Comic Book Review: 'Batman/Superman' #3

Set shortly after Batman and Superman began their careers, these fledgling heroes fumble their way through their first team up, which has thrown them to Earth 2, where they encounter their older, parallel universe selves, as well as older versions of Lois Lane and Wonder Woman. A body-hopping demon trickster proves elusive despite the presence of so many heroes.

Also included are flashbacks rendering a childhood meeting between Bruce Wayne (with Alfred) and Clark Kent, after the Wayne car breaks down in Smallville.

Jae Lee’s art in the “later” portions is just dreamy and gorgeous. His is one of the most unique art styles in comics and it’s so lovely to look at.

Yildiray Cinar draws the Smallville flashbacks and does a great job, but the mismatching art styles was a bit incongruous. Splitting up art duties between two illustrators is becoming more common, but it’s not my favorite trend. It’s hard to complain, because both artists do a great job, but the shifts between sequences was jarring.

As far as the story, I did enjoy the interactions between the younger and older versions of the main characters. There are additional ties to both ‘Justice League’ and ‘Earth 2’ as well.

The portions regarding young Clark and Bruce were entertaining, but for some reason, it felt kind of like fanfic. Plus, it doesn’t quite jibe with the way the characters have been shown interacting in the past. But the dialogue is well-written and the idea of Alfred and Pa Kent having a heart-to-heart is a lot of fun.

Also, while the use of two different artists was jarring, so were two different plot lines. The Smallville story could have been a stand-alone tale in a one-off issue or even an annual. It didn’t really seem to make sense in the larger context of the later-day team-up.

So while this issue featured great dialogue, the plotting and art were uneven which made it a little less enjoyable.