Review: Batman/Superman Vol. 6- Universe’s Finest

Quick Summary

Pros: The opening story contains an exciting and compelling mystery. This story also does a great job in showcasing who Superman and Batman are as heroes. The closing story is pure fun and feels like it was tailor made for hardcore fans. The artwork is great throughout the volume.

Cons: The crossover issues here are not presented well.

Overall: Though this volume is atypical in its storytelling presentation, it has a level of quality and entertainment that would blow most books out of the water. It tells two solid stories, one meaningful and mysterious and another fun and celebratory. It stumbles a bit in executing the crossover event it contains, but even this is not enough to bring down the book’s positives. This is a volume for anyone who wants to read two great stories about Superman and Batman.

Story

Batman/Superman Vol. 6: Universe’s Finest is another rousing success for the Batman/Superman series. This comic starts with a meaningful story that gets to the center of who Superman and Batman are as characters. It then ends with a ridiculously fun story that appears to be designed to simply celebrate what we already know about Superman and Batman as characters. The only misstep here is The Final Days of Superman (Review) crossover chapters, which tell a much better story when not presented like they are here. Overall, the positives far outweigh the negatives and make this a volume more than worth of reading.

(spoilers start here)

The volume starts out with a short story, written by Tom Taylor, that has Superman and Batman investigate the death of a giant alien on the moon. This adventure really has everything fans could want from a Batman/Superman style story: cool fight scenes, a thrilling twist, a compelling mystery, and even a bit of humorous banter between the two heroes. It is a wonderful story through and through and honestly may be one of the best arcs from this entire series.

However, what really makes this portion of the book worth reading is how much Tom Taylor seems to understand about Superman and Batman. This arc sees the Man of Steel and the Caped Crusader show off the best aspects of their character and do it in ways that are fun to read. Superman shows off his compassion and natural affinity for inspiration by convincing the man who just stabbed him to join his fight, meanwhile Batman outmaneuvers villains far more powerful than himself through careful planning and the ability to play on his enemy’s overconfidence. This is a story I would recommend to anyone looking for a quick example as to who Superman and Batman are and how they work together.

After this, The Final Days of Superman crossover takes place. While this story is good when read in full (see our review here to find out why) it does not read well when fragmented like this. Major and crucial story elements are skipped over and only briefly summarized. The end of the storyline is even left out completely. Overall, I would recommend reading this crossover event but not in such a disjointed manner (see our reading order here for the best experience).

The volume closes with another short, and completely independent, story about a Superman and Batman adventure. This story, written by Frank Tieri, sees both heroes’ rogues gallery argue over which hero poses the largest threat. The heroes are captured by the villains but are able to break free and ultimately end up having the same debate with each other a while later.

Overall, I would simply describe this arc as pure, unapologetic fun. It doesn’t try to do something revolutionary or genre defining, it just tells an entertaining story with a silly, yet solid, premise. It also, in many ways, feels like a love letter to fans, as it is clearly designed to mirror/spoof popular fan debates and pay homage to many popular elements from Superman and Batman’s past.

(spoilers end here)

Art

The first story arc from Universe’s Finest features pencils by Robson Rocha and inks by Jay Leisten. The artwork here is realistic but not so realistic that it becomes overly gritty or dark. Instead, elements of light and darkness are balanced and shift in order to react to the tone of the story being told. Character designs here are great and the level of detail is just what it needs to be. All in all, this is a great looking story arc.

This is followed by work from Doug Mahnke on The Final Days of Superman (Review) crossover piece. Mahnke’s work on DC titles has always been great; he brings a level of detail to the characters and backgrounds that plays out perfectly. This volume is no different, as his take on Batman and Superman both look great.

Though the final story features artwork that is far less detailed that the previous two stories, it sill manages to impress visually. This more light and stylized take on Metropolis and Gotham matches the less serious tone of the story being told. Pencilers Alex Konat and Giuseppe Cafaro clearly understand this and adjust their artwork accordingly. This portion of the book is not quite as visually stunning as the other portions, but it sill looks nice and helps enhance the overall quality of the volume.

Continuity

Batman/Superman Vol. 6: Universe’s Finest does not directly continue the story from Batman/Superman Vol. 5: Truth Hurts (Review). Instead, the only connected piece of storyline here involves Superman: The Final Days of Superman (see our reading order here for more details). However, the majority of this collection is set in an unspecified period of time and can be read at any moment.

Batman/Superman series ends with this volume and does not directly pick up at any point in time. However, portions of Superman’s story continue in Superman: The Final Days of Superman (Review).

This volume also references and continues the stories from other comic books, detailed below:

• The Justice League’s fight with Darkseid, from Justice League Vol. 1: Origin (Review), is mentioned.
• Tusk mentions someone taking his ivory. This happened in Batman and Robin Annual #2, now collected in Batman and Robin Vol. 5: The Big Burn.
• Superman lists of three events that are causing him to die. These include:
  • Superman being imprisoned in Kryptonite back in Superman: Savage Dawn (Review) (Reading Order). This story could also be found in Action Comics Vol. 9: Last Rites (Review).
  • Superman being thrown into the pits of Apokolips back in Justice League Vol. 7: Darkseid War Part 1 (Review).
  • Superman’s fight with Rao in Justice League: Power and Glory (Review).
• Batman says he brought Damian back from the dead. This happened in Batman and Robin Vol. 7: Robin Rises.
• Supergirl was last seen in Supergirl Vol. 6: Crucible.