Batman/Superman #5: A Pyrrhic Victory if a Victory at All

This issue was nothing short of heart-wrenching and heart-pounding as the World’s Finest take on the Batman Who Laughs’ Secret Six in a pitched battle, which saw them finally getting a win over the evil Batman. This book was almost all action from the beginning and we finally got to see Superman get angry after seeing just how evil The Batman Who Laughs was.

Joshua Williamson frames this issue as a race against time as Superman is tasked with stopping the alt-world Watchtower from crossing the threshold into Earth Prime. Unfortunately for Big Blue, King Shazam and Kara Zor-El stand in his way. This creates one of the more powerful scenes of the issue as Superman sees the fate of the world world’s Justice League and those of his alt-self with Lois and Jon – all of them nothing but skeletons.

Kara and Shazam taunt Superman with excellent lettering by John J. Hill and David Marquez draws one of his most dynamic and awesome splash pages as Superman grabs both of them by their necks and beats them both down with nothing but fury. Alejandro Sanchez’s use of red as the primary color for the background and Superman’s eyes is an excellent choice to convey his sheer anger. For the first time the Infected look like they’re afraid.

Batman, on the other hand, is doing his best to plan around The Batman Who Laughs and takes advantage of the Scarab technology to stop the Watchtower from coming in as a way to help Superman on the other end. Through this, Batman learns how much pain Jaime is always in because of the Scarab and Marquez plays on tht pain with Batman’s expression. Even as The Commissioner levels a gun to Batman’s head and Batman kicks him square in the gut, the Dark Knight has to hold his arm.

Calling back to the conversation the pair had in issue one, Batman tries to reassure Superman about letting Kara and Shazam escape because they have to stop the satellite. In the final moments, Batman reveals to Superman that he always took his words to heart when he said not to worry about them being villains. As Superman pushes the satellite into the sun and Batman depowers it with the Scarab piece, he tells his friend that he trusts him.

It’s a beautiful double splash page as Superman channels his inner Nolan Ryan and pitches the satellite into the sun and Batman weathers the surge of energy as the Scarab threatens to take over his body. What makes this even better is that the Commissioner screams in anger about the plan failing. 

Unfortunately for Batman and Superman, Sky Tyrant and Deathbringer had been called away during the fight and violently busted The Batman Who Laughs out of his prison, so the World’s Finest vow to never keep secrets that big from their allies again, knowing that this was mostly their fault.