keep them out of harm's way. The only downside to all this is that Levitz does such a great job of portraying these relationships, you don't want them to end... even though they already have. Would it be too much to hope for a book set in the early days of Earth 2 depicting Bruce and Selina's homelife? I think Helena may die of embarrassment but it would amuse the hell out of me.



It occurs to me that I may have done Kevin Maguire a disservice in my reviews of the previous issues of this book. Whenever I spoke of the art, I almost always focused on Maguire's gift for depicting expressions and making conversations appear dynamic while focusing upon George Perez's flair for depicting action. I did not mean to suggest for a moment that Kevin Maguire is incapable of drawing a fine action scene and this issue proves that.




I've said it before and I'll say it again - this book is a must read for all fans of quality comics. The scripts are uniformly excellent. The artwork is always of the highest caliber. All in all you'd be hard-pressed to find a better value for your comic-buying bucks.