If you grew up
reading MAD Magazine, the name Sergio Aragones is probably well-known. He’s the
artist who draws those legions of tiny cartoons in between the panels on every
page. Where a typical MAD artist might’ve seen his work on maybe 6-8 pages,
Aragones’ work was on every page, sometimes 3-4 cartoons per.
When I found
this book in a bargain bin, I jumped for joy. I’d been looking for it for a
very long time and most places I’d seen it wanted about $5 per copy. For a
bargain hunter like myself, that was just way too expensive. But last November,
I found it for a quarter. DEAL!
There’s two
stories intertwined in this issue. First there’s Sergio trying to break his way
into the DC ranks as a super hero artist. Along for the ride is writer Mark
Evanier. Clearly Sergio is missing the mark when it comes to creating super
heroes, but that’s part of the fun. Aragones is written as a Latin America
yokel, whose ideas about super heroes comics is as fractured as his English. I
seriously doubt this is how the talented artist is in real like. But like his work,
much of it is caricature. However, his views on modern comics (in the 90s)
becoming a farcical mirror image of what they were when I was a kid is spot on.
The second tale
is Sergio’s creation of a crossover to end all crossovers, as Hawkman, Batman
(sorry- The Batman), Superman, Wonder Woman, and dozens more face a menace of incalculable
proportions- Themselves and the loss of pop culture innocence.
Destroy DC is a parody
of comic books in the 1990s. When the book sticks it to the comics genre it is
pure genius. Aragones dabbles with skewing topical humor, like the 96 presidential
races, and it falls flat. But most of this book really does damage to the DC façade.
Unlike Marvel’s Fred Hembreck Destroys the Marvel Universe, where the
cartoonist actually killed everyone, Aragones destroys the DC universe by
turning it on its ear. Oddly enough, people must’ve been listening, because the
comic book bubble officially burst right around the time this book was published
and the big two publishers went scrambling to fix their house before the fell
like a house of cards.
Destroys DC is a
very funny, but hard to find book that’s filled with classic Sergio Aragones
artwork. I very much enjoyed it.
Worth Consuming.
Rating: 8 out of
10 stars.
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