Discover the birth of the New 52’s “World’s Finest” pairing as Batman (Bruce Wayne) and Superman (Clark Kent) encounter one another for the first time. Following the deaths of four Wayne Tech employees in Metropolis, Clark goes to Gotham to investigate, but simply winds up breaking up a playground brawl. Bruce adopts his “millionaire playboy” persona and slips away, but he takes Clark’s words seriously and bribes the rest of his Metropolis employees to evacuate the city. All but one agrees, which Bruce predicted and stakes out the hold-out’s apartment, where he discovers a strangely lethal Catwoman.
Superman arrives and the two heroes battle, while Catwoman slips away but we learn there is a greater threat. The two heroes clash and are seemingly thrown through time. Superman winds up, possibly in the future… possibly in the past.
The art chores are shared by the brilliant Jae Lee and the good, but not quite as brilliant Ben Oliver. I’m not sure why all of the art wasn’t handled by one artist. I suppose it’s because Jae Lee works at a slower pace and wasn’t able to complete the entire issue. His work is, as usual, breathtaking. Oliver is great as well. I hate to have to compare them. His work is really, really good. It’s just not Jae Lee good.
The writing is solid and Greg Pak “gets” the two leads quite well. But honestly, this installment is really too short to form a thorough opinion. It’s good, but I’m going to need at least one more issue, if not more to really form a solid opinion.
So this issue is definitely worth picking up for the art, even though it’s by two artists, so there is a bit of an inconsistency there. The writing is good, but there just isn’t enough to really judge.
BATMAN/SUPERMAN #1
Written by Greg Pak
Art by Jae Lee and Ben Oliver
Cover by Jae Lee
