One of my favorite incarnations of Superman and Batman teaming up began in 2003 with the self-titled Superman/Batman issue 1. I remember actually counting down the days until its release. Jeph Loeb who is a well-known name in comics as well as Hollywood initially wrote this title. He has actually written more stories that I enjoy than I am able to list. When I found out that he was writing and the art was going to be covered by an equally as popular illustrator Ed McGuiness, I was hooked before I held issue 1 on my hands.
The first thing that I noticed when turned to the first page was the duel-narration. The story was told through the eyes of both heroes simultaneously. It gave two opposing viewpoints that showed the contrast and comparisons of how they both came into the world. As any fan knows, Superman was fed with love and nurturing and Batman was created out of darkness and pain. By setting this up from the start the reader sees the world and subsequent adventures through two sets of eyes, a world where Lex Luthor is President of the United States. I enjoy this style of storytelling. The duel-narration allows us to get into both their minds and see what makes each of them “tick.”
The first adventure sees the duo joining forces to battle Metallo, a robotic villain powered by a Kryptonite power source. We are reminded that Kryptonite is a serious threat to Superman as Metallo shoots him with a bullet made of the meteorite and batman is struggling to extract the bullet when Metallo buries them both alive. Why is this exposition necessary? Because the book ends with an unstoppable threat headed straight toward earth: a continent-sized meteor made completely of Kryptonite. The title lasted until 2011 with 87 issues.
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