DC's Ghouls Just Wanna Have Fun #1

Ghouls Just Wanna Have Fun is the title of this Halloween oversized special from DC. I love the punny title and I love the main cover by Alvaro Martino Bueno. That prancing monstress dressed as Mary Marvel was just so cheerful. The dragon off to the left wearing a Flash mask is just adorable. And the looks on Lois and Clark's faces was timeless.

But was the interior just as fun as the cover? How about I describe some of the stories and you decide? Here's a run down of my favs...

• Adam F. Goldberg, the creator of ABC's The Goldberg's crafts a tale in which Lobo comes to his daughter Crush, to help him find a costume for a Halloween party at the House of Secrets. Crush recommends that her pop goes as a certain Hugh Jackman character. What she's hinting at is going as Wolverine. What Lobo hears is a whole bunch of other characters played by the Aussie actor.
• Lois tasks Clark to help her with a Halloween deadline, which means exploring an abandoned mental hospital. What Superman uncovers is a closet full of ghosts, all waiting for long overdue justice.
• Animal Man spies on his daughter on her first Halloween trick-or-treating since the death of her brother.
• A woman goes out for her nightly walk on the dangerous streets of Gotham. Her hope is to run into the Batman. Instead, she comes face-to-face with a Man-Bat!
• Hal Jordan battles an escaped inter-galactic villain. He also comes head-to-head with the demon, Etrigan. It's good cop vs. bad cop. If they work together, will this fiend they stop?

There were a couple of stories I liked but I hated the ending.

• In Bludhaven, Nightwing battles a werewolf. In order to stop the beast, he'll have to team up with Jason Todd, the Red Hood. It's a story of bad blood that ended with the promise of more. Only there wasn't any sort of blurb telling readers to catch the rest of the story in some other issue. As much as I hate having to read the rest of a story in the pages of another book, I hate it just as much when a story ends without really completing anything.
• On the anniversary of the first time the world thought that the Doom Patrol died, Robotman is haunted by the ghosts of fallen teammates. I love the classic Doom Patrol. There's a whole lot of modern characters that I just don't know. I probably would like this more if I had more of a connection to most of the ghosts.

And then there was one story that I didn't hate, but I wasn't completely sold on it either

• Renee Montoya investigates a number of murders during Gotham's annual Halloween Fashion Week. When she realizes that several of the models she's been questioning have been dead for a while, Montoya becomes the Question to complete her investigation as a pair of villains from Batman's Rogues Gallery prepare to take the catwalk for one final act of terror. The story wasn't so bad. Art was actually good. The first act was intriguing. I just didn't buy the team-up of the 2 baddies. It just didn't make sense to me their motivations.

5 stories were winners and I loved that Lobo tale from Adam F. Goldberg. I want a Lobo/Crush series written by Goldberg! I would buy each issue new on the day it came out! 2 stories were good but could've been better. Technically that Question story could have been better but I think only if 2 different antagonists were teamed together, could it truly have worked. 

For one of DC's holiday specials, there were 2 noticeable omissions. Harley Quinn is absolutely absent from this book and Batman is only represented by members of his family. I thought it was a law that DC had to include both characters in everything the House That Superman Built published these days. Not that I didn't miss either character. I'm an original member of the Gang of Harleys and Batman plays into a lot of my posts. I'm just surprised DC left both heavy hitters out of this book.

And then there's the missing story. According to Previews, Mary Marvel and Psycho Pirate were supposed to star in a story together in this book. As I had mentioned earlier, there's a ghoul dressed like Mary Marvel on the cover. So are monsters dressed on Man-Bat, Animal Man, Lobo and the Flash. Other than Flash, the other 3 characters do appear in this book. What happened to Mary Marvel? And was the Flash supposed to be in this special too and he got bumped for some reason as well?

Once again, this special was $9.99. That's been the price for these holiday specials for several years now. I know of some fans that say with conviction that paying $10 plus tax is too much for a comic book. In the past some of these books have not been that good. That's not the case here. Ghouls Just Wanna Have Fun was one of the best DC oversized releases I've read in years. More fun and exciting than preachy and political. I didn't feel like any of these stories were trying to talk down to me. In fact, that Lobo story felt like something my own warped sense of humor would come up with. Plus- no ads! 

