Mark Waid and Dan Mora's Batman/Superman World's Finest is leveling up into a new ongoing series on March 15 and DC has released a preview of the first nine pages of the 32-page debut issue.
Published without house ads, Batman/Superman World's Finest #1 includes the creative team's January 25 Detective Comics #1050 lead-in story.
Described as a "brand-new day" for the classic superhero pairing, the series takes place in the "not-too-distant past," when Dick Grayson was 17-18 years old and still operating as Robin.
In the debut issue, the Man of Steel's Kryptonian power powers are dangerously super-charged following an attack by his arch-villain Metallo, and Superman turns to Batman for help. A near-fatal burst of power makes the Caped Crusader go to his own extreme measures to help his friend, with the extreme measures asking the Doom Patrol for help.
Check out the preview below, which also includes an appearance by Poison Ivy.
The World's Finest title began its life in 1941 and was published continually until 1986, featuring some form of a Superman and Batman team-up in most issues.
It's been replaced in more recent years by a few series simply titled Batman/Superman, but DC seems to be combining the two title conventions for the new Waid/Mora series.
Batman/Superman: World's Finest #1 has multiple variant covers, including two 'Slap Battle' variants by Chip Zdarsky humorously lampooning Superman and Batman arguing over whose name goes first in the title (Batman won), a "High Five" variant by Evan 'Doc' Shaner, and covers by Jim Lee, Stanley "Artgerm" Lau, Jason Fabok, Lee Weeks, and a "Jerry Seinfeld in the Bat-Mobile Getting Coffee" variant by Mora.
Check out a gallery of variant covers here:
For Waid, World's Finest is one of two major DC projects for the prolific writer/editor/executive/retailer in 2022 after he broke a 12-year-hiatus late in 2020 with a story in Dark Nights: Death Metal: The Last Stories of the DC Universe anthology. Waid will write a DC Black Label Superman series with Bryan Hitch in 2022 as well, at least according to Hitch.
Batman/Superman: World's Finest qualifies for inclusion on Newsarama's list of all new Batman comics, graphic novels, and collections in 2022.
