World's End? - Worlds' Finest #26


WORLD'S END?

WORLDS' FINEST #26

Published: 13th August 2014
Cover Date: October 2014
Cover Artists: Tyler Kirkham / Jason Wright
Writer: Paul Levitz / Scott Kolins
Penciler: Tyler Kirkham
Inker: Joe Weems
Colourist: Arif Prianto
Letterer: Travis Lanham
Editors: Eddie Berganza / Mike Cotton / Anthony Marques

Introduction
It seems appropriate, if I admit a tad slight, that today of all days (a leap day) we should talk about a character who if had been created during a leap year she wouldn't have made it long past her first (fourth) birthday. For the final day of Tanya month, we finally get the Tanya that everyone (who cares) would consider the "real" Tanya!

Sypnosis
We start on Earth 2, or Earth-2 apparently, with Pee Gee and Huntress looking upon a massive wormhole over a city. Huntress is not keep on being used as canon fodder, whilst Pee Gee seems quite keen to get into action. Especially when she sees what she assumes is Kal-El (as the cover spoilers its it's not) they speed off falling to a mass of Parademon where Huntress is separated from her friend.

Meanwhile, Tanya 4.0, who now has her famous hair buns and looks as close to her classic look as the art will allow (not that it's terrible art). Trapped under some rubble she ends up lifting the massive bank of "equipment" in your classic full-page lifting images. She also quickly finds out she has invulnerable skin along with super strength.

Meanwhile, DeSaad, who seems to be as much part of this book now as all the others, travels to CERN-2 to use it to recharge his power thanks to them finding the Higgs Boson!

Huntress being to cool kid she surfs one of the Parademons down to the ground. They get the better of her before Pee Gee swoops in to punch the parademon, far, far away! Kara gleefully tells Helena that she has seen some supers, including a Superman and a Batman, though Helena reminds her that it can't be her dad despite some wishful thinking on Pee Gee's part.

Tanya is being tested by another random scientist, Professor Romberger. With him and Gerhard I can't help but feel that they were setting up a new cast of characters for a potential Tanya solo series. Obviously, alas that never happened and as we've seen she was folded into the Teen Titans (somewhat roughly) as some sort of consolation prize. She has gained some muscle along with the super strength, as this may be an art thing but she seems taller compared to how she was shown before. This was also well before she gained her size-changing powers, though one might be the reason for the other!

She seems to be of the opinion that the strange energies of the wormhole generator, not the random doohicky that Pee Gee threw to her before leaving. Here, the admittedly cute, interactions with the Professor are cut short by a lawyer who gives her paper giving her Kara's legacy, both her money and the title Power Girl. This obvious passing of the torch is a way for the writer to try and cut off the standard call of some fans that she didn't earn or deserve the title. At this point, we'd had several years of the same criticism of Miles Morales, though for better and worse Tanya never really became well enough for such criticisms.

And then we close up with DeSaad learning that that wormhole is in a massive feedback look and will soon destroy the Earth, as we see Huntress and Power Girl approaching the heroes of Earth 2. Before we're told that we'll flash forward five years to this years story event Futures End!

Final Thoughts
It's really a book of two parts, the reveal of the fate of Earth 2 and Tanya finding out she's become Earth Prime's Power Girl. Maybe it's because things were a little rushed to the end but the two parts seem a little thin, really we should have had a whole issue of Tanya finding out about her new power before another issue about Pee Gee and Huntress learning the fate of Earth 2. But we need to get everyone in place for Futures End and if it wasn't clear this run is on its final feet.

It's not terrible by any measure, it is still well told, but to me it just feels a little slight, and that is not something that should be happening for the two big reveals this comic has been working towards!

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