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Superman/Batman (12 Volumes Collected Edition)
Superman/Batman, Vol. 12: Sorcerer Kings
Superman / Batman: Sorcerer Kings TP by Various (2012-10-05)
160 pages, Paperback
Published January 1, 2012
8 people are currently reading
248 people want to read
About the author
Cullen Bunn
2,101 books1,058 followersCullen grew up in rural North Carolina, but now lives in the St. Louis area with his wife Cindy and his son Jackson. His noir/horror comic (and first collaboration with Brian Hurtt), The Damned, was published in 2007 by Oni Press. The follow-up, The Damned: Prodigal Sons, was released in 2008. In addition to The Sixth Gun, his current projects include Crooked Hills, a middle reader horror prose series from Evileye Books; The Tooth, an original graphic novel from Oni Press; and various work for Marvel and DC. Somewhere along the way, Cullen founded Undaunted Press and edited the critically acclaimed small press horror magazine, Whispers from the Shattered Forum.
All writers must pay their dues, and Cullen has worked various odd jobs, including Alien Autopsy Specialist, Rodeo Clown, Professional Wrestler Manager, and Sasquatch Wrangler.
And, yes, he has fought for his life against mountain lions and he did perform on stage as the World's Youngest Hypnotist. Buy him a drink sometime, and he'll tell you all about it.
Visit his website at www.cullenbunn.com.
All writers must pay their dues, and Cullen has worked various odd jobs, including Alien Autopsy Specialist, Rodeo Clown, Professional Wrestler Manager, and Sasquatch Wrangler.
And, yes, he has fought for his life against mountain lions and he did perform on stage as the World's Youngest Hypnotist. Buy him a drink sometime, and he'll tell you all about it.
Visit his website at www.cullenbunn.com.
Ratings & Reviews
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 34 reviews
September 30, 2011
Without a doubt, the weakest of all the books in this series. It's a story that takes place in a time paradox that is the future but might not be but has to be because the time cannot be changed and yet it is. Yeah, it's that confusing.
February 26, 2012
Not quite the World's Finest, but it was worth it to hear the Batman utter the immortal words "So long as there is crime in the streets, I have no time for nooky."
You had to be there.
You had to be there.
January 30, 2024
3.5 Stars
I thought this final volume was one of the better in the series, but overall this series underachieved.
This volume features a world where evil magicians have taken over and Superman and Batman have to set things right. There's a lot to the story I won't get into here, but it features some cool cameos from obscure DC mystical type characters.
I thought this final volume was one of the better in the series, but overall this series underachieved.
This volume features a world where evil magicians have taken over and Superman and Batman have to set things right. There's a lot to the story I won't get into here, but it features some cool cameos from obscure DC mystical type characters.
September 20, 2025
I hate alternative universes/time travels plots SO BAD
Read
April 26, 2013While the team-up stories contained herein aren't terribly good in themselves, their use of stuff like Klarion the Witch Boy, Detective Chimp and the 853rd millennium world of DC One Million is a reminder of the beautiful *complexity* of the ornate DC Universe before Flashpoint and the New 52 dumbed it all down.
March 24, 2013
I gave it a 4 because of the Abracadabra.
August 19, 2025
A mish-mash of a book.
Who Would Win? by Joe Kelly & Jack Kelly was a very cute one-off of two kids planning out a fight between Superman and Batman.
A World of Their Own by Amanda McMurray was an incredibly short and confusing one-off featuring Power Girl and Huntress. Why it was included here, I can only guess. (Filler?)
World's Finest Part One and Two by Chris Roberson had 1980s comics vibes. Epoch, the Lord of Time, wants to rule the past but keeps getting his butt handed to him by Batman and Superman (in every time). It feels a little goofy and wordy, and was a bit of a bore to read.
Sorcerer Kings Parts One through Four by Cullen Bunn was an interesting story about a magically cursed future that needs to be put right/saved. Present Superman gets kidnapped by future Batman (classic Batman, not taking literally two minutes to explain shit to anyone lol), a really cool Vampire lady I didn't know, and a whole bunch of side-characters I LOVE: Detective Chimp, Etrigon, Klarion, the Witch Boy (and Teekl <3). Definitely the strongest and most enjoyable of the volume. Too bad this book wasn't just Sorcerer Kings and Who Would Win? together. The other two additions dragged this book down.
3 stars overall.
Who Would Win? by Joe Kelly & Jack Kelly was a very cute one-off of two kids planning out a fight between Superman and Batman.
A World of Their Own by Amanda McMurray was an incredibly short and confusing one-off featuring Power Girl and Huntress. Why it was included here, I can only guess. (Filler?)
