Worlds' Finest #6 Cover Solicitation

[aeka]

WORLDS’ FINEST #6
Written by PAUL LEVITZ
Art by KEVIN MAGUIRE, GEORGE PEREZ and SCOTT KOBLISH
Cover by KEVIN MAGUIRE
1:25 B&W Variant cover by KEVIN MAGUIRE
On sale NOVEMBER 7 • 32 pg, FC, $2.99 US • RATED T
• What happens when Huntress, the former Robin of Earth 2, meets Damian? The same thing that happens when anyone meets Damian: a massive fight!
• Huntress has managed to keep her true identity on this Earth a secret so far, but with Damian on her trail, can the world’s greatest detective be far behind?

Comments

[darkknightjrk]

On one hand, I look forward to this confrontation immensely.

On the other, I feel like I shouldn't have gotten as giddy about a child cold-cocking a woman in the face as I did. I think it's the blood spittle that makes it a bit much. Either erase it or make it clear, I think.

[aeka]

In all fairness, it's Helena Wayne he's clocking. So even if he manages to get a punch in or two, Helena should be able to still give Damian a run for his money.

[darkknightjrk]

Hmm...

On one hand, I would think that the additional training that Talia and the League of Assassins gave him would bring an additional edge to him.

On the other...I just can't help but think of Helena holding him back with one hand, causing Damian to flail punches in the air, causing steam to come out of his ears and cries of "UNHAND ME, VILE WOMAN" "THIS IS SO UNFAIR" "YOUR SHOULDER-PADS ARE SILLY LOOKING AND YOU SHOULD BE ASHAMED."

Of course, worse case scenario, Helena does have an advantage in a Superman-level girlfriend as an equalizer.

[aeka]

Somehow being raised by the league of assassins wouldn't be quite as significant here since Helena was trained by Bruce all her life and surely he would have taught her every form of martial arts in the known world. What matters here is how Helena and Damian USE their acquired skills. She can take him.

[shadowpsykie]

normally i would give the edge to Damian because of his various skills, but you are right. its how they use them, and Damian only acts rationally when he has a plan other wise he's very emotionaly driven. Helena on the other hand, while she HAS acted from emotion before still acts rationally whatever the given situation. She is more cool headed than Damian and all his train will mean nothing if he dioesn't think before he acts

[michael_ellis_day]

Still, though. Doesn't matter that it's Helena Wayne, or what that information says to people who know the character. This is still a picture of a woman being punched in the jaw so hard that blood is apparently drawn. That's not an image that should ever become normalized or routine or a matter of no concern to the public. No matter what the in-story justification, this image should not be on a comic book cover. There are a million ways to draw an adult woman facing off against a younger boy depicting both of them as skilled martial artists without showing her getting clocked in the jaw and blood flying.

Sorry, went off on a rant there. It just bugs me how inured we all get to this stuff, myself included.

[aeka]

Fair point. It could definitely have been handled better. Something like this maybe would have showed both as equally skilled fighters:

[ensiform]

I personally find this image much more offensive. Helena is taking a punch, like a male character, and you know she's going to give as good as she gets. This is just boobs and identical sexualized faces and miniskirts and... two invulnerable characters using glass or ice daggers?

[aeka]

Normally I'd agree with people complaining about the issue of artists drawing the same face on all the characters, but this is Power Girl and Supergirl going at each other. They're the same character from two different universes. In this case the two characters having the same face is acceptable here.

Also my point was less about the boobs and miniskirts and more about depicting the characters fiercely but equally going at each other, which is what's happening in the PG/SG image. I admit this wasn't the best example, but still gets the point across, I think.

[ensiform]

You're right on all counts; it's not a good example, but I get your point.

[eyz]

Oh, yeah. A more "fighting on the same grounds"-kind of cover?
Yeah, specially since I wouldn't like seeing Damian kicking Helena's ass but rather the opposite, that little snot needs a beating. (what with acting like a "silver age Superman"-ysh all the time - yeah, I'm censoring myself with nerd references)

[shadowpsykie]

Helena is taking a punch, like a male character, and you know she's going to give as good as she gets.

I agree with this. a while back, during the first Charlie's Angels movie, Drew Barrymore did an interview saying something along the lines of "These aren't Bond girls, they don't come in in bikini's throw a punch and never get touched. They get hit, but they get back up and hit back, they give as good as they get, better."

(Vastly paraphrasing as i am having a hard time finding the interview but that was the jist of it)


So yeah, i don't see too big of an issue here, we all know Helena's going to give just as much, if not better, to the little brat prince,

...though... it does look like damian came in for a sucker punch and from that cover it does not look like they are in equal footing.... so i could see where people would have a problem with it...

[ensiform]

I find it refreshing. It's comics, the women kick ass, they can take a punch. While there's no place in comics for the kind of "women in refrigerators" trope that makes women exist solely to be victims in revenge scenarios, this is a fully rounded character who is getting punched, like every other character. It's a step toward real equality in my eyes.

[darkknightjrk]

True--and really, I think it's just the bit of blood that gets to me. I'm actually somewhat pleasantly surprised that it doesn't get more flack than it did.

[ensiform]

It could have been teeth! Now that would have been nasty.

