DC Comics 2017
Written by Garth Ennis
Illustrated by Mauricet
Coloured by John Kalisz
Lettered by Rob Steen
It’s a red-letter day for the good folk of Unliklistan as they start to power up their first atomic reactor. But after pushing the wrong button, the ultra-rare radioactive element, unstabilium, has been released into the atmosphere! Now it’s up to pilot Lt. Col. Richard “Dick” Atcherly and his navigator Captain Dudley “Mutt” Muller to save the day. Will they safely complete their mission? Or are things about to get a little...wacky?
Well this was certainly nothing like I was expecting it to be. Though I have to admit the idea of an anthropomorphic man-dog isn’t one that I like a whole lot after reading the issue I’m not mad about it. I think what Garth does here is open up the possibility of making the whole world a real life Looney Tunes planet. Where characters can come to life in the most unexpected of ways and the potential for the myriad of characters that can come out of this boggles the mind.
So if you are coming into this expecting the hilarity and hi-jinx that the cartoon characters evoke or from the recently released Wacky Raceland expect to be both disappointed and surprised by how gosh darn clever this interpretation actually is. I know this will be something of a niche book for a lot of people but seriously it’s Garth Ennis taking one of the most notorious evil duo’s ever to appear in comics and turns them into a modern day real world caricature of a cartoon character. I’m stunned that the characterisation that we see happening here can make sense at all. I’m not gonna lie the premise is a bit far fetched to begin with but somehow in typical Ennis fashion he makes the magic work for him.
I like the interior artwork here for this as well. It kind of has this whole blend between cartoon and comics that works well here. I mean faces seem to be more cartoony while the surrounding work is more comics and that dichotomy is brilliantly done here. None of this takes itself too seriously and the cloud or whatever is coming out of War Pig One really hammers the silliness home cause we need to see that thing which is kind of the catalyst for what happens to them here. Also there’s a brilliance in how we see the cartoon effects on the characters throughout their exposure.
Speaking of brilliance I have to give major props to Garth on this one. I mean from the moment the zaniness starts until the end of the issue where one big reveal takes place the writing is absolutely without question some of the finest, weirdest and dumbest stuff you’ll ever read. So much so that once you are done reading it you’ll question why you read this, why it’s never been done like this before and how have you lived this long without seeing something like it? That’s the kind of thing I’m talking about here because at first I was like eh okay I’ll look at, then I was reading it and giggling and thinking this is silly stupid to finishing thinking this was one of the most brilliant strokes of writing I’ve seen.
A purist will not like this any more than they liked the Wacky Raceland version, which by the way was brilliant in it’s own right. If you like Garth’s work in the past and you have an open mind to these characters as well as having to engage your imagination then yeah it’s for you. Actually now that I’m thinking about it it’s kind of almost along the lines of that Supernatural episode that guest starred Mike Farrell from M.A.S.H. fame. Which actually kind of makes this all the more impressive to me since I thought it was crazy then and now I see it done a tad differently and it still is crazy and more believable to me.
The way Garth structured this book is superbly done. From showing us that the characters have real lives and jobs that require them to be positive upright citizens, well okay at the very least military personnel, that while doing their assignment have their lives changed forever. So it not only sets up how things change, why the change and set the stage for what’s to come it leaves the door wide open for us to see if they become the villainous duo we’ve known and loved or if they will be something else. Also there are some characters introduced here that may or may not have some future roles being established by their dialogue alone.
Complete and utter surprise for me in not only how well this was done but by how much I actually enjoyed it.