Review: World’s Finest #2

I haven’t talked with anyone who is a big fan of Damian Wayne.  The side-kick-wanna-be grates on every nerve and it’s a wonder he’s able to get anything done with his rotten attitude.  There are probably more people who like the Guardian, Metropolis’ Science Police Field Commander. But he too tends to push certain buttons that turns some people off.  Toss them both in an issue of World’s Finest, and watch the fireworks fly.

World’s Finest #2
Written by Sterling Gates
Art by Ramons Bachs and Rodney Ramos
Covers by Phil Noto

Even with Superman absent, and Mon-El doing what Mon-El does when he’s not pretending to be Jonathan Kent, there’s still plenty of crime for the Science Police to deal with.  When Damian Wayne shows up following a the trail of a stolen piece of cryo technology stolen from WayneTech, he finds himself on the wrong end of the Guardian’s idea of law.  The young Damian is able to escape police custody, and uses his detective skills to follow the clues which leads to the secret lair of both the Parasite and Mr. Freeze.

The two villains have teamed to capture Mon-El and freeze him so Parasite can continue to drain his powers, and Mr. Freeze can do something devious – because that’s what Mr. Freeze does.   For the two heroes of the issue, the story pretty much follows every team up we’ve ever read – conflicting goals, lead to fisticuffs before the two agree to work together, bickering all the way.  Sterling Gates has amped Damian’s personality up to eleven, as he comes off as one of the biggest condescending jerks we’ve ever seen. Even though he has the patience of Job, the Guardian’s still able to get in a few well place jabs that put things into perspective.  The best line of the entire issue goes to the Guardian.  The two jab at one another over their names, and as Damian leaves, and shouts, “My name is Robin!” the Guardian retorts with “No, kid, not yet it’s not.”

For the numerous villains running around the DC Universe, something big is building as Toy Boy and Toyman unveil a weapon we haven’t seen since the Public Enemies storyline from the other superhero team-up book.

As mentioned, the story is pretty typical as far as team-ups go.  For many readers, the biggest ding will be the inclusion of Damian Wayne who continues to push the buttons that so many people despise him for. That makes it a difficult read for anyone not comfortable allowing an 11 year old running around telling off his elders.  For those who like the formulaic approach to story telling, this issue does the job with aplomb.  For those wanting to fit the story into the overall Superman series, it appears to be set just before Mon-El’s return, but before Flamebird and Nightwing are exonerated during that whole Reactron story arc.

The art is solid, but has some weird distortion going on where the Guardian and the Science Police look like those kid friendly super-hero figures one finds in the toy aisle at Wal-Mart.  The art continues in that manner throughout the issue, and it made me wonder if Damian wasn’t suffering some sort of large head syndrome. It’s rather distracting and takes one out of the issue quite a bit with the startling panels of Robin lurching through the panel on his way to bust some heads.  The covers by Phil Noto are nice, but I don’t think I’ll be peaking under the covers again any time soon.

Sterling’s pacing and structure are solid, just nothing outstanding.  For a team-up issue, World’s Finest could be a lot worse than it is.  It could also be a lot better in attempting to tell a story a bit differently than what we can currently find in one of the big event titles, or a copy of Brave and the Bold.  For his reason, World’s Finest #2 earns a very middle of the road 2.5 out of 5 Stars.