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Showcase Presents: World's Finest Comics #3
Showcase Presents: World's Finest, Vol. 3
In this new collection of Superman - Batman team-up tales from the 1960s, the World's Finest heroes become outlaws, meet the deadly Super Gamblers, become distant future and dim past versions of themselves, battle the Colossal Kids, face the Anti-Batman and Anti-Superman and much more.
496 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 2010
2 people are currently reading
39 people want to read
About the author
Edmond Hamilton
1,026 books137 followersEdmond Moore Hamilton was a popular author of science fiction stories and novels throughout the mid-twentieth century. Born in Youngstown, Ohio, he was raised there and in nearby New Castle, Pennsylvania. Something of a child prodigy, he graduated high school and started college (Westminster College, New Wilmington, Pennsylvania) at the age of 14--but washed out at 17. He was the Golden Age writer who worked on Batman, the Legion of Super-Heroes, and many sci-fi books.
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Displaying 1 - 6 of 6 reviews
March 1, 2022
Great fun read. I love these old silver age stories even though they go over the top for oddness and wacky stories sometimes. Recommended
August 24, 2023
This volume was okay, but it felt like DC was getting stale at this point. I can see why Marvel was considered so innovative in the 60s. These stories are still all one shots, and many of them are even "imaginary stories." Marvel was establishing continuity and doing longer stories by this point.
The art is mostly by Curt Swan, which is really good. The stories, however, run hot and cold. They are still aimed at children for the most part. although eventually slowly start to feature more mature themes. 60s Marvels weren't what you'd call sophisticated, but they were a step forward when compared to most DC stories of the time.
Also, the Batman TV show was around at the time these comics were published, so you're getting some "Holy Moley, Batman!" moments here.
This isn't bad, and if you're a Silver Age DC fan you'll probably love it, but reading all of these comics together shows that DC's evolution was progressing very slowly in the 60s.
The art is mostly by Curt Swan, which is really good. The stories, however, run hot and cold. They are still aimed at children for the most part. although eventually slowly start to feature more mature themes. 60s Marvels weren't what you'd call sophisticated, but they were a step forward when compared to most DC stories of the time.
Also, the Batman TV show was around at the time these comics were published, so you're getting some "Holy Moley, Batman!" moments here.
This isn't bad, and if you're a Silver Age DC fan you'll probably love it, but reading all of these comics together shows that DC's evolution was progressing very slowly in the 60s.
September 26, 2015
A solid concept for funny comics (what if Batman/Superman had adventures together, and hey, what if they were funny) shows definite improvement, simply by having the older, less talented generation of DC writers slowly give way to a more skilled generation of writers.
The art, solid, but not really as great, as vanguard DC Superman artist Curt Swan draws pretty much everything, his style is a little flat for all its meticulousness.
"World's Finest #146" displays a not entirely terrible story but still emblematic of the problems that Edmond Hamilton, Superman author since the Stone Age, always has.
PLUS: A compelling idea "what if Batman were actually a Kryptonian orphan, and there's evidence to prove it", very interesting with the mythos.
MINUS: Such convoluted plotting and dialogue. When characters voice their thoughts, the sentences are way too long, stating plot for the audience. The explanation of the issue's mystery is to the point of being disinteresting. CHARACTERIZATION ALWAYS MINIMAL.
XXX
"World's Finest #150" is also not great nuts and bolts writing or art by Hamilton + Swan, but it certainly displays the ideal charms of the Superman/Batman team.
The villains have a clear albeit crazy reason for being that the reader can get into. They're crazy gambler aliens who make a game out of anything, and love to gamble with people's lives and the fate of the Earth.
Not only does that get the reader involved and thinking big for the story, but the inventive game ideas, like giant dice and the climactic game of affecting the orbit in the solar system with pool cue-like objects, pretty cool looking.
And actual stakes that are clear and not explained away or made awkward. Batman will die if Superman can't gamble correctly, end of story.
An actually decent one shot, great!
XXX
After these early days, the stories improve greatly. Cary Bates does a lot of plot assisting and his own writing, as does Jim Shooter, and these are writers actually worth remembering.
The humor of the stories gets accompanied by pleasant to read dialogue, imagination, and actual action pacing (Shooter's best attribute).
