Scooby-Doo & Batman: The Brave and the Bold

Way back in the 1970s, the detectives of Mystery Inc. teamed up with Batman and Robin: The Boy Wonder. Not once but twice, the combined teams would defeat Batman's most fiercest foes The Joker and The Penguin. 

Those team-ups became the thing of legend. It was such an important moment in my life that I paid ridiculous amounts of money for those episodes on VHS. It also influenced my purchasing of comic books as team-ups and crossovers are one of my favorite genres of comics to buy.

Unfortunately, except for a very brief cameo in the final episode of Batman: The Brave and the Bold, Scooby and the gang would not re-team with the Dark Knight until now!!!

Before I go into the review of this made-for-DVD movie, let's back up a second. I mentioned Batman: The Brave and the Bold a second ago. For those of you not familiar, this animated series ran on cartoon network from 2008-2011. It was based on the 70s comic book of the same name in which the Caped Crusader would team with some of the more popular as well as extremely obscure residents of the DC Universe. The show was a massive hit but it was cancelled because DC wanted to do a Batman cartoon that was more serious in tone. 

Needless to say, that experiment- Beware The Batman was a massive flop. 

Scooby-Coo & Batman: The Brave and the Bold brings back Diedrich Bader as the voice of Batman, along with most of the original voice talents from the late 2000s series. Voice-over legend Frank Welker once again provides the voices of Fred and Scooby; whereas live-action version of Shaggy, Matthew Lillard takes over the role made famous by Casey Kasem. 

The film involves Batman inducting the Mystery Inc. gang into the Gotham Society of Detectives. When Batman's lone unsolved case comes back to haunt him in the form of a ghost called The Crimson Cloak, Scooby and friends agree to help the superhero close the book on the mystery. However, it also results in the detectives getting framed for the theft of a rare isotope.

This movie was pretty funny. It was great to see Batman done as a Scooby cartoon (again!) and the Mystery Inc. crew playing superhero as in the Brave and the Bold episodes. There's tons of cameos from some of the best characters of the defunct Batman series as well appearances from just about every Batman villain ever created.

The Scooby-Doo franchise isn't in danger of evaporating if this crossover film is a bomb. But in terms of getting more Batman: The Brave and the Bold adventures, this movie is going to need all of it's fans to check this film out. I for one was thrilled when this movie was announced and I hope to see more B&B soon! Reboot! Reboot!

A thrilling mystery with a lot of twists, turns and laughs, Scooby-Doo & Batman: The Brave and the Bold is available on DVD and digitally now!

Worth Consuming!

Rating: 9 out of 10 stars.

The Prisoner: Shattered Visage, Book B

Former secret agent Alice Drake has just spent her first night in the abandoned Village. Only for an abandoned village, there seems to be quite a few occupants here. 

I think it's extremely fitting that they writers named this new character Alice for she's a lot like another girl named Alice who went to Wonderland and peered through the looking glass. 

Our Alice is confronted by two very strange characters. The portly and grotesque Number 2 who is a lot like the Red Queen wanting to kill his old adversary Number 6. Speaking of which, Number 6 is a lot like the Mad Hatter now. Years of torture, abuse and loneliness have twisted Number 6's mind to be just like the tea party host. There's little bits of genius still floating around in that old noggin of his. You just have to weed through the insanity to find it.

Dean Motter's artwork hasn't ceased to amaze me. It's a visually stunning masterpiece that I think is quite under-appreciated. 

In terms of the much maligned story- it's not bothered me either. Though, I must sheepishly admit, I had to take a little refresher course on remembering just who this version of Number 2 was. 

Don't bash me. If anything, this lapse in memory just calls for me to re-watch the entire series again. Is that so bad?

Worth Consuming!

Rating: 10 out of 10 stars. 

Hungry Ghosts #2

The Edo parlour game of 100 Candles continues in the second issue of Anthony Bourdain's Hungry Ghosts.  Two more helpings of frightful tales told by a group of chefs and their patrons are once again all about food.

In Salty Horse, a rich connoisseur of horse flesh just can't enough  of the equine delight.

Then in The Heads, an apprentice chef seeks a new master to teach him the culinary trade. But what he winds up with with make him a pariah for the rest of his days unless he can think fast.

Boudain, along with co-writer Joel Rose keeps upping the ante with these spooky tales guaranteed to disrupt the palate of the least pickiest of foodies. But it was the art in this issue that truly scared the chef pants off of me. 

