How To Drop The Ball In Comics: Worlds’ Finest

Hello, and welcome to a new spot on the blog I like to call ‘How To Drop The Ball In Comics’. This is where I take a look at what I thought was a legitimately GOOD idea in comics, why I felt that way, and how it eventually kinda fell on its ass. With that said, let’s take a look at Worlds’ Finest.

No, not that one. THIS ONE:

What Is It?: Created for The New 52 as part of a branching-out to tell stories involving characters from Earth 2, Worlds’ Finest specifically looked at Huntress (Helena Wayne), daughter of Batman and Catwoman, and Power Girl (Kara Zor-L/Karen Starr), cousin of Superman. However, the twist was that, after surviving the final battle of a war that claimed the lives of their respective families, the two found themselves accidentally exiled to Earth 0, the primary Earth of the DC Multiverse since the Multiverse’s rebirth in Infinite Crisis. As such, we had cases where, in this and other books, they’d encounter other-dimensional relatives, like Robin, Batman, and Superman, and even Power Girl’s alternate universe self, Kara Zor-El, many of which were pretty awesome. As another twist, it was revealed that, in this continuity, Power Girl and Huntress started their crime fighting careers as their world’s Supergirl and Robin (bringing the female Robin count up by one). So, let’s take a look at what I liked about it.

How Did It Have Potential?: Well, for starters, it was a book about two badass superheroines. Second, Power Girl and Huntress’ history, given certain reboots and retoolings to the DC Universe and its history, can be…confusing. For example, most people that started reading comics after Crisis On Infinite Earths, or have watched Justice League Unlimited, are probably more familiar with the Earth 0 version of Huntress, Helena Bertinelli. This was a good way to bring in Helena Wayne and distinguish her from her counterpart. Mind you, this led to some confusion as well, given that Hel apparently passed herself off as Bertinelli for five years, except that in the New 52, Helena Bertinelli is black, but whatever. This helped explain a few things about the characters for people that weren’t in the know about them. Also, as I’ve established before, the initial arc ended with them and the military fighting a giant villain in a Japanese harbour. If Godzilla and Megazord had shown up at that moment, I would’ve squeed so hard, you could’ve probably heard it IN JAPAN! lol And as much as some people got ticked about Karen’s new costume, I actually kinda liked it…until it proceeded to get torn and burnt up over and over, to where Power Girl was actually more decent in the old boob window costume, which is part of the reason why I was glad she switched back to it.

How Did It Drop The Ball?: There’s a few reasons. First…I don’t know if it was an issue with editorial, or if Paul Levitz, the man who frigging CREATED Huntress, forgot how her character worked, but the characterization for Hel and Karen feels off in this book. Hel’s a bit too much of a buzzkill, and at one point called someone a “little bitch”, and Karen is WAY too flirty, and once witnessed a bunch of kids being sucked into a Boom Tube and was pretty much like “…Huh. That was a thing”. Also, in my opinion, they spent WAY too long on Earth 0, only managing to get back to Earth 2 when things were at their darkest, lowest point, and when their place as the rightful heirs to Superman and Batman’s positions had been usurped in their absence by two men: Val-Zod (who I actually don’t mind, save for when he’s Karen’s blatant love interest), and Earth 2 Thomas Wayne (who was revealed to be alive, a frigging bum, a drug addict, and an overall horrible character altogether). And once they made it back to Earth 2, did the story become about how the two worked together as last-minute surprise reinforcements to turn the tide against Apokolips? NOPE, the book instead completely shifted gears to tell a prequel story about Earth 2 Superman and Batman, will apparently be cancelled along with the other Earth 2 books (not counting the one that’ll start post-Convergence), and Huntress and Power Girl were instead treated to World’s End, where Karen flirted with Val, lost Kal-El AGAIN, and got a Superman logo on her suit (completely missing the point of the boob window), while Huntress was subjected to body horror, torture porn, and drugs. If you are a fan of either of these characters, by all means, send your grievances about such decisions to the head-writer of Earth 2: World’s End, Daniel H. Wilson…Seriously, here’s an example of his very lame attempts to justify his decisions regarding Helena.

Anyway, that’s all I have to say about the matter. If you’d like MORE on the subject, as well as the overall mistreatment of Earth 2, women, LGBT characters… … …Really, anyone that’s not a straight white male in The New 52, be sure to check out http://helenawaynehuntress.tumblr.com/ and http://helenawayne.blogspot.ca/. Ja né!

Thoughts on RWBY Episode 1 + Who Would Be On My Cross-Branded All Women Superhero Team?

Click here to watch Episode 1 of RWBY

So, I’m kinda late at doing this, but I thought I’d give my thoughts on the first episode of RWBY. If you’ve followed along with my recaps on the trailers, you’d know that RWBY is all about a team of four young women who fight monsters, gangsters, and other such scum of the world. The first episode is a bit different from what I expected, depicting the first of the characters to be revealed, Ruby Rose, as a tiny bit of a stereotypical anime teenager who’s still in combat training when she gets caught up in a situation involving criminals and Huntresses, women who protect the world from monsters. I won’t give too much away, since I want people to go check it out themselves, but I will say that I like what I’ve seen thus far. You can find it at RoosterTeeth‘s website, or, if you’re still curious, check out the links below for info.

You’re a Huntress…Can I have your autograph??? 😀

Overall, seeing the trailers and this first episode makes me wonder how these four young women, all with varying fighting styles and weaponry, will fare as a team. And that got me thinking: What would it be like to take four women, all superheroes in their own ways, with different personalities, utilizing different combat styles, possibly even completely different universes, and put them on the same team? Heck, who would I even pick?

