Superman / Batman Annual #3 - DC

This sketch cover is the first one I saw for this book. I'm going to leave it here because I think it's kind of neat. However, the actual cover for this book was worth the wait. It's by Berni Wrightson. Fan-frikkin-tastic! It shows the composite Superman Batman, but . . they look like they've been stitched together by Dr. Frankenstein. Which is just the type of thing you'd expect from Berni. Anyways, the story is this book is about the composite Superman/Batman that Professor Ivo created. Back in the old World's Finest comic we used to get stories like this all the time. In fact I'm pretty sure there was one in the final year or so. Anyways, Len Wein writes this issue, so it really has the feel of one of those old comics. Which is appropriate because Len wrote a lot of stories back then and I'm sure he had more than an few that were in the World's Finest title. It also had the feel of one of those old books because of Chris Batista's art. This really felt like it could've been a story from the early to mid 80's. You could take it back and it would fit in perfectly. Well . . except that time wasn't Robin back then, and he is in this book. That's always the one thing I have a problem with in comics. Every 10 to 15 years, or so, they decide that it's time to update the origins and make everything more relevant. But to the readers that have been around for quite a while . . it just seems like they're changing everything. For example . . in this story, is supposed to be in the early years of Superman and Batman's partnership. It doesn't look like Superman has actually been to the cave more than once or twice. But, this early in their careers . . Tim is Robin. So did Dick go through the Robin phase before Superman even met Bruce? I know. I'm over-thinking it, but . . these are the kind of things that run through my head when all of this updated, or retro-continuity takes place. It's just how my head works. However, I still enjoyed the story. Like I said, it really took me back to the feel of those old books. And, like it's suggested on the title page, it's a re-imagined tale from yesteryear . . which also happens to be very similar to the story that currently taking place in the Superman/Batman title. So for those that maybe haven't seen those old issues . . they can kind of get a feeling for what those stories were like and how much the current one has changed from that. World's Finest really was a classic title.