Hellblazer's Leonardo Manco's work on Salty Horse was in a word: killer. I think we've found the heir apparent to the horror comics throne that Bernie Wrightson occupied before his passing in 2017. Manco's work reminded me so much of the ghastly pencils of Wrightson's work on the House of Mystery and House of Secrets back in the 1970s. I actually did a double-take to the credits page as I thought maybe I had stumbled upon a lost Wrightson work. The art of Salty Horse is just that good!

I also enjoyed the work Mateus Santolouco (Dial H) did on The Heads. His pencils were scary and a little whimsical as that yarn was told with tongue firmly in cheek both literally and figuratively. If you are a fan of Frank Ghastly's work on the classic EC Comics titles, did you will appreciate Santolouco's work on the second ghost story.

There was one thing about this comic book that confounded me and it involves the stories themselves. Early PR on Hungry Ghosts reported that all of Bourdain's stories were to be set in Japan. Salty Horse takes place in Spain while The Heads is set in Lombardy. I know I wasn't that great in geography. But I am pretty sure that neither Spain or Lombardy are in Japan. 

I don't mind that these tales weren't set in the Land of the Rising Sun. It's just when you sell me on a comic based on Japanese ghost stories, I expect all of the ghost stories to be set in Japan. 

There's only 2 issues left in this miniseries and I can't wait for them. As a professional chef, I love seeing that food and culinary is getting highlighted in geek culture. Anthony Bourdain is the right person to led the transition, as he's the Lou Reed and Joey Ramone of food. He's edgy, nostalgic and a lot more entertaining the more I learn about him.

Hungry Ghosts #2 debuted in stories and digital mediums on March 7, 2018.

Worth Consuming!

Rating; 9 out of 10 stars.

Vampironica #1

Vampironica #1

Written by Greg and Meg Smallwood
Art by Greg Smallwood
Lettering by Jock Morelli
Published by Archie Comics under the Archie Horror Imprint

This Party Sucks

Cheryl Blossom’s parties are so lively. Thus, it is the perfect place for a vampire attack! Just when it looks like the fiends will suck the life out of this bash, enter Veronica Lodge to the rescue!

Archie Comics has been on fire in the past couple of years. They take an outdated character in the eternal teenager Archie. Then they totally reboot him without loosing his core essence of hopeless boy in love with two girls. And then Archie Comics adds monsters, zombies, and horror to the mix!

In the vein of Afterlife with Archie and Jughead: The Hunger, Vampironica introduces vampires to the people of Riverdale. Image if Ronnie was Buffy the Vampire Slayer! There’s definitely an added element of Marvel’s Blade mixed in as only instead of being a normal human cheerleader,Veronica is a vampire. And she kills other vampires!

Keep It Quick

Vampironica #1 was an extremely quick but chilling read. Greg and Meg Smallwood kept me on the edge of my seat with this chiller. I hate that I read my advance copy so fast because it’s going to be a couple of months before I get to know what happens in issue #2.

Greg Smallwood’s art was really phenomenal. It had a lot of elements from Fiona Staple’s work in the Archie reboot written by Mark Waid.

Francesco Francavilla has been doing the art for the other Archie Horror books and I really enjoy it. But I am glad that Archie Comics decided to go with Smallwood here. You don’t want to over do it with Francavilla. By having a different artist in Greg Smallwood, it definitely helps to keep the Archie Horror franchise one of the freshest comic universes on the current market.

This first issue was a mach-1 thrill ride with twists, turns, and lots of blood and gore. Tasteful blood and gore. I loved it! And I think you will to when you get a chance to sink your teeth in it this March!

Worth Consuming!

Rating: 9 out of 10 stars.

Vampironica goes on sale March 14th, 2018.

Justice League Unlimited #12

The Flash answers a JLA distress signal only to find that his fellow teammates have been trapped by the Mirror Master! Now a prisoner himself, the only person that can save The Flash is... The Flash?!

It's Jay Garrick to the rescue as the JSA-er makes a special appearance in this issue of Justice League Unlimited.

I loved the issue. A good story starring the Speedsters. Knowing that The Flash in the JLA is Wally West, I understand that they couldn't have a Kid Flash in this story. But that's all that's really missing from this adventure was a Kid Flash. No, you couldn't have Impulse, he would have been too all over the place. Thus his presence would have ruined the pace of the story. But a Kid Flash was missing from this issue.

I enjoyed the interior artwork by Carlo Barberi. It was very similar to that of the Cartoon Network series of which this comic is based. But what is up with the front cover? 

Jay Garrick looks awful. I mean it looks about as bad as I draw. Garrick appears like somebody accidentally drew Powdered Toast Man (from Ren & Stimpy) as the Golden Age Flash. 

Yikers!

Worth Consuming!

Rating: 9 out of 10 stars.

