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Showcase Presents
Showcase Presents: World's Finest, Vol. 4
A new, value-priced volume collecting WORLD’S FINEST COMICS #174-178, 180-187, 189-196 and 198-202! In these classic team-up tales, Superman and Batman are tormented by a mysterious villain, a villain steals Superman’s secret identity, Superman races The Flash and much more!
- GenresComicsGraphic Novels
520 pages, Paperback
First published November 27, 2012
2 people are currently reading
35 people want to read
About the author
Cary Bates
704 books13 followersCary Bates (born 1948) is an American comic book, animation, television and film writer. He is best known for his work on The Flash and Superman.
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Displaying 1 - 6 of 6 reviews
March 15, 2022
Nice fun read for these classic Silver age stories. Recommended
September 21, 2023
This volume was comics from the late 60s to early 70s and the stories did show a little more sophistication. We're not talking Watchmen of course, but it wasn't nearly as silly as some of the 50s and 60s stories of earlier volumes.
We also get into longer stories here, including some stories that are two issues long which hadn't been done in the series before this volume. A few of the stories featured Superman teaming with heroes other than Batman, namely the Flash as well as Green Lantern.
Overall probably my favorite volume of the series because I'm not really into the campy DC stories of the 50s and 60s (even though they can be fun.)
We also get into longer stories here, including some stories that are two issues long which hadn't been done in the series before this volume. A few of the stories featured Superman teaming with heroes other than Batman, namely the Flash as well as Green Lantern.
Overall probably my favorite volume of the series because I'm not really into the campy DC stories of the 50s and 60s (even though they can be fun.)
December 6, 2015
This was definitely a fun read through old school Batman and Superman, reading it all together though it can become a little repetitive as each story is the reader thinking that something is going on/Superman and Batman have fallen out and you're lead to believe that everything is going wrong, but really the heroes knew what was going on all the time and it was all under control, they were just trying to catch the bad guy. To counteract this I read this in stages over the period of a few weeks.
I did enjoy the "what if" kind of stories where the writers could pretty much try anything - Superman with no powers for example - as they didn't have to worry about sorting anything out by the end of the story as it wasn't really happening.
Anyone who is a fan of either Batman or Superman should definitely have a read of this book.
I did enjoy the "what if" kind of stories where the writers could pretty much try anything - Superman with no powers for example - as they didn't have to worry about sorting anything out by the end of the story as it wasn't really happening.
Anyone who is a fan of either Batman or Superman should definitely have a read of this book.
December 13, 2012
Something happened to the "World's Finest" series in the late 60s from the looks of things. This volume started off like the others, with Superman and Batman teaming up to do whatever the individual stories demanded. Most took the formula and tone of a Superman story from that era, namely how it looks like something awful has happened and the good guys are about to lose only for the reader to learn at the last minute that at least one of the two heroes (usually Superman) was wise to something the entire time and was actually working to trick the villains of the week. There are also a few "imaginary stories" where the writers could do stuff like make Superman powerless or blind and not fix him at the end. Bob Haney and Bob Kanigher provide their usual levels of Silver Age insanity, and then two-parters start to show up, where the two are captured by an evil foreign government in Central Europe, or one really screwy one where the two go undercover to infiltrate and bring down "The Mafia" (which is gonna look really odd to anyone who's ever seen a mob movie like The Godfather or read a newspaper account of real mafias). Aside from the Mafia storyline, most of the bad guys are more Superman-centric than Batman-centric.
Then near the end Denny O'Neil takes over as the writer and the book seems to change into Superman team-up book, with Batman sometimes relegated to a short cameo. There's Flash race (with an actual winner for once!) and a Green Lantern fight, and the promise that the next issue will team the Action Ace up with Aquaman. My favorite issue probably comes from there, written by Mike Friedrich, and has Superman teaming up with Robin. Friedrich did some of my favorite stories from Showcase Presents Robin volume, where Robin goes off to college and has to deal with conflicting feelings over how to walk the narrow tightrope between his law-and-order background and the college radicalism many of his classmates embraced to one degree or another, and Friedrich brings a bit of that here too for a story involving aliens taking superbeings for powersources. Not bad at all.
Then near the end Denny O'Neil takes over as the writer and the book seems to change into Superman team-up book, with Batman sometimes relegated to a short cameo. There's Flash race (with an actual winner for once!) and a Green Lantern fight, and the promise that the next issue will team the Action Ace up with Aquaman. My favorite issue probably comes from there, written by Mike Friedrich, and has Superman teaming up with Robin. Friedrich did some of my favorite stories from Showcase Presents Robin volume, where Robin goes off to college and has to deal with conflicting feelings over how to walk the narrow tightrope between his law-and-order background and the college radicalism many of his classmates embraced to one degree or another, and Friedrich brings a bit of that here too for a story involving aliens taking superbeings for powersources. Not bad at all.
June 4, 2019
Okay, I know Silver Age Comics are an acquired taste. There's a little too much emphasis on crazy high concept and very little follow through for me. Furthermore, there seems to be a fear on the part of the writer's to let anything stick. When things get too weird, and well, in this collection is almost every story- there seems to be a need to blame any out character behavior on robot doubles, Kryptonite, 'Imaginary stories'. Other stories start to almost get good when the ending comes out of how you look at it, and no matter how clever it is, they don't play fair with the reader to let us in on key details. 'I knew X because of my super sense'. And it's just sort of lazy.
the worst part is the late 1960s and early 1970s is around the time DC was really starting their transistion from the campy stuff they had been doing in the 50s to trying to be a tad more mature, like what Marvel was doing.
