The Adventures of Robin and Supergirl
Worlds’ Finest Annual #1
 Published: 29th January 2014 Cover Date: March 2014 Cover Artists: Emanuela Lupacchino Jason Wright Writer: Paul Levitz Penciler: Diogenes Neves Inker: Marc Deering Colourist: Jason Wright Letterer: Dezi Sienty Editors: Anthony Marques / Mike Cotton Eddie Berganza |
Introduction
As you might have noticed I’ve been tweaking things a little bit, and starting next month I’ve do a little soft reboot, as is the way of DC in general!
It’s just a way to keep interest in the projects, I enjoy the comics (mostly) but the effort of writing this can be a bit of an effort. Mostly it;’s to keep things fresh, things will still continue more or less as is just with a different schedule.
Still as a point to swap over this annual isn’t a terrible one as it provides the link between the last story and the next plot arc.
Plot Synopsis
The story is split into three parts that at the end connect together, set in the past of Earth 2.
A splash page basically fills in the basics Helena Wayne, now Huntress, was Robin, whilst Kara Zor-El, now Power Girl, was Supergirl.
Chapter One: Independence
We then cut to Batman and Robin (Helena) raiding a brothel run by gangsters. Robin is a little gun ho whilst Daddy Wayne is protective of his Robin. Apparently this was something that Selena had files on and they’re planning to shut things down in her honour.
Meanwhile out shadow wielding villain is talking to some sort of priest, in front of a very demonic statue, she apparently wants out of punishing the rich but he convinces her to carry on her mission. Things go wrong when she get a bash on the noggin from one of the gangsters who’s in a relationship with Anna one of the prostitutes working there. It’s a bit of a weird flex in the comic to suggest that the women working there are, or at least some of them, just as bad as the people they work for. I know it’s a Noir staple but it rides a fine line of victim blaming and I’m not really a fan of it as a plot development.
Still Robin recovers and follows the couple finding the gathering point for everyone that’s fled the place. She then engages in a little touch of ultra violence maiming several, who to be fair are trying to shot her, and potentially killing one of them with a poker. It you’re wondering where Batman is he’s following along at a distance basically trying to see if Helena is up to this whole crime fighting lark.
Helena has captured the fleeing Prostitutes and they tie them up for the authorities to take care of, with Helena wondering why they seemed to like working for the gangsters and Batman mentions Stockholm Syndrome (which isn’t actually a thing, but y’know universe of talking psychic apes and all.) What happened to the gangster who coshed Robin is unclear, he’s not seen in the scene’s where she fighting his allies or the captured women at the end, I guess it’s just a art miscommunication.
Chapter Two: Rebellion
We start the second part with a tearful Kara writing in her diary about a night out. Against the wishes of Clark (Superman) she snuck out of the secret base where she’s been living since arriving on Earth, being like the original Pee Gee his secret weapon until she ready.
Feeling the siren call of New York, where many Pee Gee stories take place, she uses a fake ID to have a night on the town dancing away and having a sneaky drink. With the drink, which she immune to it’s effect, she meets someone called Ken (I shall refrain from any Barbie related jokes) and they seem to hit it off over the course of a page, by the second page they’re have a bit of a smooch when things go badly wrong.
He reveals that he’s the son of the diplomat from Gammora, previously she mentions a peace summit in town, and she’s about to reveal herself when a building explodes, the Worldgov tower where the delegates (including his dad) are inhabiting. He rushes off to try and save people, whilst Supergirl goes off to do much the same. She’s doing the style of the era by staying as a blue red blur so not to be recognized by the public.
She seems to be doing well dumping dangerous stuff into the Hudson and welding the building back together, weirdly we don’t see any corpses or people being rescued though. She failed to reach poor Ken who going back to check on Kara is caught by falling rubble and apparently killed, him being held in arms in the classic Crisis pose when her predecessors was similarly killed.
Chapter Three: Three of a Kind
Our two heroes finally come together with Helena comforting Kara over the loss of poor Ken, it’s unclear how much time has pass but it seems to be at least a day or so, with enough time for Kara to write up here diary entry!
After Helena spots another figure in the footage from the explosion the two of them go to the wreckage of the Worldgov building to look for evidence of there ghost. And whilst they look around we cut to Supes and Batman discussion the two young heroes, with ominous warnings of an attack from Apokolips.
There investigations was a success finding evidence of alien technology as well as the person they were after, we won’t ask why she’s still around a whole day after her attack though. The two fight with the villain being just as strong as Supergirl, Robin sensible staying out of the way, at least until she’s buried under some rubble and the villain gets away whilst Supergirl (quickly) saves her friend.
They track her to a cave system where the fight picks up again, with Supergirl having the upper hand until Wonder Woman of all people stops the two of them fighting. This allows the villain to get away via a boom Tube and we learn that who they were fighting was Diana’s daughter! It’s this fight where we learn the villains name, Fury, which if you’d been paying any attention was Wonder Woman’s daughter back on Earth-2 and had been a member of Infinity Inc.
Final Thoughts
This annual is a nice look at our two characters when they were still younger and a little naive, revealing aspect of there character whilst setting up a plot that will play into the story going forward. There are a few niggles here and there where stuff was missed during the story, our missing thug from chapter one and the lack of bodies during chapter two, but a lot is packed into what ends up being a double sized issue so I can forgive a few niggles here and there.