Batman/Superman: World’s Finest by Mark Waid and Dan Mora

[Frontier]

I'd read it in a heartbeat .

Maybe make it a duo comic with Batgirl...

[Last Son of Krypton]

https://leagueofcomicgeeks.com/commu...hread/17072754

Despite not being a huge fan of the current arc, I still really love Waid’s Kara. Hope this happens!

Hope he is going to be able to convince DC that Supergirl can still sell to be worth a book.

[Ascended]

....I dunno if even Waid is enough to get me buying Supergirl. Haven't followed her regularly since Sterling. But if he's excited about the idea I hope he gets to do it. Kara's fans deserve a quality book.

If it does happen, I hope Waid shows some love for the fan who pitched the idea somehow. Todd Nauck added me into background shots of Young Justice a couple times, along with a few other folks who used to post on the old DCMB, and it'd be cool if Waid did something similar.

[Frontier]

....I dunno if even Waid is enough to get me buying Supergirl. Haven't followed her regularly since Sterling. But if he's excited about the idea I hope he gets to do it. Kara's fans deserve a quality book.

If it does happen, I hope Waid shows some love for the fan who pitched the idea somehow. Todd Nauck added me into background shots of Young Justice a couple times, along with a few other folks who used to post on the old DCMB, and it'd be cool if Waid did something similar.

Holy crud, do you know where!?

[The Frog Bros]

https://leagueofcomicgeeks.com/commu...hread/17072754

Despite not being a huge fan of the current arc, I still really love Waid’s Kara. Hope this happens!

Yeah this would be great. Toss in some Robin cameos for good measure.

[Vordan]

That whole AMA thread is worth a read. Waid shared a bunch of tidbits such as:

-He and Samnee are going to have an announcement about what they’ve been working on soon
-Expanding the World’s Finest corner is a goal of his. In fact he says we’ll “know soon” what other kind of WF era books he wants to do. Guess he has another project coming, maybe will be announced in this week’s solicits? Honestly I think Waid is going to try to do most of his other DC work in that time period since it’s his ideal status quo more or less
-Writing more Jimmy Olsen is a goal of his
-Likes what Williamson and PKJ are doing, he and Williamson talk a lot about Superman

Also shared his opinions on a wide variety of topics, it’s a good read.

....I dunno if even Waid is enough to get me buying Supergirl. Haven't followed her regularly since Sterling. But if he's excited about the idea I hope he gets to do it. Kara's fans deserve a quality book.

If it does happen, I hope Waid shows some love for the fan who pitched the idea somehow. Todd Nauck added me into background shots of Young Justice a couple times, along with a few other folks who used to post on the old DCMB, and it'd be cool if Waid did something similar.

Hah did he really? That’s awesome, I love stuff like that. Kara only really clicked into place with me when the New 52 really leaned in to her being the one who remembers and misses Krypton. The first gen immigrant if you will.

[Frontier]

Wonder what it could be? My first assumption is something related to what's actually been in the book like the Titans...Doom Patrol? Metal Men? Robots? Justice League? Or a Brave and the Bold style book?

[Vordan]

Wonder what it could be? My first assumption is something related to what's actually been in the book like the Titans...Doom Patrol? Metal Men? Robots? Justice League? Or a Brave and the Bold style book?

Having two Doom Patrol books would be divine, but I’d be shocked if DC were to greenlight that. It’s a franchise that is obscure at best, never been the strongest in sales, and I doubt even a Waid book could change that. Metal Men… feels possible, as a mini of course.

[Mantis-Ray]

Its cool they are really leaning into these World's Finest flashback settings, there's a lot you can do here.

You can use it to reestablish old elements of characters that haven't been used in a whole, like say a John Stewart series could be able to bring back his old marriage with Katma Tui.

We're already doing that with the Teen Titans by finally giving the old Fab Five incarnation new stories.

[gohei_]

Just wanted to pop in and say that I got my copy of Worlds Finest vol 1 today. Finished it in one setting, and had an absolute blast The story, the dialogue, the art; awesome work from all involved. Now it becomes a waiting game for the next volume to release.

