Batman/Superman: World’s Finest #12
Scheduled to arrive in stores: February 21, 2023
Cover date: April 2023
“Scream of the Chaos Monkey”
Writer: Mark Waid
Artist: Emanuela Lupacchino
Cover: Dan Mora
Variant Covers: Dave Johnson, Max Dunbar and Tamra Bonvillain and Sweeny Boo
Reviewed by: Tony Parker
Some months ago, in Gotham City, Supergirl/Kara Kent/Zor El and Robin/Dick Grayson recount their disastrous date to Superman/Clark Kent and Batman/Bruce Wayne.
The day before, the chain of crazy events begins when a man who owns a monkey named Bingo loses him and runs down the streets to find him. As Supergirl explains, after a Man-Bat invasion in Boston, she had been so impressed by Robin’s ability to fight despite his lack of powers, that she asked him out. Unfortunately, it all went downhill from there.
Robin, desperate to impress the super powered Kryptonian, went in costume (forcing Kara to ditch her fashion choice) and spent most of the time bigging himself up, his show offish side coming out full flame. Kara herself meanwhile gets more and more ticked off, and seems to come across to Dick as uncaring of his comparatively ‘less impressive’ heroics. Meanwhile, the restaurant staff get into spats on how to serve the heroes properly, leading to the food taking forever.
Just when it looks like things can’t get worse for the awkward duo, Bingo the monkey alarms a truck driver, spilling his cargo of bowling balls onto the street, and crashing a bus into a water fountain.
The heroes manage to save the day, but a mishap leads to Robin crashing into Supergirl, the two of them falling into the water fountain. The date ends as well as it went: Not at all.
But, after thinking over it and talking to Superman and Batman about it, the two learn that sometimes, a pair just doesn’t click, and they move on from the whole episode…
To Be Continued…
Story – 5: A book that delivers so well on story arcs has also proven that it is perfect at one shot ‘filler’ stories!
Though, as ever, I do think that filler is a great opportunity for character reveals/progression, and I felt like I knew more about these interpetations of Kara and Dick than before!
Putting that aside, let’s just say it: This was a really funny and fun issue! It’s just a silly little story about a REALLY bad date between the two, one that has been set up since basically the first issue, one whole year ago, and it was such a great idea for the second one shot of the run, the first being the Dick at a circus story.
Waid manages in this issue to pull off a total comedy issue, with both heroes coming off as awkward and relatable DESPITE their costumes and the incredibly silly situation (a monkey, a bowling ball truck, I mean, come on!).
Even better is the honestly forwards thinking message. Normally a story like this would have the two make up and try again, which is of course a possibility, but I really appreciated the alternative lesson here. Yeah, sometimes two people just work better as friends. The worst sides of Kara and Dick came across here, but in a way that wasn’t unlikable, and if that isn’t great writing, I don’t know what is, especially since we haven’t had THAT much of a chance to see that (mostly with Dick) in this run.
What more can I say? A stellar issue about the two supporting characters, and I just hope we can see more of them and of this book! Next issue seems to be about a murder mystery with Metamorpho, so perhaps this means the Outsiders are involved? I don’t know, but if it’s anything like the rest of this stellar run, then I highly recommend you join me next month to review it!Art – 5: I can praise this art with one sentence: I was sure it was Dan Mora at first. That is not to say that Lupacchino doesn’t have a distinct style, just that it is THAT good! I especially love the Kara design, she looked perfect!! (I am a big Kara fan).Cover Art – 5: The kind of cover that catches your eyes at a comic book store, really love the fun it entails, plus it’s not really misleading at all, even if the need to include Superman and Batman is a tad silly.
Variant Cover Art – 4: A quite pleasing cover showing Superman and Batman fight Toy Man! Nothing incredible, but I quite liked it!
Variant Cover Art – 3: Decent, sort of watercolor aesthetic cover showing the teen titans and the two title heroes. Neat!Variant Cover Art – 3: Meh, didn’t feel this one.
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