Batman and Superman are two of the best known, most beloved superheroes in the entire world, and their friendship is as legendary as they are. Despite how different they are, the two are incredibly similar in how they want to make the world a better place and fight as heroes. Their team ups are always a treat to see, and Mark Waid’s Batman/Superman: World’s Finest gave us not only one of their best ongoing duo comics, but also one of the coolest developments with them ever done. In issue #4, we saw the Dark Knight and Man of Tomorrow combine their wills to rip the ring off a mind controlled Green Lantern’s finger, inadvertently fusing into the Green Light powered Superbat. He only lasted the rest of the issue, but now DC has brought him back, and he’s just as cool as he was the first time.
Leaguers Lost in Time
The events of DC’s “We Are Yesterday” crossover left massive scars on the DC Universe’s timestream. Grodd’s attempt to absorb all of the Omega Energy Darkseid left behind caused it to spread throughout the entire timeline and totally destabilize everything. It trapped dozens of DC’s heroes from the past and future in the present, and completely shut down all known methods of time travel, meaning they were stuck until they could find a way to get everyone home. Even worse, the unstable timestream started experiencing timequakes, which would randomly cause the time displaced heroes to get shunted out or replaced with other heroes. This happened at the start of issue #9 of Justice League Unlimited, replacing the “Zero Year” Batman with Superbat in all his insane glory.
In an effort to end the threat of the Omega Energy and fix the timeline before it collapses in on itself, Time Trapper and the World Forger arrived to dissect Grodd to find the answers they needed. Naturally, the Justice League Unlimited had problems with these two killing someone, even a despicable ape like Grodd, so they jumped in to fight them. Superbat leapt in with the rest of the League, and it cannot be understated how much of a powerhouse he is, considering that he has all of Batman’s skills and intellect, Superman’s powers, and Green Lantern’s constructs to use as he wants. He conjured a massive green blade and leapt in, but even Superbat’s baffling amounts of power couldn’t hold a candle to Time Trapper and the World Forger. They conjured a barrier that kept the entire League out, while Grodd argued that the best thing to do wasn’t kill him, but let him tell the two beings what he knew about Omega Energy from experiencing it firsthand. Just as he was convincing them, Supergirl burst through the floor, the two adversaries’ shield not extending underground.
Unfortunately, the timequakes only got worse. Superbat was replaced with Jean Paul-Valley’s Batman, who was immediately replaced by Amazing-Man. As Supergirl tried to snatch Grodd, the multiple different variants of her throughout the years seemed to fold in on themselves, and Time Trapper and the World Forger decided it was time to go. They disappeared with Grodd, and the timequakes settled for the moment. The League made moves to follow, but also had to take stock of who was still here, as by the time the dust settled, there were still five time displaced heroes in the Watchtower, and two unknowns who slipped away in the chaos.
Superbat Is Gone, But Not Forgotten
Superbat’s presence in this comic was unfortunately brief, but it was still cool to see him again. His original appearance in World’s Finest definitely seemed like it would be a one-and-done sort of deal, but his appearance here at least seems to signal that people aren’t so ready to give up on the concept of him just yet, and I’m happy about that, because Superbat is really cool. At the very least, Mark Waid seems to want to revisit the idea after being the one to create him, and as always, Dan Mora’s legendary artistic skills make him look absolutely unbelievable. This storyline was all about bringing back people’s favorite variants of different heroes throughout time, so if Superbat was going to show up anywhere, it would be here, but I would love it if he came back sometime in the future. Would you want to see him come back again, or would you rather his two appearances be his only ones? Let us know in the comments below!
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