Worlds' Finest #1 Review!

Worlds' Finest #1

Written by: Paul Levitz

Art by: George Perez, Kevin Maguire, & Scott Koblish

This series is one of DC’s “Second Wave” titles, focusing on the heroes from Earth-2 named Power Girl and Huntress that happen to be stuck on the main Earth. That’s pretty much all you need to know. The issue explains the rest of it. But I would recommend reading Earth-2 #1 first. Even if only just to see what happened to get them here and what happened just before.

Summary

The issue opens with Helena Wayne (aka Huntress) and Karen Starr (aka Power Girl) in a Japanese restaurant. They’re deciding which identity Helena should take on since her old one (Helena Bertinelli) died and the body was recovered and is now officially dead to the world. We hear that Karen is a rich ass lady with a bunch of money from Starr Enterprises, that she owns, I guess. She apparently bought some dirt-cheap lab in Japan and that’s why they’re there. They run off and to a burning building (apparently it’s the one she bought). And hear that there is only one reason she bought that building and it is because they had the equipment to finish a “Quantum Tunneler.” Karen goes running in to make sure it’s okay and Helena follows inside, changes into her Huntress outfit, and finds out that this fire wasn’t an accident. We get a reference to Michael Holt (aka Mister Terrific) so that pretty much confirms that Karen’s sightings in the beginning of the New 52 were actually her. Karen explains that this quantum-doohickey would have potentially been their ticket home. Helena has given up hope on trying to get home but Karen hasn’t. Apparently some of the radioactives stored there are missing. Then we cut back to five years ago on Earth-2. Karen & Robin go flying straight into the boom tube thing that took them to the main Earth. Then we see inside the tube. Karen and Hel are like knocked unconscious and go flying through the Multiverse. They open over an ocean, crash land, and Robin (Hel) takes Karen and drags her to shore. When Karen wakes up, apparently Hel has been doing some snooping around and figures out that the Kal of this world is young (while showing a picture of him in his Action Comics t-shirt and jeans outfit). Then we cut to “59 Months Ago.” Which would be…what? Still nearly 5 years ago? They’re talking about how they will take down Darkseid for killing their loved ones. Helena says they need “outfits.” Meaning new identities…? Okay. Well then we see Karen on the cover of Time magazine, and Hel bursts into...let's just say an "illegal transaction" going on and takes down the guys there. We cut back to the "now" and we see Karen pull out a outfit and saying that she'll become Power Girl as her new identity for the new world. They race to find the saboteur and, obviously, Karen does first and gets punched through a wall and then we meet Hakkou, the Irradiated Man as they get ready to battle, ending the issue.

Thoughts
This was really good, too! This whole Earth-2 thing is so much better than the New 52 started out. Can't believe they didn't set this up 9 months ago! This was all amazing. I loved the humor and fun that went along with the seriousness of them realizing they lost family and friends in Superman, Batman, and Wonder Woman (seen in Earth-2). Nothing was really surprising or anything, but it was a really good issue. I can't wait for next month. But I'm not sure about this Hakkou guy. I mean, sure, they can't immediately jump into getting back to Earth-2 but I'd like to see them have a Multiverse-travelling storyline at some point as they try to get back. But it was good, nonetheless. 9.5/10

Earth-2 #1 Review!

Earth-2 #1

Written by: James Robinson

Art by: Nicola Scott & Trevor Scott

Summary

The issue opens with us being introduced to an Earth-2 that has been taken over by parademons, with Superman, Batman, Wonder Woman, Robin (Helena Wayne), and Supergirl (Karen Starr) as the only heroes in the entire world. But Batman has a plan to take down the parademons and all it will take to execute is Kal & Diana giving him time to make sure it gets followed-through. We quickly find out that not only is Diana the last of the Amazons, but that Kal has lost Lois. Bruce keeps on pushing through to a tower that is apparently controlling the parademons. We find out that Supergirl is patrolling the troops that are leading the back-up plan to nuke all sites that have parademon tower things if Batman's plan fails. Kal, Diana, and Bruce all fight as an amazing team. We hear more about Bruce's plan as he was telling it to Diana and Kal. Then, Mercury (yes, the God Mercury) appears to tell Diana that the Gods are dying and that he will likely die in the battle, too. So Diana becomes enraged and begins fighting extra hard against a whole horde of parademons, when out of nowhere Steppenwolf (who apparently was leading the parademons) appears and kills Diana(!?!?!?!?!?). Kal declares that he will kill Steppenwolf, but he blows up Kal(!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?), killing him. Supergirl figures that out and flies to Metropolis to see what happened. Back in the tower that Bruce is inside of, he inserts a virus into the system and explains to Helena that once he inserts the virus it will blow up  all the towers including the one with Bruce inside(!!!). He activates it and boom boom goes the towers all across the world. Then a boom tube opens and has someone standing inside it. Helena & Karen fly into the tube and that's where it leads into Worlds' Finest #1 (which I'll review later). Then we cut to Alan Scott who was narrating the issue from his own little iPad-looking device. Apparently it's the 5th anniversary since they saved the world. Alan is flying to China and he mentions "What's left of Italy" and then we see a bunch of gaping holes. We then cut to Michigan where we see Jay Garrick's girlfriend leaving him for the west coast saying that all he will ever be to her is a few happy memories. Then he's sitting there on a hill drinking some drink talking about how his life sucks when Mercury(!!!) crash-lands and says that the world doesn't have a hero, but it needs one, effectively ending a extremely amazing opening issue.