Fighting American: The Ties That Bind #1

Imagine if Captain America and Speedy were in reality Bruce Wayne and Dick Grayson from Batman '66. Instead of operating in their time period of the nifty 1950s, the duo are transported to the present day. Here in the present, they find that the inventions of their most insane foe has fallen into the hands of sophisticated modern day criminals. 

That's the new take on the Fighting American and his youthful sidekick Speedboy by Titan Comics in a very large nutshell. 

The Fighting American was the creation of Jack Kirby and Joe Simon. It was created as a follow-up to Captain America after their tenure at Timely, then Atlas Comics, came to a terse end. The publisher had decided to bring back Captain America in the 1950s against the wishes of Kirby and Simon. In response a Fighting American was born.

By the second issue, Fighting American had become a satire of patriotic comics. That tongue-in-cheek approach is kicked into high gear in this latest series from Gordon Rennie (Dredd Vs Death.) 

I highly enjoyed the first half of this book. Fighting American and Speedboy are aided through a zombie attack by their FBI liaison Agent Rutherford. Fighting American is so firmly rooted in his time period of 1954 and is very troubled by the bad influence today's TV is having on his sidekick.

The art by Andie Tong was really cool. It had a Mike and Laura Allred quality to it. The amazing inks and colors (by Tracy Bailey) are definitely inspired by the House of Allred.

But around the halfway point this story goes from fun parody of old school crime fighters to full scale assault on Trump supporters, Republicans and Southerners. And does every comic book published in 2018 have to assume anyone from the South is an inbred idiot? Not everyone of us residents of the South owns a hat with the letters MAGA on it or pronounces education as 'ed-u-mah-cation.'

I was born and raised in the South and I have two degrees and zero guns. My walls are not wall papered with stained American flags. My home doesn't have more wheels than the cars parked in my driveway. Yet this is what writer Gordon Rennie will have you believe is typical of us Southern yokels.

Gordon Rennie is Scottish. Writers are supposed to research their material. Based on the second half of this issue, I think all Gordon Rennie did was study reruns of The Dukes of Hazzard and Hee-Haw. 

Regardless, this brand of stereotyping (and ignorance) really ticks me off! I see this cliche way too often in comics and graphic novels- especially British publications. Coincidently, Titan is based in the UK, thus tihs Fighting American series is British. It also makes me not want to pursue the adventures of the Fighting American further, no matter how much I enjoyed the first half.

Titan Comics- you had such promise with this title. But you threw it right in the toilet when you decided to allow the creative team behind this to assume anyone born in the American South is as ignorant as the characters you bias in this first issue. I challenge your writing team to visit me in Durham, NC and I will show you have wrong you are. Yes, some of us 'hillbillies' are as prejudice as can be. But I can show you how wrong your first assumptions are and that the South is way more progressive than you think!

There is satire and then there is stereotype. Sadly Titan, your new title gets the two confused at the risk of alienating readers such as me.

Not Worth Consuming!

Rating: 4 out of 10 stars.

Fighting American: The Ties That Bind #1 debuted in stores on March 7, 2018.

The Prisoner: Shattered Visage, Book A

2018 is the 50 year anniversary of the British cult classic, The Prisoner. Titan Comics is issuing a new miniseries in honor of the anniversary and I have already reserved my copies at my local comic book shop!

But before I get the first issue, I wanted to read this miniseries from 1988. Published by DC Comics, this miniseries was released as part of the show's 30th anniversary.

It follows a retired secret agent named Alice Drake who has decided to become an adventurer sailing the world. Her estranged husband is also an operative and wants her to come back into the fold.

Meanwhile, one of the former residents of the Village has just released a tell-all book about the Village. Yes, it's been heavily redacted and the Village project has been long retired  but the author is no other than Number 2. The same that went head-to-head with our hero Number 6 meet with disastrous consequences. But with Number 6 never being accounted for during the evacuation of the Village, Number 2 has become a loose cannon that could bring the entire spy community down to it's very knees!

It's all leading up to a collision course between Alice and the legend of the Village…

Book A was a good opening chapter. I have heard that when this miniseries was published, fans felt that this story revised most of the final episode of the series. But I'm okay with this as that final episode was also left up to the interpretation of the viewer.

The writing team of Dean Motter and Mark Askwith have in my opinion done a good job on the story thus far. But I am really in love with the artwork by Motter. From the first page, I was visually stunned! It's beautiful! And it bears that funky psychedelic style of the TV show. I can't wait for Book B!

Book B! I love it! There's no numbering in this series! It's just like Number 6! ‘I am not a number!’

Worth Consuming!

Rating: 9 out of 10 stars.