[shadowpsykie]

true. i think the blood spit is a BIT much. then again i just don't like that cover aestically to begin with...

[theflames]

This art looks so un-dynamic... pretty bad stuff.

[shadowpsykie]

yeah i have to agree

[kd_the_movie]

Here we fucking go....RobinGOD Damian beating and outsmarting everyone he goes up against all the while insulting them with his arrogant flair.

Fuck that kid. Its like Morrison created a monster...yet he (and like 2 other writers) was the only capable of writing him with a shred of humanity to sympathize with.

[shadowpsykie]

yet he (and like 2 other writers) was the only capable of writing him with a shred of humanity to sympathize with.

its surprising people seem to not "Get" Damian, Yes, he is a ass, but that's the only thing people seem to grasp about him (my favorite Damian's are in Batman and Robin, or with BQM's Batgirl)

[aeka]

I honestly doubt Damian would have the upper hand with Helena for too long. Given Damian's arrogance and emotional instability those are two things Helena could easily use against him. Also, Damian has under ten years training experience, Helena has twenty. Even if Damian has the League of Shadows, Helena has a bad ass Kryptonian.

[raspberryrain]

Funny. I was expecting something entirely different on her mouth.

[deleonjh]

I protest. The teaser line says "What everyone's been waiting for" so I assumed it would be a scan of Superman and Batman making out with Batman's hands down Superman's pants.

[arise]

I thought it would be Huntress and PG making out, personally.

[halloweenjack]

Thanks, someone finally stated what should have been obvious to everybody. Peej finally figures out that if she really wants to distract everybody and hide her secret identity, the only place she needs to be wearing anything is her face. Then fun things happen.

[promethea4]

Me too. Was a bit disappointing to see Damian instead.

[shadowpsykie]

YOU would :D

[shadowpsykie]

Bruce: Well hello there Man of Steel

[big_daddy_d]

Helena: "Dad, Damian's being a pest again!"

Bruce: *Just sips his coffee and reads his paper* "Damian leave your sister alone."

Damian: "I'm not doing anything!" *Dangles ball of yarn above Helena's head.*

[shadowpsykie]

Damian: "I'm not doing anything!" *Dangles ball of yarn above Helena's head.*
teeheehee okay... okay, THAT'S funny :D

[magus_69]

Please tell me that there is a ten-seconds-later variant showing Damian bent over Helena's knee.

[rordulum]

Wait, so it's now confirmed that Helena Bertinelli no longer exists in the DCnU?

Oh, DC, when will you ever stop sucking. No wonder I've given up on all their books.

[aeka]

Oh honey. That ship has LONG sailed.

[rordulum]

Well. Shit.

So that's another of my list of 'Characters ruined by the DCnU reboot', along with Nightwing, Catwoman, Starfire, Harley Quinn, Damien Wayne (because forging a relationship with Dick was what made his character palatable), and all the characters who might not even exist any more.

I have nothing against Helena Wayne, but she's not the Huntress I ever cared about. And I definitely don't like that 'it was her all along, just pretending' explanation. That's worse than her never having existed at all in the reboot. Fuck DC.

[aeka]

And I definitely don't like that 'it was her all along, just pretending' explanation. That's worse than her never having existed at all in the reboot.

I honestly can't say that the reverse was any better. Speaking as someone who started out as a Helena Wayne fan, I personally thought Levitz insisting that Helena Bertinelli was "The Huntress Reborn" (as in it's the same character that ONCE identified as Helena Wayne on Earth-2 but with a new origin) in the post-Crisis continuity was a worse insult to injury than the fact that she was killed in the 1986 reboot in the first place. What that said was that Helena Bertinelli was now 'the real deal' and that Helena Wayne no longer was at any point in DC history and was no longer relevant (or at least until 2006). A "just scrap it from your memory" sort of deal.

I think we can both agree on the fact that making the Huntress' origin interchangeable is a shitty way of rebooting a character for a newer continuity, and one that completely disregards all the history that accompanies the character and the emotional attachment fans have towards the version they grew up with.

[rordulum]

Also, if the stuff Helena Bertinelli did was actually Helena Wayne pretending (hate it), then how do they explain her one night stand with Dick Grayson?

Wouldn't he be her step brother? Or is that one of the bits that conveniently no longer happened?

[aeka]

I Think it's pretty safe to conclude at this point that the one-night stand with Dick Grayson no longer happened since the more recent issues seem to imply Helena has been active as the Huntress for only a year and has avoided running into Batman, and subsequently the rest of the Batfamily.

For that matter, I think it's also safe to conclude that very little else of Helena Bertinelli's past history and relationships are still in continuity and have all been retconned as well and this is Helena Wayne/Bertinelli starting completely from scratch.

[rordulum]

So... her awesomeness in No Man's Land is no more as well?

Bah. I'm just going to have to carry on pretending that this whole reboot never happened.

[aeka]

I honestly doubt Cataclysm, No Man's Land, Hush, and all those other great Batman story arcs no longer happened at this point. No Man's Land in particular was the story arc that introduced Cassandra Cain as the new Batgirl, and if Barbara is now the only Batgirl that existed at this point....well...

Let's just say that if No Man's Land still happened at all at this point, just the earthquake happened and nothing else.