Two cities at war, lost love reignited, a magic conspiracy, and on top of all that, a villainous plant monster orchestrating it all. You almost think it’d be too much to cover in only three issues. Sadly, you’d probably be right. Batman/Superman: World’s Finest #37 wraps up the team-up arc with Aquaman, and it has plenty of ground to cover to get us to the end. Last issue I commented on how each story thread felt mostly separate from one another, and now that it’s time for them to come together, few of them feel as though they had enough space to fully flesh out their resolutions.
Each section of the story only has a few pages before we jump to another one so that it can have its turn to wrap everything up, and then we’re back again. The main plot of the fight against Woodrue feels the most complete, both because it’s a relatively simple action sequence and it has the most time to develop. With the cliffhanger left from last issue of Woodrue trying to take over Swamp Thing’s body, we get a fun sequence of Superman, Batman, Robin, and Swamp Thing all working together to defeat him.
The initial fight is mainly resolved by Swamp Thing’s willpower winning out over Woodrue’s, but that only leads to a different scene where they have to battle a giant monster version of Woodrue. This is definitely the most visually interesting scene of the issue, as the gargantuan plant monster crushes our heroes in a display that makes you truly feel the weight of his power. Artist Adrián Gutiérrez and especially colorist Matt Herms do a great job here creating a fight that’s more than just your typical superhero punching.
Meanwhile, the love triangle between Superman, Lori, and King Ronal prevents the political alliance necessary to win the day. After the blink-and-you-miss-it end to the war last issue, all they need is for Ronal to agree to help them and stop the conflict between their peoples. Superman is blameless of course, but Lori’s decision to kiss him sends Ronal into a jealous rage as he storms off before Superman even has a chance to finish saying “wait, I can explain”.
However, all it really took to settle the spurned monarch was for Aquaman to sit down and give him a good talk about how important it is that he fulfills his kingly responsibilities. This is good enough, and Ronal decides to stop moping and team up with Aquaman. They use their magic to defeat Woodrue’s magic so that Superman and Batman can finish him off. The day is saved, hooray.
The story closes out by wrapping up one last thread and having Lori explain to Ronal why it is she kissed Superman. It turns out that she felt lonely because he had shut himself off from her, which in turn was because he felt insecure about not measuring up to Superman as her first love. As with the last Ronal problem, all this takes is Lori explaining that she loves him most of all. Their relationship is saved, hooray.
Recommended If
- You want to see a big underwater monster fight
- The relationship and politics of Atlanteans interest you
- You’re a Swamp Thing fan and want to see him team up with more heroes
Overall
All of the storylines for this arc get wrapped up in nice little bows, but perhaps they could have used more time to feel fully fleshed out. There are a lot of big, high level concepts for a comic to cover in only three issues, and in order to finish on time many conflicts are resolved within a few pages, if not a single conversation. That being said, the overall adventure is still fun as the comic often is, especially the primary plot of the battle against Professor Woodrue.
Score: 7/10