World's Finest Part One and Two by Chris Roberson had 1980s comics vibes. Epoch, the Lord of Time, wants to rule the past but keeps getting his butt handed to him by Batman and Superman (in every time). It feels a little goofy and wordy, and was a bit of a bore to read.
Sorcerer Kings Parts One through Four by Cullen Bunn was an interesting story about a magically cursed future that needs to be put right/saved. Present Superman gets kidnapped by future Batman (classic Batman, not taking literally two minutes to explain shit to anyone lol), a really cool Vampire lady I didn't know, and a whole bunch of side-characters I LOVE: Detective Chimp, Etrigon, Klarion, the Witch Boy (and Teekl <3). Definitely the strongest and most enjoyable of the volume. Too bad this book wasn't just Sorcerer Kings and Who Would Win? together. The other two additions dragged this book down.
3 stars overall.
January 9, 2022
Pitting Superman and Batman against magical foes is nothing new, but this story does bring a few new ideas to the table. I won't spoil anything here, but seeing the title heroes adapt to a whole different magical world is so intriguing that I'd like to see that alternate world continue on in more stories.
Teaming the heroes up with some of DC's magical all-stars makes sense here, though I would like to have seen some of the characters shine more. Seeing Doctor Occult working with Detective Chimp is the kind of magical detective story I didn't know I needed!
CrissCross' art is good and lively throughout, though sometimes the action is crammed into a too-small panel, often making me stare for a while to figure out what was happening.
Overall, it's a fun story with plenty of ideas that could and should be revisited.
Teaming the heroes up with some of DC's magical all-stars makes sense here, though I would like to have seen some of the characters shine more. Seeing Doctor Occult working with Detective Chimp is the kind of magical detective story I didn't know I needed!
CrissCross' art is good and lively throughout, though sometimes the action is crammed into a too-small panel, often making me stare for a while to figure out what was happening.
Overall, it's a fun story with plenty of ideas that could and should be revisited.
September 8, 2025
3.5 — For once I quite enjoyed the art style. Loved future Bats design in Sorcerer Kings. Didn't quite see the point of the Power Girl & Huntress short that was included in the volume as it had nothing to do with Superman or Batman. Story at the beginning was a bit of silly fun. Sorcerer Kings was the stand out for me, loved the witchy, gothic hellscape introduced, and I'll be checking out Klarion the Witch Boy
December 31, 2016
Kind of a convoluted clusterf**k of a book! Batmen and Supermen from various realities and futures just kept jumping back and forth all throughout the book, it made for a big hot mess! The book had a very 80's type feel to it and the art represented that as well.
May 26, 2023
A fun collection of stories. It was nice to see the world of DC One Million again. The magical main event saw some interesting versions of our heroes and there were plenty of great little Easter eggs for longtime DC fans.
February 13, 2019
Solo por tener temática de hechicería vale la pena, me ha gustado bastante.
May 8, 2021
I very much like this story
January 10, 2023
2 mediocre stories + 2 single story issues for fun, one of the later was decent. The main Sorcerer kings story was tedious and really fucking stupid.
April 15, 2025
The last three parts are fantastic but the rest not so much.
April 15, 2013
I should begin by disclosing how I am a huge fan of this series, I have been since the first issue by the fan favorite (at least this fan's) team of Loeb and McGuinness delivered the first issue onto the comic shop stands.
I followed the series until they left, and then got back into it as my local library has copies of some of the collections. The general conceit of the series is to tell alternate world stories, or stories that are free from the constantly structured continuity of the Superman and Batman books which is a great way to release writers to write any kind of Superman/Batman adventure that they would like.
The collection begins with a story that finally answers the age old question of who would win in a fight Batman or Superman? I won't spoil it, but I feel it answers the question definitively. Its by Joe Kelly whose work I miss, but being one of the Man of Action team, I'm sure he's busy with Ben 10.
Less interesting but beautifully illustrated by Brett Booth is the story of Power Girl and Huntress . . . which really just . . . its dull, and doesn't really serve a purpose.
This is followed by another adventure by the creator of Izombie which takes place in the future of Superman 1,000,000 that Grant Morrison created, and while a good story it really isn't great or amazing, but it is a solid adventure tale and it is well illustrated and it has very interesting ideas sprinkled throughout. I enjoy when writers use interesting and new ideas more so than just presenting old ones in a new way the way most writers nowadays seem to do. So its a cool story, but the clear winner of this collection is the one that lends its name to it. Sorcerer Kings starts out with Shadowpact and takes us to a whole other future. I love how its a time travel story but it isn't like most that you've read.
The story features some really interesting characters, and it plays up Superman in a new way, all of this wrapped up as a murder mystery, yeah, it makes for a fun new story.
