Walt Disney's Comics and Stories #729

From the random stack of unread comics.

Title: Walt Disney's Comics and Stories
Issue: #729
Date: March, 2016
Publisher: IDW Publishing
Writer: Bruno Sarda, Carl Barks, Daan Jippes, Frank Jonker
Artist: Franco Valussi, Daan Jippes, Freddy Milton
Colorist: Nea Aktina A. E., Digikore Studios, Nicole Seitler, Travis Seitler, Sanoma
Letterer: Nicole Seitler, Travis Seitler
Editor:Sarah Gaydos
Cover: Massimo Asaro, Mario Perrotta

Three stories here, all reprints from foreign Disney publications, with original publication dates ranging from 1990 to 2011.

Up first is the main story of the book, part of an ongoing series that has various Disney characters searching from a set of precious zodiac-related pendants. This is the ninth of the series, and the featured pendant is for the sign of Cancer.

Mickey Mouse has just about secured the pendant, but has been enlisted to help the brother of the pendant's owner, who is being stalked by an old nemesis from his days as a spy: a master of disguise known as the Chameleon. With help from Minnie, several suspects are identified, but as it turns out, there is more than one reason why a guest at the beach resort might want to disguise themself,

This was a bit predictable, but still reasonably entertaining.

The second story is a one-page gag strip featuring Gyro Gearloose having some confusion between a couple of machines he is servicing. Not much to this one.

Gyro also figures into the third story, which was just plain goofy (well, Donald, actually) fun. Donald arrived too late to ask Daisy out on a date; she's off to have a picnic lunch with Gladstone. But Donald is ready to disrupt the space/time continuum for the sake of having his date with Daisy, and Gyro's person-switching teleporter is just the thing he needs! Too bad Gladstone catches on quickly. This was a fun slapstick bit of teleporting mayhem.

Two pretty entertaining stories, and one that was okay for a quick laugh and only took up one page.

Rating: 6.5/10

Batman Beyond Unlimited #1

I liked the couple of animated episodes I say, so I picked this one up when it came out.


Title: Batman Beyond Unlimited
Issue: 1
Date: April 2012
Publisher: DC Comics

Writer: Adam Beechen, Derek Fridolfs, Dustin Nguyen
Artist: Norm Breyfogle, Dustin Nguyen, Derek Fridolfs
Colorist: Randy Mayor, Andrew Elder
Letterer: Saida Temofonte
Cover: Dustin Nguyen
Editor: Sarah Gaydos, Jim Chadwick, Kristy Quinn, Ben Abernathy

For those not familiar with the Batman Beyond animated show, this takes place in a near-future setting where Bruce Wayne has retired and now acts as a mentor to teenager Terry McGinnis, the new Batman.

 

Two stories here. First up is a Batman Beyond solo story involving gangs of Joker followers gathering in Gotham for some unknown purpose. The Batman makes short work of two different groups of them, but something more sinister is afoot, and it involves someone dangerously close to McGinnis’ ex-girlfriend.

 

The girlfriend drama was irritating, mostly because Dana is totally in the right when she says that Terry isn’t giving her the attention she deserves. He is, after all, off being the Batman all the time. Terry, meanwhile comes off as something of a whiney jerk in his attempts to convince her to renew the relationship while basically not even attempting to say he’ll to better.  Dude, maybe you should have thought about the effect on your social life before, you know, taking up the Cowl? Just a thought.

 

The fight scenes also could have been better. They had a nice look, visually, but the “Jokerz” were just so incompetent that it was hard to take any of it seriously. And Bruce Wayne was actually pretty unhelpful as far as the whole mentoring thing goes. McGinnis is supposed to be an inexperienced kid, but he’s also supposed to be taking his real-time advice from one of the greatest tacticians who ever lived. This should make a difference at some point.

 

I did like Barbara Gordon as Gotham Police Commissioner. Clever idea, and well executed.

 

The second story was a Justice League Beyond story (it took me til about halfway through before I figured out what the “B” in “JLB” stood for). The roster is Warhawk (a “half-breed” Thanagarian; no they did not tell us what his other half is), a Green Lantern named Kai-Ro, the Batman (McGinnis again), an older Superman, Aquagirl (on monitor duty; figures!), Micron (future version of the Atom), and Big Barda (drawn a bit more sexy than in other books I’ve seen, although this may be in line with her look in the current continuity).

 

They go up against… wait for it… more Jokerz! And some animal-mutant-types called Splices. This is seriously swatting a mosquito with a sledgehammer. I was feeling sorry for the villains by the time it was over.

 

Once the mopping up of the bad guys is done, various plot developments follow, setting the seeds for a number of future stories.

 

Hopefully with an improved quality of opposition.

 

Rating: 4/10