[Vordan]

BATMAN/SUPERMAN: WORLD’S FINEST #18

Written by MARK WAID
Art by TRAVIS MOORE
Cover by DAN MORA
Variant cover by DARICK ROBERTSON and DIEGO RODRIGUEZ
1:25 variant cover by ARIEL COLÓN
1:50 variant cover by MEGAN HETRICK
Blue Beetle movie variant cover by RAFAEL ALBUQUERQUE
$3.99 US | 32 pages | Variant $4.99 US (card stock)
ON SALE 8/15/23
Think you know how Superman and Batman met and became friends? Think again! Read the untold tale of how their worlds first collided—and the stunning, secret loss that nearly destroyed their partnership before it even began!

Good the next arc sounds more appealing to me than the current one has been. May be ground that’s been retreaded repeatedly, but I’m still curious to see Waid’s take. We’ve seen first meetings that have the two hit it off right away, and ones that have had the two dislike each other before learning to work as a team. My first guess would be Waid would have them be friends out the gate, but the solicit makes it seem like that won’t be the case.

[Ascended]

Holy crud, do you know where!?

You mean like issue number? Gods no.

I don't remember details about any other cameos, but my big one was.....it might have been a mall where supervillains were attacking maybe? Or a park? And one of the civilians running away in terror was me. Foreground of the panel, right up front. Very generous placement on Todd's part. Short curly hair, red shirt that said "FLIP" on it. I think I was in another issue somewhere, once or twice maybe, and I know a few other posters were too, but I don't remember where. This was the late 90's, and a lot of life has happened since then. But if anyone ever meets Todd, please ask him if he remembers those ridiculous Freakazoid fans, and let him know that his involvement meant the world to us.

Hah did he really? That’s awesome, I love stuff like that.

Yeah, I love hearing about creators doing stuff like that. It definitely made our little group crazy happy. Back on the old DCMB....anyone remember HEAT? It was a group of Hal Jordan fans who made themselves real obnoxious about demanding Hal's return during the early Kyle days. Well, I started a group on the YJ boards called FLIP, officially our goal was to get Freakazoid (a WB cartoon character) on the team but in reality I was just making fun of HEAT (I was a big fan of Kyle and thought Hal was boring. Still do). It was just a joke, but it ended up becoming a whole thing. Membership in the dozens, artists making group shots of us all (I got sent one as a christmas card, it was very sweet). At one point we had the longest, biggest thread on the entire message board. Todd would talk with us a lot, worked Freakazoid onto coffee cups and t-shirts and such (you'll find that stuff in a bunch of issues), and apparently told PAD about us too. PAD never posted on the boards but apparently got a kick out of the whole thing. Or he thought it was dumb and Todd was just telling nice lies.

Kara only really clicked into place with me when the New 52 really leaned in to her being the one who remembers and misses Krypton. The first gen immigrant if you will

I love that approach as a concept, but the New52 series was a little too edgelord and over the top in its execution for me.

[Vordan]

https://www.cbr.com/mark-waid-dc-spo...e-interview-1/

Over in Batman/Superman: World's Finest, there's another real-world parallel with self-driving Batmobiles and the rise of artificial intelligence with this new Amazo. What was it about having rogue A.I. as the supervillain here that appealed to you?

To be honest, the fact that it coincides with the discussion we're having now is as much a coincidence as anything else because I came up with this story six to eight months ago. We weren't really having the conversations about ChatGPT that we're having now, but once we got into it, I leaned into it pretty heavily. This is not the last time you will see the villains behind this story and the effect that the control of A.I. would have over the DC Universe. It's fairly limited within the story, but there is a place in the DC Universe for that control of A.I. that is not limited in the least.

Hm, Waid teasing more stuff with AI for DC might be supporting your theory that Waid is working on a Metal Men book Frontier.

What can you tease for Shazam! and Batman/Superman: World's Finest?

