Batman/Superman: World’s Finest #34
Scheduled to arrive in stores: December 18, 2024
Cover date: February 2025
“Good Boys”
Writer: Mark Waid
Artist: Fran Galan
Cover: Dan Mora
Variant Covers: Yanick Paquette and Romulo Fajardo Jr.; Mike Deodato Jr. and Jao Canola; Vasco Georgiev, David Nakayama
Reviewed by: Tony Parker
On a mission at the planet Altos 9, new hub of the Galtarian empire, Superman, Batman and Robin attempt to arrest Galtar for using his golden eye to feed off the sanity of innocents. Batman and Robin nearly fall but Superman’s freeze breath saves the day. But the other golden eye is forgotten about…
Two weeks later, a swamped Batgirl and Ace the Bat-Hound (just after fighting some gas mask wearing thugs) find all the dogs in Gotham barking over and over, but the former finds it unimportant, for now.
Meanwhile, in Jimmy Olsen’s apartment, Superman’s best friends (Jimmy and Krypto the Superdog) try to act on said weird barking by giving Jimmy the Elastic Lad serum. Flying to Gotham, the two encounter Batgirl and Ace, and realize they’re all working the same case. Deciding to follow the dogs (who seem to be aware of what’s going on), Jimmy and Batgirl follow, the former awkwardly flirting with the latter, who isn’t having any of it.
They end up at Arkham, where a bunch of the patients are happily witnessing Galtar’s revenge, his other eye beginning to sap their sanity and turn them into his slaves. Batgirl and Jimmy try to survive the mental attack and barely understand what’s going on, while the dogs fight back. Ace and Batgirl defend themselves from the mob of patients, while Krypto leads Jimmy to the nurse’s office, where Galtar is. Galtar seems familiar with Krypto and fights him, while Jimmy makes a startling discovery: Superman, Batman and Robin are all trapped inside the hypnotizing eye. While Jimmy frees them, Ace and Batgirl help Krypto against Galtar. Krypto is trapped, but the heroes are free.
However, Galtar won’t give up. He attempts to hypnotize the five humans, but Ace distracts him long enough for Jimmy to trap him and Batman to put him to sleep. The patients are then put back in their cells, and Batgirl and Jimmy part ways amicably.
Next time: Aquaman! Excited to review a story with him, especially if it’s a good one, he deserves it.
Story – 2: I hate to say it, but this was kind of a dud for me. I liked the idea, and it wasn’t a bore to read, but it wasn’t much of a fun filler issue like this book’s done before (see: the Robin/Supergirl date). Jimmy was fun, but Batgirl felt like a passenger, and Krypto and Ace didn’t add much uniquely to the story. It’s also not that clever. He happened to have another eye and no one was smart enough to try and stop that first. Galtar doesn’t even seem to be a major threat, taken down quite easily.
Not even that much to say. Read it for the Jimmy stuff, and nothing else.
Art – 4: Well, almost nothing else. The art is wonderful here, a foreboding purple that is constantly blaring. If the story was as good as the art, I’d call it a hidden gem for 2024.
Cover Art – 5: Decently Scooby Doo-esque.Variant Cover Art – 5: Very cool Lady Justice cover, love the different lights, great stuff.Variant Cover Art – 5: Awesome lightning cover, beautiful stuff.
Variant Cover Art – 3: Is that Zatanna? Eh, it’s pretty neat. A little too light for me though.Variant Cover Art – 3: Nice, but a little too much like a children’s book cover.
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