Batman and Superman: World's Finest was a maxi-series released in 1999 and continuing into the year 2000 that revisited the concept of the "World's Finest Team" with an added twist of showcasing the two heroes in successive years of their career (as the DC universe now had a semi-cohesive timeline of when things happened due to Zero Hour: Crisis in Time!) - each adventure being set in the anniversary of the death of a mutual friend whom neither of them managed to save, serving as a narrative throughline.
Batman and Superman: World's Finest provides examples of:
- Knight in Sour Armor: Batman provides the cynical counterpoint to Superman's idealism.
- Call-Forward: Batman posits a scenario to Superman in Issue #7 of an unstoppable mindless monster raging through Metropolis, with the only way to stop it being to kill it. Superman says that yes, he would kill it - with his dying breath. If this sounds familiar, it's because it's basically the plot of The Death of Superman.
- Continuity Nod: The adventures start out being mostly isolated, but important moments from each hero's lives still get brought up, especially as the years roll on and the comics they represent start undergoing Cerebus Syndrome.
- Death by Origin Story: The Wayne's death is shown (yet again) in Issue #1. Harrison Grey's death also provides the catalyst for the annual Superman/Batman team-up.
- Irony: In the first issue, the mooks shooting at Batman see him get hit by bullets (he's wearing kevlar), and become frightened, muttering about how he can't just shrug off bullets like that, he's not human, etc etc. Meanwhile, the mooks shooting at Superman in the neighboring panel immediately scoff that he's probably wearing kevlar.
