World's Finest: Huntress and Power Girl # 3 (The New 52)

 By Mark Rodriguez

Where last we left our dynamic heroines, the Irradiated Man, Hakkou took Power Girl down and now it’s up to the quite vulnerable and very human Huntress to defend her unconscious friend. Let’s see what happens.

'Rebirth part 3' starts with Huntress firing arrows at Hakkou, trying to radioactive monster from getting closer. The monster burns down all of them and then starts throwing huge steel rods at her. Helena manages to dodge them but is caught against a corner. Power Girl grabs onto her leg with the last of her strength, despite the fact that his radiation hurts her. Huntress shoots at the pipes above Hakkou and wash him in coolant. The coolant was also full of radioactive waste, and Hakkou says he has fed enough and jumps out of the facility.

Huntress helps Power Girl to her feet, and the blonde tells Helena that she shouldn’t be so close to radiation. Helena said her body is immune to most toxins. As the leave, they mention how Hakkou talked about the women being stranded in this world and how he destroyed the quantum tunneler. So maybe Karen was right in thinking that something followed them from Earth 2.

45 months ago in London, the women discuss the differences between the London they knew and the current one. Looking up files on the world’s heroes, Helena notes that this Batman already has a Robin. Karen however, blows the next page away before she could see anything on Superman. Helena asks if she isn’t curious about the Superman of this world, and she says “Not my Earth, not my family, not my problem.”  Helena mentioned that she ran tests on the weird item they found from Earth 2, and nothing came up. Karen assumes it’s from Apokolips. Helena says Karen sees Parademons under every bed and Karen jokes with 'not every bed'.

As time went on, Karen just can’t adapt to the technology of this world so she decides to buy the geniuses she needs to help her figure out a way home. 24 months ago, she consults her secretary on progress and she mentions the works of Michael Holt. Karen decides he could help out so she gets dressed in a very familiar-looking dress and see if she can seduce Mr. Terrific.

Back to the present, PG flies with Huntress as they discuss how Hakkou is stronger now. Suddenly Karen drops Helena and flies off. A plane is falling in flames and PG manages to catch it and help the pilot escape to safety. She tosses the plane into the ocean. Helena points out that there are more flames flying above Tokyo. Karen notices that Hakkou is now giant-sized and wrecking damage throughout the city.

 Huntress helps the innocent bystanders while PG takes the fight to the monster. She fries his eyes with heat vision and flies over to one of the television towers. Blinded and enraged, Hakkou looks around for the Kryptonian. He turns in time to see Kara swing the TV tower like a bat, sending him flying.

The monster was sent flying into the Tokyo where there are are way less innocent people. Huntress asks what the plan is now. PG says she was hoping Huntress would have an idea.

My Opinions-

This story seemed to have gone pretty fast, mostly due to all the large panels with the fights. One thing I haven't mentioned in the previous 2 issues is the odd art shift between the flashbacks and modern day. Not sure if it was just a stylistic choice or just to make things quicker, but it does make Karen and Helena look weird when they're in their civilian clothes than in their superheroine outfits.

It seems at the time there was some backlash in the fandom with how Karen's character was handled. Compared to Helena, Karen doesn't care that much about this world and is willing to do anything to get back home. This includes seducing and sleeping with Mr. Terrific in order to gain access to his technology. That rubbed a lot of fans the wrong way, as did her line 'not my Earth, not my family, not my problem', which is a harsh reminder that isn't 'their' Power Girl, pre-Flashpoint. I mean, Helena is pretty much stealing from Bruce Wayne (whether or not you agree he can afford to lose a few bucks, stealing is still stealing), but it's Karen leading Michael on that drew the ire of the fandom.

I didn't have much of an opinion on this other than those two are doing what they need to do to survive. While people do sleep around casually, I think the main issue is seducing someone into getting what they want is usually done by the bad guys than the good guys, so people don't like seeing Karen act this way. I mean, no one is perfect and the heroes can't always be squeaky clean.

Another thing I noticed is that between the two, Karen still holds hope and is more than eager to return home. She might not care too much for this world because she feels she's going to leave it anyway, but she still takes the time out to save lives when she's in the area. Helena also wants to go home but feels more resigned that this is just how things are and there's also the chance that there won't be much of a home to return to anyway.

Oh.. and I do call BS on Helena saying she is immune to most toxins while being knee deep in radioactive waste. I kinda don't think radiation counts as 'most toxins'. That's more for like... poisons and whatnot. Radioactive coolant should be a whole other story.

As for Hakkou, he might have some mystery to him, in terms of being possibly tied to Earth 2, but he seems to be pretty much a random rage monster to fight. I wonder if these was some sort of delay between the arrival of the superheroines and this guy, because what the hell would he have been doing for the 45 months ago between their arrival and the time this story takes place?

Also in this random flashback, is Karen asking his secretary about the size of Mr. Terrific's junk? Like how would she know anyway? The New 52 sure loved to bring up sexual innuendos a lot. 

"Why yes Ms. Star, he is. I saw it before setting up the interview. It was glorious!"