Reviewed: Adventures with the DC Superheroes, designed by Brainchild Studios and featuring art by John Delaney, Rick Mays, Joe Staton, Derec Aucion, Craig Rosseau and others; published by DC Comics.
The plot: Fun, fun, fun!
This 32-page promotional giveaway is packed cover-to-cover with interactive fun designed to make kids aware of DC Comics, and presenting a pretty good overview of the current-day DCU. The magazine features numerous contributors, all credited, who do a good job of creating an appealing package for kids and an interesting item for adult collectors.
The style is the same as the animated "Adventures" style on display in Superman Adventures, Batman: Gotham Adventures and Batman Beyond. The creators of this item must see Batman Beyond as a major point of reference for their intended audience, as it is prominently featured in major pieces that bookend the issue.
There is a two-page kickoff piece on the animated BB cartoon, featuring illustrations of the futuristic Batman and photos of his creators, writer Paul Dini and artist Bruce Timm. The piece includes quotes from the two, as well as an explanation of how an episode is put together.
The second BB piece is a two-page comic strip near the end of the magazine, created by DC animated comics regulars Scott Peterson, Craig Rosseau and Ron Boyd. It's a trifle of a strip, featuring a brief battle between Terry McGinnis as BB versus three of his most fearsome enemies, Blight, Shriek and Inque. We also get an in-character exchange between Terry and the elderly Bruce Wayne; the story may be slight, but for BB fans it probably makes the issue worth picking up all by itself.
For the intended audience, kids, there are plenty of other attractions that should appeal to a wide range of age groups. There are some newspaper-style comic strips featuring such DC mainstays as Bizarro, Impulse, the Trickster, Plastic Man and Robin, and most pages feature a "DC Secret File" entry from Oracle, using her iconic cyber-head image, amusingly, in the animated style.
A two-page piece on How To Make Comics is nicely drawn, and explains how a comic book is created, and then there's a Do It Yourself page that allows kids to build on the lessons they've just learned, by finishing a page featuring Aquaman and Superman. The artwork in this magazine, though contributed by a variety of artists, is consistently excellent, and compares favourably with that on display in the monthly DC cartoon-related titles. Especially welcome is new artwork from Aucoin, whose stint on Avengers: United They Stand was sadly cut short when Marvel canceled the series following the crash and burn of the much-inferior TV series that inspired it.
The only unfortunate thing about this item is its distribution. I first noticed it at a local Cumberland Farms convenience store last week, in a huge standee display; I didn't pick it up because it said it was free with the purchase of two gallons of milk. When I picked it up this morning, it was in a stack on the counter, the standee long gone. I asked about it, and was told by the clerk they weren't moving and they got rid of the display. He told me I could have as many of them as I wanted, because they were trying to get rid of them.
If that's what happens to the bulk of these, that's a shame. I hope they get into the hands of kids, because it's quite an impressive promotion for DC (and comics in general), and sure to be enjoyed by kids who manage to get their hands on a copy. And for adult collectors, the terrific animated-style artwork certainly makes it worth picking up, even if you have to drink a couple of gallons of milk. Preferably skim milk.
So, even if you have to pop for the moo juice, if you ask for multiple copies, you'll probably get them--just try to give a few to the kids they were intended for.
