Well, it’s over. It’s all over. This misguided debacle of a series has come to an end, and do you want to know the worst thing? This issue was really, really good. I loved it. Batman was so cool in this issue, Wonder Woman was a stone-cold assassin, and Superman was the most human we’ve seen him in this entire series. Paul Levitz’s story reaches a satisfying and immensely entertaining ending that I will try and separate from the nonsense that has been the last six months.
Right off the bat (ah-ha!) we have the most awesome thing I’ve seen in this series: Batman and Wonder Woman forging a sword made out of Kryptonite, complete with a Bat-Handle. Bruce turns into a Jedi Master all of a sudden and starts meditating as he waits for Intri to appear. The two wait it out in the Batcave, ready to do battle with the Sith Lord – I mean – warrior of Apokolips. Meanwhile in Metropolis, Lois is interviewing the man that she brought into the Daily Planet last issue. It appears that he falls under the control of Desaad or another of the Hunger Dogs and stabs Lois.
Across the globe, Clark and Kara are recovering from Kara’s fight with Intri when Clark hears Lois cry out. He flies around the world, but is too late to save her. The rest of the issue is an incredibly personal and touching tribute to Lois and how Clark managed in the aftermath of her death. But more importantly, we see Intri bite the dust, which brings about a pretty satisfying (if not questionable) end to a rather bland villain. Jed Dougherty’s pencils and inks look great throughout, and gives life to the characters in a way that we haven’t seen before. The story ended up being rather grounded and powerful for one that dealt with an intergalactic villain coming to kidnap Superman.
Let’s talk about all the weird inconsistencies and strange things that happen in this issue. First off, Batman and Wonder Woman are making a Kryptonite sword, which is bad-ass. But they do it because they think Intri is from Krypton, which she clearly is not. Then they use the sword to kill her, which means people from Apokolips are weak to Kryptonite? Why? Where did this come from? Did anyone else know about that?
Also, Batman treats the Greek gods like they’re fantasies, even though he’s friends with the daughter of one of them. He is also best friends with an alien, and is forging a sword to slay a being claiming to be a god herself. He evens calls the appearance of the gods a “mass hallucination,” but whatever. In a universe of aliens, Amazons, and parallel worlds, is it really that unreasonable to think that there could be Greek gods?
I’m a bit confused by the timeline in regards to Catwoman’s death. Bruce says that Helena and Selina are somewhere safe “deep undercover.” So did Bruce know that this was going to happen? And if so, did Selina die during the First Apokolips War? It’s nit-picky but the details of Selina’s death were always shady since Worlds’ Finest #0. And at the very end, Lois is shown holding some kind of recording device, when I thought she was keeping this in her own memory banks during the battle against Apokolips. It is a very cool image, though.
Recommended If…
- You want the final issue of Worlds’ Finest.
- You have some money to burn.
- You don’t like Lois Lane, because she dies. Then I suggest seeking help for hating a fictional character so deeply.
Overall: The universe played a real joke on us by having the series finale of this book be by far the best issue of the last six months. Worlds’ Finest was by no means an excellent, and most months it wasn’t even good. Hell, average would be a stretch most of the time, but at least it knew how to end an arc in style.
SCORE: 9/10