All in all it is a very solid collection and it begins and ends marvelously and makes me weep for this good old book which DC no longer publishes. *sighs* Now if they'd just replace it with a series like this that could feature any DC character I would be very happy.
I followed the series until they left, and then got back into it as my local library has copies of some of the collections. The general conceit of the series is to tell alternate world stories, or stories that are free from the constantly structured continuity of the Superman and Batman books which is a great way to release writers to write any kind of Superman/Batman adventure that they would like.
The collection begins with a story that finally answers the age old question of who would win in a fight Batman or Superman? I won't spoil it, but I feel it answers the question definitively. Its by Joe Kelly whose work I miss, but being one of the Man of Action team, I'm sure he's busy with Ben 10.
Less interesting but beautifully illustrated by Brett Booth is the story of Power Girl and Huntress . . . which really just . . . its dull, and doesn't really serve a purpose.
This is followed by another adventure by the creator of Izombie which takes place in the future of Superman 1,000,000 that Grant Morrison created, and while a good story it really isn't great or amazing, but it is a solid adventure tale and it is well illustrated and it has very interesting ideas sprinkled throughout. I enjoy when writers use interesting and new ideas more so than just presenting old ones in a new way the way most writers nowadays seem to do. So its a cool story, but the clear winner of this collection is the one that lends its name to it. Sorcerer Kings starts out with Shadowpact and takes us to a whole other future. I love how its a time travel story but it isn't like most that you've read.
The story features some really interesting characters, and it plays up Superman in a new way, all of this wrapped up as a murder mystery, yeah, it makes for a fun new story.
All in all it is a very solid collection and it begins and ends marvelously and makes me weep for this good old book which DC no longer publishes. *sighs* Now if they'd just replace it with a series like this that could feature any DC character I would be very happy.
December 28, 2011
A mediocre end to a mediocre series, this time Superman and Batman find themselves hopping through time and dimensions to thwart an evil we really don't have any investment in, with a lame climax and terrible dialogue.
"Say hello to my little friend!" and "This for my pal!" actually appear in this book. And no, it's not made better by the context in which these ghastly lines appear.
This book succeeds in being possibly the worst collection of the entire Superman/Batman run, and there have been some deeply mediocre entries into this series to date (lest we forget the horrendous Batzarro). A sad end to a series that showed so much potential in the beginning.
It's not that the entire package is so horribly bad, it's just unremarkable and mediocre. I was faced throughout with the volume's faults, particularly the lack of any attempt at character development, awful dialogue, and artist CrissCross's tendency to get in so close to the action that each frame looks like the "camera" was held the same distance away from the action. It became really distracting--there aren't many moments where the camera zooms out or zooms in... it's just about the same distance away from the action at all times. This sucked the dynamism out of otherwise competent illustrations.
I could go on, but I'll just end by saying that this is for completists only. A bland adventure (the fate of the world is at stake! gasp!), fourth tier characters (Blue Devil! Detective Chimp!) and no reason to really care. Avoid it & pick up the excellent first volume by Jeph Loeb, and the solid "Search for Kryptonite" arc by Michael Green.
"Say hello to my little friend!" and "This for my pal!" actually appear in this book. And no, it's not made better by the context in which these ghastly lines appear.
This book succeeds in being possibly the worst collection of the entire Superman/Batman run, and there have been some deeply mediocre entries into this series to date (lest we forget the horrendous Batzarro). A sad end to a series that showed so much potential in the beginning.
It's not that the entire package is so horribly bad, it's just unremarkable and mediocre. I was faced throughout with the volume's faults, particularly the lack of any attempt at character development, awful dialogue, and artist CrissCross's tendency to get in so close to the action that each frame looks like the "camera" was held the same distance away from the action. It became really distracting--there aren't many moments where the camera zooms out or zooms in... it's just about the same distance away from the action at all times. This sucked the dynamism out of otherwise competent illustrations.
I could go on, but I'll just end by saying that this is for completists only. A bland adventure (the fate of the world is at stake! gasp!), fourth tier characters (Blue Devil! Detective Chimp!) and no reason to really care. Avoid it & pick up the excellent first volume by Jeph Loeb, and the solid "Search for Kryptonite" arc by Michael Green.
Read
April 18, 2016A collection of Superman/Batman stories:
"Who would win?" -- Two kids discuss who would win in a fight, Supes or Bats. Fun for the meta angle where the kids discuss how it doesn't make too much sense for these two to be fighting, so they have to gimmick up a reason.
(This was half an issue, paired with a Huntress/Power Girl story called "World of Their Own," which I did not understand at all because I know nothing about those two.)
"World's Finest" -- a two-part story where Batman and Superman pair up to defeat a time manipulator. Fun, but not much going on there.
