Batman/Superman: World’s Finest #51 – Mark Waid, Writer; Adrian Gutierrez, Artist; Luis Guerrero, Colorist
Ray – 9/10
Ray: Mark Waid continues to use this title to tell all sorts of wonderfully weird stories that wouldn’t work outside of it, and this new arc focuses on the strange world of the Warlord. Batman, Robin, and Superman have been recruited to investigate a strange disappearance for the Air Force. Years back, Travis Morgan disappeared on a very specific flight path – and only a few days ago, another pilot named Randall Kreitzer did the exact same thing. That’s enough to call in the big guns, and the trio of heroes are quickly swept up into the same portal. From there, things move fast. They’re attacked by a dinosaur, and it turns out that all of Skartaris is at war. And they use magic – which Superman is vulnerable to. And as the giant T-Rex bears down on them, a much older Travis Morgan launches into action, slaying the beast – but not before Superman is captured by the mysterious villain known as Tyrant Rex.
The way Skartaris works is really interesting, being a rare example of an alternate world where time works far faster there than it does in our world. Travis Morgan has seemingly aged decades and found a whole new family of warriors since he disappeared a few years ago, and Kreitzer…took another path. We get some appearances from fan-favorite characters like Machiste and Tara, who might be most familiar to current fans from the just-concluded webcomic “My Little Warlord”, but this is a much more intense take, calling back to the original stories by the great Mike W. Barr. But this story is pretty interesting for how it immediately puts both characters off-balance. Superman, obviously, is out of his element and surprisingly vulnerable, but Batman also finds himself confronted with elements he’d think of as fantasy. Only Robin seems to be having a good time – and, of course, the readers are with him.
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GeekDad received this comic for review purposes
