Batman/Superman: World’s Finest #25 – Mark Waid, Writer; Steve Pugh, Dan Mora, Artists; Tamra Bonvillain, Adriano Lucas, Colorists
Ray – 9/10
Ray: The two iconic heroes of the DCU are almost as famous for their arch-enemies, but Lex Luthor and the Joker have always been an odd match. One is the most cunning criminal mind in the world… and the other, not so much. The two work together, but rarely alone, and so it’s an interesting choice by Waid to give them the focus for this issue. The anniversary kicks off with Joker being apprehended by Batman and Superman and taken back to Arkham—where a mysterious new doctor reveals himself to be none other than Luthor, kidnapping Joker from the asylum, placing him in a bomb collar, and recruiting him for a mission. See, Luthor is on the trail of an ancient artifact, and its location is encoded in a scroll that seems to drive anyone who looks at it completely insane. So what happens when someone who is already completely insane looks at it? A ticket to success.
It doesn’t take long to discover that the destination the two villains are going towards is actually deeply tied in with the Shazam mythos, which Waid has obviously played a key role in building recently. But this is an older story in the timeline, maybe set before Billy Batson got his powers, and as such this realm of magic is much more wild and dangerous. The two rogues stumble through alternate dimensions, find the artifact they’re looking for and a particularly horrifying guardian watching over it, and briefly each get a chance to see their ideal world. Luthor’s is predictable, while Joker’s is so horrific we don’t even get to see it first-hand. It’s a unique look into why these two villains are so dangerous together—and why they would never actually work as a team. It’s also the lost story of how Lex Luthor saved the world and no one will ever know about it. Waid continues to be one of the quintessential DC writers.
Then there’s the backup, which brings back Dan Mora to kick off the next big story. This finds both Batman and Superman under attack in their inner sanctums, with Superman’s Kryptonian animal zoo going haywire and the Batcave seeing both he giant dinosaur and the giant penny come to life (the latter in the form of Abraham Lincoln) for a kaiju battle. It doesn’t take much to see who’s behind it – but the motivation is much more serious than their usual fare, and the stakes are set sky-high for the next big arc.
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GeekDad received this comic for review purposes.
