REVIEW: Batman/Superman: World’s Finest #16

Batman/Superman: World’s Finest #16 sees what began as a mystery turn into a battle that feels bigger than anything this series has done before. This issue has all the feel of a final battle and it’s not even the last issue in the story arc.

Dan Mora is on his way to becoming one of the top modern artists at DC and continues to play an important role in this series as several characters make their visual debut. Ultramorpho is what you get to give the powers of Metamorpho to an android and keeps in the series’ theme of combining characters and their abilities. Batman can also be seen contending with a Cyborg Wonder Woman with appearances by Cyborg Superman, Red Tornado, and Robot Man.

Lee Bermejo is another iconic artist at DC with his awesome realism-inspired handling of DC’s biggest faces with darker palettes. This Batman makes an appearance alongside Superman with a level of detail that gives his suit all kinds of dimensions – especially around the emblem with the red seeming to have a layer over the yellow. Bermerjo’s red hues to city lines always make it look like they are under siege which does create some urgency to our heroes leaping into action.

Kaare Andrews takes more of an animation-inspired look for his variant. This is one of those styles that you could just visualize moving like a cartoon on the page. Superman has all the elements of the Animated Series and Fleischer designs along with some late 90s and early 2000 influence. Batman especially feels like out of the pages of a late 90s JLA issue. I’m sure he’s made that exact face in them. While Superman streaks red across the sky, Batman’s Batwing lights act as his air trail. That’s a really nice touch.

There are three other unique variants by Doug Braithwaite, Babs Tarr, and Ben Oliver.

Simon Stagg was never murdered from the start. He and several other tech billionaires have been kidnapped by a new A.I. threat, Newmazo – doesn’t get any newer than that. Newmazo is a collaboration between Dr. Ivo and Dr. Magus. Magus created life with the Metal Men and Ivo created an ultimate weapon with Amazo. Again, the two combined are a really devasting combination when it comes to consequences – similar to dealing with A.I. or at least that’s what experts are saying nowadays. Superman and Batman were able to get to the bottom of it, but Newmazo may have already put his robots taking over plan in motion. It’s an evil plan to save the world by replacing man with machines in a coldly efficient way. Back on their feet, Batman and Superman, and other heroes must rally in the coming robot war to prevent the rise of the machines.

That’s the best part of this book because we have a lot of heroes and villains doing their part. Hawkman and Metamorpho face down Superman androids that Batman was working on in the Batcave – that really needs to be addressed soon. The Metal Men and Plastic Man are also on the scene to help liberate one of the A.I.’s facilities. Meanwhile, Batman, Superman, and Green Arrow have to take down the advanced Ultramorpho and get to Newmazo.

Fan demand for Mark Waid, lettered by Steve Wands continues to grow thanks to this series. Even with all the books labeled with the new Dawn of DC label, this one still continues to invoke that classical DC Universe that any reader from any generation can pick up with surface-level understanding. The average comic reader knew that this murder mystery was going to have a big twist, but one could never imagine that it could become a delicate Justice League-level threat.

Dan Mora gets to draw a lot of characters in this issue compared to others and Tamra Bonvillain is there to color them as always. Seeing them tackle all these characters and actions makes one wonder what would a Crisis-level book with them on the illustrating team look like. The new characters of Ultramorpho and Newmazo make an unforgettable debut like so many other great characters in this series.

Batman/Superman: World’s Finest #16 is a real treat. Things hit the fan and a climatic showdown starring more than just Batman and Superman may be on the horizon. The especially feels wonderful without any mainline Justice League series at the moment.