Scribblenauts Unmasked: A Crisis of Imagination (Family Comics Friday)

Cover to the last chapter of A Crisis of Imagination #18.

 Maxwell and Lily are siblings from an alternate earth. Maxwell has a magic pen and pad that can conjuror anything he can imagine. Lily has a globe that when powered up can transport you to anywhere in the known universe. Together this brother and sister superhero team are the Scribblenauts.

   Created in 2009, Scribblenauts is a puzzle adventure video game that has developed a sort of cult following. After several years success, the franchise branched out into the DC Universe with Scribblenauts Unmasked: A DC Comics Adventure in 2013. Featuring over 2,000 characters from the DC Universe, the game spawned a number of action figures, t-shirts, and in 2014, a webseries and eventual print comic book series.

   In this series, Maxwell and Lily return to the DCU after the events of the video game to discover that their beloved friends in the Justice League are being menaced by their former allies. When Maxwell discovers that these supposed friends are being possessed by Shadow Demons, the Phantom Stranger arrives to warn that a crisis looms threatening the very fabric of the multiverse. The key player behind this threat- the Anti-Monitor.

     The book begins like a sugary kids book. I'm not knocking it. But the first two issues weren't really my cup of tea. But once the books started to delve into the rich history of the multiverse and include characters from Captain Carrot and His Amazing Zoo Crew, Earth 2, and Batman Beyond, I really took a shine to this book. It was like reading an amped up all-ages version of Crisis of Infinite Earths.

   Like any good kids multimedia project does, Scribblenauts includes a story that children will enjoy along with little nuggets that bring back a wave of nostalgia to adults. The art, while cartoony, still evoked over 75 years of DC History. By the end of this book, I wasn't wanting it to end.

   There is a bonus story that while too entertaining, it negates some of the stories in this plot. It was never published prior to this collection. I am thinking that is that case as it wipes out one baddies transformation into one of the good guys in the main series.  Honestly, I am not even sure why they included it. 

    One thing that some properties, like Disney, do is push the envelope, often with a bit of innuendo. That doesn't happen here. Nor is there any bad language. Lots of cool lines from classic films like Ghostbusters and Back to the Future abound in this series and they gave me a chuckle. There are some mild violence and a little bit of sorcery but otherwise, like the Scribblenauts video games, this miniseries is considered quite family friendly.

   Worth Consuming

   Rating: 7 out of 10 stars.