DC comics tagged posts

I think it generally accepted that any major inter-property crossover takes place in some alternate universe, out of the continuity of even the commonly accepted multiverse(s). Rarely has it be so blatantly alternate, as Injustice vs Masters of the Universe. So alternate that I’m not even sure what to think.

Lets split this up a bit, shall we?

On the one hand, we have Injustice. It apparently started as a video game, then spawned some comics, and I fully admit to googling that. There was a page of exposition where Batman tells Prince Adam the history of his Earth. For the casual reader, or at least a reader who doesn’t have to write a review, it was a decent enough summery. Although I still have no idea why there are two Batmans (Batmen? Batsmen?).

On the other side of the crossover, this ...

Writer:                                  Gail Simone

Artist:                                    Inaki Miranda

Backup Art:                          Walter Carzon

Backup Written By:           Shea Fontana

Cover:                                    Emanuela Lupacchino

Alternate Cover:                 Sandy Jarrell

Publisher:                             DC Comics and Looney Tunes

When Sylvester and Tweety from the Looney Tunes are recruited as the unwitting pawns in a mystical bet, they are flung into the city of Gotham, where they find allies in kindred spirits of a sort...

Somehow the character of Jabberjaw keeps popping up in cameos for various shows since his meager 16 episode run in the mid-1970s. He’s a talking, airbreathing, shark, who plays drums for a band called the Neptunes. I honestly have no idea why this particular crossover needed to exist, and as often as not either does the book itself.

Paul Pelletier art is really good. He’s taken a 1970’s VERY cartoon shark and made him fit into a more realistic world. Dan Abnett’s writing is also very good. Aquaman doesn’t take himself too seriously, referencing several standing jokes about how the world outside of the story often sees him. I don’t know how true to the original source his Jabberjaw is, but it feels like something that would come from that era of Hanna-Barbera cartoons...

Speed Buggy has an interesting place in Hanna-Barbera’s history. Depending on who you talk to the show was amazing and inspirational, or repetitive and derivative. It directly recycles plots from Josie and the Pussy Cats, it’s often compared to the Scooby Doo gang (or at least the Mystery Machine), and not much more than H-B trying to ride on the popularity of Speed Racer with Herbie the Love Bug. It’s just one of the many, many, vehicles to cross the small screen.

So in this version, the Speed Buggy was created by Dr. M. Blanc, one of the original founders of S.T.A.R. Labs, to allow non-metas to access the Speed Force. Flash eventually agrees to help him test the vehicle, not because he wants to help but because he wants the scientist meddling with the Speed Force alone even less...

Ever since Hanna-Barbera penned the new deal to let DC play in their sandbox there have been a bunch of random, odd, crossover specials, just as there was with Looney Toons before this. It’s not a bad thing, but it’s usually weird. Some of the crossovers have used iterations of the Hanna-Barbera character that are appearing in their own reboot series, Like Johnny Quest and Space Ghost from the Future Quest series. Others, like the duo of Dynomutt and Blue Falcon, are standalone reboots on their own. I’m actually a bit curious to see if this version of Blue Falcon will show up in the pages of Future Quest Presents at some point. He’s a bit dark, but would otherwise potentially fit in well.

But, back to the story at hand...