REVIEW: Batman/Superman: World’s Finest #1

Batman/Superman: World’s Finest #1 is finally here as Mark Waid and Dan Mora relaunch the title with Batman and Superman with the classic DC Universe before Death Metal rearing its head amidst the legacy characters and cross-over limited series.

This line has been awaited by Kingdom Come fans since Waid last penned the Superman story in Death Metal’s Last Stories of the DC Universe. Waid always had a knack for writing high-quality Superman stories like Birthright. For Mora, with his experience in Power Rangers and Batman, Superman was the natural progression.

Mora’s Jerry Seinfeld in the Batmobile Getting Coffee Variant is just wonderful. Other great variants that will appeal to people who judge books by their covers are Jim Lee, Jason Fabok, Doc Shaner, Chip Zdarsky, and more. There is also something extremely satisfying about the promos for CW’s Superman and Lois and The Batman back-to-back on the final page. Truly a Batman and Superman book through and through. 

Chapter one of “The Devil Nezha” opens up with Batman and Robin tracking Poison Ivy to Metropolis. Robin, while it isn’t revealed, just might be Dick Grayson at this point which establishes the floating time it is set in. A big difference from today with him as Nightwing running around with Jon as Superman. He’s a welcome part of the story even if his and Bruce’s relationship is back to its traditional Watson and Holmes chemistry.

Of course, no villain’s visit to Metropolis is complete without Superman making an appearance. That was exactly what Poison Ivy was gunning for as her partner reveals himself to be one of his notorious villains. Clark’s biology is pushed to the limit and ends up getting infected, by messing with every cell of a Kryptonian, it causes mutations, defects, or even enhancements, which usually mean bad news. At the same time, we’re left with the question of who set this unusual villain duo up? We have only two silhouettes to work off of, and from what we can see the helmet does look familiar. 

Waid was having fun with this story. With glorious, booming onomatopoeias and a script that easily could have been written during the Silver Age of comics. It’s interesting seeing what would be called a “retro” script set to such modern art by Mora who does a great Superman. His style is similar to Jorge Jimenez, another great Superman artist that emphasizes his smile and face muscles. Mora demonstrates this really well, especially with how he captured Seinfeld’s likeness for the variant. His Batman wearing the blue cape and cowl and 70s emblem is a great callback. Some will be happy to know that Robin has the elf shoes. Several of his action panels utilise colored backgrounds to seemingly correlate with the overall emotions – yellow for impacts, red for wrath, and black for waning strength. This is expertly carried out by colourist Tamra Bonvillain

Batman/Superman: World’s Finest #1 is definitely, the most fun title DC has on the market this week, but will we see it tie into the ongoing DC Universe as a whole? Or will it continue to serve as a nice break or standalone prequel to it?

It’s also interesting to see if Waid will take the Man of Steel to new heights as he has done times before. For those who really enjoyed the post-Rebirth comics before Heavy Metal and even the ones prior to Flashpoint, this book will fit seamlessly in your library.