It was definitely money well spent.

Worth Consuming!

Rating: 8 out of 10 stars

Batman: The Brave and the Bold, Vol. 2: The Fearsome Fangs Strikes Again!

Collecting issues 7-12 of the DC Comics series based on the Cartoon Network animated series of the same name. The very same team-up series I wished never ended. It did take me a couple of episodes to really appreciate the show. I was hesitant to accept the comical Diedrich Bader to do justice as the voice of Batman. But as I came to realize that the writers, artists and actors involved in Batman: The Brave and the Bold were fans of classic DC and really wanted to do a series that paid tribute to all eras of DC Comics, I was hooked!

In the 6 issues reprinted here, we get several guest stars that had at one point or another appeared on the cartoon. The original line-up of the Doom Partol, along with Beast Boy, Garfield Logan, a clean shaven Green Arrow, Black Canary, The Atom (though not sure if it's Ray Palmer or Ryan Choi version), and Adam Strange return for a lot of fun. The character of Catman makes his first appearance in this series. Although, I think Catman does pop up a couple of times on the show. And the there's the team that really has got me scratching my head...

3 of the members of the Great Ten, a Chinese superhero team that first appeared in the pages of Grant Morrison's 52 appear in issue #8. The August General in Armor (name really says it all), the highly accurate Celestial Archer, and the musically inclined Accomplished Perfect Physician meet up with Batman who is in Tibet investigating the sighting of a Yeti. The Asian heroes claim that the Yeti is really a Great Ten reservist who allowed his beastly side to accidentally overtake his civilized side during one of his heroic transformations. 

Most of you are going, 'why is all that a head scratcher?' Well, the choice of the Great Ten is an odd one. They're not really characters that kids would know. To be honest, they're not really characters a ton of adult readers of DC Comics would know. After a brief appearance in 2019's Doomsday Clock, the Great Ten have been pretty much MIA from the DCU. And then there's where this story takes place.

Batman meets up with the heroes from the Great Ten in Tibet. Now Tibet is known for being the home of the fabled Abominable Snowman, AKA the Yeti. But in the story, the Chinese heroes call Tibet, well, uh, they call it Tibet. But these heroes are also government employees. Shouldn't they be referring to Tibet as China as that nation lays claim to Tibet as a part of their territory? Or at least call it the Autonomous Zone or Region? 

That story was printed in 2009. I'm surprised that DC was willing to publish an issue with subject matter that controversial. In the past decade, movie studios have gotten in trouble with China and other countries for not calling certain regions or territories by the proper internationally recognized titles. Heck, just this year, Vietnam refused to show the mega-hit Barbie movie in their theaters because of a single scene that uses an outdated map for a sight gag. Maybe we just weren't so sensitive in 2009 as we are today. If that's the case, man do I miss those days...

A great read. There's over a dozen issues out there for me to get my hands on. So The Brave and the Bold fun doesn't have to end yet. 

Worth Consuming!

Rating: 9 out of 10 stars.

Showcase Presents The Doom Patrol, Volume 2

Look, the events of this book took place over 50 years ago. So if it's a spoiler for you, I'm sorry. But in order to fully capture my feelings, I'm going have to let some details slip.

Reading this, the second and final volume of Showcase Presents The Doom Patrol, was very bittersweet. Knowing that the main members of this team were slated for death by the very last page was like a sad little time bomb getting closer and closer to mortality with the completion of every page. 

There are some joyous times in the book. The marriage of Rita Farr and Mento. The adoption of Beast Boy. The Sam and Diane romance between the Professor and the evil Madame Rouge. Those were great moments in not only Doom Patrol but DC Comics history. 

I also rather enjoyed the origin back-story features of Robotman, Negative Man and Beastie. But where's Elasti-Girl's history? Where's Niles Caulder's story? Where's Mento's first days? Okay- Caulder's origins are explored some in the Robotman and Negative Man's 'miniseries'. But the leader of The Doom Patrol is too much of a mystery. 

Those of you who've read the later series of Doom Patrol know that yes, nobody ever really stays dead in the world of comics. And we'll one day see more of Caulder's backstory revealed. But it just wasn't explored here.

A great series that went in some pretty zany directions. It was classic DC and I loved it. 
Too bad this was just so darn sad of a collection!

