- I'll never be more than half the man my dad is!
World's Finest #215 is an issue of the series World's Finest (Volume 1) with a cover date of January, 1973.
Synopsis for Superman, Jr. and Batman, Jr.: "Saga of the Super Sons!"
Years have passed since Superman Jr. and Batman Jr. were kids and they are now young adults. The son of Superman has changed his name from Kal-El, Jr. to Clark Kent, Jr. in order to keep his and his father's secret identity concealed. However, this change has resulted in the young Clark being dissatisfied with his father, as he has to live hiding his powers, the same that he inherited from his father. When Clark Jr.'s store is attacked by some punks, he is forced to use his supernatural strength against them, which earns him a nagging from his father. After this incident, Clark Jr. decides to leave home to stay away from his father's rules.
Meanwhile, Bruce Wayne, Jr., the son of Batman, had recently learned about his father's secret identity as Batman and has decided to follow his father's steps. Unfortunately, Bruce Jr. made a grave mistake when he posed as Batman and captured a crook without evidence. With Batman's reputation stained, Bruce Wayne, Sr. is forced to scold his son, but the young man decides to leave home as his friend from Metropolis had just done.
Afterwards, Bruce Jr. and Clark Jr. meet in Gotham City and they come with the idea of creating their own super-hero team. At that moment, Batman and Superman are listening to their sons' conversation using small microphones and they decide to help the upcoming heroes. The heroes have learned that a notable crime lord from the West Coast is very ill and his crime empire is crumbling. Thinking that this place would be the perfect training for their sons, Batman and Superman agree to send their kids to that city in order to have them deal with the crime. In order to avoid fatal consequences, Superman reaches Sparta City and creates a temporal duplicate of the city by altering the timeline with his super speed and super strength. Once the temporal duplicate of Sparta City has been created, Superman and Batman inform their kids about the city and the young ones, eager to prove their worth as heroes, go to the city as fast as they can.
Upon reaching the city, they are pushed into the temporal duplicate, which transports them in time to the place where they need to be. As soon as they enter the duplicate city, they have to stop some criminals during a chase. The young heroes are successful at first, but what nobody knows is that the crime lord, Rocco Krugge, has recovered when Superman altered the timeline and his reign of crime is more powerful than ever.
Batman Jr. and Superman Jr. have managed to stop several criminals, much to Krugge's dismay. For this reason, the crime lord has come up with a plan to get rid of the young heroes. Knowing that Superman Jr. is vulnerable to explosions, he prepares a trap that would leave the heroes helpless at his mercy. His plan proves successful and Rocco allows his own son, Rocco Jr. to eliminate the heroes.
When Superman goes to investigate how are the young heroes doing, he learns the sad true that his son and Bruce Wayne, Jr. had been killed. The news are crushing for the two most important heroes in the world, but their sorrow is short-lived, as they soon learn that their sons faked their deaths in order to capture Rocco by surprise. The crime lord goes to the graveyard and is shocked to see the heroes alive, but he soon learns that his son, Rocco Jr., didn't kill the heroes as he was told and instead, he helped them escape because he hated his father's crime organization. Krugge attempts to escape to fight another day, but trips over the tombstone of his late wife Marie and is killed when his gun goes off.
Afterwards, the Super Sons learn about the temporal duplicate city and they are disappointed that they didn't capture the real Krugge. At that moment, the temporal duplicate city disappears and the heroes learn that the real Krugge has just passed away from a heart attack in the real city (ironically, he was visiting his wife's grave at the time). After learning the hardships of being heroes, Clark Jr. ad Bruce Jr. decide to take a break and leave the heroic stuff to their parents while they go and enjoy their youth for the time being.
Appearing in Superman, Jr. and Batman, Jr.: "Saga of the Super Sons!"
Featured Characters:
- Super-Sons (First appearance)
- Superman, Jr. (Joins team)
- Batman, Jr. (Joins team)
Supporting Characters:
- Superman
- Batman
- Alfred Pennyworth (First appearance)
Antagonists:
- Rocco Krugge, Sr. (Single appearance; dies)
- Satan's Sockers (Single appearance)
- Big Alice (Single appearance)
Other Characters:
- Lois Lane
- Kathy Kane
- Debbie (Single appearance)
- Marek (Single appearance)
- Doctor Gavilan (Single appearance)
- Rocco Krugge, Jr. (Single appearance)
Locations:
- Earth-216 (First appearance)(See Notes)
- Gotham City
- Metropolis
- Sparta City (Single appearance)
Items:
Notes
- Because there is no conflicting information in their histories, the DC database is using Earth-154 as a stand in for Earth-216, which was revealed as the Earth of the Super-Sons stories in the Crisis on Infinite Earths: The Compendium.
- This issue is reprinted in Superman/Batman: Saga of the Super Sons.
See Also