Batman and Superman, together again for the first time?!
Welcome, dear reader, to the world's finest double feature! Two separate sensational tales! Twice the action! Twice the thrills! You can either follow one story line to the end and then come back for the other—
—or follow both story lines simultaneously! The choice is yours!
Batman/Superman is a 2019 comic book series published by DC Comics. Launched as part of the New Justice relaunch, the series is written by Joshua Williamson with art by David Marquez.
The series follows plot threads from Scott Snyder's The Batman Who Laughs miniseries, itself a spinoff from Snyder's Justice League (2018) and Dark Nights: Metal. In it, the World's Finest discover that the last surviving invader from the Dark Multiverse, the Batman Who Laughs, has infected six heroes with his special brand of Joker serum.
Williamson's run would end with issue #15 as part of the DC Infinite Frontier relaunch. Starting with issue #16, the series would be written by Gene Luen Yang and illustrated by Ivan Reis, Danny Miki, and Sabine Rich.
Yang's run would feature two storylines featuring Batman and Superman in two seperate worlds where the other hero doesn't exist:
- Superman stars in "The World of Tomorrow": while Clark Kent, Lois Lane, and Jimmy Olsen are covering Dr. Martha Wayne's new invention, the omni-battery, the press conference is attacked by the Unknown Wizard and Superman must save the day (and his friends), while also uncovering a mystery.
- Batman and Robin star in "The World of the Knight": when the Spider Lady, the Queen of Metropolis's Underworld, tries to break out some of the inmates of Arkhan Asylum, she tells the Caped Crusader and the Boy Wonder that the Warden of Arkham is part of a secret society that's making the world darker and more dangerous.
Yang's run would last for seven issues (#16-22), plus a 2021 annual, followed by the series' cancellation. Issues #16-21 form a single story arc, with the annual serving as an epilogue, while issue #22 is an unrelated one-shot story featuring Mr. Mxyzptlk. The entire run has been collected in the volume Batman/Superman: The Archive of Worlds. It is followed by Batman/Superman: World's Finest.
Batman/Superman (2019) provides examples of:
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Williamson's run
- Achilles' Heel: Batman manages to retake control of the Fortress of Solitude by targeting Blue Beetle's scarab since, unlike Jaime, it's not affected by the corruption.
- All Your Base Are Belong to Us: The infected Blue Beetle uses his alien tech to hack the Fortress of Solitude.
- All Your Powers Combined: As Gordon explains, the Batman Who Laughs' plan for the six infected is to use them to corrupt everyone on Earth the same way they have been. They all possess one of different "energies" needed to open a gate to the Batman Who Laughs' fallen universe and bring in his old Watchtower, which has been repurposed as a massive weapon that will do this when directed at the planet and activated.
- And This Is for...: When beating up Superman, infected Donna Troy invokes the names of Wally West, Nightwing and the other Titans, saying she is getting payback for how they have suffered because of his and Batman's actions.
- Artifact Name: In previous DC continuities, the Secret Six was a group of anti-heroes made up of characters who were varying degrees of evil, ranging from ones who were fundamentally decent but violent to ones who were cold-blooded and malicious. Here, it's used as a name of the Infected as a group.
- Bait-and-Switch:
- The first issue opens with a seemingly ordinary day in the lives of Batman and Superman, with Batman on a front page after defusing some situation in Gotham and calling over Superman to the Watchtower, saying he needs Clark. When Superman arrives, he finds the rest of the League horribly killed and these events turn out to take place during the birth of the Batman Who Laughs.
- It seems that the Rabid Robin Batman and Superman find is the kidnapped boy, Danny Mills, who has been converted. Instead, this seems to have been intended as a misdirect and he is actually a corrupted Billy Batson.
- Batman Gambit: When Batman and Superman bring Gordon and his old Batman mech-suit to the Fortress of Solitude, it turns out that Gordon and the Batman Who Laughs had planned for this (with him even pretending to slip and reveal that Gordon was infected), using the armor as a Trojan horse to smuggle in the infected Blue Beetle and hack the Fortress system.
- Brainwashed and Crazy: The Infected, six victims of Batman Who Laughs who have been driven mad by his version of Joker serum.
- Call-Back: When he is exposed as infected, Gordon summons the Powered Armor he wore during his time as Batman in Batman (2011) and controls it like a drone to fight Batman.
- Continuity Nod:
- When Wonder Woman calls out Batman and Superman for their secret-keeping, we see scenes from The Button and Superman Reborn.
