When this comic was announced a few months ago, ‘intrigued’ didn’t cover it. DC Universe big names vs a whole bunch of characters from elsewhere in the Warners portfolio and other comic publishers? All in one comic book? Could the creative team pull off a coherent story?
Yes readers, yes they can. This book is loads of fun. It helps that this is a DC KO tie-in, so ‘coherence’ isn’t a huge consideration – we’re talking an event storyline in which heroes and villains have been fighting, and killing one another, to get down to a single champion to take on Darkseid. This ‘Crisis on IP Earths’ comes about via a plan from the Forger of Worlds, one of those cosmic characters it’s best not to try to understand. Superman, Luthor, Wonder Woman and Joker are the final combatants, but they’ve just been confronted by Absolute Universe natives Superman, Wonder Woman and Batman, along with their own Booster Gold, corrupted by the Lord of Apokolips.
Let the games begin!
Down the cracks in the Multiverse go the champions of the DC Universe, to face a cornucopia of characters who just don’t fit with them.
Black Lightning and Plastic Man clash with the world of NetherRealm video game Mortal Kombat.
Batwoman has a terrible blind date with Vampirella, another denizen of Dynamite comics.
Superman meets one of The Boys, originally from DC’s Wildstorm division, now with Dynamite.
Wonder Woman swaps swords with another Dynamite denizen, Red Sonja.
Star Sapphire encounters a very strange and special girl from Archie Comics, Sabrina the Teenage Witch.
IDW allows Samantha Strong, the teddy bear no one should try to cuddle, from Beneath the Trees Where Nobody Sees, to meet Lex Luthor.
While the Joker has tea with devil doll Annabelle.
And that’s my favourite cross-universe ‘team-up’ – a freaky-looking doll that poses no obvious threat ‘versus’ a psychopath who would kill you as soon as look at you.
The other bouts are fun too; it’s refreshing that Star Sapphire and Sabrina aren’t inclined to attack one another, and good on Superman for not being thrown by the brutal Homelander. While the Mortal Kombat fight has plenty of room to breathe, poor Batwoman and Vampirella get short shrift. Red Sonja and Wonder Woman’s match is as you would expect these days, STAB, STAB, CLANG… if only we had pre-Crisis Diana with versatile magic lasso rather than one-note sword as her primary weapon. As for that bear woman, she’s awful, too grisly by half (no pun intended).
None of it advances the main KO storyline, it’s just an excuse for a set of fights we didn’t even think to imagine we’d never see, in a bigger storyline that’s just an excuse for fights. Heck, even when people ‘die’ they’re merely turned into statues who ‘may yet be given a second chance to help us in our quest’. And the World Forger always has just enough power for one last, desperate effort… until the next time he needs a Hail Mary pass. Would you be amazed to learn this comic ends on the same story beat with which it begins?
The ever adaptable Jeremy Adams writes the pacey script, and because he’s having fun, the story is fun. Putting the fun on the page visually is Ronan Cliquet, Carmine Di Giandomenico, Kieran McKeown and Pablo M Collar, with tight fight staging and slick, convincing character work. I don’t know who did what, but it’s all very good!
Tom Napolitano letters, Hi-Fi colours and everything looks and reads great. And Jamal Campbell’s cover is an exceptional movie poster affair. This is a very solid, even charming effort for a frippery – give it a shot.
Too Dangerous For a Girl 2 