DC’s Masterpiece Series Reaches Milestone Issue, And We Need More Like It

Back in the early days of comics, all kinds of series could run for a virtually unlimited number of issues. The original run of Action Comics ran for nine hundred and four issues before being rebooted with a new number one. Up until the ‘90s, practically anyone could hold an ongoing series. Heck, Lois Lane had her own comic that lasted for one hundred thirty-seven issues, and heck, Sgt. Rock put out four hundred twenty-two. Nowadays, it’s much rarer for comics that aren’t following core characters to even consider reaching those heights, and even for heroes like Batman, their series are likely to relaunch with new volumes and new number ones every couple of years or so. 

All of this is to say that comics have a hard time sticking around for a long time nowadays. That’s what makes it so impressive and important that one of DC’s best ongoing series reached a massive milestone. Batman/Superman: World’s Finest just released issue #50, and the most impressive part is that this series doesn’t follow mainline continuity at all. This series follows the world’s finest team, Superman, Batman, and Robin, as they deal with all kinds of wacky and heart-pounding adventures, set in DC’s not-so-distant past. If this spectacular issue proves anything, it’s that we need more series like this.

Superman, Batman, and Infinite Potential

This special 50th issue was all about celebrating the journey that our heroes have taken thus far. Superman and Batman pursue Dr. Destiny into the Dreamstone after he cast an insomnia spell, keeping the world awake for five days straight. The League was off-world, so they were unaffected and the only heroes who could chase him down. Zatana transported them inside the stone, and the heroes immediately spawned in a Superman-ified version of the 1960’s Batman show’s Batmobile.

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This Batman and Superman Story Is Still One Of The World’s Finest’s Best

They traveled throughout the realm created by their dreams and memories, with everything made from aspects of their adventures inside this series. They crashed into the Doom Patrol, passed a statue of the Devil Nezha, and were haunted by Boy Thunder’s visage. All the while, a divide grew between them. Their repressed anger at each other roared to the surface and was twisted into new forms. The best friends turned on each other, trying to rip each other apart, before they realized that Dr. Destiny was manipulating them. The World’s Finest turned the tables on the villain and overwhelmed him with their own nightmares, showing him that they truly are the World’s Finest team.

The Freedom to Be Anything

This series prospers, not just because it has Batman and Superman at the helm, but because it’s free to do anything that it wants. This series is set in the early days of Batman and Superman’s careers, practically taking place in the Silver Age. It certainly captures that Silver Age style of anything can happen storytelling, with small, standalone adventures. This frees this series to do practically anything it wants, as the timeline it’s playing with is already very established, but this period in it is very loose. So long as they don’t go permanently killing anyone, this is an open sandbox with non-complicated versions of DC’s characters. 

That’s exactly why DC needs more series like this one. Comics are already a hard hobby to get into, but anyone can pick up an issue from this series and immediately join the fun. It’s the perfect introduction to the characters as it is them in their purest forms, but without the baggage that decades of storytelling have shoved onto them. Beyond a readability standpoint, this captures a niche that no other comics are approaching. The Silver Age is definitely well-regarded, but its stories are often considered dated or hard to read. They don’t mesh with modern standards and styles.

This series is the perfect playground to reexplore what made a past era of comics great, reinventing it for a new generation. Most of DC’s longest-running characters’ histories, from Wonder Woman to the Flash, are founded in this period. More series like this one for characters like them would be the perfect chance to establish why we love these characters in the first place. It would be informative and a truly fun playground for writers to play around with without needing to worry about continuity, but without needing to establish a whole new universe like in the Absolute books. This is the best of both worlds, offering freedom and a grounding continuity that is so much fun to use.

What character would you love to see get a series like this? Leave a comment in the comment section below and join the conversation on the ComicBook Forums!