In Batman/Superman: World’s Finest #34, Krypto the Superdog gathers together Ace the Bat-Hound, Batgirl, and Jimmy Olsen to save Superman, Batman, and Robin.
Batman/Superman: World’s Finest #34 cover by Dan Mora. Image: DC Comics
Batman/Superman: World’s Finest #34
Writer: Mark Waid
Art & Colors: Fran Galan
Letters: Steve Wands
Main Cover: Dan Mora
Variant Covers: Yanick Paquette, Romulo Fajardo Jr., Mike Deodato Jr., Jao Canola, Vasco Georgiev & David Nakayama
Release Date: December 18, 2024
This comic book review contains spoilers.
Batman/Superman: World’s Finest #34 opens right in the middle of the action on the Planet Altos 9, where Batman, Superman, and Robin find themselves demanding Galtar, an alien tyrant, to turn himself in. He’s been using a device called the Golden Eye to feed off of and brainwash an alien populace to serve his needs.
Galtar resists. Batman whips a batarang just as Galtar uses the eye on the Dynamic Duo. Superman uses his super-breath to freeze the eye, thus bringing the fight to a close. As Superman carries an imprisoned Galtar and his super-pals off world, Robin muses that eyes come in pairs.
For longtime readers of this Mark Waid-helmed Batman/Superman: World’s Finest run, the art has a jarring, eye-opening (pun intended) start. It’s stylishly different and much more distinctive from the zippy colors and clean lines that have consistently graced the pages of this book in the previous 33 issues. But that doesn’t mean, in any stretch of the imagination, that the art is bad.
What Fran Galan brings to the table is a color palette that feels like the space-obsessed Silver Age comics it’s riffing on, despite the line work and proportions of the characters carrying more of a pastel style. Quite frankly, it’s beautiful, and it’s not the sort of art I would expect upon first opening this book.
Once we get past the flashback, the story leaps a year into the future, and the art changes. The colors are darker and more in line with a 70s crime thriller, though that pastel glean still remains.
Batgirl (Barbara Gordon) is on patrol, pulling triple duty as Batman and Robin have been missing for two weeks. While beating up a “green mask gang” with Ace the Bat-Hound in tow, she notes that at approximately 9:16 PM, every dog in Gotham City starts barking. Batgirl seemingly can’t see it, but there are little explosions popping off around the city that only the dogs can hear.
In Metropolis, Krypto the Superdog flies into Jimmy Olsen’s apartment, waking him up at three in the morning. He leads Jimmy to a vial of Elastic Lad serum that Jimmy had leftover from his crime-fighting days, coaxing the hapless photographer to take it. Once Jimmy does, Krypto flies him to Gotham City.
In this scene, it’s revealed that Superman has also been missing for weeks.
Krypto and Jimmy Olsen meet up with Batgirl and Ace the Bat-Hound. After some banter where Jimmy tries to get Batgirl to call him “Mr. Action,” the four join forces and are led to Arkham Asylum, where Galtar has been brainwashing inmates with a second Golden Eye.
The team try to stop the inmates that are attacking them, taking care of hurting them too much, as they know not what they do. Jimmy, meanwhile, finds a lever that releases Superman, Batman, and Robin from imprisonment. Together, the heroes stop Galtar, who plans on using a series of pylons to increase his power and take over the world.
Batman/Superman: World’s Finest #34 cover by Vasco Georgiev. Image: DC Comics
As the team disbands and goes their separate ways, Robin ribs Batgirl on her team-up with Jimmy Olsen.
This one-shot was silly, saccharine, and fun. As a nod to classic space stories of the Silver Age, it works, though it lacks the heart and depth that writer Mark Waid usually brings to the table with his World’s Finest tales. Fran Galan’s art, however, is wondrous. The color palette constantly changes throughout the story, from a scifi-heavy purple tone to a gritty, moody crime veneer and back again.
Overall, the art works, creating a canvas that feels fresh and distinct for a story so mired in the tropes of yesteryear. I only have one complaint when it comes to the art, and it’s when Batman, Superman, and Robin are released from their imprisonment in Arkham Asylum. The perspective is face-on as the heroes strike a very heroic pose. Galan’s style struggles a little bit with this perspective, and the proportions of Superman’s face look closer to Solomon Grundy than they do of the Man of Steel. It’s a minor gripe but off-putting enough to take notice, stealing away from a moment that should wash readers with a sense of triumph.
For casual readers who want to see an entertaining story that brings these heroes, and their respective pets, together, this one-shot works. It delivers colorful, eye-catching fun. For those looking for more of a plot boiler, there isn’t much to speak of. Any mystery is instantly resolved by Krypto, who gathers together some heroes and saves the day. But the point isn’t necessarily the adventure itself, it’s about the banter and friendships our heroes make along the way.
