In Batman/Superman: World’s Finest #29, Batman, Robin, and Superman come up with a plan to stop Doom-Mite once and for all!
Batman / Superman: World’s Finest #29 main cover by Dan Mora.
Title: Batman/Superman: World’s Finest #29 – Impossible: Part Four
Writer: Mark Waid
Artist: Dan Mora
Colors: Tamra Bonvillain
Letters: Steve Wands
Main Cover: Dan Mora
Variant Covers: Bjorn Barends, David Lafuente, Matt Herms, Jerry Gaylord
Release Date: July 17, 2024
This comic book review contains spoilers.
Batman/Superman: World’s Finest #29 opens on the events of Batman / Superman: World’s Finest #28, wherein Batman was turned into a puppet by Doom-Mite. The aforementioned villain is toying with their world, playing with buses and cars. It adds some much-needed characterization for this villain, who has thus far simply been the “big bad” who wanted to fight this dimension’s greatest champion. Doom-Mite won, but as he toys with items around Metropolis, it comes across from the creative team that Doom-Mite is nothing more than an overgrown child, and a bully, at that!
As Robin (Dick Grayson) cradles the puppet Batman, Superman and Mxyzptlk have a back-and-forth about where Superman’s been (he was trapped in the sixth dimension with Batman and Robin in Batman / Superman: World’s Finest #27). Batman uses all of his strength to muster the world “pull’ through the puppet’s wooden lips.
Bat-Mite wonders if Batman means strings, but Robin doesn’t think so. Superman steps in, and thinks that Bat-Mite is correct. The new plan is to send Bat-Mite and Mxyzptlk out to find every magic user on Earth and bring them here. In the meantime, Superman and Robin will stall for time, keeping Doom-Mite preoccupied.
Bat-Mite and Mxyzptlk travel around the world, trying to pull in magic users. Bat-Mite gets Zatanna, and Mxyzptlk recruits Dr. Fate. Meanwhile, Superman faces Doom-Mite head-on, goading the imp killer into a battle.
The strength of this issue really shines in the art department. Dan Mora delivers some stellar, creative, and fun work. Tamra Bonvillain’s colors are quite literally out of this world! Each turn of the page is like looking into a kaleidoscope of color. Despite the brightness and zany eyes and hair of Doom-Mite, the two artists manage to create a griminess to the villain, as if this is some basement-dweller coming out to throw his weight and might around.
Oddly enough, that’s where the idea of this villain may have come from. Up until now, we haven’t seen much background to Doom-Mite, but the more one looks at him, the more one wonders if Mark Waid and Dan Mora channeled the worst nerd they saw at comic con. There’s just something smarmy, repugnant, and surprisingly childish and lacking in real-life experience to this character that screams “comic con.”
Speaking of comic book nerds, Bat-Mite and Mxyzptlk recruit deep cuts Dr. Occult and Prince Ra-Man to their magic squad. They make a joke about never having heard of the characters, which is writer Mark Waid’s self-jest at how obscure of characters these two are.
What follows is a really cool action scene. The magic users arrive, and they rope up Doom-Mite with strings. Robin surmises that they must pull the “sixth-dimension” out of the villain. As they pull, the heroes pull on time itself, and in their ropes readers can get glimpses of popular DC iterations of Batman and Superman. It’s a neat trick, one that forces readers to slow down to really take in the beauty and grand scale that Mora and Bonvillain are creating.
Doom-Mite fights back, and magic begins to explode around him. The villain needs one final blow, and in a surprising twist, Bat-Mite lunges at the imp killer. Batman tries to stop him, but in a sideswipe of heart and heavy emotions, Bat-Mite says, “Be proud of me, Batman. Thank you for being my hero.”
A 60s-era “Kapow” fills the page, and then the imp killer and Bat-Mite are gone. I’m not crying; you’re crying!
Playing in the background of this whole action vehicle of an arc has been this coldness from Batman toward Bat-Mite. It hit a turning point when Superman encouraged Batman to open up to Bat-Mite, and the Caped Crusader truly saw his imp as a person. That seemed to be the completion of an arc at that realization, but here Waid comes with a wallop to the emotions. Bat-Mite’s sacrifice draws on that character arc and gives this issue a heavy dose of humanity. With his final words, he’s also channeling every fan who has ever been inspired by the Dark Knight.
Batman/Superman: World’s Finest #29 variant cover by David Lafuente. Image: DC Comics.
Each day we, as Batman fans, go out into the world, whether we realize it or not, we’re channeling the stories, morals, codes, and legends of our Caped Crusader. It’s not uncommon to call on Batman when we think of how we can better serve the world, of how we can help others. Batman’s inspiration and effect on people has been codified into strong, real-world examples of a mythological hero inspiring others. Senator Patrick Leahy of Vermont, a well-known Batman fan, created a comic book (Batman: Death of the Innocents) with the hero to help inform the public and his fellow Congressmen about the dangers of landmines across the world. He used this information to help convince others to ban the production, export, and international sale of landmines, as well as support efforts to clear and remove them.
This is just one example,of how the existence of Batman has made the world a better place. What Waid, Mora, Bonvillain, and Wands are getting at in these panels, however, is sort of the point of superheroes. They inspire us. They inspire us to action, and hopefully someday, like Bat-Mite, we’ll repay the favor and help those in need.
In the final few panels, Batman picks up Bat-Mite’s mask, seemingly all that’s left of him. They mourn the loss of Batman’s imp while Dr. Fate and the other magic users take a depowered Doom-Mite to a special prison.
Suddenly, Bat-Mite bursts back into reality, though without any clothes! His face without the Bat-Mite mask surprises Batman, who laughs. Batman thanks his imp, then reminds him that the world he walks through is dangerous. Batman encourages Bat-Mite to help out in his own world, which would keep him safe.
As Bat-Mite prepares to leave, he asks Batman to promise not to forget him. In the last panel, Bat-Mite’s suit hangs in the Batcave alongside the costumes of Batman and Robin.
Batman’s last words are in a word bubble near the outfit. “I promise.”
The end is sweet and beautiful, and while Bat-Mite still lives, his legacy and impact have earned a place in Batman history. I mentioned earlier about the point of superheroes being to inspire readers to action, and the creative team seems to agree. Waid puts a pin in it, making sure to elaborate on what that inspiration to action means — it doesn’t mean violence or vigilantism, as noted in the speech Batman gives to Bat-Mite at the end. What the creative team is trying to say (and celebrate) is how, with Batman at our side, we can lift others up, not fight crime. We can choose to connect with others, donate our time for a person in need, or support organizations that house, feed, educate, and clothe the less fortunate.
Batman/Superman: World’s Finest #29 is a thrill ride of a comic, and it’s one that celebrates what superheroes mean to us. It’s heartfelt, action-packed, and surprisingly thoughtful. The art is also some of the best on the comic book shelves.
Editor’s Note: DC Comics provided TBU with an advance copy of this comic for review purposes. You can find this comic and help support TBU in the process by purchasing this issue digitally on Amazon or a physical copy of the title through Things From Another World.
