Noteworthy Issues: Batman/Superman World’s Finest #1 (March, 2022)

Oh cripes.  Another variation on the old World’s Finest title where Superman and Batman team up to do…something?  DC keeps trotting this concept out.  It can be done well, but you need the right creative team on it and…

Wait, Mark Waid wrote this?  OK, you got my attention.

Issue:  Batman/Superman: World’s Finest #1, March 2022

Writer:  Mark Waid

Artist:  Dan Mora

The Plot:  Batman and Superman develop their legendary friendship as they help each other out.

Commentary:  It would probably be very easy to do a mediocre if not outright bad new Batman/Superman team-up book, but knowing Mark Waid was writing this one, I figured it was in safe hands.  That turned out to be a pretty good assessment.  I wouldn’t call it Waid’s best, but even Waid’s work-for-hire stuff is at least fun.  This first issue is a little more than that, and it seems inclined to basically set up how the two met all fresh.  I guess after Death Metals, everything is more or less brand new.  So, here it is, something like a flashback within a flashback as Poison Ivy and Metallo attack the Daily Planet building, only for Superman, Batman, and Robin to all swing in to help.  There’s a brief flashback showing their first meeting together as the Penguin had kidnapped Robin and Superman showed up to rescue the boy from both the Penguin and a trio of Qwardian weaponeers, hence the friendship.

By the by, I’m not sure which Robin this one is.  I guess it’s Dick Grayson, but I don’t recall the issue saying one way or the other.  About all I know for certain is it isn’t Damien.  This Robin is far too polite and playful to be that punk.

As it is, this is basically Mark Waid doing what Mark Waid does so well:  taking characters with long histories, writing them in a story where they behave in recognizable manners while having an exciting adventure, and tossing some curveballs along the way.

That comes from the fact there’s a mystery villain behind the Ivy/Metallo attack, and whoever it is had what seems to be a perfectly deadly trap for the Man of Steel in the form of an injection of multiple pieces of red kryptonite.

That basically means Batman needs to find a way to subdue a Superman whose mind and body keep mutating and causing problems for, well, everybody.  The temporary solution is a very Waid-ish move, and while I may not know whether this issue is set in the past or not, my present is looking good to have another Mark Waid-written series coming from DC.

Grade:  A-