Miguel Mercado does Win Mortimer and co. proud…
Back in the Golden Age, World’s Finest Comics tended to feature “poster-style” covers of Superman, Batman and Robin goofing around or posing heroically, rather than tease a particular story.
Win Mortimer
Why? Simple: For the first 70 issues, from 1941 to 1954, the Man of Steel and the Dynamic Duo were in separate adventures but needed to appear together on the front as a sales draw. So you’d get an interesting design or the three heroes racing go-karts or whatever. Artist Win Mortimer was the best at it.
Mortimer
Most covers today, especially variants, are poster-style for a different reason: They’re frequently commissioned without a particular story in mind, thanks in part to solicitations’ lead time. So while it’s not exactly the same, there’s shared DNA in the reasoning. And occasionally, you get one that channels both sensibilities — like, as it happens, Miguel Mercado’s variant for August 19’s Batman/Superman: World’s Finest #54:
That’s just brilliant. I love, love, love, the bright, old-school colors. And, even though Batman and Robin are wearing modern versions of their outfits, the concept just screams “Golden Age!”
It’s perfect for World’s Finest, too, because the title is so soaked in comics history and nostalgia. I mean, the issue itself features a good vs. evil baseball game a la Strange Sports Stories. One of the covers, by Adrian Gutierrez, plays that up:
But then there’s Dan Mora’s main cover…
which is a riff on… wait for it… World’s Finest #3 by Fred Ray (which happened to come out 85 years ago to the week, on Aug. 15, 1941):
Bringing it all full circle. Or around the bases, if you prefer.
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MORE
— 13 COVERS: The WORLD’S FINEST World of WIN MORTIMER. Click here.
— FRED RAY’s Classic WORLD’S FINEST BASEBALL COVER — Two Seconds Later! Click here.
