Abandon All Pretentiousness Ye Who Enter Here:
When Kieth Giffen was announced to be returning in full force to the DC Universe proper I think many people figured it was only a matter of time before the return of the one character who is as much linked with him as Howard The Duck is with Steve Gerber. Namely Ambush Bug. I could bore you to tears reciting the characters publishing history, (especially if you give me a few minutes to look it up on Wikipedia) but suffice it to say Ambush Bug was kind of like Bugs Bunny on crystal meth. A reality bending, fourth wall shattering, genre destroying loon. Used by Giffen and his co-horts to poke holes in the absurdity of the super hero comic genre, but also with sly wit and a sense of affection for the very conventions and tropes that are being mocked.
The first issue of the six issue limited series Ambush Bug: Year None is very much in this classic mold. The story opens with someone well known to long time DC readers being dead and that death being only the latest in a long string. And for reasons known only to himself Ambush Bug gets involved. But of course that's only the maguffin. An excuse for the Bug to be insane and for Giffen and Co. to poke fun at everything from Women In Refrigerators Syndrome to huge crossover events, to DC's publishing history.
The art is classic Giffen, as is the dialogue (ably assisted by Zombie Robert Loren Fleming- read the comic and you'll know what I mean). Ultimately come into this looking to have fun, to laugh at many things some of them deeply deeply wrong. Oh and be prepared to study this thing like it's the frickin Rosetta Stone because there are jokes packed into every page. If you blink... Well if you blink you won't see anything for a second and the book will just sit there. I mean it's a freakin' comic book for Kirby's Sake.
Happy Reading!
Toriach
PS: The story rating should be four stars. I clicked by accident and there doesn't seem to be any way to edit the darn thing. Can we get that fixed please?
