With his identity in jeopardy, the serial killer known as The Foundling makes a bold move, and it’s up to Bruce Wayne, Henry Ducard and the Grey Shadow to stop him before he kills again in Batman: The Knight #3, written by Chip Zdarsky, drawn by Carmine di Giandomenico, colored by Ivan Plascencia and lettered by Pat Brosseau.
In Detective Comics #1,057, the Bat Family is back together, and it’s time to kick ass and take names as they storm Arkham Tower. But Scarecrow, the Gate Crashers and Ana Vulsion have their own plans in a story written by Mariko Tamaki, drawn by Amancay Nahuelpan, colored by Jordie Bellaire and lettered by Ariana Maher. In the backup, we catch up to the near present as The Boy’s final plans to get revenge on Batman reach a climax in a story written by Matthew Rosenberg, drawn by Fernando Blanco, colored by Bellaire and lettered by Rob Leigh.
They are the two most iconic heroes in the DC canon. They have a long history together. And this week, a new volume of the classic team-up comic launches in Batman/Superman: World’s Finest #1, written by Mark Waid, drawn by Dan Mora, colored by Tamra Bonvillain and lettered by Aditya Bidikar, and we have a special crossover to celebrate. Joining Matt & Will are our Superman review team, Armaan Babu and Tony Thornley. Each of our four writers will give a small review with their thoughts on this debut issue.
Matt Lazorwitz: Three stories, three eras: One during Bruce’s training, one in the golden years of the original Batman & Robin team, and one set very much in the present. Again, I love the variety of Bat titles we’re getting now.
Will Nevin: The gray and blue Batsuit! Dick Grayson as Robin! Dick Grayson as Nightwing! Three really good writers! More exclamation points! If you couldn’t find something to be excited about this week, man, I don’t know what your problem is.
The Thief, the Manhunter and the Killer
Matt: Bruce Wayne can’t go anywhere without running into some depraved serial killer, can he?
Will: You know, if you walk around all day smelling nothing but butthole, at some point you have to consider the possibility that you’re the problem. Then again, Bruce isn’t exactly on vacation here.
Matt: Very true. Bruce has shifted his focus from last issue, where he was learning cat burglary from Grey Shadow. The minute Henri Ducard and Bruce cross paths, you can tell Bruce is fascinated by the noted manhunter. Bruce sees something in Ducard he wants to duplicate. And the inversion of the usual trope, of Bruce hunting down these masters, and instead having Ducard hired by Alfred to find Bruce? I like that bit of storytelling.
Will: And “find” is a key word there and an important plot point — we avoid a conflict between Ducard and Bruce because the job is only locating the latter and not hauling him back to Gotham.
Matt: That’s a great moment. It would have been very easy to have Ducard and Bruce go into some pitched battle, but Zdarsky has too much to do in this comic to waste time with that, so with that one bit of dialogue he subverts the usual expectation there as well. And it sets up the last page, which was a heartbreaker.
Will: What, you mean Alfred listening to Bruce’s voicemail on repeat, just happy to know that he’s alive and that maybe he’ll come back home one day? Oh, no, that didn’t make me tear up at fucking all, so I have no idea what you’re talking about.
Matt: I mean, it’s the good kind of heartbreaking, but it still tugs right at the heart strings and feels earned, even after only three issues.
The main plot here really showcases how much Bruce still has to learn. Similar to Detective Comics Annual #2, which we recently talked about over on the podcast, this Bruce has a good mind but is very much lacking in control. He can’t stop looking at Grey Shadow meeting her contact, and thus gets Ducard shot. He can’t control himself when he confronts The Foundling, and goes a bit too far into his rage. If we didn’t know the destination, I would be worried about when, not if, Bruce crosses the line, and that is another sign of the good work going on here.
Will: Why do we fall, Bruce? It’s so that we learn how to not get made.
Matt: The Foundling is a fairly simple villain, and is there really to just push Bruce’s buttons and be that mirror image. This is a guy who lost his family as a kid, so he wants no one else to be happy and to suffer the way he did. But for a character who is really just there for two issues, it’s fine and he’s at least incredibly creepy with his inner monologue, so points for that.
Will: Let me ask you this: Would this have been better for the series as a one-off to keep the thing rolling along? And, also, knowing that Big Daddy Z got tapped for the main book and having read the first three issues, would this have worked in the regular monthly title?
