Item Biography
"Afraid of the Dark"
Preternatural darkness surrounds Metropolis, even at 9am on what should be a fine bright morning. Chaos soon festers on the streets, bringing out the worst in citizens who live by the law, and those who live to break it.
This puzzling panoply doesn't long escape the attention of the Boy-Scout in Blue, Superman. But as the Man of Steel's powers are as much use against magic as a chocolate fireguard, the Kid from Krypton falls at the first post.
Phantom wolves tear at Supes from all sides. In Gotham, similar scenes play out; the darkness, not the wolf-rending. Well one dark night calls for a Dark Knight, and Batman duly responds to the emergency at hand.
An archaeologist assignation of Bruce Wayne's clues the Batman in on who is possibly responsible for the gloom. She tells him of a former partner who stole a mystic artifact and learned of its properties from an old Native Shaman.
Back in Metropolis, the populace are shocked, one and all, by the sight of their champion humbled in red and blue rags before them. The author of his humiliation is Nightwolf.
When the Native Shaman reappears, Nightwolf hesitates and is beaten by unexpected martial arts skills. Good thing Batman is also a master of disguise.
Kal-El wakes befuddled in a barnyard. Bats lectures him on his lack of tactical preparedness and over-reliance on his Super-powers. It seems a parting of the ways is in the air. The polarity which made these two the World's Finest duo now wedges them apart.
After all, one was raised on a farm, the other reared by privilege. One embodies the light of the world, the other favors the shadows of night. *"You say tomato, I say tomahto". It was never gonna last. Let's call the whole thing off.
*Slight liberties taken with George and Ira Gershwin's lyrics.