“Pup, Pup, and Away!”; “A Starro is Born”; “Refuge”; “The Little Cat”; “Who Woofs the Woofmen”
Writers: Tony Fleecs, Alexis Quasarand, Michael W. Conrad, Dan Watters, Kyle Starks
Artists: Mike Norton, PJ Holden, Sami Basri, Christopher Mitten, Kyle Starks
Minor Spoilers Ahead!
Review by Eric Lee
DC’s Super-Pets Special: Bitedentity Crisis #1 is full of silly stories about pets. However, the more the stories veer from humor, the less effective they are. As it collects a bunch of short stories, I’ve reviewed each one individually.
Pup, Pup, and Away!
This is the headliner story that showcases all of the major super-pets. Haley aka Bite-Wing from Nightwing is dropped off by Dick Grayson for babysitting. But somehow this trip takes Haley on a wild adventure where she meets the rest of the Super-Pets. All of the heroes’ pets are present: Ace the Bat-Hound, Krypto, Gleek, B’Dg of the Green Lantern Corps, Bat-Cow, and Jumpa- Wonder Woman’s kangaroo. Yes, Jumpa made an appearance.
The story is hilarious and light-hearted. Nothing can be taken too seriously here. And despite the silly humor, writer Tony Fleecs does a wonderful job giving every animal some personality. B’Dg is the ultimate straightedge, rule follower. Ace is all business. And Haley? Haley has a personality that makes sense if you know her owner Nightwing. This is peak humor comics. It certainly doesn’t hurt that it stars all of our favorite super-pets.
A Starro is Born
This comic starts out being a parody of Behind the Music if it starred Starro. But the twist here is that it actually is a subterfuge for Starro to control everyone in the world. It is very clever how the short starts off with satire, then turns into something else. No small feat for a four-page tale. The only problem here is that the ending is overly-convenient and random. But it is hard to fault a humor comic for gaps of logic.
Refuge
Unfortunately, this is the most serious story of the bunch and consequently the least fun one. Somehow Damian Wayne’s collection of animals gets captured to be experimented on by a bio-firm. The whole thing is like reading the middle part of a bigger story. This tale seems to not have a real beginning or end. I feel like I’m missing critical set-up and resolution. There are attempts at silly animal humor, but the overly-dramatic caption narration really clashes in tone. The art is the most similar to the traditional superhero action style of all of the stories in this one-shot. It definitely is not bad, but it does not seem appropriate for a funny animal comic book.
The Little Cat
This story is better than “Refuge”. It also has overly-dramatic narration, as an alien girl ponders the existence of Dex-Starr- the Red Lantern cat. I understand that is an homage to The Little Prince– but the emotional ending does not quite stick to landing. However, the whimsical art looks really nice. I would not mind seeing artist Christopher Mitten do more comics in this style.
Who Woofs the Woofmen
The clear parody of Watchmen is a mixed bag. It is written and illustrated like a newspaper comic strip, while still following the plot of Watchmen except with dogs. There are some decent gags in this one. However, some of the comic strips don’t seem to have a joke at all other than “Isn’t it funny that we recreated this famous Watchmen scene with dogs?” However, I do like how Doctor Manhattan (Dog-ter Manhattan?) keeps showing his butthole. It actually makes the last strip end in a rather funny pun.
Conclusion
DC’s Super-Pets Special: Bitedentity Crisis #1 does a fun job with tales (tails) about the various animals of DC. I appreciate that it tried to be a variety of stories that ranged from hilarious romps to heart-tugging yarns. Unfortunately, the more serious ones tended to be more of a dud than poignant. Overall, Bitedentity Crisis is a must-have if you love DC pets.
All images are courtesy of DC Entertainment.