Matt: To answer your second question first, I think this would only work as something cut with a story that features the current Batman encountering the Grey Shadow or The Foundling again. I’m all for experimental, but I usually like a bit more Batman in my Batman series than this would give me. Although, having introduced her, I won’t be surprised if Grey Shadow pops up again in the main book if she doesn’t come back in this series later on.
As for question the first? I’m reserving judgment on that until I see the shape of the rest of the series. If this was there to set up a bunch of stuff that will pay off later? I think it’s fine. If it’s just this, and the only setup was introducing Ducard to the overall narrative? Yeah it could have been trimmed down some.
Will: Brother Matt, I’m down for the main Bat title to get occasionally weird. Why not have an arc (admittedly, this would be a super long one) that explores that pre-Year One era? Tom King had a whole goddamn anthology arc. Anything should be possible.
Matt: Fair, and as we’re about to talk about, long arcs in established ongoings can work just fine…
Assault on Arkham Tower
Will: Did you just segue on me?
Matt: One issue left. I mean, I know it was weekly, and it might be premature to say this, but I feel like, for a story that was this long, “Shadows of the Bat” never dragged. It did a slow build to the action, we hit the big action set piece in the last two issues into this one, and from the late-middle of this issue, we’re into descending action and denouement.
Will: I’ll agree with you there — some weeks were better than others (and I generally felt the more exposition-y bits with Dr. Wear were better than the action scenes), but it’s been a good story, one that I think will read better in trade. That probably goes double for the backup, which sure did throw me for a curve this week.
Matt: We’ll get to the backup, definitely. But this story at this point feels like Mariko Tamaki just having a ton of fun. She’s been writing most of the Batfamily over the course of this story, but the addition of Tim Drake and Batman himself (who cameoed last issue but really show up in full this time)? Now it’s just time to show everyone doing what they do best. Each character enters the scene and fights differently, and I don’t know how much of the choreography is Tamaki and how much is Amancay Nahuelpan, but the page where the Batfamily confronts the Scarecrow is a great example of four characters, in this case Batman, Batwoman, Robin and Batgirl, all on page, standing still, but they each have different postures that tell you something about who they are, and that’s great.
Will: Do you think we have any big surprises or mysteries left in this story? We certainly got a twist at the end with the mayor’s wife, Koyuki. But I thought something just as interesting was her flash forward to day 67 and a peaceful therapy session — at some point, the good guys regain control of the tower, and it doesn’t crumble into the street.
Matt: That was the bigger moment for me, too. I’m not sure what it means going forward, but I wouldn’t be surprised to see next issue be told more from that point of view and point in time. That moment with Koyuki strikes me as the last big twist, and next issue will more or less serve to tie up any loose threads and establish the new status quo.
Now, you had something specific to call out in the backup, yes?
Will: Just that I’m surprised, I guess? I thought we had this guy figured out as Nero, but looks like he grows up to be …a guy?
Matt: Yeah, definitely seems that way. I think we’ve all just been trying to fit The Boy into some kind of box, and in the end, he’s just his own character. I don’t mind this at all. This really feels like a good climax, too. All the stuff that’s been built up, with The Boy’s obsession with revenge on Batman, his feelings about Robins and his network of villainous allies, all come together here.
The thing that throws me is how old Strummer, the guy who was around Jason Todd’s age, looks here. Has that guy aged really poorly? Or is the timeline a little wonky, since Jason looks to be in his early 20s and that dude looks like he’s pushing 40? Or am I overthinking?
OK, definitely overthinking, that is my brand. but my earlier point still stands.
Will: Trying to go straight in Gotham makes for a hard life. Actually, who am I kidding, there’s going to be a final twist next week.
The Crossover You Demanded
Matt: There’s a wonder in the pages of this book that I don’t see in a lot of superhero comics these days. Mark Waid is a superhero writer of the old school, which makes sense as he has been doing this for years, and while some of his work can be clunky (He does a lot of, “Hello, fellow teens” dialogue when writing kids in general), when his work gets going, it flies. Here we get some great action, we get some of Waid’s patented continuity dives (Penguin working with the Weaponers of Qward? Using the Doom Patrol? perfect), and while the plot itself is fairly thin as Waid is leaning into the gravitas of the situation and some cute character beats rather than a full on story here, we get an interesting mystery of who is behind all of this. Coupled with Dan Mora’s STUNNING art? This is a must buy.
