Rating | Collected Issues | Reviews |
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Well buddy, Fraction and Lieber sure have..... created......some content. In all honesty, I absolutely love this book. It's both a love letter to, and a hilarious satire of, the Silver Age and DC Comics all wrapped in one.
Fraction manages to jam so many fun, hilarious little bits into the pages that it's almost overwhelming at times. But he never loses the pulse of the main narrative and the way he's able to weave so many subplots together by the end is masterful. The sheer amount of wordplay alone in the Silver Age intros was mind-boggling and worth the price of admission.
This version of both Lex Luthor and Batman are also among my favorites of all time. Luthor is a careful, conniving son of a bitch, more interested in seeing his enemies defeated rather than obliterated. And this Batman is wonderful, getting into prank wars with Jimmy/Timmy Olsen, while scolding his butler for paying obscene amounts to Wayne employees to laugh at Bruce's jokes.
Among all the hilarious bits, the book never forgets it's beating heart either. That comics should be fun and that there's no better representation of that than Superman's Pal Jimmy Olsen. Fraction and Lieber's Jimmy is smart, funny, and always willing to help his Pals and these themes permeate every page of the book.
And I'd be remiss not to mention Lieber's peerless, perfectly comedic art. Little jokes are snuck into panels all over the place, and every fight Dex-Starr was involved in had me rolling on the floor with laughter due to the sheer absurdity of it all. I can't recommend this book highly enough.