Batman/Superman World's Finest #25 came out last week and was incredibly entertaining, giving us two stories which shined. I love this book and I hope the current team never leaves.
One thing that Mark Waid has done on this book is follow a big story arc with a sort of rest issue, a done-in-one story before the next big plot begins. He also seems to like to explore the concept of World's Finest. Who could forget World's Finest #12, the blighted date between Robin and Supergirl, a team I have dubbed 'the Next World's Finest'. He did a two issue story looking at the origin of the World's Finest team. And now, this issue, he gives us the opposite .. Lex Luthor and the Joker, The World's Deadliest.
This story compares and contrasts the two villains, their approaches to crime, and their world views. We have seen Waid use the compare/contrast grist to look at Batman/Superman. We get a very fresh peek into The Rock of Eternity, surely fodder for a future story. And, for an old timer like me, I got just a faint whiff of the plot of the Batman Vs. The Hulk treasury. The art is a sort of realism occasionally tinged with insanity by artist Steve Pugh. If this was the only story in the book, I'd be thrilled.
But we also get a second story by the standard WF team of Mark Waid and Dan Mora. It is a delicious tease to what looks like a bonkers story bringing in the 5th dimensional imps. I'm ready for it!
We start out with Batman and Superman foiling a Joker plot in Gotham City. Superman is flummoxed by the Joker and wonders how Batman can even plan for the villain given the chaos he brings. Superman says at least his villains think rationally. Now I might say 'hmmm, the Toyman, the Prankster, Bizarro, Mxyzptlk' but I get the comparison in the context of this story.
But the authorities they hand the Joker over to isn't one of the good guys. It's Luthor. And Lex needs the Joker's help.
Lex has a magical MacGuffin, a scroll that will lead to an all-powerful magical item. The problem is the scroll makes anyone who reads it insane. So why not have someone already insane read it.
Now part of me thought 'hmmm, surely there are insane people who aren't as crazy, stabby as the Joker that Lex could recruit'. But for all I know, he already has gone through some others.
There is other stuff to like here. Lex does an Amanda Waller, putting an explosive collar on Joker. That makes sense.
But I love the 'old but new' purple and green outfit with bandolero belts that Lex is sporting. Ahhh, the Bronze Age!
Again, I love the compare and contrast of the whole thing as Lex is forced to deal with the Joker's nonsense.
First we hear Lex talk about why he hates Superman for holding back humanity.
The Joker thinks he is an artist bring joy to the world through social havoc.
As the two make their way to the artifact, the Joker every now and then seems to list towards a violent outburst but always reels it in.
Great page, a sort of primer on the two villains.
The scroll somehow leads to the subway station that Billy Batson went through to get to Shazam. A sigil to open the door is an upside-down lightning bolt. The same futuristic subway train arrives. We see the seven deadly sins statues.
I have to think this is the same station. But why would an insanity-inducing scroll, seemingly evil, lead to this place. Surely this is a seed to be explored in the future.
After a few wrong turns that look at different times of the DCU, the two villains get to their ultimate goal.
Inside the Rock of Eternity, Lex and the Joker run into some insane monster and 'the heart of Eternium', a wishing stone.
A crazy, toothy creature and a heart-shaped crystal wish stone ... please be Aethyr! Waid has already shown us Aethyr in the past. Hmmm?
I love the ending. The Joker has disabled his collar. He grabs the stone. And he is going to rewrite the world in his mad scrawl.
Lex is able to see what that world would be like, he describes the madness, and to save everyone (including himself), he destroys the stone.
Remember in the last Jason Aaron issue of Action Comics, I bemoaned when Aaron simply said the Joker says powerful words to cause anguish in Bizarro. I didn't like that the speech which was supposedly inspiring was basically unsaid. Here, Waid tells us what Lex saw. That worked.
So Lex is, in the end, a universal hero. Nice twist.
But what about this Rock of Eternity stuff??? I am intrigued.
And Steve Pugh gives us great page layouts, extreme warped art when madness is happening, and cool, retro Shazam aesthetics. Beautiful all around.
We then get the end story.
The Batcave trophies have come to life. The heroes are having a hard time combatting a giant copper Lincoln and a live tyrannosaurus.
As I have said a lot here, I love that we are getting a younger, brasher Robin. Of course teen Robin would be sad to see the muscle car Batmobile destroyed.
As we saw in the World's Finest Annual though, the imps are being hunted.
Bat-Mite and Mxy aren't responsible for these shenanigans. They are scared.
Love Dan Mora's art here. Gorgeous.
Bring on the next issue!
Overall grade: A
4 comments:
Great review, fabulous point about the possible Aethyr connection. And I love that we made the same point about Joker speech here vs Joker speech in Action.
Gotta apreciate the way the Joker is written here. In reality is nothing grand, a fairly standard version of him, clasic but modern like Waids Luthor. But in a time where the Joker is overused and overdone as the biggest bad ever, is nice to see a story where he can naturally go from silly to dangerous from one moment to the next. Its something essential to his character but it seems lost with his current characterization. Makes me realize is not so much i have Joker fatigue but that i have a "poorly writen Joker" fatigue. Not that the Joker being despicted as this pure evil enbodiment of chaos isnt a valid take of him, but i find him more interesting when he can come off as something similar to a normal person. His speech explaining his motivations and his problem with Batman is a great example of that. It actually makes it sound like he has valid motives to do what he does. Hes obviously insane but also rational in a way. He seems humane, like hes unaware that hes wrong and geniunely thinks Batman is the problem. A character that thinks he is in the right, or doing bad things for good reasons, will always feel more complex than someone thats in the wrong and knows it, delighting in doing bad things. Simple as it may sound, its something that writers who make the Joker into a chaos demon thats in love with Batman doesnt seem to understand.
Thanks for comments.
I think Waid 'gets' the core of DC's characters and is able to make them shine in this book in a sort of 'recent past' pastiche.
As you say, this is the Joker - sometimes clown, sometimes murderer, definitely mad. It's easy.
Fingers crossed we see him write Supergirl soon.
Plus there is the spectacle of Lex's hunger for acclaim, that he'll never get "the credit" he desperately desires for stopping someone he never should have recruited in the first place..."Peak Luthor" in other words, undone by his own vanity every time.
JF
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