The story with The Joker/Luthor team up was being done the same around the same year as the start of Green Lantern/Green Arrow. So when you compare it to other stuff they were doing at the same time, it doesn't compete.
I think part of the problem is that DC could afford to be 'experimental' on books that weren't selling. If they O'Neil's run on GL/GA hadn't worked they could have cancelled it and brought the characters back somewhere else a few years later. Or just let them fade into obscurity.
But the 1966 Batman with Adam West was JUST finishing up his first run on TV and entering syndication. Filmation's Superman was still running on Saturday morning on CBS. On top of that, Batman and Superman's sales were pretty static. You could print pretty much anything and it wouldn't change sales much. They had no reason to change.
On top of that, World's Finest had to clear both DC's Batman and Superman office. Hence, at least at the time, the choice to only rarely use either heroes rogue's gallery and when they did make it one of each.
Things almost start picking up near the end, but even Dynamic Dennis O'Neil seemed a little off. The book was sort of archaic and lacked direction. I think this sorta fixed itself in the mid-70s as Batman moved away from 60s campy and even Superman started becoming at least a tad more socially aware. But the late 60s and very early 70s is perhaps not the best run for either character. (Basically, 70s Batman really begins in 1971 with Rhas Al Ghul.)
the worst part is the late 1960s and early 1970s is around the time DC was really starting their transistion from the campy stuff they had been doing in the 50s to trying to be a tad more mature, like what Marvel was doing.
The story with The Joker/Luthor team up was being done the same around the same year as the start of Green Lantern/Green Arrow. So when you compare it to other stuff they were doing at the same time, it doesn't compete.
I think part of the problem is that DC could afford to be 'experimental' on books that weren't selling. If they O'Neil's run on GL/GA hadn't worked they could have cancelled it and brought the characters back somewhere else a few years later. Or just let them fade into obscurity.
But the 1966 Batman with Adam West was JUST finishing up his first run on TV and entering syndication. Filmation's Superman was still running on Saturday morning on CBS. On top of that, Batman and Superman's sales were pretty static. You could print pretty much anything and it wouldn't change sales much. They had no reason to change.
On top of that, World's Finest had to clear both DC's Batman and Superman office. Hence, at least at the time, the choice to only rarely use either heroes rogue's gallery and when they did make it one of each.
Things almost start picking up near the end, but even Dynamic Dennis O'Neil seemed a little off. The book was sort of archaic and lacked direction. I think this sorta fixed itself in the mid-70s as Batman moved away from 60s campy and even Superman started becoming at least a tad more socially aware. But the late 60s and very early 70s is perhaps not the best run for either character. (Basically, 70s Batman really begins in 1971 with Rhas Al Ghul.)
December 18, 2015
This volume of Superman/Batman team-ups really is the high mark of the series, as it starts to get that high end 70s no longer cheesy 60s vibe in its creative process.
In "World's Finest #174", long time good writer for this kind of stuff Cary Bates and decent artwork from Pete Costanza do a great job of giving Superman and Batman dynamic neuroses and plot twists, as they are basically lured into a deadly and psychologically scary trap by an unseen villain. A pretty gripping story if I may say so.
In "World's Finest #200", Superman and Robin, along with two brothers who are mean to each other, get sucked up into a scheme to turn Superman into a human battery for some zany aliens. The story is a little moralistic and long winded at times, but the imagination involved, and solid artwork (not great, but not bad either) from Dick Dillin and a solid but not amazing (but also not terrible) script from Mike Friedrich to sort of pull it through.
"World's Finest #202" features probably the best writer in the book, Dennis O'Neil, and a better use of Dick Dillin's aforementioned ok artwork. Superman and Batman get roped into, by cartoonish happenstance, into some evil desert robbers and an attempt to open an ancient tomb. Love all the convoluted plot twists that pop up along the way, and the ways of taking away the strengths of Superman and Batman.
Generally, this book is what is, but also good. It's a series of whimsical events that pull Superman and Batman out of their comfort zone while also offering some showdowns with baddies. It's never boring, and the tongue in cheek nature of it makes it fun.
5/5
In "World's Finest #174", long time good writer for this kind of stuff Cary Bates and decent artwork from Pete Costanza do a great job of giving Superman and Batman dynamic neuroses and plot twists, as they are basically lured into a deadly and psychologically scary trap by an unseen villain. A pretty gripping story if I may say so.
In "World's Finest #200", Superman and Robin, along with two brothers who are mean to each other, get sucked up into a scheme to turn Superman into a human battery for some zany aliens. The story is a little moralistic and long winded at times, but the imagination involved, and solid artwork (not great, but not bad either) from Dick Dillin and a solid but not amazing (but also not terrible) script from Mike Friedrich to sort of pull it through.
"World's Finest #202" features probably the best writer in the book, Dennis O'Neil, and a better use of Dick Dillin's aforementioned ok artwork. Superman and Batman get roped into, by cartoonish happenstance, into some evil desert robbers and an attempt to open an ancient tomb. Love all the convoluted plot twists that pop up along the way, and the ways of taking away the strengths of Superman and Batman.
Generally, this book is what is, but also good. It's a series of whimsical events that pull Superman and Batman out of their comfort zone while also offering some showdowns with baddies. It's never boring, and the tongue in cheek nature of it makes it fun.
5/5
Displaying 1 - 6 of 6 reviews