Adam Graham's Blog: Christians and Superheroes - Posts Tagged "looney-tunes"

DC Meets Looney Tunes by Tom King

My rating: 4 of 5 stars


Six sections featuring six separate meet-ups between DC Comics and Classic Looney Tunes characters. Each features a 30 page comic in DC Comics style and then an eight page Looney Tunes piece:

Legion of Superheroes/Bugs Bunny: Easily the weakest story in the book. The Bronze Age Legion tries to bring young Clark Kent to the future to save Supergirl but grab Bugs Bunny instead. The story has a lot of one note humor about angsty teenager superheroes are. Bugs has a few good moments, but the story feels mailed in, not helped by a back up feature that retells the main story in Looney Tunes form.

Martian Manhunter/Marvin: The Martian: Marvin travels to our dimension to destroy the Earth and the Martian Manhunter is determined to stop them. I liked the enhancements to Marvin. They took the classic design and made the character more awesome and battle-ready without altering the basic look. However, beyond showing how the Martian Manhunter is noble, the main feature doesn't have much to it. The back up feature which had Marvin wondering why he didn't have powers like the Manhunter was a lot more funny.

Wonder Woman/Tasmanian Devil: The story does a good job of making Taz fit into the DC Universe and providing a plot where Wonder Woman tricked him in the past and needed his help to defeat Circe. It's a fun tale, followed by a weird little romp where Wondy Tells Taz a mythical story.

Lobo/Road Runner: This is when the book gets awesome as Wild E. Coyote and the Road Runner are introduced into proper existence with a backstory that's totally plausible for the DCU and it explains everything about their origin and why the Coyote has been tracking him for so long. I even love that they identified how he was a dead-ringer for the Ralph the Wolf in another cartoon. He decides to hire Lobo to kill the Road Runner, but the Coyote has to take Lobo's current contract---killing Kilowog. It's ludicrous but wonderful as the Coyote's efforts to kill Kilowog go as you'd expect, but Lobo and the Road Runner are hilarious. I love the ending which gives hope for the Coyote, if not to have a happy ending, then to at least get a new beginning.

Jonah Hex/Yosemite Sam: Yosemite Sam is introduced as a prospector who has hit rich but needs Jonah Hex to play bodyguard. This is a fun Western and wriiter Jimmy Palmiotti does a great job finding a way to make Sam likable. But the highlight of the book is Foghorn Leghorn, who still looks like a rooster but is a fighting circus freak who steals the show.

Batman/Elmer Fudd: The Crown Jewel of this entire effort finds Elmer Fudd as a hitman who sets out to kill the man who killed his beloved girlfriend, "Bugs the Bunny" but Bugs puts the finger on the man he claims really killed Silver St. Cloud---Bruce Wayne. It's a noir story told in Elmer Fudd's speech impediment with all the Looney Tunes characters written as people. Elmer Fudd is legitimately imposing and tragic, but there's a lot of humor and imagination in that. If every story tried this hard, this book would have five stars.

Overall, the quality fo the book varies, with it moving from the painfully mediocre start to the brilliant conclusion. If you do love DC Comics and the Looney Tunes characters, there's plenty in here to enjoy.



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