I recognize I should appreciate Mark Waid’s Batman/Superman: World’s Finest more for what it is than what it does. There’s nothing wrong with Batman/Superman: World’s Finest Vol. 6: IMPossible, which is madcap and fun and contains references to Superman and Batman iterations across the eras.

The stakes are always low across mainstream superhero comics (Superman isn’t going to die … except, y’know, that one time), but World’s Finest’s are especially low. That’s not just because it’s past-set but also the general-readers tone overall and a story that involves Mr. Mxyzptlk and Bat-Mite in specific, and I’m having trouble getting past that. Waid’s trio of Superman, Batman, and Robin is charming, even more so on the brief team-up with Wonder Woman in the final issue, and Dan Mora draws it all with cinematic aplomb. But given no real character development or consequence, I still can’t help feel an opportunity’s being wasted.

Irrespective, the “arc” of IMPossible as it were largely involves Batman and Bat-Mite, and there are some interesting conceptions here. Waid gives thought to how Superman sees Batman and how Batman sees himself, especially at this point in time, and in that I found some wisdom and surprise, even if most of the book felt like (very colorful) paint by numbers.

[Review contains spoilers]

A real selling point for IMPossible, for better or worse, is its Easter eggs. Those kick off with a magically super-powered Robin Dick Grayson whose costume looks not coincidentally like his classic Earth-2 iteration. When Batman and Superman are shunted to the “Second Dimension,” they collapse knowingly into their Super Friends depictions; Bat-Mite’s in his New Adventures of Batman green, but maybe don’t call it a crossover. Jimmy Olsen encounters a variety of his weird Silver Age forms, and the backgrounds of the Sixth Dimension are peppered with images from yesteryear up to Absolute Power.

Early in the story, Waid stages a heart-to-heart between Superman and number one Batman fan Bat-Mite. Batman, Superman cautions, “doesn’t have time for fun and games,” and Superman suggests that Bat-Mite consider that Batman “doesn’t appreciate fanboys, but he does appreciate assets.” This recurs throughout the story until Bat-Mite sacrifices his life (almost) to stop the rampaging Doom-Mite, and I thought it was a cogent distillation — coming from Superman, about his friend Batman — of why Batman has such a love/hate relationship with his various partners or partner-hopefuls.

Batman too has to put Bat-Mite in his place, and in that Waid makes a curious choice as to where he orients IMPossible in time. “Batman, Robin, and Bat-Mite,” Batman says. “We used to have adventures.” But Batman notes that while Bat-Mite hasn’t changed, “My world has. It’s not someplace you should be anymore … It’s not a colorful job anymore, it’s not silly or funny.”

Here, Waid suggests a dichotomy between when Batman and Robin used to hang out with Bat-Mite and an apparently darker present. Perhaps the pro-Bat-Mite period is effectively the Silver Age and World’s Finest is in the Bronze (I don’t recall seeing the Justice League satellite, but maybe)? Still, given World’s Finest’s sunnier-than-now aesthetic, it feels surprising for Batman to describe this time as worse (else it’s going to get really bad later!).

I’m thinking of other such demarkation lines in the Batman mythos — Long Halloween/Dark Victory, where Gotham gangsters gave way to supervillains, or after Dick Grayson went off on his own and Batman purportedly became “darker,” neither of which quite line up with this. I doubt that’s presented without forethought on Waid’s part, but I’m uncertain where he’s making his distinction.

(I’m reminded that Waid and artist Chris Samnee have a slow-to-release Batman and Robin: Year One miniseries. Though not branded as a “World’s Finest”-verse title like some others have, I’m curious if that’ll offer any insight.)

The strongest part of IMPossible for me was the single “Death in Paradise” issue at the end, what seems like it was solicited as the “first adventure” (read: meeting) of Superman, Batman, and Wonder Woman, but is really just an early-set story. It's a locked-room mystery (even refers to itself as such), something Waid has an affinity for (see Flash: The Return of Barry Allen and even this series' World’s Finest Vol. 3: Elementary), and he resolves it well even if 20-some pages means that resolution comes quickly.

The brevity is an asset, though, in that World’s Finest’s elements get distilled clearly, particularly Robin as the wise-cracking, awestruck voice of the reader. It felt like a reminder of what has made this past-set series so charming without getting bogged down in its sometimes too self-referential elements.

Next up in collections, following Batman/Superman: World’s Finest Vol. 6: IMPossible, appears to be an Eclipso story, encompassing issues #31–34, and the collection after that jumps ahead to World’s Finest’s first crossover in issues #38–39. I wasn't concerned issues #35–37 won’t be collected (coming in a few months), and this isn’t the first time World’s Finest has jumped around in its collections to fill out a book with different-sized stories. Point being I just read an Eclipso story I didn’t really like, but I’m going to try to go into the next World’s Finest book really fresh — I know what it is, I know what it isn’t, and maybe I can get myself oriented accordingly.

[Includes original and variant covers]