Worth Consuming!

Rating: 8 out of 10 stars.

Scooby-Doo Team-Up #43

Scooby and the gang find themselves in the middle of a mystery right in the middle of the Doom Patrol’s headquarters. The world's strangest heroes have been constantly attacked by some of their most fearsome foes! Can Mystery Inc discover who's behind the assaults before time runs out for the Doom Patrol?

Sholly Fisch pens another instant classic in this, the latest issue of Scooby-Doo Team-Up. This story features both classic and modern cameos of friends and foes of one of my favorite DC superhero teams. But I won't reveal just who shows up as that might ruin the fun and surprises!

If you are a regular reader of Madman With a Book, you'll know that I absolutely adore Dario Brizuela’s stylization of the DC characters. Well Brizuela has really upped his game on several members of the Doom Patrol. Robotman looked so sleek and powerful. Elasti Girl was stunning. And we've got the mystery characters who really rocked. But what was going on with the stars of this title?

When it came to drawing the teen detectives, they didn't really match the DC characters very well. Velma and Daphne in particular had very thick ink lines compared to the svelte design of Robotman. Plus there were a couple of panels that looked pixelated. Normally, all of the characters have a very fluid design style. But in those other panels, they looked fuzzy; like somebody made copies from a 1990s Hewlett Packard printer.

One of the best stories out of the entire series. If only the art was consistent, this would be perhaps the best issue of them all. An almost perfect read.

Worth Consuming!

Rating: 9 out of 10 stars.

Doom Patrol #1

   Last November, I had the privilege to work security for some of the special events at NC Comicon. It was really cool to be in on the inside edge of comics. One such activity were the two-day Q&As with My Chemical Romance lead-singer Gerard Way.

   At the time, Way had had success with the Dark Horse series The Umbrella Academy, along with limited-issue sequel and a handful of short stories. But it had been a few years since the singer had delved back into the comic book world. But on the night of his first Q&A, Gerard Way announced that he had teamed with the good folks at DC and a new Doom Patrol series was forthcoming.
    For those of you not in the know, the Doom Patrol is often considered the forefather to the X-Men. A team of what the world would consider 'freaks' were recruited by the brilliant and mysterious Dr. Niles Caulder, who was confined to a wheelchair because of a previous injury. In the 90s, the team were revamped by Grant Morrison, who incorporated elements of surrealism, Dada, and dissected story structure. This new Doom Patrol was considered a massive hit and along with Neil Gaiman's Sandman series, the founding titles of DC's Vertigo imprint.
    It was Morrison's incarnation of the Doom Patrol that had a direct impact on Gerard Way's Doom Patrol. I learned in one of the afterwords of this issue that Way was an intern at DC in the 90s and worked under Grant Morrison. Way and Morrison became fast friends and the celebrated DC writer ;ater starred in a couple of My Chemical Romance's Killjoys videos as the super villain Korse. Obviously from reading this issue, Morrison's vision of the Doom Patrol is alive in well in this new series.
     So what is Doom Patrol #1 all about? Honestly, I'm not 100% sure but I'm not giving up on it either. Here's what I can figure out thus far:

1.     The hero of the series is a young ambulance driver named Casey Brinke.
2.      Her partner is a single father who has a theory that universes are hiding all over the place. For example, there might be another plane of existence hiding in the folds of his food truck gyro.
3.      Members of the Doom Patrol seem to be bleeding over into Casey's life. Are they from this universe or another plane of the DC multiverse remains to be seen.

    Doom Patrol #1 is the first issue and title of the newest DC Comics imprint Young Animal. Over the few months, Gerard Way and friends will release several more titles featuring some lesser known but equally bizarre characters in the DC Universe such as spelunker extraordinaire Cave Carlson and a female version of Shade: the Changing Man.

    The Young Animal books are touted as 'comics for dangerous humans.' These books are geared for adults and the cover has a rating of 'Mature.' Other than a few swears, the first issue was pretty tame. But if the super-secret sticker peel cover is any indication- things are going to get explosively cosmic! So, parents of little ones- use discretion, please!

