I Must Be Going, Part One - Worlds' Finest #23

I MUST BE GOING, PART ONE

WORLDS' FINEST #23

Published: 14th May 2014
Cover Date: July 2014
Cover Artists: Barry Kitson / Jason Wright
Writer: Paul Levitz
Penciler: R.B. Silva / Yildiray Cinar
Inker: Joe Weems / Yildiray Cinar
Colourist: Jason Wright
Letterer: Carlos M. Mangual
Editors: Mike Cotton

Introduction
After a brief hiatus, we're returning to Tanya, and it's a little bit of a cheat, we're looking at her first appearance in the pages of Worlds' Finest so it includes (a) Power Girl as well. And it's a fascinating look at how the character evolves and changes, even over the four issues of this comic.

Synopsis

After finding and being denied a way home Power Girl is having none of it so she's gathered some of the brightest minds to a Starr lab at Cambridge, Massachusetts (near MIT for non-Americans like me). From the splash page, she's pulling no punches lifting heavy machinery around to prove that she's superpowered then welding with her laser vision. And from the very first panel, we have Tanya always in the background but front and centre. It's not until page five that she's named though, along with another character called Gerhard who seems to be the head scientist. The weird thing here is that it's treated as if we know the characters, Kara obviously does, but this is actually their first appearance. Actually, I backtracked a few issues worried I'd missed a Tanya appearance but nope this is her first comic.

And as you can see she's fairly different from her later, more established, appearance. She doesn't have her distinctive hair buns and has a more generic person of colour look, including at this point blue eyes. Honestly, at this point, she reminds me of another favourite character of mine, Marvel's America Chavez (Mz America). At this point she has no powers apart from being a 17-year-old genius with a Ph.D, something that seems that have been forgotten by the time it came to the Teen Titan run.

Their dimension-hopping experiments seem to cause a power blackout of at least as far as Boston (and apparently two other states), which gets the attention of DeSaad who's hiding out somewhere. But enough about him Helena is at MIT looking into an experimental reactor, which some ambiguously foreign people seem to want to steal the atomic material to make a dirty bomb. It's unclear if she was investigating them or if they just happened to turn up at the same time, but really that's not important. She quickly takes two of the three terrorists down.

Power Girl meanwhile is out seeing if she can help, going to the Seabrook nuclear power plant,  (but not the experimental one involving Huntress, two different reactors here) Which it seems is an actual real place about 40 miles north of Boston. After a quick run-in with the military, who thanks to Homeland Security have locked the place down. After some vehicle damage in response to some costume damage (to be fair it's from a missile attack), she goes into the nuclear plan to see if she can help.

At the same time, DeSaad tempts Tanya on the Longfellow Bridge, also a real place, maybe she's going home because it's unclear why she's walking over the bride maybe she's been tempted by DeSaad it's very unclear. She swats DeSaad away, remembering at this point she doesn't have powers yet, and with good timing as the final fleeing terrorist in a car (we don't see him leave MIT or steal the car), with Huntress on the roof, crashes just in front of Tanya.

And because this is a comic book the terrorist picks the nearest person as a hostage, Tanya Spears! 

Final Thoughts

Last week for Justice League Spectacular I called it, basically, workmanlike. This is also workmanlike but in another, much better, way. It put down all the pieces, with the problem clearly laid out and the characters all in their place. Apart from skipping a few details. why Huntress is at MIT, Tanya on the bridge or how the final terrorist got all the way to the bridge you can follow how everyone gets from A to B and what they are doing. Reading back sounds like faint praise but as we've gotten to know the two heroes over the previous twenty-two issues they really sing here. Basically, it's not an instant classic but a solid start to a four-part (or two two-part story, it's complicated).

And whilst Tanya's yet to fully form it's obvious that she's being set up for something, though looking back it's hard to tell if she was always bound to the (low) heights she ended up during a few years of the late 10s.

And even during this story, she will continue to change and evolve, as we'll see next time!