Superman/Batman: Finest Worlds, Michael Green and Mike Johnson's second volume of the series, hearkens strongly back to the classic World's Finest series. In the spirit of the kinds of adventures where Superman and Batman competed for the heart of an alien princess or Bruce Wayne joined Clark Kent at the Daily Planet, Finest Worlds offers three tales, almost Elseworld tales, that mix and mingle the elements of Superman and Batman. But while the wackiness found within well distinguishes this volume, it does unfortunately hurt the overall relevance of the stories.

The main story, "Superbat," finds Superman's powers accidentally, and magically, tranferred to Batman. What follows is by and large exactly what you'd expect: Clark Kent tries to adapt to a normal life while Batman uses his new powers first to clean up Gotham, and later to try in a fit of stark raving madness to eradicate all crime everywhere, until Superman and the JLA must step in to stop him. The writers get no points for bringing any new insights to the characters of Superman and Batman, but yet the story is filled with lots of little moments: Superman teaching Batman to use heat vision, Supergirl's surprisingly moving grief when Superman is injured, Super-Batman fighting both Bane and the Justice League. The story benefits overwhelmingly from art by Identity Crisis's Rags Morales, giving it the semblance of a weight it otherwise wouldn't deserve.

The difficulty with "Superbat" -- and also the funny, charming "Lil' Leaguers" story that sees Superman and Batman teamed with cartoon dopplegangers -- is that they're magic-based stories where all the toys go back in the toybox at the conclusion. Possibly this was editorially-mandated (and possibly, I've heard, the reigns will be looser on Superman/Batman post-Blackest Night), but the writers' previous volume, The Search for Kryptonite, had no such problems. Kryptonite was surprising and interesting and deeply rooted in the current events of the DC Universe; Finest Worlds is a satisfactory volume of Superman/Batman, but it lacks the "oompf" of the previous book.

That said, I must praise the writers for "The Fathers" (which marked the fiftieth issue of Superman/Batman). Surely Green and Johnson aren't the first to posit a meeting between Thomas Wayne and Jor-El, but I loved the mid-issue tease that it all might be a dream -- and finally the revelation that the meeting in fact took place. I hold no illusions that any other writer will ever reference the event ever again, but I credit the writers for "going for it" and not taking the easy out found in the book's other two stories.

The truth is, despite that Finest Worlds is another step away from the direction Superman/Batman needs to go if this title is going to last (read: relevancy), the book is plain, old-fashioned fun. The outlandish campiness of the parallel Superman/Batman narrations (begun by Jepf Loeb and continued here) virtually ensure these stories can't be taken seriously, so there's no choice but to sit back and let them wash over you. Ultimately I decided to view these stories like episodes of the Superman or Batman cartoons, and only then did I feel I really "got" their intended tone.

[Contains full and alternate covers]

Superman/Batman: Finest Worlds is a fair collection for completists, but those waiting for Superman/Batman to really "find its feet" might want to wait for the next team to take over this book (more details recently announced.)

Number 598


Wise Men of Gotham


No, not Batman's Gotham, the other Gotham.

"Wise Men of Gotham," drawn by Walt Kelly for Fairy Tale Parade #5, March 1943, is inspired by a series of tales about a town where stupidity rules. You can read more of these classics in prose form by author John Jacobs here.

Unlike a Pogo story by Kelly, "Wise Men" stays close to the script and doesn't wander around in a stream-of-consciousness style. Still, it has the feel of Pogo. The denizens of the Okefenokee often act like these IQ-challenged Gothamites, with Pogo playing the part of the Jester.

The important question about Neil Gaiman's Batman: Whatever Happened to the Caped Crusader? is, does it indeed function as the "last" Batman story? Yes, it does. Gaiman offers in two issues a deconstruction of the elements of a Batman story, what it means for the Batman to die, and how perhaps so many different interpretations of the Batman can coexist. It is a story that will quickly become dated, much as Alan Moore's Whatever Happened to the Man of Tomorrow? has, but that will likely help define Batman for future writers to come.

Whatever Happened to the Caped Crusader? might alternately been called "Batman: This is Your Life." We find Batman present here at his own wake, as allies and enemies recount the story of the death of Batman. Except, each character has a different story of Batman's death, and here the Killing Joke's Joker coexists with the Batman: The Animated Series Joker and a seemingly Golden Age Catwoman.

We find this is not the story of "our" Batman's death -- that is, his apparent Batman RIP/Final Crisis death -- but perhaps the story of "the story of Batman's death," or maybe a story about stories about Batman. Final Crisis plays no overt role here, but there's definite thematic agreement between Caped Crusader and the meta-interpretation of stories in Final Crisis.

Boiled down, the conclusion that Gaiman reaches is that, no matter how Batman dies, he dies fighting. It's true -- I can think of many instances of Batman dying (his un-death in Dark Knight Returns immediately springs to mind), but never a time that Batman gives up. And though it's something one could also say for Superman, Wonder Woman, Spider-Man, and what have you, I think Batman's mortal status gives this a slight edge -- everyone might go down fighting, but Batman goes down fighting and he's "just a man."

