Batman/Superman: World’s Finest #16 – Mark Waid, Writer; Dan Mora, Artist; Tamra Bonvillain, Colorist
Ray – 9/10
Ray: This arc has been the most chaotic of the run so far, eschewing the dense plotting of the first arc for an all-too-current tale of AI gone mad. What began as a mystery surrounding the murder of Simon Stagg—and the apparent framing of Bruce Wayne—has been revealed to be an elaborate shell game as a malevolent upgraded Amazo kidnaps powerful billionaires one by one and replaces them with simulacrums that will help its goals. Those billionaires and scientists have all been captured to slave away in a laboratory helping this “Newmazo” build more technology, and the villain has now successfully hijacking technology around the world—even attempting to drive Robin into a wall. Waid and Mora have done an effective job of taking a group of villains that are usually used as generic throwaway villains for the heroes to beat up, and making them actually menacing.
Of course, not all the AIs in the DCU are evil—while we’ve seen some of the heroic AIs like Red Tornado be hijacked as well, one group has psychic resistance. The Metal Men play a key role in this issue, delivering the story’s most emotional scene, but the bulk of the story takes place in the prison for the captured scientists and heroes as Batman and Superman discover just how twisted the master plan of Newmazo is and hatch a risky plan to break free. The creepy thing about this villain is that he is VERY good at using his many Justice League-inspired powers to get the drop on the heroes, even developing new ones at certain points. The final page has a creepy surprise, but overall this arc hasn’t quite reached the heights of the first one. It’s just a good, old-school superhero adventure that wouldn’t be out of place in any era of DC Comics, and it shows Waid and Mora’s love for some of the more obscure characters.
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GeekDad received this comic for review purposes.
