Debuting in 1938 and ‘39 respectively, Superman and Batman have had countless looks in their storied histories. Everyone has a particular favorite that springs to mind, with some designs of the characters through the years reaching iconic status while others have been (for good reason) forgotten. A piece of fan art by illustrator Ron Salas re-imagines the World’s Finest in a retro style that is an absolute feast for the eyes and even manages to make an element of one hero’s more controversial iterations work far better than it did originally.
Set against the backdrop of an old-style skyscraper bathed in the glow of a few spotlights, the piece features the two iconic heroes poised for action against some unseen criminal force. Batman’s design looks to be an amalgamation of a couple of different Elseworld models of the Dark Knight Detective (most prominently the World War 2-era version featured in JSA: The Liberty Files) with a little debut-issue flare visible in the ears of his mask. It’s a take on the hero that feels grounded in realism, and also makes the character appear less fantastical and more working-class.
Superman’s design is even more interesting, blending together elements seen in past incarnations for its re-imagining. The top half of his costume is straight out of the character’s debut issue, featuring the legendary red “S” backed by a yellow shield which is significantly larger than more modern incarnations. In an interesting design decision, his lower half sports a pair of brown work pants with the usual set of red boots. The trousers totally feel like a visual nod to the version of Superman we saw during Grant Morrison and Rags Morales’ run with the character back during The New 52 era, which is a bold choice considering how badly that initially went over with comic audiences. In this case, however, it totally works and gives a cool salt-of-the-earth old-school vibe to Big Blue.
Ron Salas’ has lent his talents to basically all the major comic book publishers over the years, most notably in the pages of Image’s Existence 3.0 and Dynamite Entertainment’s Six Million Dollar Man: Fall Of Man mini-series, and the covers for Boom! Studios’ Dracula: The Company of Monsters. With how cool this piece is, it would be interesting to see what Salas’ work on a World’s Finest story specifically set in the Golden Age era would look like. If you want to see more of his artwork, pop over to Ron's website and Instagram for more visual treats!
Source: Reddit