Similarly, Gainman whittles down what it takes to make a Batman story such. He tells one imaginary tale where all of Batman's foes are simply actor friends hired by Alfred to humor the mourning Bruce Wayne -- but even this story must by rights include the death of Thomas and Martha Wayne, the presence of Alfred, the Bat-signal, and such. Gaiman closes the story with a terrifically offbeat take on Goodnight Moon where he checks off the requirements for a Batman story -- the Batcave, Alfred, Commissioner Gordon -- and also what might change with time -- "the Boy Wonder" (but not necessarily Dick or Tim); "the Joker and all of you" (the various rogues who come and go). It's a fantastic examination of how to write Batman, and the riff on Goodnight Moon is sweetly bizarre given Batman's status, lets not forget, as the arm-breaking scourge of villainy.

What I found most interesting was the last scene of the book, as the Bat-signal morphs into a pair of hands drawing baby Bruce Wayne from the womb to the world. As Gaiman's Death notes (here in the form of Martha Wayne), Batman's is a backward story -- rather than working hard and receiving his reward at the end of his life, Batman receives his reward first (his time with his parents), and then faces his hard work of being Batman. Only in his death and resurrection does Batman achieve what he otherwise cannot -- the return of his parents -- before he must fight for them once more. It's in this way that Batman's story is different than Superman's, moreso than their powers or secret identities, and bears, I think, additional consideration.

DC Comics pads what would otherwise be a slim volume with a couple of Batman-and-his-foes stories that Gaiman wrote over the years, including a Batman: Black & White story where Batman and the Joker are actors hired to work on the comic book panel. The included origins of Poison Ivy and the Riddler have been many times retconned since their printing; while I understand some readers found these stories to be needless filler, I liked again how they worked with the main story to talk about "stories" -- Batman stories that don't quite fit and don't quite make sense, but which are Batman stories nonetheless.

In twenty years, Whatever Happened to the Caped Crusader? will hardly still be the "last" Batman story. I thrilled to a Jean Paul Valley Azrael cameo in one panel (Andy Kubert does a magnificent job of emulating all sorts of Batman artists), but the presence of Batman's newfound son Damian in seemingly every other crowd scene puts this story firmly in the Grant Morrison Batman era, just as Whatever Happened to the Man of Tomorrow? relates to the Silver Age Superman and not the current. But we currently exit a time when Batman was "grim and gritty" and after that a jerk, and Gaiman offers something else: the Batman who never gave up. If that sticks and defines the Batman to come, nothing wrong with that at all.

[Contains full covers, foreword by Neil Gaiman.]

Number 597


"I Fell For A Commie!"


You won't find many love comics in the Pappy collection, not because I hate love--on the contrary--but because the girls in many of the stories are so outrageously naïve. See how far into the story we get before Gladys realizes she's fallen in with a bunch of Reds.

This classic of a girl finding love in the midst of the Communist cell is from Quality Comics' Love Secrets #32, August 1953. Sorry, comrades, I don't know the artist.

Number 596


Lash Lightning, Lightning Girl...and Artist Girl


We had a posting a few months ago in Pappy's #529 from the first issue of Pep Comics that reminds me of this story. They have similar endings. This is from Four Favorites #20, November 1945. What makes it interesting to me is that it's by the artist Nina Albright. There just weren't that many women drawing comic books, not even when a lot of male comic book artists were at war.

All I know about Albright is that she worked on several comic features and then left the field for magazine illustration in the early '50s. There aren't any birth or death dates and I don't know if she's still living.

Many of the female artists like Albright, and I'm thinking right now off the top of my head of Lily Renée and Jill Elgin, really had a way with drawing girls, but even in those sexist times they weren't restricted to "soft" subjects. They were required to draw every kind of action feature, just like the guys, and from what I've seen, they did their work very well.

Number 595


"Will you join our jolly crew, matey?"


Tomorrow, September 19, is international Talk Like a Pirate Day.

This story, introducing Erroll Flynn lookalike Captain Daring from Quality Comics' Buccaneers #19 (actually #1), 1950, has plenty of pirate talk. Sometime in conversation tomorrow introduce the phrase, "...he'll carbanado that rash rogue!" or, "Rake that line of louts at the bulwark..." and you'll out-talk all of the piratical poseurs doing their bad imitations of Robert Newton as Long John Silver.

Buccaneers was one of a couple of titles which used the piracy theme. Others included Pirates from Hillman Publications, which lasted four issues, and Piracy from EC which lasted seven before going down with the good ship EC, sunk by the scalawag privateer Dr. Fredric Wertham. Piracy is a popular subject; just witness the Pirates Of the Caribbean movie trilogy; but in comic books it has had a short life span. Not for lack of trying though.

Captain Daring is drawn by the great Reed Crandall, and keelhaul me, then hang me from the nearest yardarm if it be not true, yarrrr.

From the "Why should Batman have all the fun?" department comes news that Geoff Johns and Gary's Frank's Superman: Secret Origin will be collected in DC Comics' deluxe oversized format.

Previous deluxe books include Batman RIP, Batman: Whatever Happened to the Caped Crusader?, and the JLA hardcover collections.

As a weigh-station between Absolute format and a regular hardcover or trade paperback, I like the deluxe editions a lot. I've always envisioned comics collections as needing to be more than just a bunch of issues bound together, but rather something that builds on the original comic -- this large-format collection showcases the story and art that appeared in monthly form. I don't mind paying more for a hardcover if it's "special" in this way.

More deluxe Superman volumes on the way?

Also newly solicited from DC: Batwoman: Elegy in hardcover (hopefully more than just the first few issues of the Greg Rucka/J H Williams Detective run) and Sam Keith's Arkham Asylum (newly mentioned on DC's The Source blog; that this shares the name of a popular video game doesn't hurt).

More to come!