- In the last scene with Superman and Batman in issue #6, it's made clear that Superman by that point has gone public with his real identity, which happened in the ongoing Superman books.
- The Corrupter: The Batman who Laughs weaponized this trait to destroy Superman and Batman's trust in other heroes. He revealed to them that he infected six superheroes with his brand of Joker Serum, forcing the two to suspect everyone in order to find them before they undergo the same transformation as he did. His victims are Shazam!, Hawkman, Supergirl, Jaime Reyes, Donna Troy and Jim Gordon, who was turned in The Batman Who Laughs miniseries. Word Of God says he wants to see everyone become the worst versions of themselves.
- Crazy-Prepared: In the Annual issue, the fake reality fight between Batman and Superman at the Fortress of Solitude takes this already strong trait of Batman's and turns up the dial on it even further, with him having a backup plan against Superman even in there.
- Crisis Crossover: The run, especially the "Who Are the Secret Six?" story arc, is a part of the massive DC Year of the Villain storyline.
- Dead Guy on Display: In issue #5, Superman finds himself in the Watchtower from the Batman Who Laughs' universe. Near the strung-up corpses of the other League members, he turns and sees a special display case for the skeletons of that universe's equivalents of himself, Lois and Jon.
- Deconstruction: The first Annual story, "Freestyle Imp Battle: Batman versus Superman", deconstructs the age-old debate of whether or not Batman or Superman would win in a fight, with Mxyzptlk and Bat-Mite creating a kind of temporary pocket realities where the two somehow get pushed into fighting each other. The two imps keep one-upping each other, coming up with grandiose scenarios that pit one of them against the other in order to make their cases. But as Batman and Superman point out when they realize what's happening, they both make up more and more contrivances and conveniences to create conflict between them, hype up their skills and downplay their weaknesses. They also argue the real answer is that they would never fight each other to the death like they are suggesting because whatever difficulties might arise between them, they would find a peaceful resolution.
- Evil Makeover: The appearances of the Infected change when they are revealed, either incidentally or because they change their outfits:
- Shazam has a different cape and wears his hood more often than usual.
- Gordon takes to wearing a mask.
- Blue Beetle, calling himself "the Scarab", changes his costume with a different, scary mask.
- Donna Troy has a new outfit and a domino mask.
- Hawkman has become his Earth-3 Evil Counterpart, Sky Tyrant.
- Supergirl gets a new outfit with wrappings around her arms, a new dress with belts along the side and a skirt made of frills as well as black splotches around her eyes.
- Foreshadowing: In the opening of issue #1, Perry White says Batman is a myth created to sell newspapers, which doesn't line up with current continuity, where Batman is a known public figure. As we soon find out, that's because this is not the main Earth.
- Godzilla Threshold: Even after they have been corrupted, Superman is reluctant to really hit back against Supergirl and the others. Then he finds the bodies of the Batman Who Laughs's universe's Justice League, Lois and Jon and fully realizes just how dire the situation is and stops holding back.
- Guns Akimbo: Infected Gordon fights Batman using a pair of handguns.
- Hurl It into the Sun: With the Secret Six fought off, Superman manages to destroy the Batman Who Laughs' satellite by pushing it into the sun.
- "I Know You're in There Somewhere" Fight:
- During the first fight with corrupted Shazam, he turns back into Billy Batson and asks Superman for help; he tries to motivate Billy to fight the corruption's control, but Billy reveals he was faking it and transforms back.
- At the Fortress, Blue Beetle briefly manages to snap out of his infection when his Beetle suit fights it; sadly, it doesn't last.
- My Significance Sense Is Tingling: Corrupted Shazam using his powers for evil is enough to make the Phantom Stranger and Zatanna feel it physically, with him having a nosebleed and her feeling dizzy.
- Nice Job Breaking It, Hero!: Supergirl shows up at the Fortress to help Batman and Superman! Unfortunately, she catches the thrown infection Batarang intended for Superman, which infects her instead and gives the Batman Who Laughs the last piece he needs to run his weapon to corrupt the whole world.
- Nobody Here but Us Statues: When Batman and Superman investigate the Batman Who Laughs' Batcave, one of the statues of his Robins turns out to be a real person blending in.
- Obliviously Evil: Most of The Batman Who Laughs' Infected have, on some level, accepted that they're the bad guys now. They may revel in being evil or think they're being Necessarily Evil, but they know what they've become. Supergirl, however, seems to genuinely believe that she's not only still a hero, she's a better hero, and can't understand why nobody else recognises this.