With Shazam!, once we're done with this story arc, which has Gorilla City showing up soon and an old Doom Patrol villain called Garguax, who is the Emperor of the Moon -- the Captain accidentally starts a war between Gorilla City and the Moon. That's a big part of what's coming up. After that, we have a Batman character -- not necessarily a Batman villain --someone on the cusp of villain/hero showing up in Shazam! and start things there in a crazy way. Dan Mora wanted to use the character in World's Finest, and tonally, I wasn't sure it was a good fit for World's Finest, but it's great for Shazam!

In World's Finest, we're playing out this arc, and after that, we can certainly imagine that we could go back to visit Boy Thunder and see what has become of him. That is a logical leap for readers to make, and it would not be incorrect.

Interesting, the next arc seems to be a retelling of Superman and Batman’s first meeting, not sure if Waid is hinting that Boy Thunder/Magog will return for that, or if he’s teasing what the arc AFTER the next one will be.

[Frontier]

I guess we haven't had a retelling of their first meeting since the New 52 from Greg Pak.

[Vordan]

-DC actually came to him with the idea of setting the book in the past, DC wanted a place where they could use all the classic toys without having to be hamstrung by continuity
-Loves Metamorpho thanks to his science geek background and knowledge of chemistry, frustrates him that people don’t remember Metamorpho can only turn into elements in the human body
-Talks about how Jemas wanted the F4 to move to the suburbs and make Sue a secretary and Waid/Breevort absolutely hated the idea, but tried to make it work. Jemas fired Waid but because that pissed everyone off they had to bring Waid back
-Talks about how he tries to avoid being bitter over old grudges, talks about how a lot of old pros have become bitter, when he sees a book he doesn’t like but is selling well he tries to dissect it to find out why it’s selling well
-Waid actually thinks he works better when given some restrictions as opposed to just being given free reign
-Still has some creator owned pitches he wants to do, but he differs from his peers in that he never wanted to be a storyteller, he wanted to play in the shared sandbox. Does look back on his career and wishes he had done more to build up the Waid “brand” the way Ennis/Millar/etc have.
-Attributes the success of the Flash Family to how they’ve been characterized differently. Thinks that he may have been unconsciously been drawing on his love for Silver Age Superman with the large Superfamily
-Flash #0 is his favorite issue from his run, part of it was drawn from his own life when he returned to his childhood house
-Relates to Wally West because they were both superhero fans who made it in the world of superheroes
-There have been more stories told about Batman than about any other character in western lit, when he told King that it freaked King out. Knowing that causes Waid to struggle to come up with a new angle to Batman. He did not expect Tower of Babel or Kingdom Come to have the massive impact that they did
-Batman’s crime in Tower of Babel to Waid was not telling the JL that he had made contingencies
-His favorite piece of Superman iconography was the Fortress of Solitude
-About a year before Byrne took over the Superbooks, DC was creating Superman content to be printed overseas, because for whatever reason Superman was doing gangbusters in Germany. Because of that, DC wanted simple and self-contained stories for the Superman/Action Comics books so it could be easily translated. One of Waid’s first stories was doing a story in that period where the Fortress gets robbed.
-Says that he’s a big fan of PKJ, Williamson, and Taylor’s recent books, there’s a post-Bendis intent to get back the mainstays of the character that he’s a fan of. Thinks that Bendis’ idea of revealing Clark’s identity came from a place of wanting to remind kids that they need to be their best/truest selves, but Waid isn’t sure that Superman is the best character to do that (mentions that Superman is the read identity and Clark is the disguise and anyone who disagrees can fight him on that lol)
-It’s hard to introduce new characters that last
-Credits Paul Levitz and Keith Giffen with restoring Darkseid to prominence
-Talks a bit about his time with the Impact Line at DC
-Editorial came to him with the idea of expanding the WF’s era to include the Titans, they’re about halfway done with the first 6 issues. It’s less about punching and more about the team dynamics
-Thinks Dick is a better team leader than Bruce is
-Teases that Boy Thunder is going to be appearing “soon”
-Last Days of Lex Luthor will be bimonthly, serves as Waid’s final word on certain aspects of Superman albeit not the character as a whole