A team-up between the Joker and Luthor, what could be more traditional for World’s Finest? Superman and Batman, it’s your two favourite foes together. Very together, as it turns out…
The book starts with no action, but lots of entertainment, as Superman and Batman relax in Gotham’s Batcave with a bowl of popcorn – the ‘food’ so hideous even Matter-Eater Lad refuses it – and some TV sport.
The back-and-forth banter is curtailed by news that Luthor is up to no good at STAR Labs in Metropolis. Our heroes leap into action.
By the time Batman and Superman arrive in the City of Tomorrow Lex has vanished. The super-scientist was equally baffled as, mid-robbery, he found himself intangible and falling into a train tunnel. And guess who was waiting for him?
Joker wants Lex to help him steal one of the most wonderful items in the DC Universe, and if I tell you it’s in Midway City Museum you’ll likely know what I’m talking about – the Absorbascon.
Do the villains manage to purloin the property? Surely they’d have to go through Hawkman, who brought it to Earth from the planet Thanagar.
They certainly do have to get past the Winged Wonder, who makes his entrance in an utterly brilliant splash panel, in a book full of outstanding art. Adrián Gutiérrez has done a fair few issues of World’s Finest, filling in for Dan Mora – who does provide the wonderful cover image – and I’ve enjoyed his work a lot. This issue, though, he takes a Great Leap Forward with page after page of eye-catching layouts and criminally good character work. Batman near leaping off the page as he pulls on his mask; a Joker alternating visually between Paul Dini and Bill Sienkiewicz who still somehow still makes sense; well-observed body language, nicely emphasised by a page of silhouettes. It’s ridiculous that Gutiérrez isn’t a big deal at DC by now.
Veteran Norm Rapmund deserves a big nod here too, as he’s credited with finishes alongside his usual inks. He’s almost certainly behind the pleasing Letratone-style dot matrices that pop up throughout.
Writer Mark Waid has been a big deal at DC for a long while and his work continues to be some of the best superhero stuff around. Here he gives us a brilliantly grumpy Luthor and a super-chilled Joker, proudly showing off his Ha-Ha-Hacienda, the Bronze Age base that could only be unlocked by his distinctive laugh.
Luthor is on the back foot, a rare position for the balding, er, brainiac – and therefore a compelling one. The camaraderie between Superman and Batman is wonderful, I could happily read an entire issue of them watching American Football, even if that does mean Steve Lombard gets a compliment. Robin isn’t around this time, but guest star Hawkman is on terrific form – Luthor mocks him and gets a mace in the face.
The near-neon colours of the aforementioned Bonvillain and lively letters of Steve Wands provide the finishing touches – Wand gives us a wacky font for Joker rather than going all-in on a nightmarish white-out-of-black take.
Swing, don’t walk, to your local comics vendor, be they physical or digital, and snap up one of the most entertaining comics of the year. World’s Finest #45 is DC at its best.
Too Dangerous For a Girl 2 