Installment Three
Trade Revisions
A week or so back the “news” was broken that the next DC direct-to-DVD animated feature after Green Lantern: First Flight will be Superman/Batman: Public Enemies. I was rather excited to hear this. While Superman/Batman as a title has fallen on hard times and is now an obligation buy more than a just gotta have it buy I really liked the series when it first came out back in 2003. Sure I wanted it to be called Worlds Finest but I can be rather old school when I want to be.
Superman/Batman was a big deal when it premiered, though. It came out a month after the first issue Superman: Birthright hit the stands and was part of an attempt to reinvigorate the Superman line of comics. It was a weird era for me as a regular follower of the Man of Steel as it was the first time I really questioned the lifelong dedication that I had sworn. There wasn’t much that was lighting my fire with the regular titles and the announcement of a new origin didn’t exactly fill me with elation. Despite those feelings I was definitely excited when it was announced that Jeph Loeb was coming back to a Superman title.
I know that Superman/Batman is technically a Superman and Batman title, but I file it with my Superman books so to me it’s a Superman title. I can make a firm decision on this because it is so inconsequential.
The opening arc was called Worlds Finest. Yeah, I know. The trade is called Public Enemies and thus the movie is going to be called Public Enemies even though Superman/Batman: Worlds Finest would have been just as good if not better, but maybe that’s just me. Anyway, I liked the story. I had some problems with it to be sure but I liked it a lot. It was fun. For a while there Superman/Batman was my favorite Superman book, which made me kind of sad at the time. I mean shouldn’t one of the regular Superman books be my favorite and not a team-up book?
Thankfully that has changed, but I digress.