- Sequel Hook: The last issue in the "Who Are the Secret Six?" arc ends with General Zod approaching Ra's al Ghul, proposing an alliance; for some reason, Ra's does not like the offer, and Zod threatens to fight him for the Lazarus Pit; the conflict between them would be at the center of the next story arc, "Kandor Compromise".
- Wham Line: The Rabid Robin revealing he's not Danny Mills:Rabid Robin: Don't you recognize me?
Superman: Oh no...
Rabid Robin: My name's Billy. Billy Batson.
[SHAZAM!] - Wham Shot: The full page panel of the skeletons of the Batman Who Laughs' universe's Kent family.
- What the Hell, Hero?: In the aftermath in issue #6, Wonder Woman is not happy that Batman and Superman kept big secrets like they just did.
Yang's run
- Alternate Self: Lois Lane and the Spider Lady.
- Alternate Universe: Both "The World of Tomorrow" and "The World of the Knight" are vastly different from the main DCU (referred to as "Earth-Zero"):
- In "The World of Tomorrow", both Martha and Bruce survived the mugging in Crime Alley, but Bruce was traumatized. Twenty years later, Martha has become a genius inventor and created devices to improve the world, while Bruce can't keep a job. Also, Martha and Alfred are having an affair and Alfred appears to be using Bane's venom to stop intruders. Lex Luthor is an unknown genius, with him claiming that all of his ideas were stolen by Dr. Wayne from inside his head.
- In "The World of the Knight", a piece of Kryptonite punctured Kal-El's spaceship while in flight, so when it crashed, baby Kal-El was already dead. The Kents sold the spaceship to a private collector who then gave it to Warden Luthor of Arkham Asylum. The Daily Planet was also bombed, with everyone inside killed, and then Metropolis went to hell. Like Gotham, it is now ruled by criminal gangs... the largest of which is run by the Spider Lady, Lois Lane.
- Answer Cut: In the annual, Lois and Jimmy tell Commissioner Gordon (in the World of Tomorrow, where Batman has never existed) that Superman has asked for help with his current problem. On the last panel of the page, Gordon asks disbelievingly who Superman would ask for help; the first panel of the next page shows Batman and Robin from the World of the Knight suddenly standing behind him.
- Body Horror:
- In the World of the Knight, the warden of Arkham Asylum runs deranged experiments on the inmates, with results like a version of the Joker with extra mouths all over his body.
- In an attempt to make him strong, Martha injects her son with a serum designed to make him as powerful as Superman. He becomes “Bizarro Two-Face” as a result.
- Bookends: Counting the Annual as the last issue of the arc, it begins and ends with issues which use creative formatting to tell simulataneous stories about the World of Tomorrow and the World of the Knight that join up at the end.
- Canon Character All Along: It seems that the Spider Lady is a repurposed serial villain. However, at the end of issue 16, it's revealed she's really that world's Lois Lane.
- Cool Gate: The realities of the Worlds of Tomorrow and the Knight have places that are thinner, where there are "holes", and one person can fall into the other world. This is what happens to Lois at the end of issue 16.
- Crapsaccharine World: What the World of Tomorrow actually is, extracting its undesirable elements thanks to Martha Wayne and sending them to Warden Luthor on the World of the Knight to be experimented on. The idea is to make the World of Tomorrow a utopia that Auteur.io won’t destroy, engineered by the last survivor of a world Auteur.io destroyed for not being perfect, Dr. Atom aka another alternative Lex Luthor.
- Demonic Possession: Auter.io is eventually revealed to be some sort of technological armor possessing the body of a forgotten god of stories, the son of the World Forger.
- Double-Sided Book: The Annual. Start reading from one cover, it's a story about Superman visiting the World of the Knight to defeat its version of Lex Luthor; flip it over and start reading from the other cover, and it's a story about Batman visiting the World of Tomorrow to recapture its version of Two-Face. Both stories end with Superman and Batman meeting up in a double-page spread where the panels are arranged in a spiral such that whichever direction you're reading from the panel at the top left follows on from the previous page.
- Dragon with an Agenda: Auteur.io ropes in an alternate Etrigan to do his bidding though Etrigan is angry he isn’t the “star” of his own story. Superman and Batman use this to get Etrigan to turn on Auteur.io.
- Genre Throwback: Both "The World of Tomorrow" and "The World of the Knight" are throwbacks to the The Golden Age of Comic Books, although both are set during the "present".
- Heel–Face Turn: The heroes are able to reverse the armor’s control, transforming Auteur.io into Observer.io who now just catalogs the different worlds.
