The first time I had ever seen Mike Perkins’ art was on his fantastic team up with Dan Jurgens on Green Lanterns. The highly detailed, wonderfully moody art worked perfectly for that story in that it took place in space, with plenty of dimly “lit” pages. It served as an awesome spinoff to Superman Rebirth in that it dealt with the Cyborg Superman and the plotlines from that book.

I enjoyed the heck out of that eight-issue story, and as a Green Lantern guy too, I can safely say that it was easily better than any other GL stuff from the last decade.

When it was announced that Jurgens and Perkins would be teaming up again on a pulpy, Golden Age Batman story, I was all the way in.

While Bat-Man: First Knight was a great concept and a decent enough graphic novel, it wasn’t quite what I had expected. It wasn’t at all a slavish homage to the Kane/Finger/Robinson Batman stories, but neither did it quite flow very well, either.

I have enjoyed a lot of Dan Jurgens’ non-Superman work, most notably Thor and Aquaman, but he doesn’t have the same grasp of the Dark Knight.

Still, when a Bat-Man: Second Knight was announced, I thought what the heck, I’d give it a shot. The art, if nothing else, makes it a worthwhile read.

And then I heard that Superman was going to be in it.

The excitement meter went from 0 to 100 instantly!

I ordered a copy of the hardcover which, after a short delay, finally came in the mail this week. Once again, after reading the whole thing the same day, that Second Knight, like First Knight, is a bit of an average Batman story with cool art and a great premise.

Superman being in it though, immediately made it a better book.

There is nothing, absolutely nothing like Clark Kent wearing a fedora, nice suit and trench coat while on the job. Stylish and very classy makes the character stronger even if he is not saving the day. The shirt rip and ‘S’ reveal in a phone booth too, is just magical. I am not old enough to ever having lived during that time, and even I think it is unbelievably awesome as well!

As much as I love the Triangle Era and even more modern stuff, the reality is Superman, perhaps more than Batman, fits this period like a glove.

Plus, Dan knows how to write him. Obviously.

Aside from Superman leaping in this story rather than flying, everything else is the exact same Superman that Dan has written for most of his career. He is polite, of good character, and does not kill or coerce bad guys like he did in the Golden Age, but that’s honestly fine by me. Like Batman using a gun, the character pretty quickly evolved past that, and Jurgens writes him as such.

The plot was decent enough, with the Scarecrow having developed his fear gas during the chemical warfare of WWI and the World’s Finest have to stop him. A bit far fetched at times, but still a decent start. The dialogue was okay as well, but as a DC Black Label book it’s jarring to read Jurgens writing characters cursing up a storm. I guess he wants to make it clear the book isn’t for kids?

Superman is in a good chunk of the story, surprisingly, but by no means is this a Superman story, per se. Still, every time he appears on the page, the book picks up enormously from the drab rest of the plot. Lois Lane as a 1940s investigative reporter, even more perfectly inspired by “His Girl Friday” in this era, is great too.

The fantastic Superman moments in this story make it a keeper, for me. Maybe with enough fan pressure we can convince Dan and Mike to do a solo Superman story set in the same era?

We can hope!