It’s Father’s Day, and Bruce Wayne and Clark Kent are taking their dads out for a meal. But when Justice League business calls them away, and leaves them in a trap, it’s up to Alfred Pennyworth and Pa Kent to save their super sons. And in a backup, Bruce takes Lois Lane on a night on the town and gets some Super interference. Batman/Superman: World’s Finest Annual 2026 #1 has a lead story written by Mark Russell, drawn by Clayton Henry, colored by Pedro Estoucho and lettered by Steve Wands. The backup is written by Mark Waid and Tyrone Finch, drawn by Pat Boutin, colored by Ramulo Fajardo Jr. and lettered by Wands.
Will Nevin: I know the answer to this, but I’m going to ask it anyway: You ready for some Caped Crusader, bud?
Matt Lazorwitz: Oh, you know it! Creepy Joker, gender-swapped Mad Hatter and more of the characters from last season. I am totally in.
Will: I bet if we had some kinda Patreon deal, folks could listen to us gab about the first half of the season. If we had one of those things, of course.
Matt: Oh, there might just be something like that…
Father’s Day
Will: Humor and heart with the lightest sprinkling of satire — this is about what I would have guessed it would be from Mark Russell. And that’s not a bad thing! The man has a lane.
Matt: He does! It’s funny, I probably haven’t read as much Russell as you have, and so I think of him mostly as a satirist. My Bad, Billionaire Island, these aren’t exactly the most heartfelt books. But then I think of Exit Stage Left: The Snagglepuss Chronicles and I remember just how deeply emotional his work gets. Not everything is Acid Chimps and Billionaire Dogs!
Will: Let’s not forget Traveling to Mars, which is achingly poignant in spots.
Matt: The characters are a bit broader here than what we see in Waid’s series, but I think that can be chalked up to the nebulous time this issue exists in. Put it earlier in the timeline than the ongoing adventures, and yeah, Alfred and Bruce can be a little stiffer with each other, and Flash can be a little goofier. I wouldn’t say anyone is out of character, don’t take it that way, I just want this to be early in the timeline so Alfred knows Bruce loves him as a father early on in things.
Will: The emotional beat is a great one — lord knows the thought of Alfred going through all the fears of a father but feeling his love might be unrequited is crushing as hell — but you’re right in that it can’t come ***too*** late in the Bruce-to-Batman story. I’ll take Alfred’s hair color as a sign that this could be as early as Year One. We also had a relatively stripped down Batmobile (once removed from its rugged Ford Explorer shell), so yeah, I don’t think we have any great concerns there.
Matt: Russell did a good job of keeping a nice balance on how Alfred behaves here. He’s completely a fish out of water at this Medieval Times meets Outback Steakhouse restaurant, and while he’s somewhat dry about it, he never gets snooty. And Pa Kent is not a man used to butlers, so while he is obviously poking a little fun at Alfred’s profession at times, he’s still a good man who isn’t judgey, so it’s the light ribbing of someone you’re trying to get to know; the best analogy I can come up with is the first time the parents of a couple who are getting married meet.
Will: Who picked Sir Loin’s as the place to go and why? If you had to develop a theory, of course.
Matt: They say it was Clark’s pick in the book, and it absolutely seems like a Clark pick. It’s the kind of thing they don’t have in Smallville, but serves the kind of food his dad eats. Clark is still a country boy, and I have to imagine he thinks that everyone will eat steak, but not everyone will eat bouillabaisse. Of course, he might not have thought that this would have been like going to a cowboy-themed restaurant in London to him, since it’s a broad parody of Alfred’s homeland, but Clark is a sweet boy.
Will: Reading is FUNdamental, but that’s not the first detail I’ve missed in a book, and it won’t be the last. But, yes, this makes total sense as a “fancy” kitschy place not in Smallville. Jumping ahead a bit (then we can circle back and get to all the good stuff), do you think Lex *actually* had those bombs rigged to blow?
Matt: Oh, absolutely. Joker might think it’s funny to not actually have the bombs set up. Lex placed them near buildings his business rivals own, so even if the heroes escape and stop his plan, he still comes out with something. Lex Luthor always assures some kind of victory, and he cares little for human life.
Will: With that settled, the Alfred/Pa Kent stuff here was great, both in how they related to each other and how their fists related to various goons’ faces.
Matt: There are some really great moments here. Pa relating to Alfred, explaining how he still fears for his son even though he’s invulnerable. Alfred confessing he worried that he hasn’t done enough for Bruce, that he never can. And it’s a small moment, but the moment where Pa asks Alfred what war he was in, and Alfred’s, “Every damn one,” can be taken both as talking about his time with the SAS and his time patching up Bruce every damn night. It’s beautiful work.
Will: Both of the men seem very much in character — an affable Pa Kent and a (mostly) reserved but deeply passionate and opinionated Alfred. But even Pa had his own moment of politely telling off Alfred. A father will always worry about his boy.
Matt: And them fighting off guards, and the differences for a guy who was a grunt on the ground (I know it doesn’t work anymore, but the sliding timescale at one point had Pa in Korea as a private) and a guy who was a spy. It’s nice that Russell plays up their differences that way. Neither fight like each other, or their boys, although Bruce does have a bit more Alfred flair.
Will: I think Pa should punch more people, honestly. That was such a satisfying decking. And a clever way to get the boys out of the trap.
Matt: Truly. Now who would have thought that, when you have a story from noted comedic comic writer Mark Russell, the goofier story in the book would be from Mark Waid?
Will: It was perfectly fine. A strange choice to involve the sprites when they don’t seem to factor into the main substance of the story, but who am I to quibble with noted continuity nerd Mark Waid?
Matt: That was just fun. A story, as we often say on the pod, that is a trifle. Clark making Bruce look like a drip while he’s out with Lois is funny, and in line with those Silver Age stories where Superman would do embarrassing things to Lois and Jimmy.
Will: Who doesn’t love when Superman is a prick? It was certainly cute; I’ll give it that. I probably would have preferred an art style that allowed for a wider range of facial expressions.
Matt: Yeah, the art on the main story was by far the better.
Will: I tell ya, though, what would have been a more interesting approach to this: Bat-Mite and Mxyzptlk tinkering with “Date Night,” which this story was dangerously close to being anyhow.
Matt: I did definitely think about “Date Night” while reading this. And yes, that would have been fun.
Bat-miscellany
- Patreon backer John Wickham is back on the podcast, and this time he has chosen three stories featuring Matt’s least favorite principal DC character: Lobo.
Buy World’s Finest Annual 2026 here. (Disclaimer: As an Amazon Associate, ComicsXF may earn from qualifying purchases.)
Dan Grote is the editor and publisher of ComicsXF, having won the site by ritual combat. By day, he’s a newspaper editor, and by night, he’s … also an editor. He co-hosts The ComicsXF Interview Podcast with Matt Lazorwitz. He lives in New Jersey with his wife, two kids and two miniature dachshunds, and his third, fictional son, Peter Paul Winston Wisdom. Follow him @danielpgrote.bsky.social.
