Batman Superman #2 Review

Writer: Joshua Williamson

Artist: David Marquez

Colorist: Alejandro Sanchez

Letterer: John J. Hill

Published by: DC

The World’s Finest are back this month and after the “shocking” revelations of the first issue, Williamson and Marquez give us more of the Shazam Who Laughs this month as he squares off against Batman and Superman. 

And that is exactly where the book starts off as the first half of the book is dedicated to a very cinematic looking fight scene between the Shazam Who Laughs and our titular heroes with some very interesting and fun choices by Williamson. 

Throughout the issue, we are reminded that Shazam is simply a boy in a grown man’s magically altered body and for our heroes, this presents a conflicting view on how to handle him. On the one hand, Superman sees Shazam as Billy and keeps holding back whereas Batman sees the potential destruction that could be wrought by a boy infected with the Batman Who Laughs serum. It’s nothing new that we haven’t seen before, Batman and Superman disagreeing, but it fits within the context of this comic. 

The rest of the issue is dedicated to Commissioner Gordon hatching plans with a shadowy figure, and Batman and Superman hatching a plan to essentially extract the Batman Who Laughs’ plan.

I mentioned the word cinematic earlier, and I stand by that for this issue. Marquez is doing some mighty fine work showcasing not only the fight scenes, but the quieter moments throughout the issue. He has a really good eye for the cinematic shot, especially during the fight scene at the beginning of the book. Sanchez is a great compliment on colors as he brings out Marquez’s pencils. 

The one thing I would like to see more of is backgrounds from Marquez. On my initial pass through the comics I didn’t notice this as the action and story kept me engaged, but on a second pass, I noticed that there are probably only a handful of pages where there is an actual background to the shot - most are simply action lines and/or heavy color bursts. It helps narrow the focus on the central image, but also makes it feel like they are living a void.

This issue continues the work that the creative has put in the first issue and advances the story enough that I’m intrigued to see who this new Secret Six is going to be (while trying to avoid the spoilers on the news sites).