World's Finest Comics


World's Finest Comics was an American comic book series published by DC Comics from 1941 to 1986. The series was initially titled World's Best Comics for its first issue; issue #2 switched to the more familiar name. Michael E. Uslan has speculated that this was because DC received a cease and desist letter from Better Publications, Inc., who had been publishing a comic book entitled Best Comics since November 1939. Virtually every issue featured DC's two leading superheroes, Superman and Batman, with the earliest issues also featuring Batman's sidekick, Robin.

Publication history

The idea for World's Best #1 originated from the identically formatted 1940 New York World's Fair Comics featuring Superman, Batman, and Robin with 96 pages and a cardboard cover. The year before there was a similar 1939 New York World's Fair Comics featuring Superman but without Batman and Robin because Bill Finger and Bob Kane had not yet created them.
The series was initially a 96-page quarterly anthology, featuring various DC characters – always including Superman and Batman – in separate stories. Comics historian Les Daniels noted that "Pairing Superman and Batman made sense financially, since the two were DC's most popular heroes." When superheroes fell out of vogue in the early 1950s, DC shortened the size of the publication to that of the rest of its output, leaving only enough space for one story; this led to Superman and Batman appearing in the same story together starting with World's Finest Comics #71. The title often depicted Batman gaining superpowers as a way to avoid having him be overshadowed by Superman. Lex Luthor and the Joker first joined forces in issue #88. A new supervillain, the Composite Superman, was introduced in #142. The story "The Clash of Cape and Cowl", by writer Edmond Hamilton and artist Curt Swan, in World's Finest Comics #153 is the source of an Internet meme in which Batman slaps Robin. Noted Batman artist Neal Adams first drew the character in an interior story in "The Superman-Batman Revenge Squads" in issue #175.
The title briefly featured Superman teaming with heroes other than Batman in the early 1970s beginning with issue #198. That issue featured the first part of a two-issue team-up with the Flash. Other characters to appear in the next two years included Robin, Green Lantern, Aquaman, Wonder Woman, the Teen Titans, Doctor Fate, Hawkman, Green Arrow, the Martian Manhunter, the Atom, and the Vigilante. Nick Cardy was the cover artist for World's Finest Comics for issues #212–228. Metamorpho was the backup feature in issues #218–220 and #229 after the character had a brief run as the backup in Action Comics.
The series reverted to Superman and Batman team-ups after issue #214, initially with a unique twist, featuring the children they might one day have, Superman Jr. and Batman Jr. These characters, billed as the Super-Sons, were co-created by writer Bob Haney and artist Dick Dillin in issue #215. Super-Sons stories alternated with tales of the original Superman and Batman through issue #263, with issues #215–216, 221–222, 224, 228, 230, 231, 233, 238, 242, and 263 featuring the sons. Haney frequently disregarded continuity by scripting stories which contradicted DC's canon or by writing major heroes in an out-of-character fashion. He introduced Batman's older brother, Thomas Wayne Jr., in World's Finest Comics #223. This story was used as a basis for a plot detail in the "Court of Owls" story arc in 2012. Issues #223 to #228 of the series were in the 100 Page Super Spectacular format.
With issue #244, World's Finest Comics became one of the first 80-page Dollar Comics. It featured the Superman and Batman team with back-up features. The number of pages was reduced from 80 to 64 starting with issue #252 and reduced to 48 pages with issue #266 which lasted until issue #282.
1st Feature2nd Feature3rd Feature4th Feature
Green Arrow
  1. 244–259, 261–270, 272–284
Vigilante
  • 244–248
    		• Wonder Woman of Earth-Two
  • 244–250
    		• Black Canary
  • 244–256
    • Atom
  • 260
    		• Creeper
  • 249–255
    		• Wonder Woman
  • 251–252
    		• Black Lightning
  • 257–261
    • Hawkman
  • 256–259, 261–262, 264–270,
    • 272–277, 279–282    		Shazam!
    1. 253–270, 272–282
    		Aquaman
  • 262–264
    • Adam Strange
  • 263
    		• Red Tornado
  • 265–270, 272
    • Plastic Man
  • 273
    • Zatanna
  • 274–278
    • no fourth backup feature
  • 260, 279–282
    • Issue #250 combined Superman and Batman with Green Arrow, the Black Canary, and Wonder Woman into the World's Finest Team in a 56-page story. Writer Roy Thomas wrote a book-length story for issue #271 which pieced together all the "first meetings" of Superman and Batman. This issue did not have any backup features. The Hawkman story "Drive Me To The Moon!" in #272 featured Hawkgirl changing her title to Hawkwoman. As of issue #283, the series reverted to a standard format title again featuring only Superman and Batman team-ups, which continued until the series' cancellation with issue #323. The series reached issue #300 in February 1984. This double-sized anniversary issue was a "jam" featuring a story by writers David Anthony Kraft, Mike W. Barr, and Marv Wolfman with art by Ross Andru, Mark Texeira, Sal Amendola, and George Pérez. David Mazzucchelli, the artist of the "" storyarc in 1987, first drew Batman in a backup story in World's Finest Comics #302. Issue #314 was the last pre-Crisis and first Crisis on Infinite Earths appearances of the Monitor and Harbinger. The series ended with issue #323 by writer Joey Cavalieri and artist José Delbo.

    Titles

    A number of World's Finest titles have since appeared:

    In other media