Two new all-ages comcis arrived this week from DC Comics.
Superman Family Adventures is for those who loved the awesome and entertaining Tiny Titans comic, by Art Baltazar and Franco. Sadly, that series has ended, but happily, the same creative team are now giving us this monthly series focused on The Last Son of Krypton and his various S shield wearing heroes. Like Tiny Titans, it features in-jokes for the grown up fanboy but is also accessible enough for the young fanboy-to-be. The simple, cartoony and colourful visual style is a treat, as is the crude yet appealing lettering. Superman and Supergirl are sporting their New 52 costumes, and Superboy and Krypto show up too when Lex Luthor sends three robots to destroy Metropolis. Perry, Jimmy and Lois (and Clark) show up as well. It’s a simple, yet great story, with Lex’s pride being his undoing as he accidentally gets the powers of Krypto rather than Superman. There’s also a fan art page, a maze and a few pages advertising the characters of Young Justice, including new members Beast Boy, and Blue Beetle! It’s great to see comics like this and it’s great to see that there’s an audience for it.
DC Nation Super Spectacular is a 64 page, full colour magazine that’s based on the new block of programming that features short animated features, claymation and behind the scenes segments all about DC Comics. Like the series above, it’s another good idea to familiarise, and hopefully hook, new readers. The three comics in these pages are all reprints, but at least they’re new ones, showing Young Justice fighting Psycho Pirate, a Green Lantern story by Baltazar and Franco in a style that more closely resembles the new GL cartoon, and a Teen Titans story in which Beast Boy reveals his origin around a campfire. They’re all fine stories and introductions to the characters though.
Also included is a GL poster, a 2 pager on the Aardman Animation claymation DC Nation shorts, a find the words puzzle, a few pages on the goodies and baddies of the GL toon, plus one on Plastic Man and his villains, another 2 pager on the Super Best Friends Forever (Batgirl, Supergirl and Wonder Girl), and that’s about it. It’s not exactly filled with enough content to keep the kids busy all afternoon, but it does get me curious about DC Nation, and I hope it gets shown here in Australia, as there’s enough fun shorts for everyone, and a focus on minor characters like Plastic Man, and Animal Man. I hope future issues of this mag will see original comics though, but overall this is a good entry point into the wider DC pantheon.