"World's Finest #173" is an example of how engaging these flighty, flimsy stories can get. Basically, an evil doctor creates a treatment that forces Batman and Superman to become the villains they fear the most at night.
A clearly cool high concept superhero story, made odd that Superman turns into Kralik, an interplanetary strong man baddie who never appeared this issue apparently, and never really came back later either.
Aside from that odd footnote, Batman does become Two Face, and idea of these transformed "heroes into bad guys" clumsily but evilly smashing buildings and trying to kill each other, pretty good stakes raising, especially for 60s DC.
###
IN CONCLUSION, I'd recommend this story kind of for the much better stories by good writers in the latter half or third of the book. But the early kind of bad ones or hit or miss (as shown above), and I feel the book is still finding its way at this era to being good, even at its best.
4/5 because I'm predisposed to Cary Bates in particular as well as the nature of the book
The art, solid, but not really as great, as vanguard DC Superman artist Curt Swan draws pretty much everything, his style is a little flat for all its meticulousness.
"World's Finest #146" displays a not entirely terrible story but still emblematic of the problems that Edmond Hamilton, Superman author since the Stone Age, always has.
PLUS: A compelling idea "what if Batman were actually a Kryptonian orphan, and there's evidence to prove it", very interesting with the mythos.
MINUS: Such convoluted plotting and dialogue. When characters voice their thoughts, the sentences are way too long, stating plot for the audience. The explanation of the issue's mystery is to the point of being disinteresting. CHARACTERIZATION ALWAYS MINIMAL.
XXX
"World's Finest #150" is also not great nuts and bolts writing or art by Hamilton + Swan, but it certainly displays the ideal charms of the Superman/Batman team.
The villains have a clear albeit crazy reason for being that the reader can get into. They're crazy gambler aliens who make a game out of anything, and love to gamble with people's lives and the fate of the Earth.
Not only does that get the reader involved and thinking big for the story, but the inventive game ideas, like giant dice and the climactic game of affecting the orbit in the solar system with pool cue-like objects, pretty cool looking.
And actual stakes that are clear and not explained away or made awkward. Batman will die if Superman can't gamble correctly, end of story.
An actually decent one shot, great!
XXX
After these early days, the stories improve greatly. Cary Bates does a lot of plot assisting and his own writing, as does Jim Shooter, and these are writers actually worth remembering.
The humor of the stories gets accompanied by pleasant to read dialogue, imagination, and actual action pacing (Shooter's best attribute).
"World's Finest #173" is an example of how engaging these flighty, flimsy stories can get. Basically, an evil doctor creates a treatment that forces Batman and Superman to become the villains they fear the most at night.
A clearly cool high concept superhero story, made odd that Superman turns into Kralik, an interplanetary strong man baddie who never appeared this issue apparently, and never really came back later either.
Aside from that odd footnote, Batman does become Two Face, and idea of these transformed "heroes into bad guys" clumsily but evilly smashing buildings and trying to kill each other, pretty good stakes raising, especially for 60s DC.
###
IN CONCLUSION, I'd recommend this story kind of for the much better stories by good writers in the latter half or third of the book. But the early kind of bad ones or hit or miss (as shown above), and I feel the book is still finding its way at this era to being good, even at its best.
4/5 because I'm predisposed to Cary Bates in particular as well as the nature of the book
April 25, 2010
Fans of Silver Age Superman and Batman team-ups should be pleased with this volume. There's not much variety (at least three stories end with the reveal Bat-Mite and Mxyptlk are betting each other with bat-Mite tricking the other into saying his name backwards), and there seem to be a lot of the so-called imaginary stories (since, technically, all these stories are imaginary, its an odd claim). What this volume does have is a couple stories by Jim Shooter, which seem to up the ante on plotting, some character, and even a nasty twist ending for the bad guy.
February 3, 2017
Just wanted something v light to read, this fits the bill. I mean it's a superman/batman comic series from before they got super serious, it's fun, sometimes goofy, nothing special but good comfort food type reading.
September 18, 2025
A fun collection of stories from the sixties with no greater ambition than to entertain and doing that pretty well.
Displaying 1 - 6 of 6 reviews