Classic Comics Cavalcade: The Multiverse’s Greatest Crossover Ever In ‘Superman/Bugs Bunny’
by Tony Thornley
DC Comics had long published the adventures of some of the most iconic characters in pop culture. I don’t mean Superman, Batman or Wonder Woman though. I mean Bugs, Daffy and Porky, and to celebrate the Looney Tunes’ first ever fully animated movie, out today, we wanted to look at the epic first meeting of those characters.
Would you believe that the longest continuously published series from DC Comics isn’t Detective Comics or Action Comics. Thanks to the New 52 relaunches, the honor actually belongs to the Looney Tunes and Scooby-Doo. Warner Brothers — DC’s parent company — has owned those classic cartoons for decades and has published comics featuring them practically since acquiring DC.
In 2000, DC crossed over their most iconic characters in a four issue miniseries: Superman & Bugs Bunny (which was never collected in a trade, but was in a 100 Page Super Spectacular). Don’t be fooled by that title though. This is a full DC Universe and Looney Tunes story, though the titular characters are the focal points.
Coming from Mark Evanier, Joe Staton, Mike DeCarlo, Tom Palmer, Phil Felix and Tricia Mulvihill, the story begins with two iconic tricksters being bested. In Metropolis, Superman defeats Mister Mxyzptlk. In the middle of the forest, Bugs outsmarts the Dodo. The duo’s downfall gets tangled up, and soon they find themselves teaming up to defeat their nemeses once and for all.
This isn’t a deep or thoughtful story. It’s exactly what it needs to be though, and that’s a lot of fun. This is largely a Mxyzptlk story, and it’s actually a lot more creative than most Mxy stories get. I legitimately can only think of three or four more, max, that may be successful at making the character an interesting and legitimate threat.
But where the fun is here is seeing the chaos that ensues as the Toons invade the DCU. The bulk of the story is at first focused on Superman losing his powers to Elmer Fudd. While Clark tries to figure out what’s happening, Bugs Bunny is dragged around Metropolis by his hapless foe, who’s actually trying to do some good with his newfound Kryptonian powers.
Elsewhere though, the story is full of sight gags, team ups, and just plain fun situational comedy. Pepe Le Pew becomes enamored with Plastic Man after the latter shifts into a cat to spy on a crime boss. Green Arrow ends up in possession of a box containing a singing dancing creature named Michigan J. Frog … but the frog only dances for him. The Flash gets caught in the middle of a coyote’s desperate chase after a road runner. The situations go on and on, until the story pulls it all together to a resolution.
The best part of this series though is that it never mocks or belittles the situation. It almost plays it straight. The JLA are truly trying to save the world, while our favorite Toons are just being themselves on a new world. Evanier gets the characters and the tone to strike with both sets of characters to balance the world threatening stakes with the plain old silliness.
Staton is the perfect artist for it too. I can only think of one other artist at the time who could have captured the cartoony hijinks while still keeping the world of the DCU on model. He does such a good job with the comedy and the action that there’s never a doubt that it works or not.
With both franchises getting major motion pictures this year, this is a story to revisit. The most readily available format is probably via Comixology with the 100 Page Spectacular, but it’s not especially difficult to find elsewhere (a quick eBay search finds quite a few copies out there).
