There’s a lot of exciting comic book stuff coming, but I thought it was time to return to Gotham to what I know best. We last left Batwoman battling all sorts of mystical creatures, trying to figure out who was kidnapping children and manage semi-stable relationships with her family and loved ones!
‘World’s Finest’ starts with introducing us to our titular character, along with her extremely famous co-star in this novel; Wonder Woman. As the chaos in Gotham reaches a head, Kate Kane, aka Batwoman, heads to join up with Diana Prince as they attempt to locate Medusa, the Gorgon, given that she’s the one that all these monsters seem to be following. They attempt to enter the prison that houses the worst of the worst mythical creatures and villains, with even Wonder Woman stating that she doesn’t know what may befall them there. She’s not wrong either as the two of them are attacked by Nyx, the Greek Goddess of the night. Despite Diana’s immense strength, it’s Batwoman’s ingenuity that gets them out of the grasp of the creepy villain. Eventually their mission leads them to Pegasus, who is the son of Medusa. The information they get from him, is maddening; it turns out all this time they were looking for Medusa in these mythical places, and she was exactly where Batwoman started this mission: Gotham City. Whilst the two heroines have been traversing land, sea and sky for this information, Gotham has been under siege. The Gotham PD can only do so much, and even with the ‘help’ from the DEO, it seems that the battle will be lost. Can Batwoman and Wonder Woman get back in time? And will they ever find Medusa?
So evidently, it’s been a while since I read Batwoman’s last novel. I had to do a bit of a re-read of my reviews to figure out what the hell was going on, because the novel really does thrust you straight into the action. That being said, I think the constant switching between the inner monologues of Batwoman and Wonder Woman can sometimes be a little bit confusing, to the point where I was wondering why Batwoman was talking about all this mythology, or why Wonder Woman was talking about her dead sister. On the surface I can see what the writers were trying to achieve, especially with a title like ‘World’s Finest’ but it needed more finesse!
The artwork was again, just average. A lot of the novel was composed of these full panels, which were vibrant and complex, but they very quickly became overwhelming. The covers were okay, and I liked this one above a lot. Overall, a completely okay novel. The series needs to pick up a little!
Favourite Panel:
You know, I think we always assume that only Batman had this crazy training, but it turns out Kate has also seen her share of some pretty crazy things!
Favourite Character:
I think the point of this novel was to show that Batwoman can easily be in a novel with Wonder Woman and not be outshone. She did it well!
Rating:
Story Arc: ★★★
Character Development: ★★★
Artwork: ★★½
Enjoyability: ★★½
Re-readability: ★★
Level: Advanced