Review: Worlds’ Finest Vol. 4- First Contact

Quick Summary

Pros: The crossover chapters are all entertaining. These chapters also give some great character development to everyone involved and help further develop the world of Earth 2. The Batman/Superman chapters have some fantastic artwork.

Cons: The first few chapters aren’t the best and are pretty unremarkable. Most of the collection’s artwork is lackluster.

Overall: Though this volume starts out slow, the conclusion is fun enough to make up for it. This conclusion, an entertaining crossover with the Batman/Superman series, has action, excitement, and tons of great moments from each of the characters. The only problem is that the beginning of the collection is not nearly as entertaining. Fans willing to overlook some of the book’s stale chapters will find some great moments in the collection’s conclusion.

Story

Worlds’ Finest Vol. 4: First Contact, by Paul Levitz and Greg Pak, starts out a little rough but improves significantly as it progresses. The first few chapters are mediocre glimpses into the present and past of Huntress and Power Girl. These chapters are tolerable but don’t really add anything to the comic’s overall appeal. However, as the book continues, a crossover between Worlds’ Finest and Batman/Superman leads to some of the best moments from this series. These chapters are highly entertaining and create a situation that fans of this comic have been waiting for since the series began. These positive chapters help make up for the lack of positives in the book’s beginning and turn this into a comic that fans of the series may end up enjoying.

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The first few chapters of First Contact are a bit mediocre. One of the chapters shows flashbacks from Huntress and Power Girl’s time on Earth 2. This chapter helps develop their characters by showing their entrance to the world of superheroes but isn’t that entertaining as a read. The other chapters are almost entirely focused on transitioning the book from one story arc to the next, as the heroes deal with fluctuations in Power Girl’s powers. In the end, these chapters aren’t bad, they simply don’t do anything memorable.

Luckily, things improve as the Worlds’ Finest series enters a crossover with the Batman/Superman series. This entire crossover is fun, engaging, and filled with action. It sees each of the four heroes forced to use their unique personalities and abilities to their fullest, which allows for a diverse assortment of exploits. This ranges from Huntress and Batman’s stealthy infiltration into hostile territory to Power Girl and Superman’s impressive displays of raw power and selfless determination. Within this crossover, all of the characters have a chance to show off their best attributes, which leads to a highly entertaining story.

This crossover also finally has the heroines from Earth 2 meet their counterpart father figures from Prime Earth. This is a unique experience that contains some solid character development for all parties involved. Readers see Huntress and Power Girl realize that Prime Earth has more positives than they initially believed. Meanwhile, readers also see the two different versions of Batman and Superman more thoroughly contrasted against one another. All of this allows First Contact to do a lot of Earth 2 worldbuilding in a short amount of time.

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Art

First Contact contains some of the best art in the series thus far. The Batman/Superman issues, featuring art from Jae Lee, look absolutely incredible. They present Superman, Batman, Huntress, and Power Girl with a wonderful level of creativity on every page. This art style helps emphasize Huntress’s penchant for stealth and Power Girl’s tremendous strength. The end result is a few chapters where every page feels like something fresh and interesting.

Unfortunately, the artwork outside of these chapters is pretty lackluster. The majority of the book has the same visual problems as the last collection. In addition, R.B. Silva’s work on the Worlds’ Finest issues is an odd contrast to Jae Lee’s work. This creates a book where the visual highs are impressive but only comprise the minority of the book’s pages.

Continuity

Worlds’ Finest Vol. 4: First Contact continues the story from Worlds’ Finest Vol. 3: Control Issues (Review).

The story here continues in Worlds’ Finest Vol. 5: Homeward Bound  (Review).

This volume also makes references to other comic books, detailed below:

• This collection contains a crossover with the Superman/Batman series. This crossover takes place at the conclusion of Batman/Superman Vol. 2: Game Over (Review).
• Batman and Superman’s memories of Earth 2 come from Batman/Superman Vol. 1: Cross World (Review).
• Hiro mentions working with Superman before. This happened at the beginning of Batman/Superman Vol. 2: Game Over (Review).
• The being that comes through the portal at the end of this collection reflects the events happening in Earth 2 Vol. 4: The Dark Age (Review).