Creative Staff:
Story: Margaret Stohl
Art: Laura Braga
Colors: Arif Prianto
Letterer: Travis Lanham
What They Say:
When a powerful alien weapon falls into the wrong hands, it will take the combined might of Batwoman and Supergirl together to save the city from the Religion of Crime!
Content: (please note that content portions of a review may contain spoilers):
Pulling from more of the DC Giants material, the World’s Finest series focuses on Batwoman and Supergirl and is definitely what I expected it would be, good and bad. The opening story is one that takes up the whole issue and comes from writer Margaret Stohl, whom I’ve read a few things from before, and artists Laura Braga. I was a huge fan of Braga’s work during the Bombshells days and she’s only gotten better here which just delights the hell out of me. The books has a great look with the character designs and Arif Prianto’s color work nudges it all to the next level easily. It’s vibrant and outgoing in all the ways it needs to be with the pairing and the end result is a book that feels like it has the right kind of pop and vibrancy it needs to stand out.
The story is straightforward enough in that Supergirl has been sent by the DEO to Gotham where the Religion of Crime organization has acquired a weapon of some sort called the Solar Volt. Since they can’t be trusted with it, she’s roughing up the low-level members until she gets closer to where the device may be. Unfortunately for her, she ends up crossing paths with Batwoman who is doing largely the same but just focused on the group itself. The two have a standard mini-fight introduction as they clash without thinking and it escalates quickly, which is dealt with but leaves a tension in the air as they haphazardly and end up working together while not really being on board for it. It plays out pretty well as they deal with things and, being an opening story for the DC Giant, delves into a one-page mini history/background piece for each of them.
The story isn’t too much of a surprise and it was amusing to see Alice, especially as I’m more familiar with her through the Batwoman TV series than anything else, but that also meant that she’s too familiar for me to be all that engaged with. What was interesting is that while Supergirl still has the semi-teen thing going on and not being all that keen at times to be dealing in the family business, Batwoman also comes across that way. And with her being a few years older in general it ends up giving her a kind of immaturity problem with some of the phrasing she uses and the references to her and Alice playing Gotham Gal. It all just kind of makes her seem a bit goofier than she is and undercuts the usual seriousness we get. Which may be the point but I don’t think it works great for the character.
In Summary:
I had a fun time with this book but I had to keep imagining Batwoman as basically almost a teenager in it for it to click. I do think the Supergirl/Batwoman pairing works but not if we get Kate acting younger than she is, which is what feels like happens here too much. There’s some fun in the action we get and the time with Alice but I will always have a hard time dealing with a group called the Religion of Crime. Stohl’s story gets the job done overall but I’m wary of some of the dialogue. Laura Braga’s artwork is spot on throughout and just an utter delight as I really enjoyed her take on both leads and how well it all blends together as a whole work. Combined with Prianto’s strong color design for it, it’s a really fun opening read overall.
Grade: B
Age Rating: 12+
Released By: DC Comics via Kindle | ComiXology
Release Date: June 1st, 2020
MSRP: $0.99