"Sorcerer Kings" -- a four-part story-arc where evil magic-users curse the sun in the future, which gives them a lot of power, but also gives Superman some magical abilities. Now Batman has given up science for magic and heroes from the past (regular sun) and future (magic sun) have to work together to stop the evil ceremony. Fun and a good way to expose readers to some lesser-known characters, like Detective Chimp, Felix Faust, the Creeper, etc. It's pretty close to a What If? story -- what if Earth had magic instead of science -- and I'm a sucker for those, even if the premise is a little out there.
"Who would win?" -- Two kids discuss who would win in a fight, Supes or Bats. Fun for the meta angle where the kids discuss how it doesn't make too much sense for these two to be fighting, so they have to gimmick up a reason.
(This was half an issue, paired with a Huntress/Power Girl story called "World of Their Own," which I did not understand at all because I know nothing about those two.)
"World's Finest" -- a two-part story where Batman and Superman pair up to defeat a time manipulator. Fun, but not much going on there.
"Sorcerer Kings" -- a four-part story-arc where evil magic-users curse the sun in the future, which gives them a lot of power, but also gives Superman some magical abilities. Now Batman has given up science for magic and heroes from the past (regular sun) and future (magic sun) have to work together to stop the evil ceremony. Fun and a good way to expose readers to some lesser-known characters, like Detective Chimp, Felix Faust, the Creeper, etc. It's pretty close to a What If? story -- what if Earth had magic instead of science -- and I'm a sucker for those, even if the premise is a little out there.
January 3, 2014
This was probably my least enjoyed in my favorite series. I still loved it, just not as much as the first eleven volumes in this series. It was definitely awesome seeing Batman in a magic timeline (I didn't think I'd love it as much as I would, but he was still Batman and who can't love Batman?) and seeing Superman wielding a sword was a fantastic experience as well. I just wish there had been more to the actual Sorcerer Kings story line in the graphic novel instead of the several throwaway stories in the beginning that I could have done without.
June 20, 2013
Split into four stories (two standalone and two going over multiple parts), I like the actual story of the Sorcerer Kings the most. I like seeing the random characters Batman has put together in his new League. The cast of characters was good and the writing and plot was well done as well. I like that even in a magic ridden future Batman is Batman and Superman is still super even in a land sourced by magic sun.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
March 14, 2013
Sorcerer Kings wasn't as bad as I feared it would be, and in places is even smart and witty. The first story with the children was adorable. Idk wth that was with Powergirl and Huntress, but... okey. Overall, though, it's a mediocre end to a series that start out so well and just tanked and never quite recovered after the first couple of arcs.
April 17, 2015
3.5/5 Stars
It must be difficult to come up with new, interesting stories about Superman. He's been around for so long, all of the authors have done almost every conceivable story-line with him. Time travel and magic were probably all that was left. The illustrations were great, and the story was good, but not something I would want to pick up and read again.
It must be difficult to come up with new, interesting stories about Superman. He's been around for so long, all of the authors have done almost every conceivable story-line with him. Time travel and magic were probably all that was left. The illustrations were great, and the story was good, but not something I would want to pick up and read again.
February 6, 2012
I like the Superman/Batman team-up comics, but this one wasn't as good. I did like the Batman vs. Superman story at the beginning, though, told from the point of view of two kids arguing about who would win in a fight.
August 17, 2012
I enjoyed the first 2 self contained stories including a new adventure from the world of DC One Million that was introduced by Grant Morrison. The 4 part story was very good. If you like Lord of The Rings, I highly recommend this story.
October 14, 2012
Very mediocre, confusing story (or better put (stories). I've enjoyed previous books in the series, although the first few pages, with the kids discussing "Who would win", I thought was quite well done.
November 9, 2012
One really cool short story can't make up for a pair of truly terrible features - a disjointed pair of hackneyed comic tropes (superheroes vs. time travel! and superheroes vs. magic!) that belong in the chemically hazed Disco era, not a modern comic shop.
February 18, 2014
A lot of these stories had good ideas, they just weren't executed to the fullest. I did like the one that was a discussion of who would win in a fight between our two main characters. Ah, the never-ending discussion could ensue, but I think there's a better story to be tapped from that yet.
February 11, 2016
Three stars for the sake of first story that I really liked. Second story reminded me how much I don't like Bret Booth's work. Third story was ok but the last one was full of the characters that were unfamiliar to me and the story itself was kinda washed out.
January 8, 2012
Sucked! Made no sense at all and none of the individual stories worked well together to create a good novel. Crap!
January 3, 2013
What even is this nonsense? I should stop picking up everything that says "Batman" at the library...
Displaying 1 - 30 of 34 reviews