World's Finest: Guardians of Earth

Unabashed innocence combined with contemporary social values abound in this set of stories written by Dennis O’Neil, Steve Skeates, Len Wein, Mike Friedrich, and Elliot S. Maggin and dynamic artwork illustrated by Dick Dillin with inker Joe Giella make this particular tome a treat for me, a DC fan of the Bronze Age. Indeed, the child in my heart engrossed itself in these simple stories where Superman teams up with most of the members of the Justice League: Flash, Green Lantern, the new Wonder Woman, Aquaman, Doctor Fate, Hawkman, Green Arrow, the Martian Manhunter, Atom, the Vigilante, and of course, his long-time crime-fighting ally, the Batman. There is also a team-up with the Teen Titans, and Zatanna makes a special appearance in a Len Wein story. Wow!In spite of their simplicity and innocence, something not lost regardless of the different writers, each story took me back to the past when one could savor and relish such story-telling. Superman’s race against the Flash and his fights against Green Lantern and Batman were certainly stories I could read over and over without tiring. Another memorable tale is the one where Superman is seen in the splash page killing Batman. Back then, I was crazy about finding out how could such thing happen. And it was a relief to find out that it wasn’t really Superman, but one of his robots. Imagine that! Denny O’Neil had the boldness of bringing back those robots from the atomic age when Superman often cheated Lois with his many substitute robots to prevent her from finding out his true identity. Robots, dragons, mutant dolphins, and a werewolf-like creature populate these bronze-aged tales, evidence of writers’ unlimited imagination in being able to concoct entertaining superhero stories.Besides liking these stories, something else I really loved from reading them was the dynamic and colorful artwork of Dick Dillin. His splash pages and every panel is full of pure action. I love the constant changes in the size of the panels which helps the story’s fast pace. And he doesn’t shy away from good fight scenes. I find Dillin’s artwork one of the best during this period.DC also did a splendid job in putting together this tome. It seems that all the artwork remains the same (albeit I don’t have the original comics any longer to compare) on plain paper rather than the glossy type, something I cherish a lot. Also, the bind and its jacket are beautiful. The hard cover has a light color with the many World’s Finest covers in the background. I wish they did something similar with all the hard covers and Omnibus collections. The jackets is just as presented here on Amazon. A slight drawback though, is that the other writers here are not represented in the covers. Do not judge a book by its cover, but there is nothing wrong with giving a splendid set of stories a nice cover format such as this one. Quite satisfied with this purchase.

Wow, the 70's were a long time ago.....but with the gorgeous Dillin interior art and the Neal Adams covers on most of these, this is a treasure. The stories are a trifle heavy-handed and dated and Supes definitely nowhere near as down-to-Earth as later writers would bring him, but the unexpected pairings are a treat, like the Vigilante, J'onn J'onzz and Dr. Fate. I only wish the backup material promised on the covers would have been included as well. All in all, a great trip to the old days and worth every penny.

I'm half way through this book and I'm liking it I'm old enough to have read them when published but for one reason or another I didn't.. I'm glad I got the chance to read them now.

Very enjoyable..glad I purchased it.

Classic Team Ups filled with early 70's, Bronze Age goodness.

Horrible

The stories in this book are awesome it was good to see these books in a collection.

This book brings back memories of a bygone era.

This volume covers World's Finest 198-214 and features Batman and Superman teaming up with The Teen Titans, Aquaman, The Flash, Wonder Woman, Hawkman and my personal favourite, Dr Fate. This was an amazing time for DC with Neal Adams and Denny O'Neil onboard and Dick Dillin on pencils. This is one of those collections that encapsulates why comics were so magical back then and how they have lost none of their magic fifty years later. This is a sublime volume and one any true comic fan should have on their shelf.