Batman/Superman: World’s Finest #38 – Mark Waid, Writer; Clayton Henry, Artist; Tamra Bonvillain, Colorist
Ray – 9/10
Ray: “We Are Yesterday”, a crossover between Mark Waid’s current DC books, was announced a few months ago, but we didn’t really know what it was about – until now. The cliffhanger in last month’s Justice League Unlimited revealed the villains behind Inferno were none other than the classic Injustice League – taken from the past. That plot thread follows into this issue, as we flash back to a story involving Bruce, Clark, and Hal Jordan. Bruce has hired Hal to test a new state-of-the-art plane for him, which proves to be a bad decision in classic Top Gun fashion. The plane gets caught up in an energy wave, Hal is forced to eject and crash the plane, and then Hal is seemingly snatched out of the air and transported to parts unknown. As Batman and Superman rally to find their teammate, they receive a message – from Gorilla Grodd, who has used this as a first step to declare war on humanity.
It gets weirder from there, as Batman and Superman infiltrate Gorilla City and find one strange thing after another. The defenses are minimal, but Solovar has been taken captive along with Hal and Grodd has sealed himself away in a vault. But the true plan becomes clear when Titano, the Ape with the Kryptonite Eyes, attacks and neutralizes Superman – and Grodd then swaps minds with Superman. Knowing that if Superman gets back out of the city with Grodd in the pilot’s seat, the whole world is screwed, it’s all hands on deck for a fast-paced and action-packed battle that’s resolved in a very clever way. This issue has some very interesting material about the early days of Flash’s contact with Gorilla City, and Solovar is a fascinating character, but it’s not clear how it ties in with the crossover – until the last few pages, which set up a very interesting new conflict going forward.
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GeekDad received this comic for review purposes.
