World's Finest

Now for what I have to say about it ... GET A COPY OF THIS BOOK!

As a reader, I enjoy angst as a fundamental character quality. The thing which attracts me to Batman the most is that he is a deeply troubled soul, particularly in his relationship with The Joker, a homicidal maniac. Any other "hero" would have wasted him years ago, but Bruce Wayne became Batman because he witnessed the senselessly brutal murder of his parents, so he is incapable of taking a human life. He can inflict a lot of Pain on the scum of the criminal underworld, and he'll blame himself for every victim of The Joker's insanity, but he will never kill him.

The only other DC Comics character who can share Bruce Wayne's angst about being an orphan is Superman. This wonderful three-part story made me more aware of one aspect of their relationship that I had overlooked in my thirty-plus years of collecting their adventures ... when they are together, Batman is the alpha-male, the more dominant personality.

When they are alone, even in uniform, they are "Bruce" and "Clark" to each other ... each knows the other's Secret Identity, and the sharing of these secrets is part of the bond between them. There is really no finer friendship in comic literature. But for all of his super powers, when he's in the same room as Bruce, Clark just tucks his tail between his legs and let's Bruce take charge.

Yeah, Superman may have Cajones of Steel, but Batman's cajones are like a Wookie from Star Wars ... they're Very Big and Very Hairy.

These two pages are my favorite scene from the mini-series. What you need to know (in case you've never heard the story before) is that the night Bruce Wayne's parents were killed, they were walking home from the movie theater ... they had just seen Zorro. Just look at Clark's body language in this scene ... he knows he's struck a nerve, but he's Totally Clueless as to what he's done wrong.

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These images are copyright © 1990, 1992 DC comics.