Book: Worlds' Finest volume #2: Hunt and Be Hunted (issues #6-12) by Paul Levitz
Cover Art by Ryan Sook
Illustrations and Ink by Kevin Maguire, George Perez, Sandra Hope Cafu, Cliff Richards, Yildiray Cinar, Phil Jimenez, Ken Lashley, Barry Kitson, Robson Rocha, Wayne Faucher, Geraldo Borges and JP Mayer
Color by Rosemary Cheetham, Hi-Fi and Matt Yackey
Letters by Carlos M. Mangual and Dezi Sienty
Edition: Trade Paperback
Rating: 3 stars
Review:
Worlds' Finest volume #2 begins with issues #6 and #7 as it follows Huntress (Helena Wayne) breaking into Gotham National Bank trying to hack into Bruce Wayne's bank account to "borrow" some more money. But her attempt was thwarted by Robin (Damian Wayne) and after the duo fought it was revealed that Robin had been looking into a vast number of thefts from the Wayne account.
Although Helena had stolen money years ago (when her and Power Girl first arrived on Earth) she had not stolen anything recently other than what she was attempting to do. Power Girl (Karen Starr) swooped in for a little assistance which allowed for Huntress and Robin to talk about who Helena really was including revealing that she's Damian not-quite sister from a different universe.
With that out of the way the trio were off to search for clues to the missing money. Since there were two separate leads, Power Girl dropped off Huntress and Robin at some remote location on a snowy mountainside while she flew off to the Congo. At both locations they found trouble and clues that suggest Apokolips is involved. After the threat was taken care of, Damian and Helena agreed not to tell Batman anything about her but plan to inform the Dark Knight about their discovery.
Meanwhile in issues #8 and #9, Helena found herself being targeted, someone had put a hit out on her. Despite being shot, Huntress had managed to fight off her attackers but she eventually passed out due to the blood loss from her injury. Power Girl rescued Huntress just as she was being placed in the ambulance and took her to Starr Island where she can rest and recuperate at Karen's technologically advanced facility.
As Helena rested, Karen went out looking for the person who initiated the hit which unfortunately left her private island vulnerable when a group of armed thieves showed up. It was going to be up to an injured Huntress to stop them, she did a good job holding them off until Power Girl eventually showed up. In questioning one of the thieves, they received some startling news as to who was behind the attack. The thief said it was Michael Holt (a.k.a. Mister Terrific) who sent them to retrieve some missing tech that Karen had "borrowed".
Issue #10 had Huntress and Power Girl trying to find out the truth about Michael Holt because he recently had mysteriously disappeared (in Mister Terrific vol #1) without any trace. However, now he has supposedly returned. During Power Girl's search in Silicon Valley at one of Holt's lab she caused an earthquake much larger than the small one she intended to make (to cover her tracks of searching his facility). However, her tactic resulted in her having to save a couple of people who had got caught in the impact of the quake. That's the thing about this Power Girl, she doesn't always think things through and tend to cause more trouble in the process.
Meanwhile, as Huntress was searching one of Holt's offices, Karen contacted her with terrible news about Damian. This issue was tied-in to the Death of the Family crossover event and showed how Damian's death affected Helena. But since they barely knew each other and didn't really have a deep connection, Helena's grief-stricken reaction to Damian's death felt empty and shallow instead of the heartrending impact the story was trying to convey.
The last two issues (#11 and #12) follow as Huntress continues to look into the connection of Michael Holt's return and the high tech weapons the thieves had been using. But they learned the real truth about Holt when Helena and Karen attended a tech event in Las Vegas. As Michael approached Karen, she was able to see that wasn't really him but something much worse. It was one of Darkseid's minions DeSaad (who also seemed to have been exiled to Earth) masquerading as Holt. Even though he was attacking them, none of the guests could see through his masquerade and they believed Karen and Helena were attacking Michael Holt.
Prior to Karen and Helena finding out the truth, DeSaad was only interested in retrieving Holt's missing tech (for some unknown reason) and had no interest in really dealing with them but after the confrontation that changed. Because it appears he has set into motion a plan that is simultaneously ruining both Karen's business and her reputation. But the worse was yet to come because while Power Girl and Huntress left to go check on one of her labs that exploded, DeSaad pick that most opportune time to destroyed her home/research facility on her private island. It's no telling how many people were killed but he made a point in relishing the death of Somya Spears, Karen's personal assistant and friend.
The heroes plan to go after DeSaad but not wanting anyone else to get caught in the middle, they plan to keep a low profile as they go after him.
I thought Worlds' Finest volume #2 wasn't bad because there were moments when it was really interesting but at times it suffered from bad writing, bad dialogue and choppy story telling leaving this group of issues feeling a little distorted. Which is so disappointing because the first volume was actually a fun and interesting read. The inconsistent writing was one of the numerous things I really didn't like about the New 52 because from one issue or volume to the next it went from good to bad or vice versa and it was rare to find a series that had a steady level of quality writing. With there being several different artists, the artwork changed quite a bit throughout this book making me wish there was also more consistency with it as well.
Everything considered, this was still better than some of the other books I've read during the New 52. And despite a few issues I have with this book, I am interested in seeing what will happen in the next volume.
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