Thoughts

This issue was PERFECT!!! I loved everything about it!! The art was amazing, the dialogue was perfect, and I'm so glad we got to see Jay and Alan in this issue. I could feel Helena's heartache as she realized her dad was about to die and I couldn't help but laugh at Jay's expression when he first saw Mercury. This series is going to be AMAZING!! I cannot wait a month for the next issue...but it's better than waiting three months for the first. 10/10 easily.

New Comics Day!-5/2/2012

Well, today is new comic book day. And here I am sitting at school! In a matter of hours, I will be going to the comic book store to grab five new comics (with two coming this weekend in the mail. So. Today I will be getting:
Earth-2 #1-James Robinson & Nicola Scott (Preview & My Hopes found: HERE)
Worlds' Finest #1-Paul Levitz, George Perez, & Kevin Maguire (I couldn't download the preview. Sorry!)
Teen Titans Annual #1-Scott Lobdell, Tom DeFalco, & Brett Booth (Preview found: HERE!)
Smallville Season 11 #1-Bryan Q. Miller & Pere Perez (Couldn't find a preview anywhere! So I'm hoping to be very pleasantly surprised)
Andddddddddddd Avengers vs. X-Men-Honestly I don't know who is doing the creative duties for this issue. There are like 50 writers and 5 artists working on this series so yeah. But I'll be getting it!

So I'll see all of you over the next few days (before Friday afterschool) with reviews of each comic. Probably starting with AvX, then TTA, then SS11, then E-2, and finishing with WF. Not because I want to build the anticipation or anything. I'm actually looking forward to SS11 and E-2 the most, but I assume that WF #1 takes place AFTER E-2 #1. Maybe I'll read SS11 last. Well I'll figure it out. See you all later!

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Earth-Two #1 Preview! And my hopes for Earth-Two and Worlds' Finest

My Hopes for Earth-Two (and Worlds’ Finest)

1.       Jay Garrick, Alan Scott, Al Pratt, & Ted Grant-(3/4) CONFIRMED!

The main heroes of Earth-Two have always been the Golden Age heroes known as the Flash, Green Lantern, the Atom, and Wildcat respectively. They have been mentors to almost every single hero in the DCU Universe. Well…before the New 52. I have realized that all of them will be new(er) heroes when the series starts, but I hope that maybe that can be as inspiring as they were pre-Relaunch.

2.       Superman, Batman, and Wonder Woman aren’t the “stars of the show”-UNCONFIRMED

The only previews from the new series show Superman, Batman, and Wonder Woman fighting off hordes of para-demons. Which is a shame. I don’t care if they run the series at the beginning, but hopefully they will hand it over to Jay, Alan, etc. While I’m really interested in knowing their backstories and how they became who they are, I am not so interested that I would want to read it month after month for a long time. DC could accomplish the same thing (and please more fans) by creating a “Trinity” series instead.

3.       The Quality Stays Consistent-CONFIRMED! For the first 3 issues…

James Robinson and Paul Levitz are both very good writers and this series promises not only good, strong writing, but humorous and human writing as well. On the art side of the books, we see Nicola Scott, George Perez, and Kevin Maguire on art duties for the books. Nicola Scott’s art reminds me of Ivan Reis’ art a lot and he happens to be putting out the best New 52 artwork right now. Hopefully she can keep up with him. George Perez & Kevin Maguire are doing the art for Worlds’ Finest and I can’t wait to see it. They’re both industry legends, and I can’t wait for it.

4.       Familiar Faces-UNCONFIRMED

Thus far, we’ve seen Superman, Batman, Wonder Woman, the Flash (Jay Garrick, not Barry Allen), Green Lantern (Alan Scott, not Hal Jordan, John Stewart, Guy Gardner, or Kyle Rayner), Supergirl (later Power Girl), and Robin (later Huntress). But we haven’t seen designs for characters like Al Pratt (a.k.a. Atom) or Ted Grant (a.k.a. Wildcat) who have been claimed to be in the series but no signs have been shown. At least until we crack open the first few issues of Earth-Two. It'd be nice to see other characters appear like Stargirl, Atom Smasher, Damage, etc.  As for Worlds’ Finest, we don’t know if the two girls will be introduced to other heroes from the New 52 Earth or not. I sure hope we are. I would love to see the two girls fight alongside the JLI (or just Booster Gold), New 52-Batman, etc. Plus if there are any Crisis’ while the girls are around, they will surely be involved.

Hopeful Cast:

·         Superman -CONFIRMED by image

·         Batman-CONFIRMED by image

·         Wonder Woman-CONFIRMED by image

·         Supergirl/Power Girl-CONFIRMED by image

·         Robin/Huntress-CONFIRMED by image

·         The Flash (Jay Garrick)-CONFIRMED by image

·         Green Lantern (Alan Scott)-CONFIRMED by image

·         Al Pratt (The Atom?)-CONFIRMED by James Robinson

·         Wally West-UNCONFIRMED

·         Wildcat (Ted Grant)-UNCONFIRMED

·         Stargirl-UNCONFIRMED

·         Red Tornado-UNCONFIRMED

·         Black Lightning-UNCONFIRMED

·         Lightning (Black Lightning’s daughter)-UNCONFIRMED

·         Psycho-Pirate-UNCONFIRMED

Well there are more I'd love to see, but I don't feel like listing them. So I'll post the preview and I'll see you all tomorrow with some reviews!!