Not Batman vs. Superman

The Batman/Superman Movie: World’s Finest
Review by Kerey McKenna

To kick off my series of reviews of great Batman/Superman (and sometimes Wonder Woman) crossovers, I will start with the first time I saw my two childhood heroes together on the same screen: The Batman/Superman Movie: World's Finest (1997). This animated TV film (full running time just over an hour) officially bridged the successful long running Batman: The Animated Series and its Superman companion series. Much as the new DC Comics movie, Batman vs. Superman: Dawn of Justice attempts to found a shared cinematic universe, World’s Finest is a crucial link in a chain of animated projects in a DC Animated Universe, culminating a decade later in the TV series Justice League Unlimited.

Using the established worlds of both shows, World’s Finest hits the ground running. Given the iconic characters and brisk pace, even someone with only a passing knowledge of comic book lore can follow the character motivations and plot. The Joker (played with fiendish glee by Mark Hamill) steals a large chunk of kryptonite, heads to Metropolis, and asks a king's ransom of corrupt business mogul Lex Luthor (Clancy Brown) to eliminate Superman once and for all. Fortunately Batman (voiced by Kevin Conroy) is fast on the Joker's heels; he teams up with Superman (Tim Daley), and they form the "World's Finest" team to stop Luthor from ruling the city and the Joker from tearing it down.

I feel that this really works as a Superman/Batman project (and not a Superman versus Batman project) because it simultaneously creates a unified world that nevertheless contrasts the realms of Superman and Batman. The art has a classic feel to it (deliberately inspired by the Max Fleischer Superman shorts of the 40's). Gotham, with its tommy guns, fedoras, and art deco buildings clearly invokes the pulp origins of superheroes. In contrast, the retro-futurism of Metropolis reflects the space race era optimism of the post-World War II era when Superman was at the height of his popularity.

Instead of building up to a contrived slugfest between the title heroes (they soon reach a détente), the tension between the two is over Lois Lane (Dana Delany): it looks like Bruce Wayne just might win her heart and whisk her back to Gotham faster than a speeding bullet. Also, while conventional thinking holds that it is a challenge to script a conflict in which Batman can stand up to Superman's enemies, we see here that Superman also has quite the challenge: keeping up with a twisted and wicked intellect like the Joker’s.

Speaking of the Joker, a common critique of Batman vs. Superman: Dawn of Justice (which I predicted, based on the trailers) is that Jessie Eisenberg seems to be playing some kind of Joker/Lex Luthor mashup with the resources of a business tycoon and inventor but the tics and love of chaos-for-chaos’s-sake of the Joker. In contrast, World's Finest demonstrates the opportunity that Dawn of Justice lost by not having the Joker and Lex in the same story. In a tenuous alliance or at each other's throats, these two characters are a hoot to watch.

While the creators of Dawn of Justice claim that an R-rated director's cut is headed to DVD that smooths over some of the plot holes in the theatrical release (and delivers more violence), World’s Finest provides a more general-audience-appropriate take on these iconic characters.

Kerey McKenna is a contributing reviewer to Nerds who Read and SMOF for the annual Watch City Steampunk Festival, coming to Waltham, Massachusetts on May 7, 2016. Learn more at www.watchcityfestival.com.