     I enjoyed this read. Like I said, I didn't understand much of it. Gerard Way obviously has a plan for his Young Animal books. But it's impossible to establish a new universe in 32-pages (unless you're Stan Lee or Jack Kirby.) It's generally a rule of mine to give a new TV-series at least 3 episodes- because the Pilot normally sucks!  

    With that in mind, I am more than willing to give this series a couple of more issues to get established. What I read might've confused me a little, and I think that's part of Gerard Way's plan. But man this book sure didn't suck!

   Worth Consuming

    Rating: 8 out of 10 stars.

Doom Patrol and Suicide Squad Special

   When the superhero Hawk (of the duo Hawk & Dove) is caught running guns to the Contras by the Sandinistas in Nicaragua, Amanda Waller is ordered by the President to assemble a Suicide Squad. Hoping to show up Waller and her elite program, high-ups from Central Intelligence formulate their own plan and manipulate the Doom Patrol to conduct their own rescue mission. 

    Like with all team-up stories, both groups will see the other as a threat and the fur will literally fly. But, when the two teams look like they are ready to rip each other's throats out, a new player unexpectedly enters the arena- the Soviet backed elite of armored warriors: the Rocket Red Brigade!

     This 1988 special was an interesting mix of real life meets sci-fi/ fantasy. With appearances of both Ronald Reagan and Mikhail Gorbachev and the Doom Patrol and Suicide Squad involved in the Iran-Contra mishap- this is kinda how I wish history really went down for the 40th President of the United States. Or maybe the folks at DC got a little too political for this one...

     Other than Colonel Flag and Amanda Waller, this line-up is unlike any version of Suicide Squad that I have ever come across. With a team-up of C-listers that I have never heard of including the Thinker, Mister 104, and the Weasel, this is a pretty weak group of villains. But according to the afterword, DC would only allow unpopular and expendable characters for the mission to Nicaragua. 

     And don't get me started on the Doom Patrol line-up. Who are these people? Other than Robotman, honestly, who the heck are they?

     One plus to this special is the team of writers and artists involved. This book features one of the first published works by Eric Larsen of Savage Dragon fame. It's also co-written by one of my good Facebook (and semi-professional) buddies Paul Kupperberg. So despite my misgivings with the line-ups of both super teams, this is an epic book that I would say often gets swept under the rug due to a lack of superstar superheroes! 

     Often found in bargain bins nation-wide, this is an affordable Suicide Squad one-shot that could be the gem in your collection.
     
   Worth Consuming.

   Rating: 7 out of 10 stars.

Legends of the DC Universe 80-Page Giant #1

The 80-page giant-sized comic- that was a thing of beauty and sheer joy! A 100-page comic was even better but regardless, when you got one of these you knew you were in for a treat. They were affordable anywhere from a buck to $1.25. You’d always get at least 4 stories, maybe more per issue. One or two stories would star a A-lister superhero (like Superman or Batman), one tale would be from a middle-tier character (maybe Green Arrow or Aquaman) and another tale would be from a more obscure character that was pretty weird but a cult favorite (like Metamorpho or Deadman.) I absolutely loved them and you usually could find these in bargain bins for dirt cheap.Since Legends of the DC Universe is trying to evoke some of the nostalgia with these untold tales of the DC superhero elite, it seemed natural that their first special would be a Giant. If you read the letters page in issue 3, the editors revealed that they had tons of responses for characters that fans wanted to see highlighted. Some were perfect for a multi-story arc while some just were A-list material to carry this series all by their lonesome. So, this special was created to give the people what they wanted without sending LOTDCU into the economic crapper.

The premise follows a time-travelling hero called Chronos. I am pretty sure, he’s not the yellow and green masked arch-villain of the Atom but I am not sure. A mysterious time-travelling alien approaches Chronos in hopes of keeping him from robbing a sacred tomb. To try to dissuade Chronos into doing the right thing and not sell the tomb’s artifacts to Vandal Savage, the pair goes through-out time and space viewing the adventures of some of the most classic DC characters around.

With Chronos, prepare to see the Spectre ease the conscious of a guilt-ridden survivor of the Titanic, thrill with Adam Strange as he teleports from earth to across the stars to save the planet Rann. Learn the secrets of Hawkman and Hawkgirl’s ability to speak with birds while discovering how Rip Hunter keeps surviving his dangerous trips through time. Lastly, grieve with Beast Boy over the loss of his teammates, the Doom Patrol while you experience the first ‘unofficial’ team-up of the New Teen Titans.

