Mild Mannered Reviews - Specials

Batman and Superman: World's Finest #8

Scheduled to arrive in stores: September 29, 1999

Writer: Karl Kesel
Penciller: Peter Doherty
Inker: Robert Campanella

"Cat & Mouse"

Michael (George) O'Connor Reviewed by: Michael O'Connor



Three years ago...

Lois Lane, attempting to sneak into Lex's office, is quickly discovered by security and passed on to Mr. Luthor.

What security does not notice is that Catwoman has made her way into Lex's office and downloaded the files for a top secret Lex-Wing airplane called the X-27.

As Luthor meets Lois, Bruce Wayne and his faithful butler, Alfred, arrive for the meeting with Mr. Luthor but the group is interrupted when an alarm goes off and Luthor rushes into his office, discovering that the plans have been stolen.

Superman arrives, having heard the alarm and is soon joined by the Batman who claims that Catwoman is responsible. In no time at all, Batman has found a secret passageway that Catwoman might have escaped through.

Luthor orders Lane and Alfred out of the office after the butler has offered an excuse for Bruce's sudden disappearance. The elevator stops, however, and Catwoman pulls Lois out of the elevator, using her for a hostage when Superman arrives. Alfred, still in the elevator, suddenly plummets downward when Catwoman hits a switch, triggering the elevator to drop.

Superman goes after Alfred and the elevator as Batman arrives and corners Catwoman and her hostage, Lane. Moving quickly, Catwoman jumps across the elevator shaft and into a separate passageway, just as the elevator returns to its position, blocking the heroes' path towards Catwoman and Lois.

After dispatching Lex's personal guards with some smoke bombs, Catwoman leaves Lois and runs off into another room. As Superman enters, he is blasted away by Lex's guards who can't see details in the midst of the smoke. Batman arrives and takes out the guards before they hurt themselves and Superman catches Catwoman, who has jumped out of the window.

Superman takes the stolen disk as Catwoman somersaults over the surprised Man of Steel's head and takes off, setting off explosions around the building as she does so. Only when the Feline Fatale has disappeared do the World's Finest team realize that the explosions were only minor distractions.

Later, Luthor calls Happersen to tell him that the flight will go on as planned. Luthor reveals that he hired Catwoman to steal the disk so that Luthor would have a reason to ask for a test flight immediately and make the incident look less suspicious.

In the office of the Daily Planet, the next day, Clark tells Lois that he has a secret just as they learn that Lex Luthor has supposedly died in a plane crash of his X-27.

4Story - 4: Clever, well laid out and fun. I was glad to see that Superman and Batman were fighting against a mutual enemy, even though they didn't seem to be in much of the issue. The majority of the time it was Catwoman, Luthor, Lois and Alfred that were the main focus of the issue. It was a very entertaining story, though, and it was good to see that Catwoman could even give Superman some trouble.

3Art - 3: Practically all the art here looks really two dimensional. Nothing pops out and the action and poses look stiff in this issue. Fantastic inking job by Campanella but he really didn't have much to work with Doherty's weak pencilling in this issue.

4Cover - 4: Intriguing... Superman and Batman look like a team for once and Catwoman looks like she's up to something sinister.


Mild Mannered Reviews

1999

Note: Month dates are from the issue covers, not the actual date when the comic was on sale.

June 1999

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