Will: Breathless as hell, wasn’t it? I trust Mark Waid when it comes to cape comics since he’s been doing this approximately forever, but I wasn’t in love with the first issue because we open with action, then take a short, short moment to explore the past and the depth of the Batman and Superman relationship before we get right back to the explosions and the fists and the transformations and the loudness. Waid is better when he’s telling stories, and I believe he’ll get there eventually, but this was too much noise for me — even as it marked a welcome return for the classic Batsuit and Dick Grayson as Robin. But Mora fuckin’ killed it — what a pretty book to look at.
Armaan Babu: I’m certain that, at some point, there’s going to be a plot I care about, but in the meantime, I’m having a hell of a time just enjoying this art extravaganza here. Dan Mora and Tamra Bonvillain are a fantastic art duo, and seeing them just go nuts on everything we get here is the best part of World’s Finest #1.
The way the story’s laid out really plays to Mora’s strengths — jumping right into the action, all chaos and pop gruesomeness, especially once Metallo shows up. Bonvillain leans into reds and oranges when the action ramps up; every page looks like it’s burning just a little bit. Between heat vision, kryptonite radiation and the Negative Man? We’ve got a super battle rave, and I’m loving it.
Will: Let’s drop that sick, sick techno beat. *WOMP WOMP WOMP*
Armaan: It’s also just classic enough an era for Ivy, Bats, Robin and Superman’s first appearances to have this awe-inspiring sense of drama about them. I love the way Mora draws faces, everyone (aside from, perhaps, Metallo) looks so very gorgeous.
This first issue swings hard, and is a big hit for me. There’s Ivy, there’s Metallo, but hey, throw in the Penguin, throw in the Doom Patrol, throw in hallucinations of the best Super-villains and possibly hint at an appearance of the Devil himself? I’m all in. I have no idea where this is going, but I’m having a blast with what we’ve got.
Tony Thornley: I don’t understand this book at all.
It’s a very solid, well constructed book. Mora and Bonvillain do work here that’s just stereotypically great. I think it’s impossible for those two to do bad work when they’re paired together. It’s a rush to see them diving into the DCU like this, too. The story just feels like classic DC storytelling. Waid does a knockout job at establishing the friendship between Bruce and Clark in a limited amount of pages.
But I don’t get the nostalgia factor of being set in the past. Aside from Poison Ivy being more of an anti-hero now and MAYBE including Robin, I didn’t see anything in this story that required it being set in a nebulous time in the past. Honestly, because of that, it makes a few coincidental (maybe?) echoes of Jeph Loeb’s past stories even more glaring. Here’s Poison Ivy attacking Superman, a la “Hush.” Here’s Metallo surprise-attacking Superman, a la the first Superman/Batman story. Here’s a mysterious villain manipulating it all, which echoes BOTH of those stories. Hell, Waid even calls back on himself when Clark was hit with Red-K in “Tower of Babel.”
Don’t get me wrong. I liked it. I liked it quite a bit. But the nostalgia factor of it just doesn’t sit right with me. It’s focused too much on the past, when the plot could do some interesting things moving forward into the future with almost zero alteration.
Bat-miscellany
- Like that crossover? Interested in more Batman/Superman content? Well, head over to the BatChat podcast, where Matt & Will are joined by Cori McCreery to talk about three stories of early Batman and Superman meetings.
Matt Lazorwitz read his first comic at the age of 5. It was Who's Who in the DC Universe #2, featuring characters whose names begin with B, which explains so much about his Batman obsession. He writes about comics he loves, and co-hosts the podcasts BatChat with Matt & Will and The ComicsXF Interview Podcast.
Will Nevin loves bourbon and AP style and gets paid to teach one of those things. He is on Twitter far too often.
Armaan is obsessed with the way stories are told. From video games to theater, TTRPGs to comics, he has written for, and about, them all. He will not stop, actually; believe us, we've tried.
Tony Thornley is a geek dad, blogger, Spider-Man and Superman aficionado, X-Men guru, autism daddy, amateur novelist, and all around awesome guy. He’s also very humble.
