Batman/Superman: World’s Finest #54
Written by Mark Waid
Art by Bruno Frenda
Colors by Luis Guerrero
Letters by Steve Wands
Cover Art by Dan Mora
Every time I think I’ve seen it all in Batman/Superman: World’s Finest, Mark Waid continues to find fun ways to surprise me. After a fun annual that featured Jonathan Kent and Alfred Pennyworth (if you haven’t read it, do yourself a favor and check it out), Waid gives us another one-off story before getting to the next main arc. The theme of this one you ask? One baseball game with the fate of the world in the balance. Should be easy for our heroes right? Wrong. Let’s get into it! Spoiler Warning Now in Effect for Batman/Superman: World’s Finest #54!
PLAY BALL!
This issue wastes no time jumping into the main story as we join Batman and Superman inside the Batcave as they discuss how to deal with mounting tensions between the ever-warring states of Biyala and Qurac. Just as they’re about to call the Justice League in, they are whisked away to Hell- yes, that’s right Hell- where a bunch of their allies have been gathered before the throne of Neron… bam, title card.
Now normally, I would go right past the title card and start talking to you all about the story, but with this particular issue I can’t do that without talking about something really cool that the creative team included along with the normal credits. Above the creative team’s names in this issue is a baseball diamond featuring all of the starting lineup in their defensive positions and every hero who has a spot on the bench as well as relief pitchers. As a huge baseball and New York Mets fan, April through October is one of my favorite sections of the year as baseball reigns supreme in the sports world. This little tidbit of art before the story fully kicks off was just really cool to see, and I loved that we got a little Dan Mora art cameo as well. If only Wonder Woman could’ve played first base for the Mets this year…
Am I going to analyze the heroes' defensive positions? 100% because I have no idea when baseball and DC will cross paths like this again. Black Lightning as the starting pitcher? Yeah, that’s a guy I could pencil in for a Cy Young award, especially with a tactician like Batman calling the shots as the catcher. The Superman - Plastic - Man - Flash outfield sounds like it would be the most dominant of all time. Good luck getting anything to drop on those three. The infield defense featuring Blue Beetle at third base, Bumblebee at shortstop, Robin on second and Wonder Woman on first has all the athleticism and strength needed to make sure the demons don’t get any easy infield hits. With a relief pitching core featuring Zantanna, Big Barda and Metamorpho and a bench featuring Elasti-girl, Black Canary and G.I. Robot, the heroes have quite the squad on their hands for one of the most important games of baseball played in the DC Universe’s history.
The Space Jam-esque plot doesn’t take long to get going as Neron, lord of Hell, lays out the terms of the baseball game to the heroes with a quick speech. The heroes must defeat his hand-picked demons in a game of America’s pastime, or else the demons from hell will continue stoking the flames of the Biyalan - Qurac conflict, and the war consumes the entire world. The heroes take their defensive positions and elect to let Neron’s demons bat first. Now, for those not familiar with baseball, this was a good decision by the heroes because they now get to bat second and get the last chance to score each inning. This is huge because that includes the ninth inning where they could win the game in a possible walk-off. This promotes a potentially important deus-ex-machina down the line in this issue… but I’m getting ahead of myself. It’s time to PLAY BALL!
There’s a cool subplot that begins here as well with Superman meeting a former player he used to idolize as a kid. He’s disappointed to find this player, Steet Wensler, in Hell and asks him how he ended up here. Wensler says that a lifetime of poor decisions led him there. Superman looks genuinely hurt that someone he looked up to could be this poor of a person, but he doesn’t let it distract him from the goal ahead: win the game, save the world. With the war between Biayla and Qurac nearing a fever pitch on Earth, the game picks up.
We don’t physically get to see all the innings of the game, but artist Bruno Frenda makes sure we still get the full picture of how competitive the game between the two teams is. We are gifted with a beautiful splash page depicting Batman, Black Lightning, Etrigan, Big Barda, Wonder Woman, Plastic Man, Superman, Blue Beetle, Robin, and Flash at various points during the first seven innings. As someone who is as baseball- and comic-obsessed as I am, this is something I wish I could get printed out and put on the wall in the nerdy room in my home. Frenda’s art shines throughout this issue but this splash was enough to make me a fan. The kinetic feel of his art is great for an issue featuring so many athletic feats, and the colors from Luis Guerrero are a perfect fit. We move on to the eighth inning where the heroes and demons are all tied up…
With the eighth inning on deck and the Hell Classic tied, the demons nastily begin to cheat by using some of their magic during the plays. The heroes see this and begin to strike back with some powers of their own as the eighth inning ratchets up the tension, urgency and super-power usage. Wonder Woman hits a ball so hard it rips the demon pitcher's arm up. Black Lightning and G.I Robot both use their lightning and shooting skills respectively to make sure the demons can’t press the advantage more than they already have. The heroes are almost able to make it out of the eighth tied but when Plastic Man is lit on fire by Neron, he drops an easy out and the demons take a one run lead into the ninth inning. It’s do or die time as the Biyala - Qurac conflict is almost hitting a fever pitch up on Earth.
These kinetic art sequences with the heroes and demons are the best art highlights of the issue. Stemming out of that incredible splash page before, Frenda continues to make this game look epic and I almost wish we could see this as a one-off animated feature at some point. The heroes using their abilities to try to take hold of the game and all that follows looks great. Although Adrian Gutierrez is once on art for issue #55, Frenda & Guerrero seem like they are going to be a great match for World’s Finest whenever they get the call again.
The Bottom of the Ninth
We’re now back live at the Hell Classic, and it's the bottom of the ninth! Two outs. Black Lightning is on first. The Flash is on second. The heroes are down to their last chance, and it's up to Rita Farr, Elasti-Girl, to mash the perfect hit to drive both runners home. With the weight of the entire world on her massive shoulders (loved the line about where her strike zone is!) Rita Farr, currently playing out the scenario every little kid plays in their head in their backyards, mashes a hit into the outfield and brings the Flash and Black Lightning home! The heroes win! Or do they…
Remember that ghostly baseball player Steet Wensler? Well, it turns out Neron had him in his pocket the entire time, and Wensler agrees that the Flash never touched third base, so he’s out. This obviously angers the heroes and could now mean the end of the world is within sight. Leave it to Superman and Batman to get Wensler to realize his mistake as they remind him that if he goes through with this, millions of people will lose their lives. Wensler has a change of heart, agrees to call the final play fairly, and the heroes win the game by a run! Wensler unfortunately doesn’t get the ending he hoped for as an enraged Neron sends him to an even deeper pit of Hell… The Earth is saved, and despite Neron trying to break this promise, he sends the heroes home. The issue ends with Superman visiting Wensler’s grave.
This was an extremely fun issue and one that shows that even the most zany concepts can work when the right creative team gets to work their magic. Waid and the incredible art team manage to make a simple baseball game extremely fun to read and look at, and this issue contains one of the best lines I’ve read in a comic all year: “Only Superman could bring hope to hell.” If that doesn’t perfectly describe who he is… I’m not sure what does. Superman, in the issue’s final line, refuses to credit himself completely but gives Wensler his flowers as he sacrificed whatever he had left in order to ensure the world would live. A lifetime of bad choices led him to finally make the biggest and best one he ever made.
Batman/Superman: World’s Finest #54 pits the heroes of the DC Universe against demons from Hell in a nine-inning classic of America’s pastime. This one-shot delivers the quality readers have come to expect from World’s Finest and has some of the most kinetic art I’ve seen in a book all year. Superman, Batman, and their allies have saved the world before but never with a walk-off shot in the ninth inning. This was a lot of fun.