DC comics have a long history of featuring gorillas, apes, and monkeys. If you’d like a capsule history of just how many, check out the latest issue of Scooby-Doo Team-Up! It’s “gorilla warfare” in issue #42 as written by Sholly Fisch and illustrated by Dario Brizuela. The mayor has called in the kids to drive Monsieur Mallah and the vampire gorilla Pryemaul out of City Hall. To help, Scooby and his friends enlist the detective Sam Simeon, Detective Chimp, and […]

Scooby-Doo Team-Up is the most fun comic I read, and #39 is no exception. The Mystery Inc. gang teams up with the superhero team Justice Society of America, which requires time travel. I was amazed at how much Sholly Fisch managed to pack into this issue — a modern day supernatural mystery, the trip back in time, and best of all, a structure that mimics the original JSA comics. Typically, given the size of the team, a threat would be […]

I had to mention the latest installment of the digital series DC Super Hero Girls: Spaced Out, #10, because it’s just so darn cute! The story so far has involved Green Lantern Jessica Cruz overcoming her fears, a trip to Oa (the Green Lantern home planet), Supergirl being misled by other Kryptonians, and Wonder Woman dog-sitting Krypto in Supergirl’s absence. It’s the pets that make this issue, written by Shea Fontana and illustrated by Agnes Garbowska, so much fun. Krypto […]

The latest DC Super Hero Girls comic is just as good as rest of the series! DC Super Hero Girls: Date with Disaster! stays true to the high school concept by setting the action around a coming winter formal dance. First, though, Batgirl, Supergirl, Wonder Woman, Bumblebee, and Poison Ivy have to save people from a lab explosion in a high-rise downtown building. We also get significant roles for reporters Lois Lane, Jimmy Olsen, and Ron Troupe, as well as […]

The high point of my DC comics purchases these days is this goofy “kids’ comic” that gets the superhero cast right, i.e. as I think they should be in terms of heroism, entertainment, and good character. Imagine my glee when I saw that the latest “guest star” was the female-focused Birds of Prey. In this story by Sholly Fisch and Dario Brizuela, Batgirl and Black Canary have asked for Velma and Daphne’s help in investigating why huge mythological birds are […]

I previously talked about how much I liked the premise of DC Super Hero Girls: Out of the Bottle, with its emphasis on creativity and character revelation. Written by Shea Fontana, it’s about having to stop comic book drawings come to life, with the girl heroes facing off against first, versions of themselves, and then, in the conclusion, other monsters (who wind up being other, lesser-known DC characters). For example, Beast Boy fights Animal-Vegetable-Mineral Man, while Poison Ivy battles Doomsday. […]

Superman #27 is the kind of comic I remember from my childhood, although then, these kinds of “learn about history and geography” travel stories tended to star Dennis the Menace, not DC’s first family. After confirming the existence of his son from a villain who tried to erase and then corrupt him, Superman needs a vacation. So Lois rents an RV and Clark, she, and their son Jon set out on a trip together for the fourth of July in […]

There’s such potential in Dark Night: A True Batman Story. Fans of superhero characters are already prepped to want to know more about the author, Paul Dini, who was so instrumental in making Batman: The Animated Series. The idea of exploring how working on a fictional superhero changes after the artist has been severely mugged is a fascinating one. Unfortunately, I found the execution superficial and self-indulgent. At a time when he was helping write the animated feature Mask of […]