This issue is a who’s who of talent, including Steve Ditko, Dave Gibbons, Joe Kubert, and  Marv Wolfman, and George Perez. It’s loaded with some of the greats.

I really enjoyed this special. It’s a shame that DC didn’t make more of these but there’s always nostalgic comic collectors and hope. So, who knows, maybe it will come back again.

Oh, and the revelation as to who Chronos’ mystery traveler is- brilliant. Just absolutely bloody brilliant and it was the icing on the cake!

Worth Consuming.

Rating: 9 out of 10 stars.

Showcase Presents: The Doom Patrol, Volume 1

  The 60s series Challengers of the Unknown and the Doom Patrol are often mentioned in tandem. Both series started about the same time as well as ended just before the dawn of the 70s. Also, both series saw a revival at about the same time in 1977 and again in the 80s and 90s, though the Doom Patrol had more success as a long term series (thanks to the genius of a Scotsman named Grant Morrison.)

What I read were the first couple of dozen issues of the Doom Patrol. From their first appearance in My Greatest Adventure #80 to the series being retitled The Doom Patrol about 5 issues later, this series is about a group of self-proclaimed “freaks.” These freaks include a woman who can grow and shrink in size and strength, a human brain encapsulated into a giant robot, and a mysteriously mummy wrapped man who houses a radioactive entity called Negative Man. The team lives in a super deluxe mansion where they conduct training drills in a “War Room” and are led by a wheelchair bound genius named “The Chief.” (Hmmm, this sounds a lot like a bunch of mutants in upstate New York, but the Doom Patrol beat the X-Men to newsstands by just a couple of months.)

There’s another similarity to a famous Marvel group- the Fantastic Four. The Doom Patrol has a pogo-type rocket plane in which they fly off on their worldwide adventures and they fight amongst themselves like wet cats and dogs. Yet, when the chips are down, they know that they are family that can achieve wonders when teamwork is involved. (This time, Marvel won, as their formula for a dysfunctional family of oddities was almost 2 years old when the Doom Patrol first appeared.)

For a 1960s non-Marvel comic, the Doom Patrol is pretty good. They’ve got a Rogue’s gallery that’s even kookier than them and many of these stories are not dumbed down. I think DC really tried to aim this title to adults. It only took about 30 years for a much more R-rated DP to find its audience.

But, back to the 1960s. This series sees the first appearances of one Garfield Logan, AKA Beast Boy, later of Teen Titan fame. There’s also an oddly helmeted super hero named Mento, who later will became an enemy of the Titans. The DP also fights several villains such as Monsieur Mallah and his boss, The Brain, who’ll eventually become thorns in the side of those pesky Teen Titans. If you want a glimpse of the early days of the Teen Titans, this is the book for you!

Before I give my final verdict on this book, I want to come back to the Challengers of the Unknown. In the final issue of this book, the Doom Patrol intercepts a message from the Challengers, requesting their assistance for some unknown reason. The issue ends with a blurb telling the reader to check out next month’s issue of Challengers and then the following issue of Doom Patrol to learn what happens. I so very hate it when books require another title to complete a story. That ticked me off a little bit here.

  Thankfully, I want volume 2 really bad. But, I have no idea if that book will have the needed Challengers title as a companion piece in it or not. I currently own Showcase Presents: Challengers of the Unknown, volumes 1 and 2. Having read them, I don’t remember a Doom Patrol team-up. So, I really don’t have a clue if the next volume of Doom Patrol will have the complete story. Also, as of this point, I don’t know what issue of Challengers to look for as DC neglected to put that info in their caption. Much research might be needed.

Worth Consuming, but with an irksome pet peeve at the end.

Rating: 9 out of 10 stars.

"JLA: Another Nail"

Now that Superman has finally come, the DCU faces its first crisis. A real page turner here! Honest. There are some great cameos by the Doom Patrol, Powergirl, Black Orchid, and The Phantom Stranger. And thankfully, the crisis ends with Barry Allen still alive!

The best part is Batman’s penance for the death of the Joker at his hands in The Nail. The outcome is awesome!