The Powerpuff Girls Halloween Special (Family Comic Friday)

It's Halloween and Bubbles and Blossom cannot wait to go trick-or-treating. However, resident Powerpuff Girl hothead Buttercup refuses to go until she can create the perfect Halloween ghost story. See, there's a huge cash prize being offered and to Buttercup, that's more important than going around in costume door to door for candy. But as writer's block prevents Buttercup from crafting her story, the tales of aspiring writer begin to blend fantasy with reality.

I felt like this 2024 special from Dynamite Entertainment was a hot mess. The writing was all over the place. True, that's because most of the time, readers weren't supposed to know what was real and what was the product of Buttercup's imagination. Maybe dyed in the wool fans of the series would understand it better and enjoy it. But just don't think that's the case here. I think this is a case of writer Amanda Diebert trying to squeeze too much into a 32-page or less book. Perhaps if this was an 80-page giant, the details could have been fleshed out better. But if not, my God, I don't think I could have stood reading such a deluxe special. 

It wasn't just the writing that disappointed me. I like the artwork of Cat Staggs. But what happened here? The interiors seem so unlike her and really, it hardly looks like the Powerpuff Girls! I'm used to the clean lines of Bubbles and her sisters from the TV series. Here, it looks like someone went a little too heavy with the inks and a very thick brush. Even the colors are wrong. Everything is mottled instead of a uniform solid bright hue for each character, their clothing and the scenery.

I'd blame the artwork on modernization of the characters. Only there's an ad for another Powerpuff Girls series in the back and that artwork looks like the original Cartoon Network style that I am familiar with. Plus, the villains who pop up in their amazing cameos look fantastic. Why didn't Staggs give the same level of detail to the trio of heroes?

The Powerpuff Girls Halloween Special is rated Teen. That's mostly because the generation who grew up watching the original series are now in their teens and early adulthood. Yet, other than some heroic fights, I didn't see anything that parents and guardians would find offensive or too over-the-top if younger readers were to read this book. That being said I doubt that very many readers under the age of 18 are going to get the myriad of references to Stanley Kubrick's 1980 horror classic, The Shining. Be honest. How many of you figured out that the heart pattern on the cover was a tribute to the carpeted floors of the Overlook Hotel?

I think the wrong franchise tried to give tribute to the wrong horror classic. Powerpuff Girls meet Jack Torrance just didn't work for me. The John Carpenter Halloween homage that kicks things off would have been great. But the story goes off into another direction. By the time I was able to sort out the terrible segue, I had pretty much made up my mind that things were going to get better.

Rating: 4 out of 10 stars.