World's Finest # 183, March, 1969

Yet another "Superman will destroy the earth unless Batman stops him" scenario, this time given a different twist when veteran writer Leo Dorfman channels the then-new PLANET OF THE APES.

That's some goofy looking Superman panels below!

And once again, it turns out to be Brainiac and Luthor, exposed because...

...Lex wanted a little pepper on his steak.

  

With the sophisticated Adams covers and Andru trying hard to mimic Marvel's more ambitious layouts, this reprint looks even more antiquated than usual.

World's Finest # 182, February, 1969

The cover here offers the interesting combination of Curt Swan's pencils and Neal Adams' inks. Interesting as I say but personally I think their styles--both impressive on the characters--just don't mesh.

This armor guy places a curse on Batman…or…someone.

These Filmation shows had their problems but they sure were darned entertaining and with some excellent voice work. R.I.P. Lou Scheimer.

And here's last issue's cover artist a dozen or so years earlier with a Silent Knight tale, the first time I had ever seen or heard of that character. 

World's Finest # 181, December, 1968

Irv Novick was an old-time superhero artist who, by this point, has spent years toiling in war comics, His version of Batman became quite prominent in the seventies and is one of my favorites but his Superman most definitely is NOT. 

This Bates story--once again with quirky Andru/Esposito art--hinges on several stupid concepts, not the leafs of which is Superman's seemingly magic computer that can predict the future enough to scare him off earth.

The main problem however, is the big reveal that this was all about Bizarros. The reason this was problem is that the Bizarros had barely been mentioned in any of the Supoerman titles for several years by this point except for one big Superman reprint. This necessitated the cobbling together of various panels and pages about Bizarros from other sources at the end of the book in place of the traditional Round Table story.

World's Finest # 180, November, 1968

Part two of our imaginary story begun before the reprint collection. This one switches to the Andru/Esposito team for the art, not the best choice ever. Andru would, in time, become a good Superman artist and his Batman had been acceptable in BRAVE & BOLD. But here in a  comic called WORLD'S FINEST, we had higher standards. The story just kind of limps to a close with an unusually violent climax.

Another nifty reprint this issue.

World's Finest # 179, November, 1968

Yet another annual collection, this time highlighting some of the very earliest Batman/Superman team-ups, all under a rather sketchy new partial Neal Adams cover.