So, that’s what I have here: A list of four women from different tv series, comics, etc, but all considered superheroes, and all having various powers, abilities, skills, and personalities. This is my all-women superhero team!

Kara Zor-L, AKA Power Girl

So naturally, I’d start with a DC Superheroine, and of them all, Power Girl seemed the most logical choice. She has all the strength and powers of Superman, and is smart enough to run a multi-million dollar business. She’s not invincible, mind you, as she has the same vulnerabilities as Superman too (red sunlight, magic, and Kryptonite), but on a team with three other badass superheroines, she should have more than enough back-up to get her out of trouble should any of those weaknesses come up.

Jennifer Walters, AKA She-Hulk

Another comic book superheroine, and like Power Girl, She-Hulk has powers and abilities comparable to one of her universe’s mightiest heroes: The Incredible Hulk. Her strength is just slightly below that of Thor, making her easily the strongest woman in the Marvel Universe. However, unlike her cousin the Hulk, her transformation has little effect on her mental state, meaning she keeps her intelligence, and she’s also worked to make her human form of Jennifer Walters in shape as well, which makes She-Hulk all the more potent a combatant. She possesses a vulnerability to radiation that can mess with her ability to transform, but since she would have three team-mates to back her up, I don’t think that would be a problem. Heck, beyond that, the only way to put a dent in her is to have that kind of power yourself. I’d be surprised if even Power Girl could beat her in a fight……………Note to self: Suggest Power Girl vs She-Hulk in a DEATH BATTLE…Possibly a Bra and Panties Match. XD

Lauren, AKA the true Red Samurai Ranger

You can make the argument that there are plenty of women who have served as Power Rangers that are better characters than Lauren, and I’d tend to agree. However, I don’t really fault her for that, since she came in near the end of Power Rangers Super Samurai and wasn’t given much time to develop a character. What we DO know, however, is that she’s the true Red Samurai Ranger, and is a samurai at least on par with Jayden, the leader of the team while she was in hiding. Not only is she fast, strong, possesses near-limitless fire Symbol Power, and pilots the mighty Lion Folding Zord, her greatest feat is her taste buds, so mighty that even Mia’s cooking tastes good to her…which, I will admit, actually managed to make that terrible running gag funny again after not being funny for at least a year…so I guess I’ll add THAT to her feats, too. In fact, in those few episodes she was in, I found the team dynamic worked a lot better with her as leader. Why the hell did they switch back to Jayden? Oh yeah, ‘cuz that’s what happened in Shinkenger…Note to self, do a rant on Power Rangers Samurai. SOON.

Serena Tsukino, AKA Sailor Moon

Really, who better to be a member of a team of superheroines than the leader of the Sailor Scouts and Princess of the Moon Kingdom, Sailor Moon. While occasionally (okay, a bit more than occasionally), Sailor Moon can succumb to clumsiness and air-headedness, Serena (Usagi in the original Japanese version) possesses incredible powers. She can purify people of evil, she can create perfect disguises for herself with a magic pen, even her tiara can become a miniature Destructo Disk (Man, EVERYBODY’S ripping off poor Krillin these days). Again, she’s not without her faults, but with her friends backing her up, there is nothing she can’t do.

Anyway, that’s it for tonight. Comment below, and tomorrow I will be sure to talk about…

…Ja né!

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Tales of AWESOMETASTICNESS – The One True Power Girl Has Returned! :D (SPOILERS FOR SUPERGIRL #19)

So a lot of people know how I’ve been complaining A LOT about Power Girl‘s representation in World’s Finest. Specifically, how her character is an overzealous and shameless flirt (think Brock from Pokémon), she isn’t all that nice a person, and her new costume continuously gets burned, blasted, or ripped to shreds in damned near every issue. It pretty much made it near impossible to enjoy the book the further it went on, not helped by the fact that nothing in the story seemed to be getting resolved, and frankly I feel as though there is a much better potential for stories with her and Huntress (Helena Wayne) if they were on Earth 2 instead of Prime Earth.

And then Supergirl #19 happened!

Behold! The uber-boob has returned!

THIS is the Power Girl a lot of people have waited for since World’s Finest began. Now granted, she was in last month’s issue as well, where we saw a bit more of her life with her corporation, but this issue is where we get the one true Power Girl back. After rescuing her alternate reality younger counterpart, Power Girl and Supergirl began to sync, experiencing each other’s memories and curing each other (temporarily) of their recent Kryptonite poisoning. After the two take out a brute of a flunky who’s working for Lex Luthor, and Power Girl gets her costume torn for the billionth time, Supergirl collapses from the poisoning taking affect again. Karen takes Kara down to Sanctuary at the bottom of the sea (does Aquaman know about this?), and Karen remarks how she’s become under-dressed AGAIN, leading to the computer offering her new clothes that she immediately gravitates to: Her pre-reboot costume.

Does anybody else totally hear Song For Ten in their head reading this? lol

But it’s not just the costume that is back for this: Her personality is far more reminiscent of her pre-New 52 character in this comic. She’s compassionate, protective, confident, and legitimately witty for the first frakking time that I have seen in the New 52. And I couldn’t be happier for it. In fact, I will make a promise right here to DC: Clearly, Paul Levitz has failed to properly represent this character in World’s Finest. If Power Girl’s better personality is more accurately represented (and by the way, her old costume does return to that book next month), more specifically, if Supergirl writer Mike Johnson takes over the book, I will buy the book again. HAPPILY.

So that’s my two cents on the matter. Leave your comments below, and I will see y’all next time. Ja né!

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