Tuesday, April 16, 2024

Well, a little Maguire is better than none.

This series ran for like two and a half years, but Maguire's name on the cover sold me on this one: from 2013, World's Finest #12, "The Price of Fame" Written by Paul Levitz, pencils by Kevin Maguire, Geraldo Borges, and Robson Rocha; inks by Kevin Maguire, J. P. Mayer, and Wayne Faucher.
I'm not entirely up on my post-New 52 continuity, but I believe this was set in the modern Earth-2, where Superman, Batman, and Wonder Woman had all apparently died while taking out Darkseid? Pardon me if I'm in error; Huntress does have a line about them landing on that earth; but currently Power Girl was an up-and-coming tech mogul in her secret identity of Karen Starr, with Huntress as her slightly-surly bodyguard. This month, Karen finally gets a meeting with rival/potential partner/maybe love interest Michael Holt, that goes abyssmally wrong when he reveals himself as Desaad! A more hands-on, and handsier, version than usual; but he mentions being in exile there: either unable to return to Apokolips, or maybe not having an Apokolips to return to. Desaad only lets Karen and Helena see his true form, while his bodyguards defend their boss, unaware he was a monster.
Unfortunately, Maguire doesn't do the whole issue; and while Borges and Rocha do a good job, there's a sudden shift to costumes mid-issue, as Huntress beats up some Yakuza types in search of intel. Power Girl isn't thrilled about having to leave a party for that, since after years of being Superman's secret weapon, she dug being famous. But, fame is fleeting, as the press seems to turn on Karen Starr, despite a very cheesecakey Time cover. And things go worse: Karen's Cambridge lab is blown up, drawing the heroines away, for Desaad to Boom Tube in tanks, wiping out her main office, and killing her assistant. Furious, they resolve to go underground, until they can find and end Desaad...which, I think took them a few issues.

1 comment:

Mr. Morbid said...

Seems like it had potential, as did that entire Earth 2 world and characters, it just wasn’t destined to last,