- Large Ham: Auteur.io, who is responsible for both the Worlds of Tomorrow and the Knight. When Superman and Batman break into the Archive of Worlds, he narrates their actions and then berates Superman for his "flat" acting:Auteur.io: Where is your sense of drama?! Where is your awe?! Most importantly, where is your fear?! If you two amateurs can't squeeze out a drop of authentic emotion, I'll have to squeeze it for you!
- Locked into Strangeness: After the Daily Planet was bombed, when Lois Lane woke up from her coma, her hair was completely white.
- The Maker: Auteur.io, the head of the Archive of Worlds. He created both "The World of Tomorrow" and "The World of the Knight" and many other worlds. He can even pluck items from those worlds to use, like a Kryptonite ring.
- My God, What Have I Done?: Batman reveals who he is to Martha Wayne who immediately ends their plans.
- Mythology Gag:
- The Spider Lady was the name of the villain of Superman (1948), who was, herself, based on the Scarlet Widow from the radio dramas.
- Similarly, the Unknown Wizard is based on the Wizard, the villain from the second Batman serial.
- Doctor Atom is also based on a Superman serial villain from Atom Man vs. Superman, the Atom Man. Who was also Lex Luthor.
- When Batman ends up in the World of Tomorrow’s caverns under Wayne Manor, Lois mentions Martha Wayne which cause Batman to wonder out loud why she should say Martha’s name, similar to the famous exchange in Batman v Superman.
- Narrating the Present: Auteur.io has a penchant for providing his own hammy narration. He gets annoyed several times when Superman and Batman don't play along.Auteur.io: Superman tries to resist the deadly radiation of Auteur.io's Kryptonite ring, but it's too much for him. As for Batman? He's worse than useless! Auteur.io even turns his own weapons against him! With his last breath, Superman utters his final words...
Batman: I'm many things, Auteur.io—
Auteur.io: That's not your cue, you imbecile!
Batman: —but useless isn't one of them. [saves Superman] - Painting the Medium: The first issue has both "The World of Tomorrow" and "The World of the Knight" stories seen as if they are film strips, with the former running along the top half of each page and the latter along the bottom half... and then burns start appearing in the film strips until a hole appears and Lois from "The World of Tomorrow" falls into "The World of the Knight".
- Prima Donna Director: Auteur.io, although he isn't directing films, but worlds.
- Red Herring: In issue 16, the warden of Arkham Asylum is bald, with a beard, and round spectacles, leading to the assumption that he is Hugo Strange, but in issue 17, he's revealed to be that world's Lex Luthor.
- Running Gag: Robin has trigonometry homework due. Both Alfred and Lois comment on this.
- Sequel Hook: The final page of the arc has one of Darkseid's minions bring him news of the Archive of Worlds' existence, and Darkseid beginning to ponder how he might make use of it.
- Stealth Hi/Bye:
- In issue 16, Batman and Robin steathily disappear at the end of a conversation with the warden of Arkham Asylum. He takes his glasses off and polishes them while talking and when he glances up he discovers they've disappeared on him mid-sentence.
- In the annual, Batman travels to the World of Tomorrow to help Superman with a problem. At one point he steathily appears behind Commissioner Gordon; since this version of Gordon has never dealt with Batman before, he's taken completely by surprise and does a wild take before complaining that it's impolite to sneak up on people.
- Taking You with Me: Dr. Atom blows himself up in an attempt to get revenge on Auteur.io.
- Thin Dimensional Barrier: The Worlds of Tomorrow and the Knight are both suffering from this:Spider Lady/Lois Lane: All my life, I've been haunted by this feeling that my existence has been edited. That pieces were left on the cutting room floor. And I wasn't the only one. Jimmy felt it, too. Before he died, he told me about a theory of his...that reality is thinner where things are missing—Lois Lane: —so thin you can burn a hole through it.
- Two-Headed Coin: In the Annual, Superman asks Batman to come to the World of Tomorrow and help recapture their version of Two-Face. This version of Two-Face hasn't yet settled on the gimmick of using a coin to make decisions, so Batman gives him the idea and then sneakily replaces his coin with a two-sided one that always tells him to take the less evil option.
- Wham Line: At the end of issue 16:Lois Lane: Where am I...?Batman: You. You're the Spider Lady.
- White Hair, Black Heart: The Spider Lady has white hair and runs the largest criminal gang in Metropolis. But she isn't evil, she just knows the world is wrong.