Raid
Continued from Worlds’ Finest #8.
This episode is about a raid on Starr Island, it’s not really more complicated than that. Though that doesn’t make it a bad comic. We literally start with our high-tech raiders breaking into Kara’s island offices. Still recovering is Helana who straight away suits up to stop the attack, whilst one of her arms is still in a cast. She has some success with the raiders, taking one down straight away before hiding from their hi-tech rifles. We also get Somya, Kara’s long-suffering assistant, showing up and also defend the offices from these invaders. A little less dressed for the occasion but neither less effective also taking down one of the raiders.
Thinking of her as just a long-suffering assistant I’m sorry to say I didn’t pay her much attention, which is a shame as it’s not just anyone but Somya Spears, mother of a character that we’ve already met (though not chronologically) Tanya Spears. I thought that Somya was a local but it seems or will be later retconned, that she’s an American citizen. It’s weird because in my (admittedly limited) reading I’ve never heard mention of her mother’s Asian heritage. Or I assume she is it’s never been clear and appearance is a little inconsistent between artists, I guess they didn’t get the memo about how important she would be later down the line!
She’s rescued by Huntress and we get another round of flashbacks to Helena and Kara, first with Helena getting her costume, and crossbow which she really seems to like, and Kara just tagging along to check that the material used was up to scratch protection-wise. We then get a later (more recent) flashback of her beating up some human traffickers in Prague, freeing a bunch of captured women, and sending them to a local women’s shelter with some cash to help them along. We get Kara turns up last minute so Helena could confirm that she wasn’t going to kill them just leave them for the authorities.
In some nice synergy, she confronts the raiders, who have apparently gotten formulas and chip data when Pee Gee burst through the wall to save the day. Taking a blast from one of the raider’s big guns, but apart from the standard costume damage, she’s unharmed (though a nice full-page spread tries to suggest otherwise).
We end with Kara talking to the only downed raider, the others being allowed to escape, who reveals that the person that apparently sent them was Micael Holt!
Now you might not know this, but I had some issues … with the comic series… but Kara (not yet called Power Girl) dated Michael Holt, aka Mr. Terrific, only to after some plots, where she doesn’t get involved, steals a massive piece of technology that Pee Gee thought would get the two of them back home. Though none of that will be important right now!
Another action comic that puts pieces in place, which as far as I can tell are the final pieces before we draw the plot to its conclusion. Not as solid as the previous ones, but it sets up enough plot to keep me interested in reading on (and to be honest I’ve peeked ahead a few issues). If I was going to criticize this issue the flashbacks here really don’t add anything interesting to the story and cut down the amount of time spent on the raid itself, so we really don’t get a feeling of threat and as it’s based on just a room it feels like the comic equivalent of a bottle episode!
On to the next issue!