Batman/Superman: World’s Finest #48 Is the Most Fun You Can Have With a Comic Book (Review)

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Superman and Batman are DC’s greatest team, one that echoes through the multiverse. This issue takes readers to Earth-3, the world where the superheroes are the villains. We’re usually used to the Crime Syndicate being in charge, but at this time in Earth-3’s history, there is no Crime Syndicate. There’s just Ultraman and Owlman, and that’s where this issue takes us. This is such a mindblowingly simple idea, that it’s amazing we haven’t gotten this story before. Getting to see Ultraman and Owlman (and Superwoman) before they have their team behind them and are at their full prestige is one of those ideas that is just too good, and Waid does an amazing job with it.

Rating: 5 out of 5

Pros	Cons
Mark Waid writing a story about Ultraman and Owlman is the greatest sentence ever and this story is even better than that
Marcus To’s art is gorgeous throughout the book
A flawless read start to finish

Batman/Superman: World’s Finest #48 Offers An Unexpected, Joyous Team-Up

Waid is DC’s continuity master, so his giving readers a book like this is perfect. This is everything you could want from these two characters. He establishes their interplay, their avarice and evil shining through in little ways, but there’s still a bond. We also get to see them as the beings they are on their world: unbeatable alphas. Ultraman is Superman if he didn’t hold back, and Owlman is casually bloodthirsty. We get to see them go on a quest looking for a certain discovery, tearing through the Doom Syndicate and Will Magnus and his Metal Men. If you had told me years ago I’d get a quasi-Silver Age starring Ultraman and Owlman working together before they made the Crime Syndicate, I wouldn’t believe you, and that’s why this story is so great: you never expected it, never knew you wanted it, and now that you have it you never want it to go away. I want this book every month for the rest of my life now.

Marcus To Steps Into This Book and Makes It His

Image COurtesy of DC Comics

Dan Mora left massive shoes on this book. Mora is the best of his era, so anyone else is going to be a step down. The art in this book has been great since he left, it just hasn’t reached the same level. However, looking at this issue, Marcus To is doing his best to make this book his own artistically, and if he can keep up the quality of this issue going on, he’ll succeed at that.

The page layouts of this book help the story flow beautifully, the panels are richly detailed, the character acting and figure work are on point, the action feels hardhitting and kinetic, and To’s style really makes the whole thing sing. This is a new story arc, taking readers somewhere they’ve never gone before — the past of Earth-3 — and the art gives the book that feel. The stylistic change-up from the last issue, fits the different world like a glove. The new visual identity of the book gives this new story a lot of luster, like a mini-reboot of sorts, selling just how great it is.

World’s Finest gave DC one of its best 2025 stories, and it easily has the highest pedigree in all of superhero comics right now. It’s a book that has been casually brilliant for years, to the extent that we’ve just sort expected it to be great. However, this new story, starring the Earth-3 versions of the World’s Finest Duo (or in this case, the World’s Foulest Duo, I guess) is the kind of shock to the system that makes this book work so well. Stories like this remind us just how good Mark Waid is at all of this, with To giving readers some gorgeous art that will known their socks off.

Batman/Superman: World’s Finest #48 is on sale now.

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