Batman/Superman: World’s Finest is a series I did not expect to enjoy as much as I have. Mark Waid and Dan Mora have certainly created a must-have series thus far. Not having to focus on any sort of continuity has been a big benefit to the story Waid and Mora are telling in Batman/Superman: World’s Finest. Even with a one-dimensional villain like Devil Nezha, there is a lot to enjoy from this series thus far. Let’s see what happens next with Batman/Superman: World’s Finest #4.
CREATIVE TEAM
Writer: Mark Waid
Artist: Dan Mora
Colorist: Tamra Bonvillain
SYNOPSIS
With Devil Nezha’s magic enhancing his Power Ring Green Lantern Hal Jordan is able to overpower Superman.
As Superman and Green Lantern fight Nezha reveals to Batman that he escaped from his tomb by creating a new spell during his four thousand years of imprisonment. Batman calls out Nezha that he fears the heroes will defeat him as the reason he is rushing his plan to conquer the world.
With this pissing off Nezha, it creates the opening for Batman to help out Superman by using the Philosopher Stone to defend against Hal Jordan’s attacks.
Back in 1579 B.C. China, Supergirl, and Robin learn that the Warriors of Ji had to make a major sacrifice to place Nezha in his tomb.
With this knowledge, Supergirl and Robin head back to their timeline. During the trip the chaos in the time stream causes Robin to fall out of Supergirl’s arms and gets lost in the time stream.
Back in the present Batman and Superman combine their willpower to summon Hal Jordan’s Green Lantern ring. When it reaches them the Green Lantern ring fuses Batman and Superman into SuperBat.
Pissed off Nezha summons Black Canary, Kid Flash (Wally West), Wonder Girl (Donna Troy), Firestorm, Martian Manhunter, and Red Tornado. SuperBat works quickly to defeat the heroes under Nezha’s control. The battle leaves SuperBat with only 6% of their fusion power left.
With their remaining power, SuperBat takes Nezha into the upper atmosphere. Before they can defeat Nezha the fusion breaks them back up into Batman and Superman.
Before Nezha can kill the weakened Batman and Superman Supergirl rushes in. Supergirl immediately starts punching Nezha and driving him hard back into a mountain.
With Nezha knocked out Supergirl tells Batman, Superman, and the Doom Patrol that the only way they can permanently seal Nezha is by one of them sacrificing themselves to close the tomb from the inside. End of issue.
REVIEW
The sense of escalation works so incredibly well in Batman/Superman: World’s Finest #4. Mark Waid and Dan Mora know exactly how to create even greater hype with fan service that helps elevate the impact of what is going on in the story. It’s a delicate balance that is used perfectly.
One of the magical aspects of Batman/Superman: World’s Finest #4 is how much the artwork by Mora is driving the story. Art is always a highly important part of a comic book’s success. This whole storyline is showing why as it is Waid’s dialogue that is backing up the excellent storytelling through the artwork that Mora is doing.
That is shown well with how the fight between Superman and Green Lantern Hal Jordan goes down. Waid’s writing helps to sell why Hal was able to overpower Superman in this fight. The simple explanation of magic added to the power of Hal’s Green Lantern Power Ring was all that needed to be said. As soon as you learn that Mora’s art really takes over to show the impact of how this changes the fight as Superman is fighting to survive while holding back because he is fighting a friend.
This made the solution Batman and Superman come up with by combining their willpower to take advantage of Hal being compromised because he is under Nezha’s control a cool moment. The Green Lantern Power Ring being able to fuse Batman and Superman into a new character is something that is absolutely ridiculous. But it is such a cool development and great character design that you don’t care how ridiculous this fusion is. You are just in the moment wanting to see how powerful SuperBat is as he fights the Justice League and Teen Titans.
Adding to how cool SuperBat was was the addition of the percentage countdown. This countdown created a sense of tension as you wondered how long the fusion would last with every punch thrown. That sense of tension made for how Nezha was able to outlast SuperBat is one of those predictable moments that work to continue the strong pacing of the story. Because just as you wonder how Batman and Superman can get out of this Supergirl comes rushing in to launch a surprise attack. Supergirl even recognizes that she was able to defeat Nezha thanks to SuperBat weakening the villain a great way to wrap up this fight.
Supergirl revealing that the only known way to fully defeat Nezha is for someone to sacrifice themselves to close Nezha’s tomb from the inside is a strong cliffhanger. This creates so many questions about how the heroes will be able to defeat Nezha. And with Nezha only knocked the heroes don’t have a lot of time to talk about what they should do. This creates a sense of urgency that makes you look forward to how this story will end.
The unexpected development of Robin getting lost in the time stream creates another thing for our heroes to worry about. While the Nezha plot will probably be a priority there is now the concern about what happened to Robin. How Waid and Mora use this development to enhance the main story will be interesting. It does open the possibility that the search for Robin will be the second arc of this series.
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FINAL THOUGHTS
Batman/Superman: World’s Finest #4 was such a pleasure to read. Mark Waid and Dan Mora created so much more excitement for how this story dealing with the threat of Devil Nezha will end. Mora definitely stole the show here as we get a lot of great action sequences and a cool fusion that Batman and Superman should not miss out on experiencing.
Story Rating: 8 Night Girls out of 10
Art Rating: 9 Night Girls out of 10
Overall Rating: 8.5 Night Girls out of 10