DCU Comic Book Reviews

WORLD'S FINEST #2

Guardian and Robin

January 2010

Written by Sterling Gates

Pencils by Ramon Bachs

Inks by Rodney Ramos

Covers by Phil Noto

Synopsis

Outside Gotham City, a late night delivery for WayneTech is stopped by Parasite.  In Metropolis, The Guardian and Science Police are fighting Riot.  They capture Riot with the help of Robin.  Guardian chases the Boy Wonder and catches him.  Elsewhere, Parasite delivers the item to Mr. Freeze.  Meanwhile, in the police van, Robin decides to question Riot about the whereabouts of the stolen WayneTech merchandise.  He then escapes, with Guardian closely following.  Robin finds the stolen truck.  They follow the clues to the sewers.  There, they are attacked by Parasite, which leads them to Mr. Freeze’s lair.  Together, Guardian and Robin are able to defeat the bad guys and retrieve the stolen goods.  As Robin takes the merchandise back to Gotham; however, Toyboy is able to get away with Parasite and Mr. Freeze.  The Toyman tells him to dump Parasite; he only needs Mr. Freeze for his plans….

Review by Binkley (e-mail)

This was a pretty decent issue.  I liked the interaction between Guardian and Robin; Gates has a pretty good handle on the new Boy Wonder and the kid’s attitude.  This is especially true with the chase scene between the two.  I loved the condescending manner in which Robin talks to and treats the Guardian and police.  And I liked the way Guardian was aware of previous Robins and was wary of this new kid with the mantle.  I even liked the end when Guardian still refused to give Robin the credit the kid wanted.  But while the heroes were nicely handled, I thought the villains were a little underutilized, lacking any kind of threat for the heroes.  They were nothing more than a plot device and even then not handled very well.  The problem is that we are not really given a reason why Mr. Freeze would help Parasite.  Even if it is a simple thing like, thanks for the money, or thanks for letting me use whatever is left or something along those lines.  As it is, it feels like Mr. Freeze’s role in the story is simply to set-up whatever the Toyman is doing rather than, you know, being a partner to Parasite.  Regardless, the story worked well enough.  I enjoyed it.

I was wondering how the capture of Parasite would reconcile with his current appearance in Superman.  It was nice to see Gates toss aside the Parasite (almost literally when the Toyman suggests dumping him in the river) so that Rudy can break free and continue to torment Mon-el.  Moreover, I liked the fact that Gates was able to weave in the Parasite’s motivations in this story to match his actions in Superman.  It is one of those things that helps to make the DC universe feel like a cohesive setting.