In this review of Batman/Superman: World’s Finest #41, who’s ready for a tension headache? Bizarro World returns, but this time the quaint backwards planet resembles a gothic house of horrors with our heroes in the middle.
Batman/Superman: World’s Finest #41 main cover by Dan Mora (DC Comics)
BATMAN/SUPERMAN: WORLD’S FINEST #41
Written: MARK WAID
Art: ADRIÁN GUTIÉRREZ
Main Cover: DAN MORA
Variant Covers: MICHAEL CHO, ADRIÁN GUTIÉRREZ, DOALY
Page Count: 32 pages
Release Date July 16, 2025
This review contains spoilers
Batman/Superman: World’s Finest #41 begins with a scene familiar to many horror fans as a panicked Robin (Dick Grayson) is chased through a dark forest at night by multiple Bizarros. This time, Bizarro World isn’t sad or funny, just terrifying. Robin’s acrobatic skills keep him one step ahead of the various horrors he encounters in a local suburban neighborhood, but he still has no idea how he arrived here.
Batman tracks Robin to a horror house with a crying Bizarro, startling the already frazzled teenage hero. In true Batman fashion, the Dark Knight chides his partner about not keeping his guard up, but Robin isn’t in the mood for a lecture during this particular crisis moment. The pair head outside, and from above, a flock (?) of angry Bizarro Supermen descend towards them at super speed. Superman appears, running interference and shepherding the Dynamic Duo to safety (in what looks like an upside down barn on the Bizarro Kent farm?)
Batman explains to the justifiably freaked-out Robin that when they were at Superman’s Fortress of Solitude, a mysterious portal opened and whisked them all away to Bizarro World. (Robin was looking at the bottled city of Kandor and thus did not see the portal when he got pulled through). Robin pleads for Superman to send them back, but the Man of Steel explains that Bizarro World’s constant shifting through space makes it impossible for him to find a point of reference.
Batman muses over the identity of the culprit who sent them to Bizarro World, noting that some of the Bizarros were acting stranger than normal. Cut to downtown as a brawl erupts between dozens of Bizarro Supermen, some of whom ARE NOT SPEAKING BACKWARDS. Batman rescues one Bizarro woman from the chaos, while Superman and Robin save Bizarro Jimmy Olsen, who explains that a contagion spreading through the community is resetting the Bizarros’ thoughts and speech to normal.
Batman deduces that the Bizarro Supermen must have come from the old duplication ray that created the original Bizarro (copies of a copy), so he and Robin track down the machine, while Superman heads into space looking for nearby Kryptonite. Batman activates the ray, targeting the giant chunk of Green K that Superman sends hurtling towards them. The beam hits the meteor, transforming it into Blue Kryptonite, which repels the Bizarros.
Batman/Superman: World’s Finest #41 ends as Batman, Superman and Robin infiltrate the Bizarro Batcave, and are greeted by the the original Bizarro and Batzarro, both speaking normally.
Analysis
Batman/Superman: World’s Finest #41 is another enjoyable entry in this acclaimed series. Leave it to comics historian Mark Waid (writer of the current “History of the DC Universe” series) to update Bizarro World for modern readers, while honoring established DC Comics lore. The brilliance of dropping readers (and one freaked out Robin) into classic horror movie tropes (with a decidedly Bizarro twist), is immediately engaging.
Waid’s witty dialogue explores how each hero responds to this unsettling situation, (and to each other), and his scripting shows them to be heroes at their core, even in unfamiliar circumstances by saving the “cured” Bizarros. Batman Superman: World’s Finest #41 moves at a brisk pace, and Waid’s writing informs readers “on the run” as it were, (with Robin as our surrogate).
Bizarro stories aren’t for everyone; I’ve always been drawn to the tragic/heroic side of Bizarro (see: John Byrne’s classic Man of Steel #5), rather than the frustrating, backwards-speaking goofy Superman duplicate, so the horror elements and the humanity of the “infected” Bizarros in Batman Superman: World’s Finest #41 works well.
Artist Adrian Gutierrez continues to do masterful work on this series, beginning with the near wordless three-page horror movie-inspired cold open. Gutierrez’s talents are on full display with the various action sequences (that Bizarro Superman brawl), and numerous sight gags (see Robin inspecting the bottled city of Kandor, the headless Bizarro, and the bulky Bizarro Jimmy Olsen).
Final Thoughts
Batman/Superman: World’s Finest #41 is another winner for World’s Finest fans, even for those with little to no knowledge of Bizarro World, or classic Silver Age Superman. Fun, funny, fresh, thrilling and gorgeous to look at.
