World's Finest Comics

World's Finest Comics
Cover of World's Best Comics #1 (Spring 1941)
Publication information
Publisher	DC Comics
Schedule	Quarterly #1–20 Bimonthly #21–95 and #244– 269 Monthly #96–243 and #270–323
Format	Ongoing series
Genre	Superhero
Publication date	Spring 1941 – January 1986
Number of issues	323
Main character(s)	Superman Batman Robin
Creative team
Writer(s)	List Mike W. Barr, Joey Cavalieri, Gerry Conway, Leo Dorfman, Mike Friedrich, Bob Haney, David Anthony Kraft, Elliot S. Maggin, Dennis O'Neil, Alvin Schwartz, Steve Skeates, Roy Thomas, Len Wein, Marv Wolfman
Penciller(s)	List Neal Adams, Sal Amendola, Ross Andru, Rich Buckler, José Delbo, Dick Dillin, George Pérez, Curt Swan, Mark Texeira, George Tuska, Stan Woch
Inker(s)	List Alfredo Alcala, Murphy Anderson, Vince Colletta, Joe Giella, Stan Kaye, Frank McLaughlin
Collected editions
World's Finest Archives Volume 1
World's Finest Archives Volume 2
World's Finest Archives Volume 3

Quarterly #1–20
Bimonthly #21–95 and #244–

World's Finest Comics was an American comic book series published by DC Comics from 1941 to 1986. The series was initially titled World's Best Comics for its first issue; issue #2 (Summer 1941) switched to the more familiar name. Most likely the reason for the title change was that DC received a cease and desist letter from Better Publications, Inc., who had been publishing a comic book entitled Best Comics since November 1939. Virtually every issue featured DC's two leading superheroes, Superman and Batman, with the earliest issues also featuring Batman's sidekick, Robin.

The idea for World's Best #1 originated from the identically formatted 1940 New York World's Fair Comics featuring Superman, Batman, and Robin with 96 pages and a cardboard cover. The year before there was a similar 1939 New York World's Fair Comics featuring Superman but without Batman and Robin because Bill Finger and Bob Kane had not yet created them.

The series was initially a 96-page quarterly anthology, featuring various DC characters - always including Superman and Batman - in separate stories. Comics historian Les Daniels noted that "Pairing Superman and Batman made sense financially, since the two were DC's most popular heroes." When superheroes fell out of vogue in the early 1950s, DC shortened the size of the publication to that of the rest of its output, leaving only enough space for one story; this led to Superman and Batman appearing in the same story together starting with World's Finest Comics #71 (July 1954). The title often depicted Batman gaining superpowers as a way to avoid having him be overshadowed by Superman.Lex Luthor and the Joker first joined forces in issue #88 (June 1957). A new super-villain, the Composite Superman was introduced in #142 (June 1964). Noted Batman artist Neal Adams first drew the character in an interior story in "The Superman-Batman Revenge Squads" in issue #175 (May 1968).