miércoles, 30 de mayo de 2018

Some thoughts about Black Lightning/Hong Kong Phooey Special #1

Two of the greatest crimefighters together at last!

Professor Presto is threatening to destroy everyone in his search for power and it will need the combined forces of Black Lightning and Hong Kong Phooey to stop him.

The crazy crossovers begin once again. This is the second time we get a bunch of titles between DC Comics and Hanna Barbera and this one is strangely more logical than the last few I've seen.

Bryan Hill tells the story about the connection between Jefferson Pierce and Penry Pooch and how they need to work together to stop an old enemy. I mentioned that this is logical because both characters were created in trends that happened during the 70s, namely the Blaxploitation films in the case of Black Lightning and the Kung Fu movies for Hong Kong Phooey. Mind you, Hill doesn't go full meta with this story (and I wish that would have been the case) but he tells a serious story between these characters and includes villains that fit in their respective themes. Is a bit of a wasted opportunity since it could have been cool to see some commentary about their different natures.

Sadly, as a serious story is not particularly impressive since Hill simply assumes that both characters know each other without exploring their past and in that sense is not as compelling as I was hoping for but it does a decent job at fulfilling that tale.

Denys Cowan handles the art and is surprisingly good at combining both different characters in a way that makes sense in this gritty world.

There's a second segment about the obscure Hanna Barbera character, the Funky Phantom (who was yet another Scooby Doo knockoff of the 70s) written by Jeff Parker. The only connection with the DCU is the brief appearance of Jason Blood but aside from that, the story doesn't take seriously at all and offers a bit of social commentary, is just simple and fun. Scott Kolins' art gets the best from the whole cartoony premise.

Not a bad crossover but is not as good as I expected. Hope the rest are better.

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